Cooperstown

Cooperstown was so crazy today that we ended up going to the Farmer's Museum instead of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Don't laugh too hard, it was very Cool!  In fact, it was extra exciting because part of the museum was closed for a private party......for Tony Gwynn!!!!!  I was only able to get a couple super blurry pictures of him through the antique glass in the door, but here are a couple other photos from our day.  By the way, we do have numerous parking options scoped out for tomorrow, so we won't be missing out on the important festivities. 8^)

A Little Work a Little Play

Being without an internet connection has caused me to get a little behind on my vacation updates, so I'm going to back track a bit. I'm also going to do things a little out of order. No particular reason really; I just uploaded the pictures of our first night in Northern Illinois first. So here we go....

We were SOOOO glad to get out and about after almost 2000 miles of driving. We had a few chores to take care of, but then we were off to the playground. The kids had a great time running around. Grace mostly just enjoyed putting sand in her hair. The best part of the evening was sunset. Not only was it beautiful, but the kids saw fireflies for the first time ever. It was fun for me to share these little memories from my childhood with the kids.

Cooperstown

Niagara falls was truly AWESOME (even if we did get a tad wet)!!! We made it to Cooperstown yesterday afternoon, but have no internet or cell service at our campground. I am writing this, using the PC card generously loaned to us by my Mom, as we drive all around New York looking for a Wal-mart and grocery store. Who knew such things could be so hard to find?!?!
We're experiencing some rain, thunder and lightning tonight. I happen to love the sound that makes on the metal roof of the RV, but we are definitely hoping for clear, sunny weather for our expedition into town over the next couple days. Dragging 5 soaking wet kids around would not be a whole lot of fun. Keep your fingers crossed for us, OK?

We Made It!!!!

.....to New York, that is. This post is pretty much just to keep the concerned family that is awaiting news of our travels at ease. It's 2:30 in the morning here on the East Coast though, so further updates and pictures will have to follow later. Yawn.

On the Road Again

A few days ago, we left for one heck of a vacation. We are driving the RV from california to New York, and back again. We saw some of my family in Denver (more on that later), and are now on our way to chicago (I am actually writing this from the middle of nowhere in the Iowa corn fields.). From there, we will go to New York, where we will be checking out Niagara Falls, The Baseball Hall of Fame and New York city. On the way back west, we will stop in Lexington, KY to visit my brother. Our last stop before heading home will be in Williams, AZ, where we will meet up with Grandma carroll and Grandpa John for a quick foray to the Grand canyon. The total mileage for our trip will be right around 6000 miles. At this point, we have driven about 30% of that. I imagine we will all be good and ready to stay out of motorized vehicles for a while when we get home. In the mean time, here's a few pictures from our travels so far.....













A quick PS...To anyone tempted to "visit" our house while we're away, it is equipped with an alarm with live monitoring 24 hours a day. The local police have a VERY fast response time. We found out a few months back when we accidentally set it off. Oops!!

He's 5. I'm 32. Where Does the Time Go?

The Veil

Grace's hair is finally long enough to do a veil style!!! That might seem like a silly thing to be excited about, but we have been limited to two styles since she came home; the 'fro and puffs. It took 2 episodes of Blue's clues, lots of playing with the hair "pretties", a number of rounds of Itsy Bitsy Spider & Pat-a-cake, a few extended hugs from her big sis while singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and finally; Daddy held her down for the last two rubber bands. Doing hair on a toddler is no small feat! In the end, I was very pleased with the result, and Gracie was too. We all know, that's what really matters anyway, right?









Update: The hair went from "veil" to twisty puffs within about 15 minutes of the above photos being taken. Oh well. At least we're making progress. I can settle for baby steps. 8^) BTW, Grace still doesn't have all four of her front teeth (2 upper, 2 lower) in, but she has cut 3 of her 4 two year molars. What can I say? This girl does things her own way!!

As Soon as We Got Home...

....last week, we unloaded the RV, got a good night's sleep in our nice, cool house and then headed to the park. You see, we had hauled all four of the bigger kids' bikes to Las Vegas. Will even unloaded them from the rack while we were there, in hopes that it might actually cool off enough some evening to ride them. No dice. The kids were very disappointed; as was Will. When it came time to go home (a day earlier than we initially planned) Will loaded the bikes back onto the bike rack, and we promised the kids that they would have an opportunity to ride when we got home. They were very relieved to see the bike rack transferred onto our Suburban the day after we returned to sunny So Cal. They all had lots of fun riding around the park, and Grace thoroughly enjoyed the slides and swings. It doesn't get much better than this!!

Our 4th

Mostly we just stayed home and enjoyed the A/C. After roasting away the previous week in Vegas, one could hardly blame us. Anyway, long about 4 PM, Will and the kids went out to play in the pool while I worked on making homemade ice cream. We had a simple, traditional BBQ (burgers) and followed that up with a yummy dessert. Since ALL fireworks are banned in the county we live in (yes, even sparklers), that was the end of our celebration. Hope you all had a nice 4th too. 8^)

Sneaky Little Bugger

Do You Have One of These?

If not, I highly recommend you get one. I used this vanilla ice cream recipe (the custard one). They even have a video if you are feeling a tad uncertain. Just a quick note, I doubled the recipe for our family of 6 (Grace is lactose intolerant). It just fit in the ice cream maker, and we all had a nice sized serving. Here it is just before it was ready to eat. MMmmmm!!!


PS The ice cream was our Fourth of July dessert. Tonight we had shaved ice. We have this machine. It's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done without too much elbow grease required. I even found a recipe online to use in place of the store bought syrups. Between that, and using plain old plastic cups instead of the special paper cones, dessert couldn't get much cheaper. This is sure to be a summer favorite at our house. 8^)

Thank a Vet