Another Weekend Adventure

Friday at 4pm, we drove to Laurel (just west of Billings) where we would park our camper for the night (a la Cousin Eddie) and leave our kids to be babysat with our friends, The Egelands, while we attended the temple. That's how the temple looked when we left at 9:30pm.

*aside*

After the temple, Rich needed to buy a razor, so we stopped at Walgreen's. Now, if you live in a town with a Walgreen's, you're thinking "Big Whoop," but if you haven't set foot in a drug store for 10 years, you're dizzy with retail overstimulation like us. We spent almost an hour in Walgreen's, completely fascinated by the sheer variety of merchandise, especially stuff we hadn't seen any where else. Besides, I have always had a "thing" for drugestores, but Walmart and Target have made them kind of obsolete. I remember when a big Osco opened in Tucson (8th grade was it?) and me-n-Sooz just went to town in there with our babysitting wages, buying gallon jugs of Sea Breeze and cotton balls, and Noxema, and Aqua Net, and...well, you get the picture. I really went down memory lane, and I am so glad I have an equally-nerdy husband who also gets excited at drug stores and sundry shoppes! ;)
Anyway, we went back to the Egelands and saved them from our children, then spent a cozy night in our tent in front of their home. Mike Egeland is a mechanic and James was fascinated by his garage. Mike even let him "drive" this Hudson he's working on. James was so excited to see "Doc Hudson" (from Cars). Then we headed down to the Billings depot to see Thomas.

This dude marks the downtown Billings skatepark.

James was SO EXCITED!

He even got a Thomas tattoo on his arm!

Heidi and Addie were excited, too!

We waited in line for a piture with Thomas...

...beaming with excitement!

When it was our turn, Heidi was pouting, so just Addie & James went and posed with Thomas.

Shot of the Day: James with Thomas!!

We also saw Sir Topham Hat, superintendant of the railways (and Rich's next halloween costume, methinks).

The girls loved the jumping castle, but James wouldn't go in.

James like playing with the train sets inside the depot.

All over the Isle of Sodor!

James made a conductor friend and got to explore the train.

Caboose!

***

After Thomas (9am-11am), we took the kids to HuHot Mongolian Grill for lunch.

They made their own plates of noodles with meat and veggies...

YUMMY!

Even James gobbled up the good food!

Then Daddy bought us s'mores for dessert!

oops! Heidi's marshmallow is on fire!

mmm-mmm-good!
***

After HuHot, we went to The Reef indoor waterpark (at the Wyndam Hotel) from about 12:30pm-5pm. It's $16 per person, but we had 2-for-1 coupons, so the whole fam went for $32, and it was worth every penny!!!!

Two big slides for people over 48"

Addie just coming off the purple slide

The kids play area (with 4 slides for people under 48") had this fun giant bucket that continually filled and spilled.

Here are my girls waiting for the big splash! (I love this photo!)

We could not keep James out of the wave pool/beach...he loved it!

He also loved these little play canals

Great action shot of Heidi

Heidi plugging the sprinklers

Addie under a water fall

A Beached Whale's got my baby...oh, wait, that's me and James playing on the beach (w/o worrying about sunburns this time!)

Heidi is such a water baby! Even though she is only 47" tall and one lifeguard wouldn't let her on the slide, she went right back up and talked the other lifeguard into letting her slide and she went on all the slides about a million times. Alone!

Addie was determined to get across these lilypads!

Here she is trying it with Heidi

You go, girl...

James tried, too.

Here are Heidi and Addie coming out of the purple slide on a double raft...

WOOO-HOOOOO!

Best waterpark I have ever been to! Clean, fun, safe, affordable...2 thumbs up!

***

After the waterpark, we had dinner at the Subway inside Walmart and did our shopping there (because the Laurel Walmart ROCKS!). We picked up our trailer at the Egelands and headed home, arriving about 9pm, exhausted! Time for some more downtime...

(I say that half-jokingly...really, my cough is still way-bad after 8 weeks & another round of antibiotics, so I'm going to have to chill a bit and find out what's really wrong...shucks!)
We get to hang out with our favorite Laytons this week! My bro, Sam, lovely SIL Kristen, and wee prince Owen are flying up for a visit from AZ. We simply cannot wait!

What are you doing this week?

Homeswapping

I told Rich that what I want for my birthday is a membership to a homeswapping site on the internet. He thought that was funny, but I am convinced that's the best way to take our kids to see our favorite parts of the world. Rich said it would be so cool if there was an LDS homeswapping site, and I agreed. So today, just for fun I googled LDS homeswapping and VOILA! There is a site, although it's just starting up and there are no homes in the U.K. yet (where we want to go). I registered in hopes of finding a New England or D.C.-area exchange for our Yellowstone adventure home. Go have a gander by clicking HERE--spread the word, register if you're game, and if you know anybody in the U.K. who might want to come play City Slicker in the wild west for a few weeks, tell them to register, too!!!

Summer Family Holiday, part 3

On Friday, my bro Matt came to Livingston with his boys Sam & Jake, and Lisa's boys, Cody & Tyler. They arrived while I was at work, and when I got home, everyone was heading out to camp at the ranch. I was about an hour behind them, picking up some things for the campout and getting myself & James ready. The sky continually threatened rain, but nothing ever realy fell... Here's the boathouse ... ...and the rest of the ranch under threatening skies

James fell asleep on the way out to camp (it was 8pm, in his defense).

Our favorite pyro had the fire going (Cody & Marshall)

Another fabulous sunset (and a UFO)

the moonrise

That's me lounging in our new Cabela chairs, laughing at Cody's Mexican accent.

Sam pushing James in the little car

***

Cody started the fire early the next morning...apparently the kids were FREEZING in their tent (poor little skinny folks)

Ally & Jake eating their cereal, fireside.

Cody & Tyler

Cody forgets his belt...

Sam & James enjoy some Saturday morning cartoons in the new camper.

Nana helped Grandma Melin clean out the root cellar (jars from 1980)

Sweet Sam eating breakfast

James, Sam, & Jake throwing rockets

Nana swinging James

Papa tempting James with a peach

Amie & Matt

***

I had to go to work, but everone else went swimming at CHICO!

The gang in the pool (about 99 degrees...not so refreshing!)

Papa Mark & Jake

James

Cousins waiting for treats

There are some super cousin buddies when we get together with the Postums

Heidi and Jake are inseparable, and Sam & James are getting that way, too. Here are Heidi and Jake on the way home from CHICO...

...my thoughts exactly!

***

Thanks again for all the fun, guys!

Come back soon and FLOAT the river!

FLASHBACK: Primary Activity May 30th

Jessica Holm (daughter of "Aunt Debbie", my valiant first couselor & amiga) posted some sweet pix of our activity day, "I Am A Builder"--CLICK HERE to see them. We used the ideas at THIS link and customized them for our ward. It was a WONDERFUL activity--Debbie was in charge and it was awesome and memorable as usual!

For our fall activity we are planning an applefest at the ranch...saving 16.9 oz bottles for each child to take home some cider, brainstorming ways to make it a gospel theme (I like "When We're Helping We're Happy" with a theme of working together...we'll see).

Some Addie Wisdom

Yesterday I let my bro and nephews play the wii when they came in from camping around 11am. I was in bed (coughing) and Addie was laying next to me complaining about being bored. [I make the kids at least TRY to Keep the Sabbath until after naps in the evening (you know--sundown-to-sundown--we call this our Jewish Sabbath and it works pretty well, as long as we START it on Saturday night), so it was unusual to have the game going and she was jealous].

"Mom, can I play the Wii when they are done?"
"No. It's still Sunday, even if we stay home sick."
"Why?!?!"
"It's time to think about Jesus. Does playing the wii help you think about Jesus?"
[looong pause]
"Well, when we play wii we can make people, just like Jesus makes people, so we are trying to be like Jesus."

TOUCHE, my lass, touche! I told her that was a good try, but she would have to wait a while (we played Book of Mormon Go Fish instead). She's a clever one!