"Sweet" Sixteen

My oldest turned sixteen.  Sixteen.  Do you realize how old that makes me?  Do you realize how soon he'll be out in the world and on his own?

Wow.

He had apple pie for breakfast, nachos and cheese fries for lunch, and potato leek soup for dinner.  All by request.  Yes, I'm aware the soup is a bit odd, but he LOVES it.

Love you, Peter!

Eight!

New earrings!

Victoria turned eight this year!!  Eight is big in our girls' lives, because that means they may get their ears pierced.  Her birthday was a bit haphazard, because we had JUST returned from our trip, but she still got her choice of meals, and we had cake with all the neighborhood kids.

Hard to believe my "baby" is so big!!

Love you, Victoria!!

Niagara...again?

After spending the night in Hot Springs, we packed up and drove to Mammoth Caves, Kentucky.  We had a nice big campsite and things started to look a little more like home as far as the countryside, animals, stores, etc.

In the morning, we packed up and went for our tour of Mammoth Caves.  The caves are, as the name suggests, mammoth, so we had chosen one tour (there are SEVERAL).

The kids enjoyed it (although the comment was made that Luray Caverns in Virginia was just as nice), and there was a fun little formation there called Frozen Niagara.  Jonathan commented that we started at Niagara Falls and we were finishing at Frozen Niagara.  Nice little symmetry.

We got in the car and drove on.....when we arrived in Huntington, West Virginia at about 3 pm, the kids and I had a little conference.  We were still about six hours away from home and I knew we were all tired of being in the car, but also tired of being on the road.  The consensus was to GO ON!!!

We arrived home around 10 pm - YAY!!!  Happy to see Daddy, the pets, hot showers, our own beds.  Aaahhhh.....

Friends!!

I have fewer pictures of the last bit of our trip because it was just me taking pictures and because I was too busy talking!!

Moon Crater

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed towards Albuquerque, to see some dear, dear friends of ours that we hadn't seen since Caroline was about 18 months old.  On the way, we stopped to see the Moon Crater, and drove through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.  Very cool.

We spent the night at the Kubeckas, where they fed us with local New Mexican fare (it was hatch chile season!) and sent us on our way the next morning to go to Abilene, Texas.  We did stop for breakfast in Albuquerque and met "new" family - the daughter of my biological father.  Great fun!

We were to meet some old friends in Abilene - they used to live across the street from us when I was eleven!  I hadn't seen them since Peter was little (he's 15).  What a blessing to talk and spend time with them!!

The next day we had another breakfast meeting with some dear friends that were a tremendous support when we lived in Abilene.  More blessings!!

Then we headed for Arkansas, where the plan was to go to a diamond mine where you could dig for rocks - and anything you found, you could keep.  Unfortunately, we arrived too late to actually dig for anything, so we drove on to Hot Springs KOA.  We didn't see the town or anything, but the campsite was fine and we passed an uneventful night.

To be continued....

Viva las Vegas

We left Heidi's bright and early - it was not a pleasant goodbye.  We don't get to see them often, so there were tears.  But, on we went.

The kids loved seeing the palm trees in California.  As they said, "it's like being in a movie!"  I explained about Hollywood and how lots of shows and movies ARE filmed in Southern California.

On this cross-country trip, I had pick and choose what we'd see.  We simply could NOT see everything.  I tried to make it mostly natural attractions.  Obviously, Disneyland was an exception, as was Las Vegas.  The kids REALLY wanted to see Las Vegas, so I agreed to drive through on our way to the Grand Canyon.  Peter turned on "Viva las Vegas" (Elvis) as we drove through and saw the casinos and then we drove on.

I had also decided that we should at least see the Hoover Dam, so we drove to that as well.  There has been a terrible drought in California for quite some time.  We had seen evidences of it in some dead groves of trees along the roadsides, and as we approached the dam, we could see that Lake Mead was QUITE low.  It was a good time to talk about drought and the effect on our food supply.

We drove over the dam and headed towards the Grand Canyon.  It is MUCH more populated than I remember.  There's a school there!!  Anyway, we found our campsite and started setting up.  As the boys got the tent up, I read the little pamphlet you always get as you enter a national park.  I rejoiced to see that we no longer had to worry about bears!!  And then had to tell the kids that the new threats were snakes and scorpions.  As I looked up to tell them this, Victoria was getting ready to move some rocks that were piled on one another....needless to say, those rocks stayed RIGHT there and everyone gave them a fairly wide berth.

I started dinner (after checking the weather - which forecast NOTHING) and the kids continued setting up the campsite.  Then we heard thunder.  Oh dear.  The tent went up VERY fast and then they started tossing things into the tent.  I finished dinner, grabbed the dinner and ran into the tent just as rain started to fall.  Good thing we could take food in there now!!

The rain didn't last long and we passed a very pleasant evening.  After packing up the following morning, we went to look at the "big ditch", as Tim calls it.  Beautiful.  Just beautiful.

Onward....

Southern California

We made it to Auntie Heidi's house in Murietta right after school was over and were greeting with great exuberance!  It was lovely to be in a house again.  I didn't stay awake very late - I think I only made it to about 8:30!

The next morning we got up and went to DISNEYLAND!!  Peter and I had been, but he was 18 months old.  Obviously, he didn't remember much.  We had a GREAT time!!!  The girls waited in line to see Ariel, and then we all waited to get our picture taken with Mickey.

I took the kids on their first ever roller coaster....that was a "mom of the year" award moment for sure.  Click on the picture and you'll see!  Victoria was actually crying as we came to a stop at the end.  Me?  I was laughing hysterically at my children's screams.  I'm chuckling even now, actually!!

Other than that, we all had a great time.  It was the middle of the week, so there were hardly any people there (well, for Disney) and the weather was beautiful.  On some of the rides, we were able to ride the ride, then get right back in line and on the ride again with only about five minutes of waiting.  It was crazy!

Auntie Heidi got Victoria a "Happy Birthday" pin when we entered, so every character who saw her wished her a happy birthday - even characters in the parade at the end of the day!  She was the perfect age to be there.  So glad we went.

Still on the Road

After leaving Monterey, I tried (really, I did) to drive to Yosemite National Park.  I was following the signs, but then decided to follow the GPS.  <sigh>  I ended up entering the park through the southern entrance instead of the northern one.  In order to see the "cool" stuff in Yosemite, we would have had to drive another hour and a half up and then an hour and a half back.  It was quite frustrating.

So instead, we turned around and headed towards our evening's destination, Sequoia National Park.  It was so amazing to see those huge trees, but the drive....oh my goodness.  Hairpin turns, hills, and not much in the way of guardrails.  At the time, I had no idea how to put my car into a lower gear, so by the time we got to the campsite, I was very stressed out and my brakes were hot and smelly.  After a good cry, some dinner, and putting all of the food and toiletries into the bear-proof box, we went to bed.  It was a beautiful night.  Victoria actually woke me up at midnight to point out the stars.

The next morning we headed out to see General Sherman.  As we drove up, we were discussing whether or not we would see a bear.  As I argued that I was sure we wouldn't, we saw an adolescent black bear leaving the parking area!!  We made sure we were very loud as we went on the trail to General Sherman.  What an amazing tree!!!

Next - to Auntie Heidi's!