Family Vacation - Part 5

Almost every morning Christian got up and cooked breakfast for the crew. He made Mickey Mouse pancakes with chocolate chips or blueberries. Egg or oatmeal cereal were also on the menu for breakfast. He also came up with the idea for root beer floats. The kids loved sitting at the bar and either watching or helping Christian mix up his delicious treats.

The kids loved him. He helped them do lots of activities throughout the week.

One activity was making his famous oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies. Each boy was given a job to help out with the cooking. As you can tell from Gavin's face he thoroughly enjoyed it. He was assigned the job of water and chocolate chip boy. He anxiously waited for his ingredients to be added.

A few times during the week, we stepped on some lose nails on the deck. Christian went to the store and bought a little hammer and gave the older boys the job of nail pounder. Zach and Ty stayed with it until every nail was pounded in. Thanks boys!

Christian also came up with the idea of making homemade ice cream by putting the ingredients inside a bucket and then putting that bucket in a larger one with ice and rock salt and then playing kick the bucket.

We found this hill to roll the bucket down and then...

Grandpa would chase it and bring it back up the hill. I told them we had to keep it moving for 20 minutes. Duane didn't think it would really work but after 20 minutes he shook it and it didn't slosh around.

He said he was ready to kick the bucket himself.

Heidi checked and sure enough, it was frozen.

These two pictures I got out of order but the boys anxiously waited for Grandpa to open it up.

It looks kind of empty, but there really was a lot. It had just frozen itself to the top, bottom, and around the sides. We all loved it. It was a very fun activity and DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

Family Vacation - Part 4

When Aunt Heidi and Christian arrived, they helped out a lot. Aunt Heidi styled Lexi's hair. Grandma Great and I watched. Lexi was so proud of her styled hair she said, "I look pretty!" She seemed to like her new hair dresser, Aunt Heidi.

Lexi was Grandpa's buddy throughout the week. If she ever was extra tired or sad, Grandpa was the one she went to for comfort. I thought this was a cute shot.

Lexi's Aunt Heidi sure liked her. She was very free with her charm and hugs.

She was also Grandma's buddy. She's a little cutie!

Gavin was Grandma's buddy. He said such cute things all week. He kept us laughing the whole trip. Here he is being beautiful with a flower in his hair like Lexi. He didn't want to be left out.

Gavin is very busy all the time but we so enjoyed his zest for life. He is a charmer.

While waiting for the parade to begin, he found this boat outside of a store. He thought it would be a good place to chill before the parade. It looks comfortable to me.

I made this cake for the 4th, but the evening of the 4th was spent trying to get Heidi and Christian from Denver airport to Frisco. Many mishaps occured so they didn't get there until later that evening. We decided to save the cake for the 5th. The evening of the 4th we just sat out on the deck and watched the fireworks show over the lake which was just in front of our condo. We couldn't have had better seats. It was so nice and cool. The littles were asleeep and Zach and Ty stayed up with the adults to watch the show. It was a beautiful night.

Family Vacation Part 3

After our morning fishing derby, we came home to eat lunch. Grandma Great and I fed the kids and then we left for the parade.

The kids had never been to a parade before and they were delighted when they found out that people and floats in the parade throw candy to the crowd. The boys caught quite a stash of candy and were thrilled with their treasures. I think that was definitely the best part of the parade for them.

For the size of the town, I was surprised what a large parade it was. It went on for more than an hour with marching bands, floats, horses, bikes and different groups of people.

When the littles went down for their naps, I took the older boys to the beautiful indoor pool that was at the condo. Monday was very crowded, but from Tuesday on through the rest of the week, we went every morning at 9:00 when the pool opened and we had it all to ourselves. We swan every morning from around 9:00 to 11:30. They all had a blast.

Duane and I bought these tubes called Manta Rays which had squirt guns attached at the front. The squirt gun tubes went down into the pool so they would never have to refill them. They had fun squirting everything in sight. Lexi and Gavin loved riding in them. They were a great baby sitter. We would push them around a lot so we didn't have to hold them constantly. Gavin, would jump out a lot and swim clear across the pull. He was a little fish. Lexi liked the security of us either holding her or riding in the (boats).

The pool also had two great jacuzzies. The pool was a great temperature, but sometimes it felt good to get into the bathtub temperature jacuzzies. Lexi in particular liked the warmer water. She would just like to sit on the step and kick her feet.

Family Vacation Part 2

Fishing was a very fun part of the vacation. Even though the boys never caught a fish all week (we are not experienced teachers), they had a blast.

At the fishing derby there were so many people I think the fish got wise and swam away. A couple of people did catch some fish and here is the evidence, but we only heard of three fish being caught even with all of the people there.

Gavin caught himself. (silly boy)

Gavin liked to hold the pole but Zachary and Tyler really were sincere fishermen.

Zachary kept trying other spots hoping his luck would change.

Here is the playground where Gavin and Lexi played by the pond.

I bought Lexi and little pink Barbie fishing pole. We just let her hold it but we didn't put a hook on it. It's safer that way, you know. Gavin was ready with the net even though we didn't even have the line in the water. They were so cute!

Our July 2011 Family Vacation Part 1

Several months ago I booked a condominium in Frisco, Colorado to have this vacation. I asked Garry and Heidi if we could get the grandkids for a week and give them a weeks rest. Well the day finally arrived so we picked up Grandma Great Terry and left on July 2nd. From St. George it took us 8 1/2 hours to drive there. Garry and Heidi drove about 2 1/2 hours to bring the kids to us in Frisco. We arrived at this beautiful town and unloaded our stuff and headed to the grocery store to stock up on groceries for the week. Later that evening the kids arrived with Garry and Heidi and we had dinner together. Then it was time for them to leave the kids with us and return to Colorado Springs. We got the kids to bed just fine and had a good night. The next morning, we went to church at a cute little chapel that I found. The kids did great. Gavin and Lexi slept through most of sacrament meeting but all of them went to their classes in Primary with no fuss at all. Church was a very pleasant experience.

After church was over we just spent the rest of the day enjoying the beautiful setting of this mountain town. Some vacationers had these Ferrets and the kids had fun playing with them.

We belong to a travel group so this place was one on their list of places we could stay. We were not disappointed in the condo or the area. It was very beautiful. We had a 3 bedroom condo with a very large kitchen and living room combination. It also had a wrap around deck so we could bar-be-que there and play.

Here is a shot of Lexi and I. Grandma Great gave her this skirt and she wouldn't take it off for 3 days. She wore it over her clothes and even to bed. She's such a little sweetie!

There were beautiful flowers everywhere. Mom and I particularly liked these flowers in the background. They are lupine. They come in all colors.

Monday was the 4th of July. The day started out with a fishing derby for the kids at this pond. We bought fishing poles for each of the kids and they loved fishing with Grandpa. It was a gorgeous setting but very crowded that morning. There was also a little playground there so Lexi and Gavin took some time to play on that as well.

Beso Del Sol - Part 4

We arrived Saturday, November 6th, on Sunday we went to a great ward, and relaxed the rest of the day. On Monday, we went to Disneyland. It was a fantastic day to go because the weather was perfect and the crowds were very small. Most of the time we just walked up to a ride and got on within a minute or two. We did however get absolutely soaked on 4 of the rides. The last one we looked like someone threw a bucket of water on us. My hair and face were dripping, Heidi was wringing her sleeves out and our jeans were sopping wet. We walked all day but we had a blast. By night we were ready to go back and relax.

We went to downtown Disney and Heidi went into Build a Bear and made her boyfriend, Christian, a puppy with a Star Wars outfit on. Christian is a die hard Star Wars fan and was on a business trip at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch working on some production and film projects. It seemed appropriate for him at the time. This little dog comes with a birth certificate. Heidi named him "Chewbarka". It even had a chip in one foot that played a recorded message from Heidi and on the other foot a chip that played the Star Wars theme song.

Here we are enjoying the beach with our coats on. It was beautiful and sunny day, but a little chilly.

Christian lives not far from where we were staying. After he returned from his trip he came down and spent the last 3 days hanging around with us. He was our barbeque man. He did a great job cooking.
Another day, I took Heidi to our house we lived in from when she was born until she was two years old. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day but it was fun visiting our old stomping grounds. It has changed so much I hardly recognized many of the places. After visiting Irvine, we drove up to the LA temple visitor's center. We had heard about them remodeling and how technologically advanced everything was. We had a great experience and spent a couple of hours there seeing everything and feeling the spirit. It was a spiritual time. After that Heidi wanted to walk around the temple at night, which we did. It was a great day.
We played games, watched movies, Heidi spent one day studying, and we just relaxed. All in all it was a very fun week. We can hardly wait to do it again in another part of the country.

Beso Del Sol - Part 3

Another amenity we had was the media room. I used this room a couple of nights when it was colder outside. It had some nice couches,

a computer and printer,

a library, a gas fireplace, and a television. I turned on the fireplace and read for several hours throughout the week.

It also had a chess set for whoever wanted to play. I loved taking advantage of this area.