Grand Bear Lodge - Day Two

Sunday morning started off pretty sluggish. Neither Bret nor I got much sleep with Ryan tossing and turning and wacking us in the faces with his arms. Lucky Ashley got to sleep by herself in the pull out couch bed in our master bedroom. It stormed all night and was still raining when we got up this morning. The humidity and the heat were so bad that you couldn't see past the condensation on the windows. It pretty much rained on and off all day.

Once we were up and moving, we headed back over to the pool for some more swimming.

Ashley and Brooke pose while we wait for Bret to get our wrist bands for the day.

Ryan and Brooke lock Bret in the "jail". Really it was a cave that connects the wave pool to the regular pool.

Ashley loved the water slides again this year.

This slide was more Ryan and Brooke's pace (at least until they were persuaded to try the big slides).

The tree house playground offered tons of fun for all of the kids.

This may be my favorite picture out of all four hundred some that were taken. Ryan waits for me to put away the camera so I can take him over to try the big water slide.

I went down first so I could catch Ryan when he goes next.

A little trigger happy with the camera, but he did make it down and decided ten minutes later over a bribed snack that he did indeed like it afterall.

Brooke and Ryan look for a place to sit.

Once we were thoroughly water logged, we went back to the villa to eat lunch. On the walk back it started raining and we we looked like we had just stepped right out of the pool. After eating, Bret stayed back at the villa while Mitchell napped and Ryan played. The rest of us walked over for more thrills at the amusement park again.

Ashley and Brooke in front of the Rock Monster.

After this experience, I've decided that Ashley's not getting her driver's lisence until she's 25!

She's definately not afraid of anything that whips you around in the air!

Still spinning from the rides we went back to get ready for dinner.

Mitchell and Bret chill out on the sofa.

Hey, it's not our furniture. Why not let them eat in the living room?

After dinner, the plan was to let the kids play at the park while the guys played minature golf with Ashley, but the humidity was still so thick that even taking pictures outdoors was nearly impossible because the lens kept fogging up and everything hadn't dried off yet. There was still thunder booming in the distance, so we put the kids' swim suits back on and let them play for a bit at the still wet park. The loved it.

The kids posing in front of a bear on the walk over to the park.

The kids really didn't care too much that everything was all wet. However, parden the foggy lens.

The rain was starting to move back in, so we quickly made our way to the water park for another swim. You'd think we would be sick of swimming at this point, but it was really just the opposite. The water park was a lot of fun. They even turn off the lights in the water slides at night, making the ride down that much more fun. We weren't loving the five story climb to the top of the stairs each time we wanted to go down though.

Ashley smiles pretty, but Ryan is tired of pictures by now.

To view the complete set of pictures from day two, click here.

Grand Bear Lodge - Day One

Our first day at Grand Bear was a great time. We got into Utica around 1pm and checked into our villa. The weather was comfortable in the high 70's and the rain held off until we were fast asleep that night.

Brooke and Ashley hang out on the couch as the adults unpack.

As soon as we had our stuff unpacked, we headed straight for the indoor waterpark.

Brooke and Ryan play in the fountains.

The water park.

The wave pool.

After swimming, we headed back to the villa for showers and to make dinner. After letting our dinner settle for (hopefully) long enough, we made our way to the indoor amusement park for some thrill rides.

Ashley and I outside of our villa.

We stopped for a quick picture of the kids at Bear Island.

And also another picture on the resort train.

Remember this big ol scary thing from last year? (The rock monster, not Bret.)

Ashley and Brooke hit the rides.

They finally let Mitchell and I join them.

Bret takes Ryan outside for a quick break to call Grandma to tell her how much fun he's having.

The kids are wiped out and the adults finally get some grown up time, if they can manage to stay awake.

To see the whole set of pictures from day one at Flickr, click here.

Water Logged And All Spun Out

After three days of swimming in the water park and spinning away on amusement park rides at Grand Bear Lodge, we're home and exhausted. With an emergency visit to the vet behind us, I'm now ready to sit down and work on all four hundred some pictures and get some posted here and over at Flickr.

Poor Daisy sprained her knee running after her beloved tennis ball. We were scared to death that she had broken her leg or hip with the way she went down and then not being able to move it. Thankfully, the poor thing just stretched the tendon in her knee. We have to watch her for the next week just to make sure it isn't torn. Our fingers are crossed because that would entail a mighty expensive surgery bill.

Check back soon for loads of pictures...

Back To The Land Of Grizzly Bears

Tomorrow we'll be leaving for another weekend trip to Grand Bear Lodge with Bret's brother's family. It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since we've been there. This year we were a little smarter and booked the trip for the beginning of August instead of the weekend before the kids go back to school. Sending Ryan off to his first day of kindergarten the day after coming home from vacation didn't go so well. Anyway, we'll be back on Monday. I'll try to post pictures while we're there.

Meanwhile, click here to check out last year's pictures.

Our New Summer Hang Out

Here's the new pool that we and Teri and her kids have taken up residence at this summer. We have yet to do any kind of work out in the fitness area yet, but that will come eventually once the kids are back in school. (The one time that Ashley kicked my butt on the eliptical machine doesn't count, right?) The pool is huge and now that it's gotten hot outside again, the water has been much warmer this week. Another added bonus is that our neighborhood friend, Becky and her kids have also joined so now the kids have two more friends that they can play there with.

Can you find Ryan? (Click on picture to enlarge.)



Note the kid behind Ryan that followed him around all afternoon, trying to steal his innertube and noodles. Punk. Doesn't anyone watch their kids anymore?

Ashley usually isn't around much for a picture. She's all over the place once we get there with her friends.

Quentin, Ryan, Ashley & Skyler.

Can I Have Your Attention, Please?

Yesterday was Skyler's birthday, so we all headed over to Splashdown for a day of fun in the sun. Upon entering the park, I myself felt a magentic force pulling me straight to the lazy river. First, however I let Bret go off and hit the big water slide with everyone else while I stayed behind to watch Ryan play in the big water tree house area - but not before complaining about how many parents send their little kids off to play and go off and find a chair to sunbathe with their eyes closed or read a book.

So I've been sitting in a chair where I have a good view of the whole structure and can watch him play when it's been about 5 minutes and I've lost site of him. The treehouse is huge and it's really hard to find your kids in there because they're all over the place.

A life guard comes onto the intercom and says, "Can I have your attention, please?"

Hmm...

"We have a lost little boy here at the life guard station."

Aww, poor kid. Really. Why can't parents keep an eye on their kids!?

"He's 6 years old."

Nope, not mine.

"His name is Ryan."

Nooooooo, it can't be. Ryan's a pretty common name, isn't it?

"He's looking for his mom, Lynda."

S*#t!

I turn my head and look over across the water park beyond the big pool and see my son sitting in the lifeguard's chair, crying his eyes out. There's kharma for you.

Thankfully he still had a good time and wasn't too traumatized.

Bed Hog

No one gets any sleep when the bed hog has a bad dream and brings every pillow in the house with him.

Happy 1st Birthday Chloe!

Today is Chloe's very first birthday. Her Mom and Dad had all of their family and friends over to help celebrate. Chloe was as cute as ever.

The kids all had fun jumping from pool to pool. Can you believe how big Cecelia has gotten this summer?

Ryan had fun on the slip n slide...

...as did Cat and Kelly. Can't blame them though as it ended up being pretty hot out today.

Goofball

Just when you think you've seen all of his getups, he pulls out one more that makes you turn your head and cover up your impending laughter.

Irony

For the past few months, Bret and I have been discussing the need for a new Laptop computer. Okay, it's been more like I've been begging and pleading and Bret's been trying to keep the check book closed, but still I was afraid that the older second hand laptop was on it's way to lappy heaven and I'd lose all of the pictures from this summer that were on it when it did.

We finally found a Gateway that we could both agree on at Best Buy, but it was out of stock in the store. They did have it available online last night, but then I nearly broke down and cried when I went to order it this morning and they were all sold out!

I did manage to find a Toshiba that had the same specs and ran out as soon as I could fit it into my busy 3 kid day to buy it. As soon as I got home and later got Chloe down for her afternoon nap, I sat down to try and figure the thing out. That's when everything went downhill fast and I nearly lost my mind.

We already had the other computers set up on a wireless network so I figured (in my computer genius mind) that all I had to do was log onto the network and poof, it'd be all ready to go. Not so much. I spent the next 2 and a half hours trying to set up the network. I was ready to give up and throw the thing back at the salesman when my mom called and asked if I was sure I had the right password to the network. Like I'm that dumb. Yeah, I had the password all wrong for over 2 hours. I put in the password that she insisted was correct and low and behold my new toy sprung to life. Figures. (Have I told you how thankful I am yet, Mom?)

So I got to work and started to prepare to transfer all of the pictures from the old laptop over the network when all of a sudden the thing died. It made a sad noise, shut itself off and died. Did I mention it DIED? (Taking a deep breath...) I lost all of my pictures from July. My cute son playing T-Ball for the first time ever, my growing up too fast daughter's softball game pictures, my temporary loss of insanity over at the trampoline pictures, and many more. It makes me sick to my stomach. Thankfully I have this blog. I've posted my favorites here and can at least copy those onto the new laptop.

It's ironic and sad, isn't it? We replaced the old laptop because we were afraid something like this would happen and just as I'm trying to transfer everything to the new one, I lose it all forever.

I do love my new computer though. This thing is sweet! Did you know that you can post to your blog with your pictures easily with the push of one button through Picassa? It's great!

But let's go over my user error mistakes. A half hour of trying to figure out how to connect the internet and finally realized that there was a wi-fi switch on the front of the computer. Next, another two hours of frustration because I had the wrong password for the network. And then finally realizing that the printer wasn't working because the wire wasn't plugged in. Yep. Aha.

"It's Fun To Stay At The YMCA!"

So, in an effort to motivate myself into getting back into the gym (yeah, I know!), I froze my membership at Gold's Gym and joined the YMCA, formally known as the Willow Knolls Country Club. I've been eyeing that olympic size pool for quite some time now and really want to get back into swimming laps again. I was on the swim team in high school and there's nothing like a good long distance swim. (At my age now it's probably going to be more like a long distance crawl...lol) I've been really tired of how crowded Gold's has been lately and can't get my kids to go there anymore. For less than $15 bucks a month difference from what I was paying for Gold's, the kids can be added on to my membership and we have unlimited use of the huge outdoor pool. Plus the Y has so much more available for kids.

Anyway, I dragged Teri and her kids out of bed this morning and gave them a tour of the place and then waited while they signed up. (Got to bring someone else in on the torture, you know.) The plan was to let the kids play in the game area while we did the water aerobics class, then grab them and eat lunch and swim for a little while. Only the schedule on the internet was wrong and the class is only on Tuesday's and Thursday's. So instead, I talked Teri into swimming laps. Ha. (Someone help if Scott is reading this since he may have just passed out.)

While waiting for the lifeguards to set up the lane lines, I walked over to a couple of older ladies that were waiting to get in as well to see if they had lane line preferences. Let me tell you, they were quite territorial! They each stated what lane they were going to use and didn't seem too welcoming. And did I mention yet that it's an olympic size pool? I highly doubt we were going to get in their way. And that olympic size pool? Gulp. It's a really long distance. I know Teri was already getting nervous about it, but I was still pretty determined. So I go to put on my goggles and they broke. A sign, you ask? Most definately since at that moment we decided to high tail it out of there. But don't you worry! Tomorrow I'm going back with my cute little flippers and I'm going to leave those old ladies behind in my wake!

Finding Your Inner Child

To find your inner child, all one needs is a trampoline, fellow wanna be gymnasts and a lack of dignity.

Bret and Scott doing their warm up.

Bret scores a 9.8 for lift. Deductions taken for belly and shirt defying gravity.

A perfect 10, is it not? It takes a great deal of skill and strength to launch someone that high off of the trampoline.

This may have been an attempt at a backflip. 5.0 for effort.

1.0 for the total wipeout. I nailed Teri.

9.9 for the "Butt Bomb". Could have been a perfect 10 with no hands.

Whew. That was fun. Embarassing, but fun.

Glen Oak Zoo

Here's some of the pictures Bret took of the kids at the zoo today. You'll find the rest over at Flickr.

The kids played at the huge playground outside of the zoo for quite some time before heading inside.

" Shh, don't tell the girls where we are!"

Yikes!

Don't worry, honey. Maybe next year you'll reach the tips of the wings.

The kiddos.

Am I sensing a "moon" theme going on here?

Aww...

(Sings) "Ashley, the camel has 5 humps..."

The day got even better. Coming up tomorrow will be pictures of myself and Teri reliving our youth on the neighbor's trampoline. I know, I almost can't believe it myself!

Moonlighting At The Zoo

This is what you get when you send Bret and Scott to the zoo with the kids and a camera so you can clean the house in peace...

I'll post the rest of the pictures later tonight. I'm heading over to Teri's to join everyone there right now.

Bummer

There didn't seem to be anything in the paper about the class Ashley was taking. Oh well.