Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
Today we relaxed in the morning. I took the van to the Mobile Lube Express to
get a much needed oil change. They had
different qualities of oil so I chose to get the oil that will last for 5,000
miles to be sure I won’t need to change the oil again before we get back to
Albuquerque.
Uncle Neil came home for lunch and we
had left over pizza. It’s even better
the 2nd day J After
lunch we headed downtown to check out the new Children’s Museum. It was AWESOME!! The first area we played in was the PACKER
area of course!! They had a tailgate
area set up, a kicking station, and a locker room where kids could wear child
sized uniforms of their favorite Packer players!! Eddie was in heaven and convinced he could
get a real helmet here. The other
favorite play areas of the museum were the digestion station where you climbed
up the tongue and traveled through the digestion system to a slide into the
toilet!! They also enjoyed dressing in
real firemen clothes and boots to slide down the pole, drive the fire truck and
play a cool video game where you put electronic fires out with a fake hose.
Next door to the fire station was an
old fashion diner where you could dress in a chef’s hat and apron and run the
kitchen, cash register, and wait on the customers. They had a juke box with an instructional
video teaching the popular dances from the 1960’s. As Aunt Kathy and I sat at the counter being
customers and watching all the kids cook in the kitchen I couldn’t help but
think of the supper club my parents ran when I was a kid. It would be so awesome for my kids to see and
experience. This was as close as we
could get to those memories.
Another popular play area was the
water table that made a mote around a big ship!! The kids could dress in yellow fishermen
slickers. They had magnetic fish swimming in the mote at the back of the boat
and little fishing poles with magnets on the end. They had a BLAST!! They also had a light house with a sand box
at the base to play in.
The boys really enjoyed operating cash
registers today. They had one in the
diner as well as the shoe store play area and of course there was a grocery
store to shop. They had a hand crank
conveyor belt at the grocery cash register.
We finished our play time in the Packer area while Aunt Kathy up graded
our admission to a whole year grandparent pass!! I’m sure she will use it and have a ball
playing all year J
After the museum we head to hunt for
new Packer Gear. The first stop was a
strike out, but we struck it big at the Packer Pro Shop at Lambeau Field!! Aunt Kathy got the boys their own Green Bay
Packer uniforms that included the helmet Eddie has been wanting and talking
about since September when watching the games with Daddy. She also got Mommy a new hot pink baseball
cap and lanyard for her school keys.
Daddy will be getting surprises from her when we get home too. Thank you soooooo much Aunt Kathy!!!
We headed back to the house and Uncle
Neil built a fire in the Chimanea on the back deck. The boys got in the hot tub and the grown ups
chatted on the deck with snacks. Then
Uncle Neil cooked brats on the grill.
YUMMY!!
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
Today we were up early and loading the
van to share another childhood memory with the boys. We were headed “Up North” to Boulder
Lake!! Laura and her family have a
trailer on the lake just like her parents did when we were kids. We got
the cars and van unloaded and organized and it was time to check on the
boat. Aunt Kathy and I took it for a
ride around the lake. When we got back
to the trailer Lisa Brice (Laura’s
cousin), her niece Thayla, and her kids; Colton, Weston, and Lexi had arrived
and were getting unloaded.
We made sure all the kids would have
life jackets and loaded things up to take them down to the dock and load the
boat. We got everyone to the beach and
hooked up the tube. Aunt Kathy took,
Thayla, Alan, and Eddie in the boat and I went on the tube to show the boys
what “Tubing” would be like. I even fell
off to show them how to grab their life jackets and kick while the boat turned
back to come get you. Eddie couldn’t
wait to be next and of course he wanted to go solo!! We reviewed the hand signals; thumbs up to go
faster, thumbs down to go slower and hand across your neck to STOP. Eddie was so excited to have his turn. He even gave us the thumbs up to go
faster!!
Next was Alan’s turn and he was egger
to go solo as well!! We reviewed the
hand signals again and he was in the water with a big smile J After
his turn Thayla had a go and she was a pro!!
We decided to head back to the beach for a short break and some
snacks. Then we talked Joey, Jack and
Coleton into joining the crew. Eddie
took another turn on the tube and even went out of the wake this time!! Then it was time for Alan to have another
turn.
I tried to get Joey to go, but just
wanted to ride in the boat. Aunt Kathy
told him he could drive the boat if he did the tube. He still wasn’t convinced. I managed to get him to at least get on the tube
for a picture. From there we talked him
into a SLOW ride. It was too slow and he
drank part of the lake. When we pulled
him in on the tube I just jumped on top of him before he could get off and we
went full speed together. He squealed
with delight after we got going. It was
a BLAST!! Jack was watching and taking
it all in from the boat. When Joey got
off we talked him into riding with Cousin Amy too!! Thayal
had another turn and went super fast crossing in and out of the wake!!
We decided to hang out at the beach
for a while. Time flew by and it was
after 5pm the next time we checked.
Boulder lake only allows boats to go fast enough to create a wake from
10am -5pm so that meant no more tubing L Eddie was super ticked off!! He talked Aunt Kathy into letting him ride the
tube without the wake back to the dock.
We got everything and everyone loaded back into the boat and headed back
to the trailer.
The boys got dressed in dry clothes
and Thayla took them out on the golf cart to hunt for sticks. We got a fire going and Laura took me over to
Echo Lake resort to see their old trailer.
When we got back Aunt Kathy and the boys had a fire going in the fire
pit. We made burgers on the grill and
sat around the fire all night. Joey
crashed before the burgers were done and Alan crashed right after he had a
burger. Eddie outlasted all the kids and
was up until the grown ups went to bed around 2am. He slept on the top bunk and Aunt Kathy and I
took the full size bed below. Aunt Kathy
managed to start a total giggle fest as she has a tendency to do. All three of us were giggling for a long time
before were fell asleep!!
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