Our family vacation this year was a camping weekend right in our own back yard. On Thursday evening, Jay & Kristen and Shawn & Melissa brought their campers and set them up in what we refer to as our "park." Over the next three days, the entire family enjoyed spending time together in a very relaxed atmosphere. Jay's camper was set up and used the entire time. Shawn & Melissa had agreed to loan their camper to friends for the weekend so they only slept in it on Thursday evening. On Friday and Saturday they did what the rest of us noncampers did and went home to their own beds to sleep.
We soon realized that the main attraction for the kids and what kept them occupied for most of the weekend was the battery operated vehicles that they could drive around. We all soon got used to the buzzing of the cars whizzing by us.
The boys never tired of them
Back and forth they went
Lydia takes a turn while Awstin runs after her wanting it back again.
Alexis takes a spin
Even Hannah drove a little.
Josh thought it looked like fun, but he was a little big and found it went better backwards for him.
Yikes! We had one accident and even though it looked pretty bad, Awstin was only shook up and Daddy and Jeremy rescued his vehicle for him. He was soon back on and driving again!
Surveying the damage
Pulling it up and out of the ditch
On Friday we went to the Plumpton Zoo.
Alexis and Lydia pose at the entrance
Off we go!
Who doesn't like to watch monkeys?!
Awstin crouches down for a better look
Mark admires the zebra
Giraffe!
The children loved feeding the goats
Lydia & Awstin pick up the spilled food.
Mark feeds the alpaca
Camel!
Admiring the bears
Love the way Mark has his hands behind his back!
The peacock shows off for us.
Mark wanted me to take his picture with the peacock :)
Three big turtles
They didn't like each other and the one flipped the other. It was helpless until a zoo employee flipped it back. Apparently, this is what turtles do to each other in the wild and the one flipped onto its back eventually dies of starvation. We felt sorry for the flipped turtle.
Saturday afternoon we went creek stomping at Josh & Julissa's. It was pretty muddy but the kids enjoyed splashing and getting cooled off.
Hannah decided she preferred to sit in the water.
Other activities of the weekend included riding four wheeler and dirt bike, bouncing in the bounce house, a scavenger hunt, food, hammock rides, campfires and much more.
Josh instructs Julissa how to drive (and stop) the four wheeler
Alexis pushes Hannah in the hammock
Sparten enjoyed spending time with us too and Alexis liked walking him around on his leash.
Actually I think a lot of the time, Sparten pulled Alexis along with him :)
We had perfect evenings for sitting around a campfire.
Mark admires the fire Grandpa built and took care of all weekend
What a fun, relaxing couple of days with those we love!
If you thought that barrel trains are only for sitting sedately in and being pulled around by a small tractor you are wrong. My grandchildren have other ideas. The other Wednesday Mark and Hannah spent part of the day at my house. Since Wednesdays are the day I keep Awstin, he was there too, so they had some great cousin time. The two boys had a lot of fun pulling the barrels up the driveway hill and then letting them go. I concentrated on keeping Hannah out of harms way, but did manage to get this one video.
Not to be outdone, Hannah grabbed her own barrel and tried to keep up with her cousin and brother. Thankfully no one got hurt.
Awstin and Hannah entertained themselves for awhile shoveling stones into trucks and a bucket.
This picture wasn't taken the same day, but I really like it so just decided to post it here. When Steve's mom stayed with us for a week, Awstin enjoyed showing off his Scrabble skills to her.
I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from Lydia's 6th birthday party. Her birthday was May 19 and we actually celebrated it the Sunday before. Lydia was so excited about her party and she was anxiously awaiting Steve and me and her other grandparents arrival. About 20 minutes before we got there she crawled up on Jay's lap and fell fast asleep. She had exhausted herself with anticipation! So when we arrived we found her sleeping. However, she soon woke up and was delighted to find that we were all there and ready to party. Lydia likes everyone to wear party hats at her birthday party so we dutifully put them on. I didn't have my camera then so didn't get any pictures, but I saw Kristen snapping some of all of us around the table with the tiny hats perched on our heads!
Lydia loves outdoors and gardening so Kristen made a garden cake for her. Isn't it so creative?! Here we are singing Happy Birthday.
As everyone was crowding around Lydia and snapping pictures of her and the cake, I heard this little voice calling "me picture, me picture!" I turned to Hannah and said, "did you want your picture taken too?" She said "yes" so I took this picture of her and she was happy (even though she kept her finger in her mouth)
We love celebrating birthdays with our grandchildren! The next birthday that this family will celebrate is that of a new little one the middle of July. So exciting!
What kid doesn't like a bounce house? But how many kids have their own bounce house? One Wednesday evening when we were having supper together, Shawn made the comment that he thinks it would be cool to own a bounce house for Awstin. I'm not really sure if he was serious, but Jeremy remembered this and when he saw on Facebook that a local company was upgrading their bounce houses and had several for sale, he told Shawn about it. Shawn checked it out and now owns a bounce house! As you can see from the picture, this is not a small one, but a large one complete with a slide along with the actual bounce house.
Shawn, Melissa and Awstin picked up the house one Sunday afternoon and brought it to our place to set it up for the first time. Awstin jumped and hopped around in excitement and the adults were pretty excited too! At that time Steve's mother was staying with us for a few days and so she and I went out to watch the action. Shawn put a blower to it to pump it up but it wasn't quite powerful enough to get enough air into the castle peaks so they hung down and the whole thing just couldn't quite stand up to full capacity. Awstin didn't mind. He slid down the slide anyway, but I was half afraid the house would collapse on him.
Shawn and Steve were able to find a second blower to put on it and it puffed up to its proper size and Melissa and Awstin were soon bouncing away. Josh & Julissa and Jeremy & Megan stopped in to admire it as well (sorry, I didn't get Jeremy and Megan on the picture).
Jay & Kristen's children were anxious to play in the house so a couple of Sundays later they came for the evening and Shawn put it up again and all the grandchildren had a great time bouncing and sliding. I'll even tell you a secret. Kristen and I actually got in the house too (if you see how small the opening is you will know that is a major accomplishment for a 57 year old woman and a 7 month pregnant woman). Obviously I didn't take or let anyone take pictures of that! Anyway, we stayed in the bounce house for quite awhile with the children and had a great time. When we were finished we slid down the slide to exit and we both survived!
We decided that when Awstin goes to school he will be the most popular kid in the class. Who doesn't want to be friends with someone who has their own personal bounce house!
It's not too often that it snows on or around my birthday, but it definitely did this year. I mentioned in my last blog, that this winter has been mild with very little snow. Well, March has been unseasonably cold and we finally did get a big snow. Forecasters were warning that it could be a monstrous storm and telling us we could get up to 2 feet. When it was all said and done, we only got between 6 and 8 inches, (although north of us got much more) but the winds howled and blew the snow so much that drifts were much higher.
The snow started overnight on Monday and continued through a good part of the day on Tuesday. As soon as we knew for sure that snow was coming, we made plans to make donuts (see my previous blog on family traditions as well as last year's Jonas donuts here). Megan and Julissa came on Monday evening and we each mixed up a batch. I was so glad for their help, as I'm not sure I would have mixed up that many on my own! I put the dough in the refrigerator overnight and on Tuesday morning this is what it looked like.
That's a lot of dough!
Megan & Jeremy, Josh & Julissa, and Shawn & Melissa & Awstin came to help cut, fry, and glaze the donuts. Shawn and Jeremy didn't stay the entire time as Jeremy went to work and Shawn had office work to do, but the rest of us saw the job to completion. After all the dough was rolled and cut, we cranked up the heat in the basement and left them to rise while we ate lunch. After lunch we organized an assembly line that worked really well. Melissa brought the doughy donuts up from the basement to be fried and glazed. Steve did all the frying. I drained them after frying and passed them on to Josh and Julissa for glazing. Megan took the donuts off the drying stick when they were dry and put them on trays that Melissa then took back down to the basement. Melissa also brought some blue icing (which is Awstin's favorite) and filled some donuts with it. Awstin was delighted and happily bit into one and blue icing squished out all over his face.
Rolling and cutting
The fry man
Glazing and drying
Filling a donut with blue icing for Awstin.
He likes it!
The finished donuts
Filled donuts and donut holes
Melissa & Awstin leaving
In the end, we had a total of about 250 donuts, including the icing filled ones and the donut holes. We divided them between us, including some for Jay's family so they could enjoy them too. Everyone went home happy with plenty of donuts that should last for a little while, depending on how fast they eat them or share them with others. I am glad we were able to get this annual, fun-family tradition in this winter, after it looked like it wouldn't happen because of a lack of significant snowfall. Thank you March snowstorm!
Wednesday (my birthday) was a bitterly cold and blustery day. The winds blew roads and driveways shut again that had been plowed open. It was a good day to stay indoors. However, my wonderful family did not let the frightful weather deter from coming to our house to celebrate my birthday. Jay and Kristen and family arrived early afternoon and the rest of the family came for supper. Even though it was Wednesday when I typically make supper for everyone, my children insisted that I not do anything. They provided pizza and Chinese food and Kristen made a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing (yum! my favorite!).
Kristen and Alexis and Awstin braved the weather and spent about an hour outside sledding in the afternoon, although Awstin did more shoveling then sledding. For some reason he never gets tired of shoveling and he never gets cold either. I guess that has to do with having proper snow attire. When I helped him out of his snow clothes, his hands and feet were toasty so I guess that explains why he is happy to stay outside. Alexis, too, is a snowbird and will never turn down the chance to go out and play in it. Obviously, they both take after their mothers, as none of my children are very fond of snow. Here are some pictures and videos of them sledding and shoveling.
Alexis (Kristen in background)
Awstin, the shovel man
Alexis liked the big hill
Awstin opted for the smaller hill
I was happy to have the grandchildren help me blow out my candles. Hannah was still in the highchair so she only watched but the rest were glad to help.
Blowing out the candles
I love this picture!
Josh & Julissa were the first to leave and we were surprised when they returned about five minutes later. They were stuck in the driveway! The winds had blown more snow over it and Josh's truck couldn't make it through (he said his tires were almost bald). Jeremy was delighted to jump to the rescue as he always carries a rope in his truck. He and Shawn went out to lend a hand. The first attempt was unsuccessful.
The second attempt went much better.
Everyone else made it up the driveway although several had to try a couple times. It made for an exciting end to a good day. Turning a year older isn't so bad when you have such a wonderful family to help you celebrate J
