Kash comes to Visit!

Kash came for a visit. It was the first time I have seen him since he was just a tiny infant. Now, he is a big boy, crawling around everywhere. He will be walking in no time. We had a picnic in honor of his visit. The weather was great and the kids and adults had a great time in the pool.

Gene, Berlon an Carvel having a bite!

Carmen and Juanita doing the same! The kids were too busy playing to eat!

Kash is a little water dog! He loves it.

Kash and Layla playing

Layla took a break from playing to eat a bite!

What Came Over Me!

For some very strange reason, I got up at 3:00 am and got on the internet and ordered a 3G, Wifi Kindle and a pink case. When I woke up at 7:00 am I thought that I had dreamed it, but when I checked my email, sure enough, there was the order confirmation. Well, if I keep doing this it could become a realllll problem :)

Some Things are Just Hard to Understand

Sometimes I feel guilty when I complain about the problems that I have in my life, and tonight I am feeling REALLY guilty. I have just spent the last couple of hours watching the memorial service for my cousins' grandson. Ethan was only 9 years old. He had a very rare cancer that was discovered when he was 7. Ethan lived in Oregon. I never met Ethan, but I have followed his journey here :

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ethanjostad/journal

My heart breaks for my cousin and the whole family. No child should have to suffer so much.

The memorial service was streamed live on the internet. This was a first for me. I have never attended a funeral service online; it was heartbreaking.

I have absolutely nothing to complain about and much to be thankful for................

Caution, pictures ahead!

We just returned from a visit with the grandkids. We had a great time. It was very hot while we were up there. We took Aaron and Sarah to the movies. We saw Winnie the Pooh. This was Sarah's first movie and she really enjoyed it. I took Aaron to this first movie last year. They both really liked the popcorn! Then on Tuesday we took them to Toys R Us and let them pick out some toys. You can't imagine how long that took! On Wednesday we took them to Wild West Town. It was hot, but we had a good time.

Sarah riding the train with her poppy.

She looked so cute riding the hand cycle. We thought that she would be to young, but she took right off. The park worker gave her a little hand when she got stuck a few times, but she looked so cute.

Here she is making a cute face!

We had to stop in the local saloon for a little refreshment. They liked the saddle stools.

This is where they held the wild west show. The guns were very loud.

Aaron enjoying the show.

Sarah enjoying the show

Sarah rode a real horse, her mom helped.

Aaron is a big boy and didn't need his mom to walk with him.

Waiting in line for the shooting galley

Aaron

Sarah

Sarah panning for gold with Mimi watching.

Aaron panning. They both found quite a few nuggets. It was a good thing to do on a hot day!

Aaron in the red shirt, riding the roller coaster

Sarah wasn't too thrilled with the animals in the petting zoo.

Sarah on the merry-go-round, with Mimi there to hold her on. It went really fast. Good thing I don't get motion sickness.

Aaron on the merry go round

Paige on the train!

Canoe Ride

Poppy sure loves these babies! The one in the middle is Sarah's doll!

We walked to downtown Marengo for ice cream. Sarah really enjoyed hers!

It would be wonderful to live close enough to the grandkids to do fun things with them all the time. We enjoy them so much. Long distance grandparenting is sooo hard!

We stopped by Drew and Lindsays on the way back and ate dinner at the Fishmarket on the Levee. They have the best crabcakes! We had a really good overnight visit with them.

Aaron is 5

Happy Birthday Aaron!!
We got him this bicycle for his birthday. His mother picked it out and bought it for us up there, so it wouldn't have to be put together. Sarah got into the act on her "baby tricycle" as Aaron calls it.

He is a very brave guy to ride the giant ferris wheel at the Navy pier!

Sarah is really getting big. She looks so cute in her little pigtails! Just a doll!

Camping at Natural Bridge State Park

Here is our campsite at Natural Bridge State Park. It was right on a creek. There was a big rock over the creek and kids were jumping off the rock into the water all day. We really enjoyed watching them.

We hiked one of the trails that went to Hensons Sinkhole. The first part of the hike was steep and slippery, but we made it. The trail led to a sinkhole with a ladder down into it and a little water falls running into the sinkhole. It was really neat. We took turns going down into the sink hole, just in case the hole fell in and one of us needed to go for help.

There is a chairlift to the top of Natural Bridge. We didn't take it and decided to take the interpretive tour. Well, our tour guide was a young botanist. He walked so fast that we were both really out of breathe; what should have taken at least an hour to climb, we did in 25 hard minutes. So, if you decide to hike the trail to Natural Bridge, be sure that Walter isn't your guide!
BUT WE MADE IT TO THE TOP OF THE ARCH!!

Here is the skylift we DIDN'T take!

Here is Gene at the top

The view from the top

After we got to the top of the arch we decided to hike Laurel trail to the overlook in this picture. All of these areas are scary because they don't have any type of fencing at all around anything!

Then we chose to go back down thru Devils Gulch. It was really tight and steep with lots of steps. It wasn't crowded at all and looked like there could be lots of snakes and other critters around. There were bear warning signs posted on the trails.

The last trail that we took was the Lake Trail. This is by far the easiest trail. Relatively flat, cleared and wide.We had a great long weekend!