Summer Vacation

Last week we took our annual summer vacation to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Washington. It was nice visit my Family and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. The cooler weather was also a nice change.

One thing I wanted to do while we were there was to get some berries. My parents live in the best place for berries and while we were there the blue berries and raspberries were ready for picking.

We had lots of helpers in the blueberry patch and they were good little pickers. Even though the temptation was big they picked a few more than they ate.

We did not have access to Raspberry bushes that still had fruit on them so we headed to Bizi Farm to buy some. The kids love going to Bizi Farm because the animals are so fun to feed and pet. The goats were really excited when they saw the kids come to the food machine. They stuck their heads through the fence and tried to reach the food when it came out.

Grandpa took a few days off of work and helped keep the kids entertained. We took our kids miniature golfing for the first time. The older kids went on one side with grandma and grandpa and the babies went with their moms. They all seemed to have lots of fun.

Josh kind of understood the concept. He would hit the ball from the tee and then pick it up from where ever it stopped and go place it right next to the hole and then hit it in. I started off with a hole in one but went downhill from there.

Thursday we went to Lewisville Park and had a picnic with smores. The kids all got wet playing in the river and then dried off with a game of kickball.

Ryan brought his bike to the park to ride on the trails. He was having a good time but he took the path the wrong way and ended up crashing. Luckily nothing was broken, but he was scraped up pretty bad. I still don't know if he was excited or upset that he crashed because the first thing he did when he got back was take pictures of his injuries. (I will spare you having to look at those. Maybe he will post them on his blog)

We drove to Washington and were able to bring Ryan's, Emily's and my bikes with us. My mom and Amy both bought new bikes right after we arrived, so one of the main activities we did throughout the trip was go on bike rides. Salmon creek trail is right by my parents house and it was a fun trail to take the kids on. The main trail is paved and there are dirt paths that cross into it that the older kids and Ryan had fun trying out. My sister Ellen had a bike trailer so we were able to take the younger kids with us. Joseph used an extra bike his cousins had. My mom came with us on a couple of the rides, but I think we wore her out by the time we left.

When we were at Grandma's house the kids spent time on their bikes having races up and down the street. My parents live at the end of a dead end road so there is not much traffic. We thought after the 5 to 7 mile bike ride they would be tired but they just kept going. By Thursday afternoon they started acting a little tired.

Early Friday morning (12:30ish) Joshua woke up with croup. After a couple of hours trying a few home remedies we finally decided we could not avoid the Emergency room. Luckily the emergency room was not too busy and because croup comes with breathing problems they got us in pretty fast. They ended up putting us in an ICU room because the pediatric Emergency was closed. This was nice because the room was a little more private and quiet.
The doctor got Josh on the steroid treatment, but then we had to sit and wait for an hour to make sure that it was working. Josh fell right to sleep after the torture part was over and slept until it was time to go.

Josh spent Friday lying around sleeping and wanting to be held. The rest of the kids were tired from a fun week of playing so Grandpa decided to take them to the Movies. Ryan and Grandma stayed home with Josh and Bethany.(Ellen's baby) The rest of us went and saw Space Chimps. That would not have been my first choice of movies, but it was perfect for the kids, and I ended up enjoying the movie also. It went along the lines of a Saturday morning cartoon with some nerd jokes thrown in here and there but it was totally geared toward the kids and even the youngest two who are two and three sat through the whole movie and were entertained. (I am sure that the popcorn and candy helped a little.)

Friday night I finally found a worthy opponent for the Wii game Big Brain Academy. My dad is close, but I am still able to beat him every time(usually only by seconds), but Ellen was able to beat me a couple of times. We won't talk about the other wii games. I got creamed on all of those.

Saturday we made the long drive home and Joseph informed me that Grandma's house is way better than our house, because we get to do lots of things there, and have blueberry muffins.

Thanks for the fun times. I can't wait until next time :)