Summer Vacation and 4th of July

We had a great trip to Silver Dollar City. We took our nephew, Teddy, with us. We wondered how it would be with a Kindergartener, a First Grader, and a Second Grader on vacation, but it was surprisingly very relaxing. The kids behaved well, and they had a great time. Teddy rode a lot of rides with Richard and I.....he's a bit fearless, so that was really fun. My two munchkins rode rides, too, but Alyssa screamed the entire time on all of them.....and in the lines on the way to get on them! Then when the rides were over, at least for most of them, she said she liked them.......go figure! The weather was great.....low 80s for the high each day, which was awesome! Even getting soaked on the water rides was fun.....one day we all ate lunch soaking wet! The hotel where we stayed had a dalmation statue right as you come in the lobby, so Alyssa had to pet it each day and have a picture before we left. The first day we were there, we ordered pizza for dinner and had it delivered to the hotel because everyone was so tired. Then when it arrived, we realized we didn't have plates! So, we introduced the kids to creative problem solving and eating pizza like college kids.....we made plates out of the box lids! They thought it was funny, but they enjoyed the pizza.

Skunk Boy! Jonathan just happened to be wearing black and white, and then he put on a skunk skin hat which made him really look like a skunk. He, of course, thought it was very funny!
"Milking" a cow in the new barnyard area of Silver Dollar City. The boys tried to milk the fake cow, and they did okay. But then Richard showed them how a pro does it.......not bad for a city boy from Tulsa!
On the way back we stopped at the Precious Moments Chapel and let the kids stretch their legs. They enjoyed stopping and walking around, I think. And it was a good thing for Jonathan to see since he loves Art so much.

The Fourth of July was spent at Beth's House, and we shot fireworks in her front yard. There was a lot of cooking and a lot of shooting........we had a good time. And we all enjoyed seeing the newest member of the family, Baby Will.

On the fifth we went to Jerry and Cindy's house to visit and swim. The kids spent 3 hours in the pool and had a great time....but I think Richard had the best time of all the kids! Jonathan, however, about slept through dinner afterwards! He was so tired from all the swimming. And, both kids slept ALL the way home and then until 8:30 this morning. They were really worn out from all the fun. All in all, it was a good trip, a relaxing time with family, and a great time together.

Disney Montage

We had a blast last week at Disney World for Thanksgiving. The kids had a great time, and they got to meet a lot of the characters. Alyssa got to have a Princess Makeover, and the cast members throughout the park bowed and greeted her with, "Hello, Your Majesty." It was cute. We had our traditional Thanksgiving lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern, where it was served family style by waitresses in colonial costumes - which was a cool way to have Thanksgiving lunch. There's too much to write about our trip, so I'll post some photos and then do a list of favorite things later. Enjoy the pics!

This last picture is of Jonathan getting to participate in the Storytime with Belle outside the palace. He got to play the part of her father in the story. He did a great job, and he really felt special that he got picked. Alyssa dressed up as Aurora for her princess makeover, so she always posed with any Aurora she saw. It was cute.

Our Camping Adventure - Part I

The past three days at Dinosaur Valley State Park have been a blast. We hiked, cooked out, slept (sweated) in a tent, swam in a prehistoric watering hold for dinosaurs, explored the river, went on mini-adventures, learned about God's creation and His love for us through little field lessons we did, learned about dinosaurs, cooked solar s'mores, went on nighttime walks with glow bracelets, got a visit from the "camping" tooth fairy, and bonded as a family. The temperatures reached close to 100 degrees, but we somehow survived with no air conditioning. Here are a few of our favorite pictures....the first is of our hike/climb to the watering hole.

We hiked/climbed down to the prehistoric watering hole and viewed some dinosaur tracks. Jonathan got up close and personal with them. You can see the ledge. It drops off to at least 24 feet past that little piece of rock. We came back later and swam in it - it was a very nice break from the heat!

You can see two of the toes rather clearly - the other one is harder to see in the photo.

Richard enjoyed his new outdoor kitchen we just bought him. He was quite the chef!

This was after our little adventure down the river. We walked through the river until we got to the cliffs. The kids had a great time, even though we all stumbled a bit.

Walking in the riverbed.
Swimming at the swimming hole - or actually, sitting on the ledge for a photo. We also made cucumber canoes and had cucumber boat races - I think Jonathan's won - hard to tell since they eventually all flipped over! :-)

S'Mores, please! We made ours this year in a solar oven we made before we went. The kids had a fun time making it, and we had an even tastier time trying it out! It was quite a cute little experiment.

Tent, sweet, tent! Boy, was it hot at night. But, Richard had bought us a little fan, so at least we had air circulating.

Alyssa and her Doodlebug that she found. She played with it for a long time! And, though this looks gross, it was necessary. We resorted to setting a place for the flies during meals so they would eat "their plate" and leave ours alone! The funny part is that it actually worked!