FUN IN FLAGSTAFF

A ton of fun is what we had in Flagstaff!! It was such a nice get away and even relaxing too. Usually, when we go at this time of the year, we camp, but since Jacob is so young, we opted to hotel it this time. It is Monsoon season, and on the way up to Flagstaff, we did have some heavy rain, but the storms never really interupted our outings. While we were up in the area, we headed to Sedona......beautiful place......actually, one of my favorite places to visit in Arizona. We went to the Red Rock Crossing State Park. The Oak Creek runs through the park, so we hiked through the park, and the boys loved swimming in the creek, and going on the natural water slides. We also had a picnic under a HUGE willow tree, with the creek flowing right behind us. The veiws of the red rock mountains/hills are absolutely spectacular. It was a great day!! While we were visiting Dave's parents, Gregory decided he'd like to spend the night with them, so he did so. He had a great time and he's ready to go back! Dave's mom does beautiful artwork, using water colors. So, she helped gregory do some paintings, and he was so proud! We all headed up to Snow Bowl Ski Resort for a picnic. We were hoping to ride the scenic sky ride(ski lift), but it had been stormy that morning, so it was closed for the day. However, the weather did cooperate for our picnic, and the sun was even shining too. After the picnic, we went hiking up the second mountain, to the other ski lodge and lift......we made it about half way up, and it was a bit too steep for the kids to hike. We then headed to the Lowell Observatory. We went through the museum, watched a movie on the planets/universe etc., and went on a tour of all of the telescpes. It was very informative, and the location of the observatory, is over looking the town of Flagstaff......very scenic veiws. The hotel that we stayed in had an indoor pool and hot tub, so over the course of our vacation, we did a lot of swimming as well. The boys all had a great time, and really enjoyed all of the hiking, swimming in the creek, and all of the new sights. It was one of those vacations that we weren't on any specific timelines, we even had time to veg out and watch movies in the room. When it was time to head home, we felt very refreshed! It was so much fun!!

CRAZY COUPLE OF WEEKS

We all had a wonderful 3rd and 4th of July. .......Actually, our fun started on the 2nd. Cousin Geoff came to spend the night with the boys on the 2nd. Eli was just so excited, and they stayed up till about 3am watching movies and playing PS2 games. On the 3rd, we went to our local lake for the firework show, and festivities. We found a grass area that was reserved for a group of marine vendors, that didn't show up, so we had a huge grass area to ourselves and one other family. We brought the little Webber grill, and cooked out, played ball, and we even brought a little inflatable pool, so Jacob could stay cool. We had a wonderful 4th. We spent the evening at Uncle Rob and Aunt Linda's house, for swimming and a bar-b-que. To top the night off, he had put together a CD of Patriotic music and the soundtrack to Star Wars, and que'd it to play along with the firework show, that we had an awesome veiw of from there backyard.



Then came 7-7-07......a day that was supposed to be full of luck......it didn't turn out that way for us. That afternoon, both, the AC in the mini van and our house stopped working. Keep in mind that we are in the middle of the summer and temps are reaching 117.....needless to say, every AC repair company has a long wait at this point of time. We were displaced from our house for 10 days!! Thank goodness Mom & Dad live close, and we were able to stay with them. Once the shock of the situation wore off, it turned out to be fun.....kind of like an unplanned vacation ......the boys were all thrilled to get to stay with them that long.



In the meantime, the boys just finished swimming lessons today, and they all did a great job! To celebrate, this afternoon, we went to see Shrek 3......it was a very cute movie. It was Jacob's first movie going experience, and he slept through the whole movie......so that meant, I was able to watch the whole movie!! On Monday, we'll be heading on vacation to Flagstaff to visit Dave's parents, and we'll be spending some time in Sedona as well.



.......UNTIL NEXT TIME.......LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Happy 4th of July to all.......have a fun and safe holiday!!

WE'RE BACK!!

We're back from vacation and back into the swing of things, so I thought it's about time I update my blog. We had an awesome vacation! The boys had no idea that we were going to Disneyland until we pulled into the parking lot. They were all so excited and amazed at everything in the "Magical Kingdom". Gregory and Nathan really enjoyed Fantasy Land and Eli enjoyed all of the "mountain" rides and loved Tomorrow Land. Jacob was even able to go on some rides on my lap. His eyes were so big and bright on 'It's A Small World". We got to the park at opening and stayed till midnight. For a summer day, it wasn't too crowded, as the longest line was about an hour. We wanted to get on the Nemo Submarines, but the line was 5 hours......I think we'll try next time. We were able to get on 18 rides; we thought that was pretty good with 4 kids. It was such a fun day, and I can't wait to go again!

The day after Disneyland, we all slept in till about 8:00(that's late for us). We were all ready for a relaxing day........so, we spent a lovely day at Newport Beach. We went boogie boarding, played in the sand, and had a delicious fish-n-chips meal. We ended the day with ice cream and a walk on the beach. What a wonderful vacation it was!