Best Vacation Ever

I'm hoping to have the title Best Vacation Ever more than once, but so far, aside from visiting family, this was an AWESOME vacation. On our way to South Dakota, we got stopped for about 15 minutes, so we took a potty break on the side of the road and stretch our legs a little....

finally at the campsite....sadly there was a fire ban.....so no smores on this camping trip...

There was a tourist train that went by several times during the day, here are the kids waving at the train filled with tourists...

behind our campsite was a mountain of rocks that the kids loved to climb and play on. The little ones needed help sometimes though.

We moved across the street to a flatter spot because there was supposed to be a big rain storm...and there certainly was one....very glad we moved or we would have been sleeping in mud...this is the Fernihough tent....

There was also a creek right by our campsite that the kids played in...after the rain storm, these rocks were under water...

Keira and Colleen...

The worst part of camping is being awakened by those crazy birds....I figured out that if I would just get out of the tent and they would see me, they would go away, I got up one morning to go to the bathroom and was greeted by this beautiful rainbow..

Here is our tent...

Thankfully the Fernihoughs brought this so we could cook our food....

And the adventure is just beginning.....stay tuned

Will Roger's Shrine

We got a zoo pass this year and one of the "perks" is a pass to drive through the zoo and go visit the Will Roger's Shrine. Josh has been dying to go, so he played that card when his parents were here. At the end of the day, it was fun and it was good to go see what all the hype was about. The view was amazing and the kids had fun.

Caleb thought this door was cool

Always fun with Grandparents...

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma

One of our favorite things to do with Grandparents is hang out around the house. Playing games, reading and just goofing off...

Grandma taught the kids how to play hopscotch...apparently I never really knew how to play.....

Keira thought about getting her game on...

And Couper...can't forget Couper. We lost him a while back and long story short, had to go to the animal shelter to pick him up.

Tea party and Dinner

The girls and I have discovered this very quaint little tea shop and we love to go there and have some girl time. So we sent the boys to go panning for gold (no luck), and we went to the tea house. Lots of fun....

That evening we went to Rosie's diner - a first for all of us except Chloe who went there for her field trip...a fun little 50's style restaurant.

fun at the park

Grandpa and Grandma Lunn came to visit and the first thing we did was take them to the park so they could see Chloe and Caleb ride their bikes without training wheels...yes, that is correct, two of my three can now ride without training wheels. Caleb is so not interested, and he only learned because I bribed him, but he learned and maybe someday he will enjoy it. Chloe on the other hand, can't get enough. She loves it...

Keira loves her bike too, it is getting too small and she needs a girly helmet....she doesn't look like she cares though, does she?

After riding bikes, we went to the park....

Always fun at the park.

4th of July

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Breakfast!

All dressed up in holiday gear...

Adorable...

Unfortunately for all of us Monument/Colorado Springs people, our Fourth of July was very uneventful. Everything was cancelled due to the fires. No fireworks. No parade. No sparklers....nothing...So, we invited friends over, had a water balloon fight and a bbq. It was fun and we made the best of our situation....

we also had our own parade, but I used someone else's camera and haven't gotten the pics from them yet...

The zoo

another hot and fun trip to the zoo....we met Sarah, Paul, and some friends from Texas (again, no pics of the other people, but I promise they were there)

the bears were super active, it was fun to see them swimming in the water...

as always, feeding the giraffes is a ton of fun.

Tiny town and the Lake

We went to this place called Tiny Town with some friends from school and had a great time. The whole place was a town that was tiny like this house. It was cute and the kids had fun, but I didn't think it was worth the money, so most likely we won't be going back....

We then went to a lake - the name of it escapes me - and the kids had a blast swimming...we didn't swim very much this year, so this was a special treat for them.

probably should have included some pictures of the friends we went with....oops...