Jacqui's Disneyland Trip

Jacqui loved going to Disneyland with Grandma Quack Quack, Grandpa Al, and cousin Ally (Al's son's daughter). The girls are a few months apart and were a super fun age to take to Disneyland. Grandma Quack Quack had them dressed alike, so they told everyone in the airport that they were twins "Yeah, we're twins, we're not identical twins, but we ARE twins because we're both six, and I'm a bigger six, but we are twins..." My mom said it was a hoot and people in the airport just loved them (imagine that!).

They all went to Disneyland the night they flew in and over the next 2 days. They rode many rides and got to see many of the characters. The girls LOVED getting to meet all the Disney Princesses in the castle. They also LOVED the tea cup and Dumbo ride. They rode them both around 4-5 times, waiting 45 minutes in line each time! They watched awesome parades and saw an amazing firework show at night (Jacqui let Hank and I know on the 4th that Disneyland's fireworks are WAY better than the fireworks on Coeur d' Alene Lake - go figure... who can compete with Disneyland!?).

They spent one day in Sea World and got to walk around and see the animals. Needless to say the little girls were exhausted at the end of each day and barely made it to the bed before they were out! Hope you guys enjoy some of the pics. These were Jacqui's favorites that she picked to put on the blog... Love you all!

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Happy Independence Day Everyone!

Happy Fourth of July! Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and enjoying the American spirit shining through wherever you are at! We are planning to go to Lake CDA after I get off work and watch the fireworks tonight, I'll try to post a few pics in the next few days. Jacqui just got home from Disneyland yesterday, so we have some stories to work on for the blog.
One thing in particular that I thought was fun and definitely to be shared is that she is now telling people (random people in California from what my mom tells me) that she has a couple grandads. But she specifies to random strangers that 'I only have 1 that is Grandad #3 (yes he is still demoted), and (here is the great part) his name is Benjamin Elward (heavy emphasis on the ElWARD)... We sometimes just call him Elward because that is what my Grandma Dixie calls him. H is my #3 Grandad, but MY Grandma Dixie calls him Benjamin Elward when he is in trouble". I loved it! I was laughing so hard when Jacqui and my mom told me the story. So Grandad Elward you now have a new name and are infamous across the western coast for having Grandma Dixie keep you in line by using ALL your names! Kids are great!
Hope you all have a safe and happy 4th and enjoy our independence, that so many have given up so much for... We love our veterans and we love our country and are so proud to be Americans! God Bless everyone for the 4th this year...

To the BEST Dads, Grandads, and Great Grandads...

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Father's Day Weekend

Hope all our Fathers out there had a wonderful and supportive Father's Day. Jacqui spent the weekend with G&G and Grandad. She had a BUNCH of fun. She spent the night at G&G's on Thursday and wore them out. Great Grandad was Grandad #1 after her last trip down and somehow managed to be demoted to Grandad #3 this weekend (out of 2 Grandad's how is that possible?!) Jacqui definitely has his number and loves teasing him about his rating. She spent the rest of the weekend with Grandad and played at the water park by the river. They even spent the night in a tent outside. Definitely the highlight of her weekend. She LOVED it and has been talking about that and s'mores to everyone on the phone. I had to work all weekend so it was nice to be able to have her with family. I went to pick her up on Sunday night and got to treat our favorite dads to dinner. We are extremely blessed to have such a wonderful, loving, and supportive family. Happy Father's Day to Dad, Grandad and all our other Dads... we would not be who we are without your guys' love, guidance, encouragement and support. Love you guys and grateful for everything you have done and continue to do for us. We love you and appreciate all you do!

Texas Trip Part III

While the final portion of our trip ended up being more fun than planned. Monday and Tuesday we spent lazing around the pool and hanging out watching movies after the mosquitoes came out. Wednesday we were scheduled to go home. We spent the day in San Antonio at the Alamo and eating a delicious Mexican lunch. We headed out to the airport, got through security and went to get on our plane, when we were told that the plane would be delayed. So... we waited 2 hours for our delayed plane to be fixed, and then were told our flight was canceled! To add to that, there are no flights they could find to get us home, Wednesday or Thursday, so the airline decided to fly all the passengers to Phoenix, put us up in a hotel over night, and get us back home from Phoenix somehow on Thursday. Well, lucky for Jacqui and I, we happen to know a great guy in Phoenix... So it was an unexpected but very welcome trip to visit Uncle Levi! We took him out to dinner when we got there late in the evening. He let us borrow his car to drive around Phoenix the next day while he was at work. We found a local zoo and decided to spend our day there. Jacqui loved the animals and ended up having quite a conversation with an ostrich... What a fun time! They had some very pretty animals and some fun rides. There was a sky ride, log ride, train ride (African Safari), a petting zoo, and some great exhibits. Jacqui and I had so much fun all day walking around in the heat. We got to meet up with Uncle Levi one more time for dinner before our flight, and finally caught a plane home.

It was a great trip full of fun times and surprises. We both had a blast and are so excited to plan our next trip. Jacqui will be going to Disney Land with Grandma Quack Quack and Grandpa Al at the end of June and is pretty excited about that. What great memories and wonderful time spent with family.

Texas Trip Part II

This is installment 2 of our Texas trip. It has been a busy week, getting back into the swing of work and school and all the house and yard work we had to catch up on after being gone a week. We are currently in Spring Cleaning mode and getting rid of stuff that is cluttering up our lives :) On to the story of our Texas Weekend...

As a special treat for our weekend we went to Six Flags and Sea World. Both are about an hour away from Hank's place, so we set out, not so early in the morning (10ish) to play at Six Flags on Saturday. We actually ended up with a great day. It was overcast and super humid, but the clouds kept the heat under 90 and kept the sun from being intolerable. We would have had a unhappy 6 year old had we been doing so much walking around in the heat and sun. We started off the day finding a face painting booth and Jacqui and had to get pretty. Hank was going to get a Hulk face paining, but ultimately decided to be grown up and pass this time. As it was, it was perfect, and there weren't huge crowds as it was supposed to rain! We had fun riding ALL the kids rides with Jacqui and meeting Looney Tunes. Hank and I were able to separate for short bits and ride the big roller coasters. Jacqui was not having any of the big roller coasters "Oh no I am NOT going on that thing, it looks dangerous!". We did talk her into the log rides and the white water raft ride and she ended up loving it! We were soaked to the core every time we rode them, but Jacqui had us go back about 4 times to ride it over and over!

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we went to Sea World after Hank surprised us with a Mother's Day breakfast. The whole day was a great treat for me as you all know how much I love Sea World and it was a memorable Mother's Day! It brought back childhood memories and wishes to be an Orca Trainer (you know what I'm talking about Christa!). We saw Shamu twice, and walked all over seeing all the other animals. May was Mexican Fiesta month, so there was a concert that eve, and a Mexican Shamu even there! We rode all the little rides with Jacqui (Hank especially liked the roller coaster:)), but again talked Jacqui into some of the faster rides and the log ride and she loved it. Naturally, we got wet again... and again and again! It was a perfect day for walking around, overcast and humid, but not intolerable. Many of the exhibits were air conditioned so we just strategically planned out our experiences... Jacqui loved the penguin exhibit. I think my favorite was petting the dolphins, that just made my day, and we stayed there for like an hour. You can buy sardines to feed the dolphins and can pet them as they eat the fish from you hand... SO NEAT! It was such a fun day and a perfect weekend! Bye Sea World and Bye Shamu!

After our long day at Sea World, we decided to go by the Theatre on our way home. We had a special Mother's Day dinner at an Italian Restaurant that was beyond delicious. Then we saw Iron Man 2 on an IMAX screen. Pretty impressive, and Jacqui even liked the movie a little after I explained that Uncle Levi LOVES the Iron Man movies (that got her into it). We went home after the movie and crashed, what a long and fun weekend!

Our Texas Trip Part I

Jacqui and I had a blast in Texas. It was a wonderful week and we were able to do so many neat things! I will probably tell some of our stories over a few different posts, as it is way to much fun for just one post! The plane ride there went great. Jacqui did amazing for her first plane ride, especially since all the electronic fun stuff we brought to keep her busy ended up having dead batteries... (of course!). So we chatted, and she colored, and had a great trip. We got to San Antonio, stepped off the plane and were almost instantly soaked with sweat. It was about 4pm there and super humid and 90 degrees! We were so hot! We decided to catch a movie at the air conditioned theatre before heading home in Hank's non air-conditioned Jeep. We saw a kids movie, Furry Vengeance which Jacqui thought was great. WHen it was over it was a bit more tolerable outside and so we drove the hour home and were able to spend that first evening swimming in Hank's pool. Jacqui was thrilled! His pool is nice because it only is 4 1/2 feet deep, so Jacqui got to swim for hours, and I got to relax by the pool and read. What a special treat for both of us!

On Thursday Hank treated us to a little trip to Fredricksburg after breakfast at the Cracker Barrell. Can I just say I LOVE their breakfast?!? The breakfasts are huge and come with hasbrown casserole, grits, chicken fried steak, biscuits and gravy, and sweet tea. It was so delicious! Jacqui really liked the bicsuits and gravy and the sweet tea.

Fredricksburg is a little German town with tons of little shops along the main strip kind of like a Texas version of Leavenworth. We checked out all the cowboy gear and hats, they had some great antique shops and little ice cream/bakery type stores. We walked some of the trails by the Guadalupe River and watched some guys fishing for perch. We stopped by Walmart on the way home, and got Jacqui some swimming toys and headed back to the pool to swim for 3 hours! The pool was a great escape from the heat and humidity. Jacqui was such a trooper walking around all day and having such a great attitude about the heat and the activity... the pool was a great bargaining tool :)

Friday was my birthday and Hank suprised us that morning with balloons, presents, and lunch at Fuddruckers. They have got delicious burgers and shakes. We ate outside right on the River. What a perfect birthday morning:) Hank went to work later that afternoon, so once again, Jacqui and I spent the day by the pool, swimming and playing. We met another little girl that lives at the complex who came out to play with Jacqui. What a fun day!

I would post more pics of my Birthday and the first few days, but I don't have all the pics I took of these first few days, as somehow, ALL the pics deleted off my digital camera (BUMMER!) before I had a chance to download them to the PC. No idea how that happened, and as you can imagine I was quite upset about the whole thing, but I did run a recovery program and was able to retrieve the majority of them off the memory card from the weekend at Six Flags and Sea World, which were really the most important ones anyway. So I will post again soon with our weekend fun and some pics from Six Flags and Sea World. Love you all and thanks for your prayers while we were gone.