Summer Adventures

The kids tell me I'm waaaaay behind on blogging, and I literally haven't done a post for over two months.  The summer has been so full, and I've enjoyed every minute.  I think I could blog for hours about all of the things we've done in the last few months....but I'm going to cheat, and condense it into one measly post, but with a ton of photos!

We made a last minute change in Jim and Kathie's summer schedule, since they were supposed to fly out for a week to go to Lake Powell the first week in September.  But when Jim got assigned a project in Hong Kong for a few weeks in August, they decided to send Kathie and the kids out earlier--so we could enjoy them for the whole month!  It was a blast to have the boys here to play, and little Brynn is already getting so grown up--we got to see a whole month of that!  

Some of the highlights of the time they were here:

Landon and Kathie built some complicated multi-track railroads for the electric Thomas and Friends.   The boys spent literally hours down here switching tracks, fixing derailed cars, avoiding collisions etc.  It is so fun to watch these boys play with this train set.  

Brynn was entertained by watching her brothers play.  If you put her down, she would roll, scoot and army crawl all over the place to join the fun.  This little girl really gets around!

We always have to fulfill the request to go bowling when the boys are here--for some reason that has become a tradition when they are visiting.  And Lily and Tyler got to stop by for a quick visit to check out the fun.

Brynn really is our little ray of sunshine....she is happy and smiley and content to just hang out and go wherever we took her.  I love her sweet disposition.

One of the places the boys enjoyed was Jungle Jim's.  I remember taking my kids there when they were little, and we had a great afternoon trying out all the rides.

The best was when they rode in the bumper cars together.  Gavin would turn the wheel one way, Griffin would pull it the other.  The net result was total chaos.

They loved the rocket ships, where they could control their own craft and go up and down to their heart's content.

When they rode the jeep, Gavin was more interested in how the track worked and was very diligent in turning the steering wheel correctly.

Griff was brave enough to ride the Amazon with Grandma....

Another day, we made a trip the This is the Place Heritage Park, where the boys got to "milk" a cow.

"Hey mom!  This isn't milk coming out!  It's just water!"

A nice calm pony ride...

Landon helped with the boys as they learned about blacksmithing.

They took a "train" ride around the whole Park.

while Brynn stayed back and talked to grandma!  

We did Native American crafts, beaded necklaces, and leather work.

And we took train rides around the lake...

.....panned for gold...

And saw what it would be like to live in a Native American hogan.   We loved having some summer time adventures with our "California Kids."