Thursday, June 17, 2010

Suprise Vacation!

Last Thursday I worked a half day and got off at 12 and off on Friday. I received a cell phone call at 12:10 and was told to come straight home for a surprise. I could hear the kids giggling and being excited in the background. When I got home Ray told me I had 1/2 hour to pack for a trip and to pack swiming stuff, the kids were already packed. We got in the car and I was kidnapped to an unknown destination. Little did I know, we were going to one of the most wonderful vacation I ever had. We went to Raytown Lake. It's a lake resort full of activities, boats, gorgeous scenary, and a peacefulness of the outdoors, without any commercialism. He had this planned for weeks and I was so proud of him for doing something like this. In 15 years of knowing him he has never planned a real vacation, I am always to vacation planner/coordinator!
Below are the highlights of our trip. I will warn you, it's a long post, but I just couldn't narrow down the pictures any more than I did to capture our 2 wonderful days - away from it all!


We just got out of the car and the kids were patiently waiting to go to the pool and waterpark!



Nick, my little fish, loved the pool and doing cannonballs !!


Adam was more cautious in the pool, but had fun playing on the steps and hanging on to the side.


This water park or, "sprinkler park" as Adam called it, was more his speed and everyone had fun playing between here and teh pool. In this pic they are getting wet from the big water bucket that fills up and then dumps the water out.


The awesome sprinklers and sprayers!!


Running throuhg the spraying frog - all 3 of my boys!


The outside of our room. It was nestled in the mountains and overlooked the lake. The view was breathtaking.



Pure Beauty!



My men at the boat marina.



This is the view from the balcony of our room. It was Ray and I's favorite place to be at night after the boys went to sleep. We just talked, had a few drinks, enjoyed the view, got some bugs bites, and loved each others company.




Me and Nick



What?! I'm ready, let's go to the beach.


The beautiful walk to the beach area.



Enjoying the beach water.


Huddling around the portable DVD player to watch a movie before bedtime. They were 2 very tired little boys and fell asleep very fast.


We had a great time. We still have a few more trips to enjoy before the summer fly's by! Next weekend we head out to Lancaster and Dutch Wonderland to stay adn play for a few days. I promise to share all of our summer fun with my blogs friends - it's looking to be a great summer!


Monday, June 14, 2010

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Where did the time go???

Where did the years go? My oldest child will complete his last day of kindergarten tomorrow and will offically be on his way to the first grade. In fact, when I picked him up at school yesterday he said - "you can now call me an 'almost first grader'" - oh my, my heart got heavy.


As if my emotions where not running wild enough, his teacher gave our family this gift. She is a fabulous lady and words can not describe how fortunate we were to have her as my sons teacher. She taught him so much. She gave us a kindergarten scrap book. She spent her time creating a memory book filled with pictures of my son and his class, art projects he did, handprints, and memories that I could have never captured without her help. I will cherish this gift forever. I wanted to share the most special pages below and to show off what a special lady his kindergarten teacher truly is.





The cover.





I love handprints.


This blue string was his length on the first day of school. He then was remeasured and had grown 2 inches.



Fall pictures.



This brought tears to my eyes!






Christmas time.




Spring projects.



Signatures of his classmates.



and a special message from Mrs. Shank.



ahhh....where did the time go?



Sunday, June 6, 2010

Monday Mugs - Play

This week's theme is "play" and my boys love to play.

Whether were "playing" & helping Daddy mow the lawn...


or "playing" on the monkey bars, or maybe...


"playing" t-ball last year when we made our first hit ever,



...we love to climb and "play" at our favorite park, or...

loading up a water gun, and laughing as Mommy gets wet, but...


Sometimes, after a long day of "play", we just want to sit & relax on the swing and "play" a little by ourselves.


Visit more Monday Mugs at http://oswaldcuties.blogspot.com/

Happy Monday, Have a Good week!


Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday Fill Ins

And...here we go!

1. Anywhere is my favorite place to travel to.

2. When I think about my childhood, I often remember playing with friends and having fun.

3. A trusting, kind, sole makes for a good friend.

4. The wind in the trees, the rain on my skin, the humidity in my hair :).

5. Good news is so exciting!

6. My best friend knows everything about me.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a t-ball game, tomorrow my plans include a birthday/pool party at a friends house with all the kids, and Sunday, I want to spend the day at a man-made beach near our home and do some house cleaning!





Friday Flashbacks



This picture didn't scan well, but it's Ray and I in Houston Texas during spring break, junior year of college.

The 2 of us flew out together to visit some of my family.

It was a great trip ~ 1998.








Visit more flashbacks at http://minyards7.blogspot.com