Summer Vacation Day 1 and 2

We have been planning a trip to DC/Virginia for well over a year. Everything fell into place perfectly and we were able to go July 31st- August 9th. Our timing had a lot to do with Cousin number 23 arriving in May(pics later).

So July 31st we packed up and left the house early in the morning to catch our flight from LAX to Colorado.

We had a delay in Colorado due to bad weather in DC. Then we had a delay landing and had to wait to land. That put us in our hotel around 12:30am.

We were up the next day at 7am. We had a 4 hour tour scheduled for 10am

The tour guide was awesome. He had so much
information about the monuments and memorials

We started at the Washington Monument and ended at the Jefferson Memorial. These are only a few of the things we saw. 

After the tour we went to the Air and Space Museum. There were so many cool things to see. I can't possibly show you everything. You'll just have to go there and see for yourself ;)

The fun of Summer

We've had a very busy summer! Teresa was in summer school from 7:30-12  starting June 4th to July 13th. We are all glad that's over and she has an A in Health and an A in CLIC to start her High School years with. Nathan had T-ball twice a week(luckily after June 21st he was done with swim and gym for awhile). Teresa had play practice M-TH usually from 6-8:30. Now we are actually having a summer(It's 11am and T has yet to wake up)

We had Ian spend the night last weekend. It was the boys first time having a little sleepover. It went really well - other than going to bed at midnight.
Saturday night we all went to see Teresa in the play Willy Wonka Jr.

Here they are singing us the rules of watching a play. It's cute!

Snuggled up ready to sleep - maybe

Sunday I took the boys over to Lowe's to do the free wood project. It was a Kung Fu Panda

 The next few pictures are some random pictures of things Nathan and I did while Teresa was in summer school.

We learned how to make paper boats - then of course, we had to float them

Nathan is making Ice cream!

Just a cute pic! The reason we even took this was so we could remember
how to put this track together

T-ball Party

Nathan's last t-ball game was July 5th, but they had a pizza party on the 12th to celebrate a fun season. The coaches did such a great job I wanted to do something special for them. After wracking my brain and reading some forums we came up with these ideas. A candy bar card and a baseball signed by the team.

I made two cards and two balls - we had two families coaching

I didn't get a pic after the team had signed it, but it was super cute
and Coach Joe absolutely loved it! He used to play in the minor leagues
so coaching was special to him.

Nathan getting his certificate. What fun! He can't wait to do it again

Magic Mountain

Monday morning was Nathan's actual birthday. We had a trip to Magic Mountain planned. It was Teresa's idea, when she was 6 we took her to magic mountain, got her caricature done and embarrassed her with a song at the Moose Lodge. She felt he should have the same experience. But first, Birthday Breakfast!

Crepes on the birthday plate with a candle!

Teresa bought this cape for Nathan first thing

Nathan's first ride - Canyon Blaster. There were so few people at the park,
the guy had them go around again

This one cracks me up. Natha is in green with his arms up, on a very slow train ride

Nathan driving mom around

A little Jail time

A Birthday pic with Sylvester and Wiley. Nathan was wearing a blue ribbon that
said it was his birthday. Everyone noticed and the employees were giving him High-fives
all over the place. It was fun! You can see that Sylvester is holding up 6 fingers.

Aren't they so cute!

Having some amazing frozen lemonade

Nathan, Teresa and I played a racing game and Nathan won this monkey

Another ride Nathan went on and loved



This was a fast ride, but Nathan still liked it.





Birthday dinner at Moose Lodge



This Moose and the others on the wall did a little show. We
were seated right in front of it. While there the chef's came out
and sang Happy Birthday to Nathan and brought him the monster birthday brownie

Nathan and I played Wack-a-mole and won this tiger.
It was just me and him playing - easy win

Nathan rode Collosus(yes, that means he is 48 inches tall) -
but didn't like the big drops, but as you can
see he doesn't mind the little drops.

Nathan and his caricature

We had a really good time! The park wasn't crowded at all. Jonathan and Teresa rode Batman(her first loop ride) twice - they were able to walk on. We teased that the longest wait was for the tram to get back to the car.

Nathan's 6th Birthday

Only a week later, not too bad. We had a birthday party at my folks house with family and friends on Sunday July 8th. I'm so grateful that my parents offered their house, mine isn't big enough anymore and the temp was supposed to be 105 that day.

Last year Nathan knew that his 6th birthday would be aliens.
Here's the cake. There are 4 aliens around the sides that were drawn my
Nathan, recreated in fondant by me.

We made little alien goody bags with headband antenna's attached to them

What's an alien party with out spaceships?

Nathan wanted to play one game - pin the eye on the alien



I managed to get a picture of Owen as an alien(he wasn't that way for long)



The kids loved Grandma's playroom - so did the adults

Yah! Nathan got lots of fun things, we managed to play with everything this last week

Evelyn Family Reunion

2 years ago I was nominated to pull together the Evelyn(Jonathan's mother's family) reunion this year. We ended up in Tehachapi for a day at the park. I had old fashioned games plus some outdoor games for people to play. Here are a few pictures. I think everyone had a good time.

Silly group shot

Tug-a-war

Three-Legged Race

Wheel Barrow Race

Water Balloon Toss