Kids At The Park

The kids have been having a fun summer going to the park and playing. It's so nice because this year they can both just explore and play.

New Patio

So it turns out that Sean and I are not great with landscaping. There is just not enough time in the day, and it's not a top priority. So to solve that problem we decided to make our large flowerbed in the front of the house into a patio. Lucky for us we had some slate in a corner of the backyard that was just wasting space and it was almost enough for the area. We solved that problem by digging up the little path in the front yard and we were golden. We spent a few late nights and had a little help from Mae but we got it done. All that's left is the mossy ground cover to secure the stones.

It was basically a life size puzzle. Even Mae got into figuring out where to place the pieces.

Since we did the work by nightfall the camping lantern was awesome. It provided plenty of light to work by.

It was all laid down but it needed to be tweaked just a bit. So we broke a few stones to give it some character.

Done! Sean just needed to get the sand and fill in the cracks.

Snails

Maes cousins found some snails at the lake and she loved playing with them. After they took off she played with them for a long time. I was so surprised that she liked them as much as she did. She tends to be leary of things of that nature.

Escargot anyone?

The Road Back Home

The last leg of the journey arrived and not a moment to soon. The breaking point had been reached by the kids and I and we still had 22 hours to drive home. It doesn't matter it the vacation is 3 days or 14 days by the last day I'm just ready to get home. But we still made the most of the ride home. It was just Sean and I driving home. The other car with Jim, Leslee, Mary and Quinn had another few days of road trip and national parks to hit up.
So we got the kids loaded up and headed out on our journey.

In Antinito we swung by the Indiana Jones house from one of the movies and snapped a photo.

The kids in the begining happy and napping. Excited to be heading home to their own beds. We stoped by a cool park in one of the towns a few hours from Antinito, the kids had so much fun getting to stretch their legs before the long ride ahead.

The park had some of the coolest old toys mixed with new. It was bringing back some fun old memories!

Mae and Owen then practiced their creek jumping. Mae loved the little creek running on the edge of the park. It made me think of growing up again. Walla Walla has little creeks like that and I loved them as a kid.

After that little breather we had to get going hard again. Sean drove us all the way to Grand Junction where I took over. We had a few stops on the way to change poor Owens poop, his tummy was not happy with him from traveling. Right before Grand Junction our car did hit a milestone of 100,000 miles. Woop woop.

100,001 the same number backwards and forwards (april pointed that out). Note the check engine light is on too. Makes me laugh because the car was running great. That is until our AC went out on Utah with temps of 99 degrees. It was at that point that we decided to drive throughout the night. We also just wanted the kids to sleep there were a few meltdowns that put us over the edge.

Driving through the night wasn't bad until about 4am and I needed the sun to come out. My eyes were so tired of the dark. It finally came over the horizon and Sean and I had to switch about every 1 1/2 hours, we also did a few Chinese fire drills when we got into Idaho. But we made it home safe and sound after 24 hours on the road including stops. Tuesday was spent laying around and watching bad movies all day. It was wonderful.

River Time

The Canejos River ran right through where we stayed so on Sunday we spent some time down there with the kids. It was fun because they haven't really spent much time on a fun rocky river. Lots of rock jumping and throwing.

Owen wore a Coug shirt every day we were there because Ben is slightly obsessed.

The kids went off on an adventure to see the goats. I love how they are holding hands.

Sean was the only one brave enough to get into the water. It's was cold and I was not warm enough to dunk myself. And besides my dad wasn't there with the promise of a milkshake if I did it. I love Seans facial expressions as he gets in.