Our Blog About Our Travels With Our Kids

First Day Back to School!

2009-08-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

It happens this time every year! New textbooks, new shoes, new clothes, new teachers, new friends ... lots and lots of "news"

For us this year we are still settling into our new house, meeting lots of wonderful new friends and neighbors, G and O are attending a new school, and our oldest will soon be attending a new homeschool co-op for middle schooled and high schooled homeschoolers and our littlest two are trying to figure out what to do while the older kids are either at school or doing school. Here is just a sneak peek of our life today:

Big boys headed off to school

Mikayla enjoyed her peace and quiet and did her work on the couch today

And the little ones had fun together

County Fair!

2009-08-11T23:05:00.000-07:00

We have a few friends spending a few nights at our house this week and it happens to also be the county fair where we live this week. So when I heard that Tues. was Kids Day, I packed up all 8 kids (my five plus the extras) and we met my dad at the county fair ... and 7 hours later we were hot, tired and dusty from having so much FUN!!!

Mmmm ... mmm 4H food

Check out the inflatable jumpy fun!

I think we need one of these in our back yard someday!

Girls loved the ponies

Boys loved the police dogs

Boys also spent quite a bit of time checking out the TRUCKS!!!

And how could it be a fair without some walleye on-a-stick!

And then the tractors

And bikes!

Pictures From Owen's Party!

2009-03-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

Owen on his new bike!

Trampoline chaos and FUN!

Everyone sing:
"Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to Owen
Happy Birthday to you!"

Zeke and Jack ... not just cousins, but best buds, too

Best part of these parties?
FAMILY:

A four generation picture:

Happy Birthday Gwyneth

2009-01-08T17:55:00.001-08:00

Today is pink and brown day! Its in honor and celebration of a very special birthday girl, her name is Gwyneth we wanted to wish her a very happy day. Please go visit her daddy's blog to learn what makes her story so special: cfhusband.blogspot.com

Costumes

2008-10-31T18:24:00.001-07:00

Over the years We've had various Disney princess costumes, Peter Pan, Captin Hook, Buzz Lightyear, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Winnie the Pooh and Elmo ... but this year they choose:

Baby Lady Bug (ok I choose that one)

Fire Cheif

Ninja

And a gymnast

Fall Blessings

2008-10-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Baby Mary

Zeke

Owen

Gus

Mikayla

All 5 blessings in the leaves:

And because we love to take pictures of her, here are a few more of little Miss Mary:

We've been keeping a blog of Mary's days at www.myfirstdaysoflife.blogspot.com
Its the closest thing she will get to a baby book ;-)

Mikayla has tried her hand at keeping a blog at:
www.horselovinggirl.blogspot.com

And so has Gus:
www.mydaringlife.blogspot.com

This has been a good journaling/writing homeschool project for Mikayla and Gus. If you get a chance to visit thier blogs leave a comment and let them know what you like.

MN Fall - Apple Orchard

2008-10-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

Zeke's Day at Children's

2008-05-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

Thank you for checking in on Zeke's Caringbridge site, and for praying for us today. We certainly felt The Lord's awesome presence with us. I put a link to this blog on the Caringbridge site because I much prefer to tell stories with pictures, and that seems to have been passed on to our kids. Even Zeke has a small totally functional Fisher-Price digital camera and he loves to carry around his little photo albums. When Owen was Zeke's age we learned (through his speech therapist) that taking pictures of the places we go and looking at them later was a great way to practice vocabulary, its also a great comfort measure when preparing for an event that might make them nervous. So ever since Owen was Zeke's age we have made many little photo books of places we go and of big events. Then the kids can retell the story of their day or their event.

Here is the picture story book we are making for Zeke about being at Children's Hospital, it just so happens to fit well on a blog, too :-) And we thought you might like to read about it from his perspective:

Today I got up early to go see some doctors and nurses at Children's Hospital. Its a very big place, with lots of strange stuff and some strange sounds too, but all the doctors and nurses are very nice and they like to give out stickers!
Our first stop after getting signed in was to get my IV. It goes in my hand, it only hurts a little and it gets lots of tape. I sat in Mommy's lap in a rocking chair while two nurses worked on getting the IV into the top of my hand. One nurse gave my arm a tight hug, the other put all the stuff in my skin. Mommy hugged me tight, too. She could still kiss me, hug me and sing to me if I got upset or scared, but today I was fine. I was a big boy and just watched the tv show they put in for me to watch. It felt a little funny, so I would not talk to or smile for the nurses, but I never cried.

And after the nurses left the room I giggled with Mommy again

Then we went down the hall the the pre-op room. They have a nice playroom and rocking chairs in each room.

My Marcia came by to play with me. I told her all about my IV and the toys.

I found a truck to play with and ride in

and then a Thomas the Train to ride. I liked running over Daddy's toes.

I sat in mommy's lap to get "my med-shin" all started. They told me the first stuff they squirted in my IV was called benadryl and zertech so I would not react to the other drugs, but I just called it "my med-shin". Then I showed them my very own stethoscope and my Turtle Blue. I got Turtle Blue when we were in Hawaii. The nurse got Turtle Blue got a hospital bracelet too, and told me they would do a shell scan on him while they did a bone scan on me, but both Turtle and I had to fall asleep before they could do scans.

That "med-shin" really made me sleepy, so Daddy and I cuddled up to read Curious George Books

Then we fell asleep ... well, Daddy was just pretending, but I fell asleep very hard and snored a bit too.

I slept so hard that I did not even wake up when Daddy carried me to the Induction Room (thats the room you fall asleep in). I opened my eyes when Daddy laid me down, but was closing them again right away. Then an oxygen container started to leak and made a very loud noise, I jumped and woke up, even cried a little, but the Dr. was already putting more "sleepy med-shins" in my IV, so I only cried for a minute or two then fell right back to sleep. Mommy was so relieved I did not cry long.

Mommy and Daddy and our friend Marcia went to wait for me in the waiting room and they ate lunch while I napped. The doctors and nurses stayed busy using their machines to look at my bones and my blood, cause that's their job. My blankie and Turtle Blue slept right with me the whole time.

After my scans and biopsies were all done I woke up in a strange room with a very nice nurse. She said I never made a peep, just looked around, I was so groggy, it was hard to keep my eyes open, but then the nice nurse took me to find my mommy.
I was really sleepy, but glad to see mommy

And I really started waking up when the nurse offered to get me apple juice and a popsicle ...

mmm mmm....

Marcia and I snuggled and watched Dora (I asked for a Diego show but they didn't have a Diego show, but Dora was fine)

I also got a cup of ice chips, they made me giggle

And after a little while my nice nurse took off my IV and tape ... she put a band aid on my hand and gave me Dora stickers. Then we got to go home!

God's Creation

2008-04-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

An online friend of mine just posted this on her blog and I could not help think of the beautiful skies in Hawaii ... God must truly love color!

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
- Psalm 19:1 (NIV)

If you get a chance this week, look out at the sky in the early morning, daytime, and night. Then remember this passage. Give God praise because He is in control of all things. Give Him praise for His wondrous creation.

Here are a few photos I love to look at:

We enjoyed a beautiful outdoor Easter Supper and watched the sun set ... amazing!

And then Monday morning Papa & Z. got to watch as the moon set and the sun rose:

More From Wed. March 26th

2008-03-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

So, lets see ... Wed. was the first day we had internet connection problems. I was able to post about M. and Papa's horse back ride Wed. morning, but then never got a connection again. A good friend of mine from elementary school and high school lives on Oahu, I posted about dinner at her house while we were in Oahu, but she and one of her sons decided to come spen 24 hours with us on Maui. They got in on Tues. night and we had a great time down at the pool and the beach with them on Wed. Here are some of the great pictures she took while down on the beach:

And here are a few from my camera:

And check out M's crazy beach hair after Wed. at the beach:

On Tues March 25th Papa rode UP the volcano

2008-03-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

Papa rented a bicycle here on Maui ... can't ever go too long with out a bike ride, yah know. But the ride he took on Tues. was not your average bike ride.

He rode from the town of Kula(3500 ft elevation) up hill 22 miles, to the top of a volcano. The summit of Haleakala is at 10,032 ft. elevation. This ride is a big tourist attraction, but the bikes are usually rented and hauled to the top and the cyclists spend the day biking down the volcano. Not my dad ... he rode up! Grandma, Am., B., and R. and J. drove up to meet him and do a little hiking. A. & R. and the twins drove up, too.

Check out these link on Haleakala and the bike ride:

http://www.nps.gov/hale/
(info from the National Park Service)

http://www.haleakala.national-park.com/info.htm
(more about the volcano)

http://www.bikemaui.com/
(but keep in mind Papa biked UP, not down)

We made it home to MN!!!

2008-03-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

What a great 10 days in Hawaii! And we threw the flowers of our leis into the ocean before we left ... a Hawaiian symbol that you will one day return. We certainly hope to.

I was unable to continue updating this blog the last few days because we could not connect to an internet service since Wed. But I will get it all caught up some time this week, if you just keep checking back there is lots more to see.

But tonight we are unpacking and dealing with the shock and grief that our dear little friend Anna lost her battle with cancer yesterday (about the time we were packing to leave Hawaii). Please Please keep her paretns, Nate and Lisa and her little brother Zach in your prayers. To read more abouth them and the beauty of Anna please visit her CaringBridge Site at www.caringbridge.org then enter annameg where it asks which site you would like to visit.
Please keep praying ... I'm amazed at how something so tragic can happen and yet the world continues ... I guess it seems so unfair.
Prayer can be a truly wonderful gift and it is very needed in the lives of all who loved Anna. Thank You!

This was Anna about a year and a half ago, before she was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma

Wednesday was M's day to go horseback riding!

2008-03-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

Our daughter M. is in love with horses, and that is putting it mildly. So her and Papa signed up for a 2 hour horse ride. She can't stop talking about it. It was just her and Papa and this really nice guide, who by the way homeschooled her boys. Papa said Mikayla and the guide chatted about almost everything under the sun for the whole two hours :-)

Maui Ocean Center

2008-03-26T14:32:00.001-07:00

After a few hours at the beach at Grand Wailea, we headed into town and spent a couple hours at Maui Ocean Center (click here to visit their website)

Trust me G. got happier ... he just looks pretty miffed in this picture. Z. fell sound asleep as soon as we arrived at the Ocean center.

If you click on this picture and see it bigger you might be able to find the red Coral Fish

We were glad Z. woke up to see the turtle pool

The Beach and Boogie Boards at the Grand Wailea

2008-03-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Lots happening over here on this Tues. morning. Aunti Am. and Uncle B. went out on a half day fishing excursion that left at 5:45 am. The rest of us woke up around 6 or 7 or 8. Papa was going to do a bike ride up a volcanoe. Grandma, Auntie Al. Uncle R. the twins, and 2 od Am & B,'s kids were going to drice up the volcano and see papa at some point but also enjoy a nice hike. Am. and B. were going to catch up with them after fishing. My family plus one of Am & B's kids left for the beach around 8:45, hoping it would not be as crwoded as the other day. There was a lot of people already out for 9am, but we found a spot with 6 chairs by the kiddie pool and the kids had great fun there. They enjoyed the lazy river and several water slides. Then we walked a little ways farther and enjoyed the beach for 30 minutes. Kids have boogie boards ... that was really fun. After 30 minutes there, though, they were ready for the pool life again and we went back to our spot by the kiddie pool. We headed back to our condo around nooon and are resting a bit while we have lunch, then we are going to check out the Maui Ocean Center, Hawaii's largest aquarium.

Lazy Monday ...

2008-03-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

The bigger kids and Daddy and Papa, and one aunt and two uncles went out on a kayak/snorkeling excursion. O. was going to go with them and he got in a kayak for a little bit, but then decided that he did not like being out in such deep water and so far from shore, so Papa brought him back to stay with the rest of us. Papa is going to buy a cd of photos from their kayaking/snorkeling guide ... he had a digital cmaera with him. I'll upload those photos whenever we get that cd (should be later today)

Grandma, Auntie Am. and I hung out at the condos with the 2 babies, the 1 year old the 2 year old, the 4 year old and then O., the 6 year old. We were just finishing lunch and getting ready to goto the condo pool when all the kayakres returned so we waited till they got lunch and then most of us headed down to the pool ... spent 3 1/2 hours down there. The kids were swimming and playing most of the time, but I spent most of the time on a lounge chair. Z. even ended up falling asleep down there ... such a cute little guy!

Monday morning sunrise

2008-03-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, so our condo faces west ... great for sunsets, not as great to watch the sun rise, but Zeke and Papa and I were up around 6 this morning and we watched from our deck as the sky turned colors and the moon disapeared.

Our Easter Sunday Supper

2008-03-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

The hotel here offers several services (for an extra charge, of course), one of them is the option to hire a personal chef for the day or for a meal. We decided a month or so ago that perhaps spending the money for a personal chef to cook us a nice dinner right in our own condo would be better than trying to take all 9 kids and 8 adults out to a busy crowded restaurant Easter evening ... the chef and his assistants set up tables, prepared our meal in our kitchen, and served several courses to us as we sat out on the deck taking in our beautiful view as the sun set. The kids used the coffe table and some couch cousions to make a table on the floor (just like when they ate at the luau) Here are some picturs from our delicious dinner!

Our Sunday afternoon at the pool

2008-03-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

After our beautiful Easter service and a yummy pancake brunch back in our condo, we headed over to the main hotel area for the Easter Egg Hunt and games for the kids. Shaved ice, cookies, ball toss, ring toss, miniputt ... stuff like that with little prizes. Kids enjoyed that. We all wore our swim suits over to the egg hunt, because then we planned to hit the big pool or the beach after the egg hunt fun. But it was sooooo packed over there that A. & I decided it was too stressful to keep track of the kids. They went around the lazy twice and the little boys played in the wading pool for a bit, but then we came back over to our condo and enjoyed the smaller much quiter pool by our condo. Acctually for almost an hour we were the only people using the pool ... very nice.

Having trouble posting any more photos right now ... not sure if its my computer or Blogger or just my connection ... so we are going to go have lunch and hit the pool. I will try again in a bit.

For those wanting to see more of where we are staying here on Maui is their main webite:

www.grandwailea.com

We are actually staying in Grand Wailea's new addition called Ho'olei ... I think there is a whole page on the Ho'olei on Grabd Wailea's site. Its very nice to have several bedrooms and several bathrooms and a nice big kitchen. We also have a lovely deck, with the most incredible view! The sliding glass doors are more like a glass wall that retracts into either wall, which makes the deck and the view a part of the living room area.

Our Easter Sunday Service

2008-03-23T13:27:00.001-07:00

Please Please Please if you get a chance visit this churches website!

http://www.hopechapelmaui.com/

My sister saw the sign for this church's Easter service yesterday and it was close to our condo, so we decided to have everybody up and ready togo by 7:30 ... not too hard when 7:30am feels like 12:30pm to our bodies :-)

I was so blessed by this service ... there is just so much I could write about, but the kids want to get to the beach so I'll have to ponder what I'll write till later today. I truely hope you are having a very blessed Easter sunday.

What a beautiful setting for a Church, ha?

Our kids outside after the service:

The picture above is what the sanctuary looked like as we walked in ... near the beginning of the service the worship director held up a couple stacks of differently colored post-it-notes and he commented about how plain and ordniary an individual post-it-note can seem.

"Each one has its own use or purpose, but that use and purpose can seem pretty insignificant sometimes." Then he handed them off and said, "But when you put those insignificant, ordinary things in the right hands and they all come together its amazing what can happen ... "

The person with the post-it-notes walked off and the choir entered and stood in front of the black back drop until later in the service and when they moved we realized what had been happening with all those post-its ... while we sang and listed to a solo, others where behind the choir creating a beautiful mosaic type masterpiece our of those ordinary post-its.

Notice in the next pictures the now colorful backdrop:

Click on this last picture to see how the individual post-its fit together to make this beautiful piece of art.

Easter Sunday!

2008-03-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

What a great day to rejoice and praise the Lord, no matter where you are!
For He has risen indeed!

Christian Easter Comments - DazzleJunction.com

Saturday ... travel to Maui!

2008-03-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday we packed our bags and said Good Bye to Oahu:

We were thrilled to arrive at the Grand Wailea in Maui:

After stopping at both Kmart and Walmart for:
Sandwich fixings, iced coffee, boogie boards, inner tubes, sand toys, egg dye, and chocolate Easter Eggs ... we had just enough time to check in, change clothes and head off to our luau:

If you really like Luaus or want to see the 200 Luau photos I took feel free to visit our Luau Album at www.shutterfly.com Just click Here

Good Friday on Ohau

2008-03-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day we had! We had plans to drive east from Waikiki and stop at a sea life park ... then maybe see a pineapple plantation on the NorthShore side, but the kids were just having so much fun at the beach, that we just decided to enjoy that ... got subway sandwiches and picnicked right there on Waikiki Beach. We did eventually head back to our room to clean up, and left for our drive to the NorthShore of the island, because we wanted to make it to the Good Friday church service at my friend's church over there. We stopped in a little surfer town for dinner at Pizza Bob's

Pictures from Friday on Waikiki Beach:

"Here Mama ... I No wear this hat!"

How fun to be at the beach together

The beginings of a great sand castle!

Mikayla by the landscaping between the street and Waikiki Beach.

Mmmm... subway picnic

This is a picture of our hotel, as we walked back to the hotel.
Our room was in the cnter of floor 22.

Thank the Lord for digital cameras ... so many many beautiful
things to see here. Here are a few of our favorite shots
from our Friday afternoon drive:

At one of the beaches we stopped to walk a bit on the boys
found a very cute little shelter

Of course traveling with a pregnant Mom on board means lots of potty breaks ... one time we stopped in this tiny little town, saw bathrooms by their baseball fields for mom to use. Right next to the baseball fields was the two truck fire station ... with this sign posted outside (click on it to read) I'm not sure why, but we found it amusing

We have found several sites and places we really wanted to spend time at, but simply did not have time to get to in these three days on Oahu ... so we have started a list of "what we will see when we come back someday" This beach we drove past is at the top of the list (Mom hoped out and took a few quick pictures):

Mmmm ... Pizza Bob's

These pictures really do not do justice to the church we visited for our Good Friday service ... it was so neat. All the window/door you see on this building were open ... like an open air service with a roof over head. And the pastor did a wonderful message walking thru the stations of the cross and then reading the last 7 things that Jesus spoke. We are blessed! We have a Savior!

The Pool ...in the rain

2008-03-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

Our plan was to hit the pool after filling up their hungery bellies at Hard Rock Cafe ... but as soon as they got in the pool it started to rain and the wind was very strong, making everybody cold. I think they enjoyed 25 minutes of swimming in the rain before we headed back to our hotel room.

If you look really closely you can see they were swimming under a rainbow in these last photos. Very Pretty!

Thursday Morning Off to Pearl Harbor

2008-03-20T19:51:00.001-07:00

Kids had a truly fantastic feild trip this morning ... We went to the USS Arizona Memorial and Museum to learn more about what happend at Pearl Harbor ... I'm pretty sure I learned a lot more than I ever have before about Pearl Harbor and WWII.
M. & G. really enjoyed renting the audio tour headsets, as you walked thru the museum you could enter certain numbers and it told the story of Pearl Harbor. O. started out listening, too, but was not as interested ... thats OK he is only in Kindergarden.

Z. really liked looking at all the water and all the boats at the Naval pier, there was evven a submarine tied up at one dock

Thankfully during the 15 minute movie about the the history of Pearl Harbor Z. fell alseep on my lap, and O fell asleep on Dads lap. Z. stayed asleep on the little boat ride over to the USS Arizona Memorial and stayed asleep while we looked at most of it. He woke up, though to enjoy riding the boat back to the Memorial Museum:

Daddy and the older boys were able to tour the USS Bowfin (a much older and smaller submarine than the one A. was stationed on.), right next to the USS Arizona memorial museum:

After leaving Pearl Harbor we stopped for a late lunch at
The Hard Rock Cafe Waikiki

Z.'s favorite thing there was to take pictures of this car hanging from the ceiling:

G.'s favorite part was all those surf boards:

Then out in the parking lot of Hard Rock Cafe, the boys saw a lizard ... and I had to be the mean mommy and tell them "NO you may not take him home, or even back to our hotel!"

Wed. evening at our friends' house:

2008-03-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

It was great to kick back, relax and chat with friends ... the kids had a great time playing, too.

The Kids on Oahu

2008-03-20T07:54:00.001-07:00

I think I forgot to mention before that if you click on these pictures it takes you to a larger view of the picture.

M. enjoying the wind and the beautiful view!

G. feeling like King of the World

O's comment: "This is so cool ... we have to come back!"

Z. and Daddy at an overlook:

Our drive on the south east shore of Oahu

2008-03-20T02:07:00.000-07:00

Since I didn't think that I could handle walking very far today, we decided not to go tour the Dole Pinapple Plantation as we had planned, but drove east out of Wakiki along the south east shore of Oahu. I'll post more details about where each of these pictures were taken, but right now I just want to get them down loaded and close my eyes ... its 11pm here but I feel like its 4am ... wait thats cause thats the time in MN!

Our first overlook stop was The Lanai Overlook:

Here is what they were seeing:

M. snapped this shot as I was walking a little on Sandy Beach, as she did I commented, "hey! there is now a picture of me on this vacation" So this is the first picture I am in on this trip:

The kids really enjoyed this part of "Sandy Beach" ... even though there was no sand, just old black lava rock. Further down there was an actual swimming beach with sand, but they really liked seeing and walking on the lava rock. They did laugh at the name "Sandy Beach" though. And in some of these pictures you can really tell how windy it was (look at their hair)

This is the view looking inland from the beach:

Our next stop was Blowhole Overlook:
(make sure you click on these pictures to see them larger)

Here are the kids watching from the wall

Here is what they were seeing:
First the waves crash in against the rock

Then the water drains down into this whole, kinda like water being flushed down a toilet bowl

See why its called Blowhole Overlook?

Our last overlook and where we turned around and headed back was
called Litehouse Overlook, though its hard to see the litehouse
in this first shot:

My friend, Kir, back in MN will be happy to know how excited the kids
were to get a picture of a litehouse "for Kir to see!"

And here is the rental van we've been riding around in:

Dad takes the kids to the beach!

2008-03-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

Since mom is feeling kinda achy today, Dad and the kids walked 3 blocks down to the beach at 8:30 this morning and Mom stayed here to work on the blog :-) They had fun spalshing in the water and looking for shells. And incase you wonder where G. is ... he is feeling very anti-picture taking today, so he was there just not willing to be in many photos.

Here are the photos they brought back:

View from our balcony

2008-03-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

Notice the bird on the railing

Wow ... even got G. to be in a photo

Kids were excited to see boats and surfers

We land on Maui ... but the travel continues!

2008-03-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

Travel tip from a good friend ... play dough! Used for an hour and a half after the boys naps on the plane. We cleared security with it just fine in Mpls. but when we had to clear security again in Maui, they were going to take it away from us ... apparently play dough and clay are on the "not allowed" list. But a nice grandmotherly security person looked thru our play dough bag and said, just let them through with it.

After hours of looking out the window and saying "i see ocean ...I see clouds" Z. finally got to say "I see Hawaii" I'm going to try post the video clip of that later ... very cute!

Look how green Hawaii is!

Z. got new sunglasses just for this trip and G. taught him to say "cool dude!" He does think he is pretty cool. And we are lucky that G. loves to chase after his little brother when he gets loose :-)

I'm so cute, ha?

We had time during our layover in Maui to take a little walk outside, after we claimed our luggage and checked it in on Hawaiian Airlines for our flight over to Oahu

Just lovin' my new shades!

Parenting/travel mistake of the day ... letting the two year old taste an iced mocha! Yep Z loves anything with coffee taste!

Here are the kids waiting in the Honolulu airport with the luggage, while dad went to get the rental vehicle ... looks like alot, dosn't it?

And again ... we are so lucky that G. will go chase Z. down when he gets in a running mood (like after mom lets him drink coffee)

Bye Bye Cold and Snow ... Hello Hawaii!

2008-03-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

So, we left MN and all that cold and snow Tues. morning around 8:45am and had about an hour layover in Salt Lake City, then it was on to a 6 1/2 hour flight with 4 kiddos and 2 parents … sounds like possible drama, ha? But honestly we can not even explain how proud we are of the kids … one lady working at security even looked shocked as we walked up and the kids all started to load their own stuff on their shoes … they work really well together. We are so blessed by our kiddos!

Here are a few of the travel day photos:

Good bye snow!

Z. and Elmo love the the airplane safty cards ... for some silly reason Z calls them "LegoLand Cards".

On our flt. to Salt Lake City ... playing cards

View as we landed in Salt Lake City

Z. was very entertained looking out airport window ... so much to see!

While we got situated in our seats for the long flight, Z. (our Mr. Fix it) decided something was wrong with this seat ... so he went to "me fix it"

We got Z. all set up for loooong flight

But as we were taxing away from the gate ... he closed his eyes and they stayed that way for the next two hours

About 3 minutes after take off O. fell asleep, too

Good bye Salt Lake and snowy mountains!

Hello World!

2008-03-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is our first post in our new vacation and travel blog. We’ll write about where we are and what we are doing and post some of the millions of pictures that M. and Mom take. Family and friends can follow along if they want and we don’t need to clutter up anyones inboxes with lots of emails and photos. Proud of me? Dad and O. had to run to the grocery store, I’m here at the hotel with the other kids … got our “day of travel” photos downloaded, and even figured out how to pay for the local highspeed connection on my own. Then we searched for free blogs, so I could get this up and running. Feel free to post comments and let us know what you think

And for family and friends who are not familiar with blogs this is open to anyone out there in cyber space, so we won’t be using “real” names. it will be obvious where we are because this is basically a travel blog, but we won’t give out personal information for safety and security. We suggest you do not post anything personal or private either if you comment. Thanks and Enjoy!