Sea World

After two days at Disneyland we took a break and headed south to Sea World.

Jay and the kids at the starfish exhibit. The kids loved being able to touch the starfish.

At the big Orca/Shamu show. The kids and Jay went down to the front couple of rows to see if they could get splashed on.

Joan and I sat in the "handicap" section.

If you look closely below, you can see Jay in the rain poncho. The kids were left without protection.

This show wasn't as fun. We loved the dolphins but the whole acrobat thing had us confused.

The kids thought they were a little too "old" to pose with this guy.

The Atlantis ride. You can see Jay and Collin as they were coming off the big drop. Again, notice that Jay was wearing the rain poncho.

At the end of the day Jay was still in the rain poncho though it didn't help him much. After they went on the river run three times it was pointless to have even worn it :-)

Disneyland

This year we headed back to Southern California and Disneyland with Grandma Jo. We were there 5 years ago with Grandma and she was feeling up to the challenge again.

This year we did the city tour and spent 3 days at Disneyland, 1 day at Sea World and 1 Day at Universal Studios. I must be getting old or something because I was pretty worn out by the end of the week (and I was the one in a wheelchair!)

We have lots of pictures of Sydney here because Jay and Collin ended up taking off and doing some of the more scary rides several times. Joan, Sydney and I stayed in Fantasy Land and I had the camera. It was fun to see Sydney enjoy most of the rides this time. Five years ago she wouldn't go on anything other than Dumbo and King Arthur's Carousel.

Having a snack with Grandma:

Dumbo: everyone's favorite, of course. We had to do this one a couple of times.

The story land boats:

The little train. Sydney loved being an animal in a cage.

We finally got Jay and Collin in on the fun at Fantasy Land with the Tea Cups.

This was the tree outside our hotel room. The kids loved to climb in it.

We loved the hotel! It was so conveniently close to the park entrance.

The pool area was very nice and clean. We spent a little time here every evening . Not a great shot of the pool area but I was trying to sneak up on the kids as they were playing.

Jay "reading" at the pool. The sun felt just too good to not take a nap in it.

Grizzly Rapids at California Adventure. The line was estimated to be 45 minutes.

We stood in line for nearly 2 hours but the kids love this ride.

Aah! Look how well they are playing together while waiting in line!

"A sailor went to sea, sea, sea,

To see what he could see, see, see..."

This lasted for about 10 minutes while we were in line.

To help pass the time, the kids took turns "riding" on my lap and pushing me.

Don't they look like such sweet, well-behaved kids?

After two hours in line however, this is really what end up happening. The picture tells it all: Collin bugs Sydney, Sydney tries to get Collin back...it is a viscous cycle.

Another favorite ride: Toy Story. Awesome fun but very long lines!!!

Here the kids are talking to Mr. Potato Head as we wait.

The reason for the wheelchair: spraining my ankle the day before vacation. Isn't that always when it happens? I really thought it was broken, but nope. Just a really good sprain. Oh BTW, a wheel chair really helps the wait time at Disneyland. Unfortunately it wasn't much good for us in California Adventure.

Waiting for the water show to start in the evening:

Our Start to the Summer

So what have we done so far this summer? We spent most of June on vacation (pictures and information still to come). But let me start by showing what we accomplished before we even headed out of town.

Now to most, this may look like an ordinary house and yard in the suburbs but what WE see is a huge accomplishment. What we managed to do was:

*install a completely new sprinkling system

*re-install the fence around the property

*plant new grass in the many spots that died last year with our sprinkling system "malfunction"

*tear out grass around nearly the entire perimeter of the property

*try to reconfigure the remaining cement border around property line

*install flagstone/rock pathway (2 tons of flagstone and 5 tons of rock) where we removed grass

*purchase/haul more rocks, plants and bark

*re-do the flower beds and transplant several plants

*build and stain the Adirondack chairs and table and finally hang the hammock we bought in Mexico last year

We then headed out of town for a few weeks. Now that we have returned, we plan on enjoying the fruits of our labor. We think it looks pretty good (for amateurs, anyway). At least it is a huge improvement from this time last year :-)

We are still fighting off the gopher attack and will probably have to all summer. Already 5 plants have succumbed to the nasty critters but hopefully we can keep them at bay.

Bays

Baysie, Baysie, Baysie...

What can we say about the best dog around. She was the kindest, sweetest and most protective dog. She loved the kids and the kids adored her. Bays had been given to Jay before he even met me 14+ years ago and though we new she was getting up there in years, we didn't expect her to go downhill so quickly.

Since we knew she wouldn't be with us much longer, the kids wanted to make sure we had some nice pictures of the three of them together.

Collin taking pictures of her with his DSi.

We will miss you, Bays!

Scandinavian Days 2011

Scandinavian Days were definately different this year. It just wasn't the same without Grandpa there. I kept looking for him to be sitting in his car to keep out of the cold while saving us places along the trade route or picturing him sitting on one of the rockers on his patio back at the house. We had a great time, despite the unseasonably cold weather (again) but missed his presence.

The picture above reminded me of being with grandpa and grandma as a kid. They hated that my hair was always hanging in my face. Every time we went somewhere with them I ended up having to wear my hair in a pony. Remind you of someone else?

The not-so-scary Vikings. This year, they were more friendly than frightening.

Happy Memorial Day!

Flag Football

Collin really wants to play football. We finally gave in to him playing flag football this spring. He loved it and really did well! We were happy to see that most of the kids weren't that much bigger than him even though a lot of them had experience playing real football together.

Here Collin is about to grab this kids flag. Go Collin!
This was one of his last games and his real coach wasn't there unfortunately. He loved his coach. He was very fair and treated the kids well.

This huge kid was trying to block Collin. It made me laugh that Collin didn't seem to mind. Had this been tackle football, that would have been a different story.