Grand Bear Lodge has been a lot of fun so far. We checked in today at 11am and got right into our villa (which is gorgeous by the way). Bret, Grant and our kids are taking a quick swim in the water park while the little ones sleep. Keep checking back for updates here and on Flickr.
This is what greeted us from the front entrance. (The rear of the bear.)
A little musical video slide slide show to show just how fast 6 years can fly by. Here's to the greatest 6 years! Happy Birthday, Buddy!
He and Mitchell check them out.
Looks like Ryan changed his mind.
Me and my favorite niece.
Baby flying through the air!
Grandma Sally and Grandma Jerry
Mitchell and Jo - he prefers not to have his feet on the ground, I'm thinking.
Brooke, our grand slam baseball hitter. I just couldn't seem to strike her out!
For more pictures, head on over to Flickr.
Well, Ashley woke up with a 103 fever this morning, but Ryan seems to be better. The jury is still out on me, but if history repeats itself, I'll have a full blown case of it by tonight. Guess I have a whole slew of things to cancel today. Not to mention Ryan's family birthday dinner tomorrow night. :-( Am NOT canceling this vacation, so everyone can just hurry up and get better!
. . . oh, crap. 100.4. Do. not. have. time. for. this. right. now.
Should we start placing bets on whether we arrive to our destination on Saturday in one piece or not? First, Ryan wakes up sick this morning. (He was feeling better tonight, so lets hope his fever isn't back by morning.) It's really cute how sad he's been, missing his buddy next door today. And now Ashley landed on her tail bone while playing outside with her friends tonight. She was worried when she went to bed tonight that we would have to cancel our vacation because her butt was broken...LOL. I know, I shouldn't laugh, but (no pun intended...lol) you have to admit it's pretty funny. I'm sure she'll wake up and feel fine in the morning. My fingers are crossed that nothing else comes up by Saturday.
Meanwhile, Ashley and I have been reassembling all of Ryan's legos before his family birthday party on Thursday night. (Can you guess what he's getting?) We all know how insane I am about being organized and I just CANNOT have any pieces on his existing lego sets missing! Don't you dare laugh at me - it'll make things easier on Thursday night when we have more to assemble. Maybe I should rearrange all of my kitchen cabinets today while I'm in organizational mode. That would just make my husband crazy, but I tell him I do these things to keep his mind sharp. Ha!!!
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Update: My little Hugh Heffner wannabe (note the robe) is awake and cranky. I got him into the doctor this afternoon (which meant waking him up - fun) and he says it's just a virus. This virus better be gone by Saturday when we leave for vacation!!!
A little Slip N Sliding . . .
"Happy Birthday to you . . ."
Friends . . .
And more friends . . .
A few presents . . .
(I think this was his favorite one)
And a sweet little Mitchell who disapeared under the table to give Daisy a hug.
Happy Early Birthday, Ryan!
For more pictures, head on over to Flickr.
While sitting around and supervising the building of the deck today, we had just been talking about Ryan's "bathroom run" when he has to poop. Just as we finish talking about it Ryan announces he has to poop. So in fear of not getting there in time, we ran across the yard back to our house. Knowing that he's doing the "hold and clench" and that my neighbor's are laughing because he's doing it and we had just been talking about it minutes before, I mimicked it, too. And with just my luck, my friend got a picture of it from across the yard. (Pay back is sweet!)
Speaking of his little moon . . .
So then, as the guys are getting ready to move the joists back up to the house, my friend grabs the camera . . .
And low and behold, what do you think she saw?
I am just so proud. I bet his mother will be too after she reads this. . . LOL
I have never seen a group of kids more enthralled with the building of a deck. Maybe it had something to do with putting them to work. They had so much fun today.
Ashley and Ryan help shovel dirt, while Reece fixes a problem with his pants.
Ryan and Reece hard at work. How many trips do you think it will take them with that little wheel barrel?
The true excitement of the day came when the cement mixer came. I've never seen a group of kids so transfixed and quiet.
The kids' hero - The Cement Mixer Man.
Also during the day, we had a little traffic jam.
And Brooke made a new friend in Halle today.
After calling it a night, the guys became freaked out by what they though was a skunk, only to later find that it was a piece of black garbage bag that had flown onto one of the neighbor's shrubs. And they're being trusted to build a deck?!
My favorite kiddos, whom I made dinner for. Can you believe it? I made two separate meals tonight. One for us adults and one for the kids. I had to take a picture because my husband and my mother would never believe so otherwise. 
Ashley and Kate-O-Potato. Isn't she just the cutest thing?
And since I obviously hadn't had enough yet, I invited my niece over to spend the night. Wow, have I missed her. (I babysat her when she was born for two years.) After playing outside all night, I gave her and Ryan a bath and (big yawn) I'm exhausted. Hopefully I can talk them into going to bed in a few minutes. Tomorrow will be a lot of fun since I'm sure all the kids will be out playing again. Ashley, Ryan and Brooke are all sleeping in the tent downstairs, so tonight should be very interesting. We'll see if we get any sleep. More tomorrow...
Whatever will these two do without each other all day when school starts? We might have two very unhappy boys on our hands. They'll be lost without each other since they have been pretty much inseperable this summer.
My kids have made a chain link thingy to count down the days till our vacation. After receiving a phone call this afternoon and learning that Ryan will be in the extended day kindergarten class, I may be making one of my own soon. On August 22 both kids will go back to school and I WILL HAVE THE HOUSE TO MYSELF all day until I start watching Chloe at the end of October. What will I do for two months? Probably clean the heck out of my house starting from the bottom up. Fun, right?
