Summer Vacation?

One week before we were to leave on our three week California/Utah excursion, I found out I was pregnant. Even though I was exhausted and throwing up daily, we still sojourned the 24 hrs. to California with only one trip to the Emergency Room after having a reaction to the anti-nausea medicine I was taking.

Ken and the boys seemed to enjoy themselves, but don’t let my smiles fool you…I was miserable.

We stayed with my Aunt Della who lives about 15 miles south of Disneyland. It was so nice to visit with her, be in a home atmosphere and not have to pay for a hotel. The boys especially loved helping Aunt Della water all her hundreds of plants outside.

My cousin is a storyboard artist for Disney and he was able to get our whole family in for free. We saved hundreds of dollars! Thanks Mark!

At about four o’clock in the afternoon, Cameron was running around the Donald Duck boat in Toon Town , tripped and fell and this is what happened (I hope this doesn’t make you queasy):

They whisked us off in the ambulance for yet another trip to the Emergency Room. Four hours later, a very brave Cameron was all stitched up.

The next day, we got another free day at Disneyland (I guess so we wouldn’t sue them).

We also went to the beach a few times and the boys loved to body surf, build sand castles, catch sand crabs, and boogie board (Wes especially loved the beach—he would definitely be a beach bum if we lived in California). I was surprised how freezing the water was and how cool the temperature was at the beach. I am such a Texan now; I can barely stand weather under 80 degrees.

Then we were off to Utah! After several throw ups and one flat tire, we finally made it to Ken’s sister’s house in Alpine, Utah in way over the 10 hours it was supposed to take. We had fun visiting with the Alpine crew and Grandpa Crow even took the boys out on his fishing boat a few times (but never came back with any fish…Oh well, I would have puked at the smell).

We had a great time at a Family Reunion for my mom’s side of the family. She has 9 brothers and sisters (including her) and with all their children and grandchildren, there were a lot of people. We stayed up at a camp in Heber that the church owns. It had nice cabins to sleep in (which is nice since I am not much of a camper) and great kitchen facilities.

We got to ride canoes and paddle boats on a lake and do a challenge course which included this zip line:

We even got to interact with wildlife. There were ground squirrels everywhere that would eat from our hands and we even saw several deer (but no bears...darn:)

Since the whole family was in Utah, my sister’s family decided to have Nikolas’ blessing while we were there. With all that Nikolas has been through in his life already ( he has a chromosome disorder), it was a very emotional blessing. Kim (Nikolas’ dad) did a beautiful job and Nikolas has really thrived since he received his blessing. Here is a picture of him on his blessing day:

The boys got to go and play with their cousins Troy and Conner at a “water park” (the water just comes out of holes in the ground) in downtown SLC. We can tell Troy definitely had fun:

Nanny (my mom) offered to drive the 20 hours home to Texas with Ken and the boys so that I could fly home in only 2 ½ hours (much less throwing up). It was just me and my dad for a few days (which was kind of fun) and then I met them down in Texas. Nanny ended up staying with us for about a week and cleaned our house and took care of the boys. Thanks Nanny!!

Ken and the boys enjoying a nice swim on a hot summer day (Wesley is waving from under the water).

Ken’s family went to Europe for a few weeks, so we got to babysit their dog Nicole. The boys loved it, especially Carter:

We had a small party for Carter’s 3^rd birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. He loved it!

Wesley got very inspired by watching the Incredible Hulk previews. This happened in a brief two minutes when I went inside to check on the other kids. Yes…he’s tough, yes…he’s scary, and yes…he is green! We don’t like to make him angry!