Chuck E Cheese

Starting on Monday, Danny asked around the clock to take Elie to see Chuck E Cheese. On Friday Dave and Lori had a date night and we took the kids out for pizza. It was a great time.

The merry go round.

So, there is this pony ride, that all of the kids just sit on, but you are supposed to actually control the horse and try to win the race. All night Dan was waiting for the 3 year old girls to get off so that he could show them how it is done. He finally got his chance with the kids looking on longingly. He didn't' do much better than the preschoolers.

in an effort to get the most bang for our buck, we crammed all of the kids onto each of the rides. They didn't seem to mind, except that Chucky was taking up Elie's seat in the car

Elie going for a sky ride on the balloon bike

Micah watching Elie longingly as she rides the bike

A simulator ride that they all really liked.

Sesame Place

On Tuesday Doug and Michelle took us to Sesame Place with them. We all had a wonderful time. Danny went on a lot of fast rides and was a very brave boy.

I think this is my new favorite picture.

Happy boys

sticking out his tongue for the camera

Having a great time playing in the fountains with Daddy

I love this picture. Thank you Burns' for a wonderful time!

Camping at Deer Wood Campground

Last weekend we had a wonderful time camping with the Schmidts, Mangins, and the Nobles. Here is Eric checking in on the child labor team. They don't even clothe their workers!

Eric instructing his work force how to saw faster

Danny was sawing so fast that he was just a blur

I stepped in to help

I have nothing to say about this

Half of the camping gang

Danny loves Jeeps

The Schmidts brought their jeep, and Danny was in heaven pretending to drive.

Aspen joined us in the morning

Danny was pounding the watermelon. Notice the juice that has run down his belly and onto his pants.
After everyone packed up, the three of us headed to the river and had tons of fun swimming, floating, and jumping. I'm ready to go back and do it again.

Dinner with Friends

My good friend Val and her husband Tim moved to Texas. Recently they were up visiting and we got together for dinner. Danny joined us and of course had tons of fun.

We tried to take a group picture with the camera balanced on the TV. It of course was very difficult.

Laughing at the many ridiculous attempts at taking a picture

Finally a decent photo

I LOVE California

I had the awesome opportunity of going to California for 6 days with my college roommates. Mary was getting married in Santa Rosa, and I wasn't going to miss it for anything. After arriving very very late on Tues. night, we were up bright and early Wed. morning to venture into the redwoods for a ropes course. Here is Becky with the "lobster claws" that we needed for the course.

hiking up the mt. with our gear. Mary's parents and her sisters joined us

Our first adventure of the morning was the big scary swing. Mary knew how to run all of the obstacles, so she climbed up the tree first to get everything ready

Nita was the brave soul to go first on the giant swing. Mary helped get the super uncomfortable harness on

Going off the edge

Can you see the bright pink dot out there? That's Nita

Becky was next. She admitted later that she was "slightly nervous" right before pushing off the ledge

Becky held Lila so Erin could have a turn on the swing of terror

feeling a little nervous, but she was in Mary's capable hands

Getting ready for the rope course. It was so awesome that Mary's camp let us do all of this for free. Mary was an excellent instructor too.

Rope course

After the big swing we hiked further up the mountain to the ropes course. This was a lot of fun because we were all able to be up in the trees at the same time. Beck was the first up showing us how it is done.

Show off! Right about here is where my knees started to shake, and this girl's doing a jig

Across the rope ladder

Beck and I on the platforms together