Fun in the water.

Ethan met up with some friends at Morse Park to play in the water. There is a palm tree with coconuts that fill up with water then dump. I think it is cute. There are also some other sprayers and spouts for water play.

Snoozing

Miles taking a nap.

Visitor from Chicago

Theresa, Rachael and Emily 8/2004

In August of 2004 Rachael met with our friend Neola's nieces who were visiting from Chicago. The girls remained pen pals (email pals now) and see each other whenever they come to California to visit. The first picture is of Theresa, Rachael and Emily in 2004 next to our pool. I don't know where the picture is from a couple years ago but the next picture is from today. Emily came by herself this trip. Theresa wasn't too keen on flying without one of their parents with them. Neola took Emily to San Francisco, Dream Xtreme to flowride, movies and other fun things. Rachael has enjoyed hanging out with her friend.

Dream Xtreme

This morning I took the kids to Dream Xtreme here in Elk Grove. They tried out the flowrider. The kids had a blast! Yesterday I sent the link to the livecam on the Dream Xtreme website to my parents. Today when the kids started I called my Mom and she was able to watch the kids via the livecam. I waved to my mom from the spectator area. Got to love technology.

More Pictures of Camping Trip.

Hanging out on the beach!

Ethan, Josh and Rachael.

Rachael and Holly by the campfire.

Great Weekend Camping!

We went camping this weekend with the Benson Family at Jenkinson Lake in Pollock Pines California. We had a GREAT time! We were close to the water and had a beautiful view of the lake from our campsite.

Here is Allen looking out at the water before we unloaded the vans.

Ethan and Josh ready to go boating.

Here are the kids skipping rocks on the lake. Camping is much more fun when done with friends. We spent Saturday swimming and floating in the water. I even got a nap in. We need to come back and spend more time.

The fish saga continues...

So I looked up online and called the pet store. They said my bowl was probably too small so I went and bought a bigger one (with another plant regardless of Ethan's protests). I tested it out and Bitter was still a bully. I pulled her out and put them in separate bowls again. Why can't we just all get along? Exciting day with the fish issues, trip to Costco (whoo hoo a hot dog for lunch) and Rachael's friend coming over to swim.

Fish Update

We found a name for Rachael's fish! Bitter (say bit-her). Yup! Within one minute it was bullying Ethan's fish Pumpkin. They are both the same size and the bowl should have been big enough but she is just a bully. Pumpkin is okay and we scooped Bitter out of the bowl before there was need for an ER visit. What drama! Thank you to our friends the Benson's who graciously gave us another fish bowl they had from their previous fish. Now they can peacefully live in their own space. Ethan wants to punish Bitter and not buy her a plant for her bowl until next week. I think one night in a plant less bowl is enough.

Happy Half Birthday Rachael!

Today Rachael is 10 1/2 years old! We ran errands this morning and will swim in the afternoon. I had told Ethan he could buy another Beta fish since his other one named Buttercup died in January. Today I took a side trip to the fish aisle and had Ethan pick one. His is the blueish one and he has named her Pumpkin. Rachael was eyeing another one and tried to get Ethan to pick that one. Our tank should be big enough for two girls so we bought Rachael a fish for her 1/2 birthday. She is still figuring out a name because she originally came up with the name Sea Pumpkin but Ethan took Pumpkin.

" Pumpkin"

"Rachael's Fish" (thinking of Stripes or Ziggy but it is a girl)

Hanging out with the Grands.

Allen's mom, dad and sister came up for a visit this weekend. It was 106 yesterday and today it is 103 right now at 2:41 pm. We had fun hanging out in the pool all day.

Furlough Friday

Today was the second of three unpaid furlough days Allen must take every month as a California State Worker. Did Allen lay around in the pool all day? No. Did he pull out his Blackberry and work? No, but it would not have surprised me. Instead we cleaned the garage. Too bad it was 104 today! Rachael and Ethan were kept busy bringing us water to drink. We persevered and got the job done. Whew! Tomorrow we will lay around the pool and relax with his mother, father and sister who are on their way up for a visit. Yesterday the kids and I had our teeth cleaned. :) Both Ethan and I have cavities. :( I have one and we saw five on Ethan's baby teeth! We have been watching one that was too tiny to do anything with for awhile and now it looks ready to fill. Rachael is still cavity free. Oh the fun things we do on summer vacation. I have been making Ethan keep a journal this summer to improve his writing skills. He calls it "momwork" instead of "homework" but seems to be enjoying it even if he will not admit it. I should post some of his stuff. Today's heading was "Rachael is Mean" but everything he wrote was about all the things they do together (eat breakfast, swim, play...). He went back and changed it to "Rachael is Nice". We have four more weeks so we will see what else he chooses to write about.

Hanging out by the pool.

Miles and Katie hanging out by the pool. It was around 104 degrees today! The pool is a refreshing 84 degrees. Rachael played at a friends house and got to eat dinner with them. Ethan played at a friends house for a couple hours then went to Costco with me. Ethan is really liking the frozen spinach ravioli from Costco. He eats them plain without the seasoning on it. He went swimming with Allen when he got home from work.

We are very happy Rachael is feeling better than Monday. I left a message with the doctor's office Monday night saying if she was not feeling better I would be bringing her by. They called today to make sure she is not still nauseated because they had not heard from me again. Nice customer service.

Today is our friend Jack's 3rd Birthday! Happy Birthday Jack!

3rd week of summer vacation!

Two weeks of summer vacation flew by! So it is the third week of vacation and Rachael has been on the couch with the "bucket" most of the day. Poor thing doesn't have a fever, just a nauseated stomach. She has been sipping water and eating crackers. The matzah balls are on the stove.

Our Crape Myrtle trees have bloomed! The white one bloomed ages ago but the pink one waited until we left for vacation. We planted the white tree the day before I delivered Ethan so it is called our "Ethan Tree". We were buying the pink one when Rich called to let us know Darcey went into labor with Jack so it is dubbed our "Jack Tree".

Do you see the bee buzzing around the top?

Our Trip

We took almost 500 pictures over the past 8 days. We went from Elk Grove California to Portland Oregon the first day. The second day we traveled up to Seattle Washington. The third day we drove to Post Falls Idaho. We spent five nights in Idaho visiting my parents. Heading home we took a more direct route and stopped in Klamath Falls Oregon for the night. On the final stretch home we stopped in Redding California to check out the Sundial Bridge. Home at last. We had a great time on our vacation. The pictures are of some of the places we went and things we did.

July 7th Redding - Sundial Bridge

We made our last stop on the way home in Redding to check out the Sundial Bridge and stretch our legs. It is close enough to go back and spend the day exploring.

July 5th Water Play and R's Hotdog

Templin's Resort is a short walk down the street. The kids played on the beach there. This is before Allen knocked both of them over in the water.

Rachael wanted a picture of the hot dog she made for lunch today. Watch out Rachael Ray, there is a new cook in town!

July 5th ride in '35 Ford

We all got rides in Grandpa's '35 Ford. My dad drove the "old" car when he was in High School (it was at least 16 years old at the time). When I was a kid it sat in our garage until he rebuilt it from the frame up. Fun to ride in!

July 4th

Some of the houses on the river were shooting off their own fireworks. I liked the reflection on the water with the moon. We watched a big firework show from their dock right below their condo. I posted from their house on the 4th as well.

July 3rd fishing

Fishing next to their boat.

July 3rd Coeur D' Alene

The restaurant we ate at let the kids make their own pizza.

A moose in downtown Coeur d' Alene!

July 2nd Boat Ride on the Spokane River

Grandpa and Ethan posing for a picture.
Rachael, Me and Marilyn (my mom).

July 2nd More of Boat Ride

Rachael enjoying the boat ride.

Ethan posing for a picture.

My parents condo is a little above the dam. At one time the area had several lumber mills that would float the logs in the river. Now they are empty lots or new homes. The river is still beautiful, just more homes there.

Cabela's

Rachael, my mom and dad .
Moose!

Driving across Washington.

As a side note, Rachael wanted me to mention something. There is a city named "George" that is in "Washington". She got such a kick out of it. She keeps saying "George Washington" and smiling. I bet they have a Martha Street. We passed by it so quick I could not take a picture of the sign. I looked it up and in the 2000 census they had a population of 528 people, 141 households. They named their streets after the different names of cherries.

The open fields, mountains, trees and streams we drove by were really beautiful. I am sure if it was winter we would have thought differently about our drive across Washington. It was a nice drive from Seattle to Post Falls, Idaho in July.

July 1st, Ballard Locks

Before we headed across Washington to Idaho we visited the Ballard Locks and the Zoo. Here are a couple bridges and one side of the Locks.

Family Picture with the dam and Locks behind us.

I think Rachael took this picture. There is a fish ladder and we can observe the fish underwater through viewing windows. The fish are BIG! Fun to watch them swim against the current.

July 1st Ballard Locks / Zoo

We have not unpacked the flier from the Locks so my technical terms may be a little off. The Locks are made to help the boats travel from the Bay to the Sound where the dam is. The boats go in one side, the gate closes behind them, the water will either lower or raise depending on which direction they are going. Just like the Panama Canal on a smaller scale. Really fun to watch.

Loading the large lock. They go 3 or 4 across and several deep.
The smaller lock.


The large lock with the gate closed and water low.


We also went to the Zoo. Here are the kids on the Merry Go Round.

June 30th Seattle

We got up in Portland, Oregon and drove to Seattle.

Pikes Market.

Rachael, Ethan and the fish at Pikes Market. Rachael is worried we are going to eat at the fish market...

We went on a harbour boat tour (we were given free tickets from another guest at our motel! whoo hoo!). The tour was GREAT! We learned that this boat is almost fully loaded with grain. When you can no longer see red on the bottom it is full. It was neat seeing other boats in the harbor that were sitting up high in the water with a lot of red showing and we knew they were "empty". We also got to see the large barges that were loaded with the containers you see on trucks and trains. It is amazing how many they load with the claw. We also saw a "dry-dock" where they fix boats. Farther down you can see a picture of the Space Needle from the boat as well.

June 30th

We took the monorail from the Space Needle to Pikes Market. The kids got the front seat!

Rachael eating a late lunch on the pier.

Ethan liked his lunch on the pier too.

June 30th

At the base of the Space Needle there are some really neat shapes. Here the kids are goofing off.
Ethan on the run.

Rachael at peace.