Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Vacation...finally

That's finally as in, I'm finally blogging about it, and also finally as in it felt like we'd never actually get to go! I was going to wait to post about this until I had gotten pictures from my mom and Wendi. But since nearly a month has past and I still don't have their pictures (not their fault) I figured I'd better get my post up here before I forget what all happened that week.

The kids enjoyed lots time with grandpa and grandma. And lots of books were read.


There wasn't enough room at the table for everyone, so the kids got relegated to island bar. But they thought it was great having a "table" just their height...and having access to all food during meal time.






We spent a lot of time at the pool. We would go down in the morning after breakfast and stay till lunch time, and then head back out after naps and stay until supper. And sometimes we even went again after supper.  :)



The afternoon we got there it was only about 70 degrees. Not terrible, but a little chilly when you got out of the pool. And for a tired little buddy, being "toud" was a good excuse to snuggle up under a towel.

The kids were content to play in the kiddie pool for the first few days, esp if Uncle Daniel joined them pretending to be a shark and chasing them around. 

The guys headed out to golf one evening, but it happened to be the night they closed early to mow, so they just hit a few balls right outside the condo instead. They did go later in the week though.




Carter testing out his golfing skills. He was pretty sure he needed to be one of the guys all week and was always heartbroken when he couldn't join them for golfing, fishing, etc.


After talking non-stop about going fishing for 2 days, we finally took the kids out on the boat. They quickly found out it wasn't quite as exciting as they thought it'd be. It probably would have helped had the fishing not been absolutely terrible. Despite several hours of fishing per day, only 5 fish were caught all week. The guys were pretty sure they were somewhere in that 15,000 acre lake, they just weren't sure where.









One day we went down to the lake beach area. It was a little gross, so we didn't stay long before heading back to the pool. 


The observers, who prefered not to get in the green water or get sandy. :)


The green thick water was one thing, but the multiple dead fish scattered around beach were quite another. Yuck!

Aunt Wendi discovered some very willing helpers when putting on her lotion, and put them to work multiple times that week lotioning her legs. The kids thought it was the greatest thing. 


Wrapped up and heading back from the pool....again


After the first few days the kids discovered that the big pool was way more fun. They loved playing basketball and jumping off the sides. Thankfully there was lots of people willing to play to with them when Luke and I got wore out from catching them, or lifting them up to the hoops. They took great naps all week! :)




Watching Anastasia with grandpa and eating some popcorn


View from out back porch

Like I said, Carter was pretty sure he was one of the big guys all week.  :)

Ready to head home...Carter was very willing to help with the driving

Before driving off we head to get a few pics on the dock



And then we headed home!

A few highlights from the week:
-swimming
-lots of entertainment and help with the kids
-watching Anne of Green Gables with the whole family and the many tears that occurred...some from sadness and some from laughter
-playing Ticket to Ride and The Farming Game
-thermostat wars
-amazing food, and many pots of coffee consumed at various times of the day
-Daniel and Wendi riding in our van...it was nice to be able to share dealing with the kids (ok, nice for me...prob not so much for them)

And low points:
-kids in our room...they actually did really good, but we had to get pretty good and sneaking in and out
-bad fishing
-pounds gained

Monday, August 5, 2013

Birthday's

My birthday was 2 weeks ago, and since we hadn't celebrated Adam, Luke, or Daniel's birthdays (which were June 14, 22, & 25 respectively) we just lumped everyone in together. But since we celebrated on my birthday, I got to pick the meal.  :)  We had Ha chicken, new potatoes, creamed spinach, watermelon, and sweet corn, with a large array of leftover desserts in lieu of cake. My choice was a leftover apple dumpling with ice cream.

After supper we all (except dad) took a walk, and then came back, gave the kids baths and headed home.


 The kids love playing grandma's sandbox! Probably because she has a lot more toys in it than we do in ours!

 Heading out on our walk

 The easy riders

 The girls

The original 4

It was a great day. The kids were really good, which always makes the day better.  :)  I had gone into "pre-vacation mode" that morning and had spent most of the day washing all the windows in the house. Yes, I'll admit it's slightly odd, but when we leave to go on vacation I feel like the house needs to be cleaner while we're gone than it does any other time of the year. 

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Lions, tigers, and giraffes...oh my!

We just got back from a wonderful vacation on Friday night, and I've got lots of pictures. But for the sake on not getting out of order, I'll blog my pictures up to our trip first.  :) (oh, and if you're wondering why I'm blogging at 9:30 on a Sunday morning, it's because Bridget has pink eye and I stayed home with her)

A couple weeks ago our great niece was here (she lives in Iowa) and she turned 7 during her stay! To celebrate Tammy invited us along to the zoo. I think we picked the hottest day of the year so far. We were all dripping. I was watching Ava that day, so she came along with us. I was a little intimidated by taking all 3 to the zoo but they all did so wonderful! I didn't, however, get any pictures of the whole sweaty group, or of the birthday girl since all 3 kids were dying by lunch time. We had a picnic lunch and then headed home. They all fell asleep before we even drove out of the park!
 Checking out the giraffes with grandma



 My only picture of the group. 

 Notice the wet hair? 

 Looking at this picture now, Ava looks totally miserable! :)  However, she really did have fun, and kept pointing to the animals and saying "ooooh!"

Taking a little break in the shade

We really did have a fun time, despite the heat, and we are looking forward to our next (and hopefully cooler) zoo day!