4th of july vacation

First off, the video I posted yesterday has been fixed.  Not sure why it didn't work, other than the fact that I set it up about a week ago.  We've been on vacation since last Thursday, so I pre-set up 5 or 6 blog posts so my fans wouldn't have to do without their daily dose of Amie.  *grin*  See how I love you guys?

Anyway, so for whatever reason, it wasn't set up right.  It should now work, right as rain.  Get it?  Rain?!  Cuz that's the name of the ... oh well, you get it.

So, welcome back to the Valley of the Sweat.  Yikes, step out of the car and nearly get heatstroke.  Step into my house and suddenly think the outside air felt cool!  (We turned off the A/C whilst we were away)  So we quickly unpacked, started a load of laundry, turned on the Air for crying out loud, and left the house to go to the public pool to cool off.  A few errands, picked up some library books, breakfast/dinner at IHOP (Dan says we're 'still on vacation' since we came home a day early) and come home to a nicely cooled 77 degree house.  Ahh.

This vacay was to Sunny California to celebrate the 4th of July with Danny's side of the family, and to attend the baptisms of my niece and nephew.  It's always great to reunite with family you only see a couple of times a year, especially for awesome milestones such as 8 year old birthdays and baptisms.

The drive there is long, about 9 to 9.5 hours, so I'm glad my kids do a lot of this while we drive:

Dan and I read and finished "The Host" while driving, and I know I tease (and so does everyone else) that he humors me while I read to him, but we both admit that reading out loud has brought us closer together.  It's something to do together, and it's fun.  I've always loved reading out loud.  And I think with this particular book, I enjoyed it much more the second time around even.  I was bawling while reading it out loud too. 

Anyway, a neat thing that we found in CA while there was everyone had different varieties of fruit trees in season.  Peaches, nectarines, oranges, and more.  We came home with a box full of nectarines, so sweet and juicy!  My mother in law Sharon made peach smoothies which the kids really enjoyed:

I love this picture of the boys on my inlaws' back porch.  It's gorgeous in color in real life too (and Sean was happy, in the next pic, he's smiling, but Cameron's cup is in front of his face in a weird angle) but I really liked it in sepia too.

The next day, we went up to Danny's grandparents' home where we had the H******* Family Summer Olympics!!  Oh my gosh, this was so fun!  Grandpa had set up a couple dozen activities and awarded points for each, first, second, third place, etc.  Kids could participate right along with adults too!  There were swimming competitions, running, speed walking, horseshoes, checkers, diving, the works!

 

Oh, and did you see Grandpa's 'watermelon' in the background?

That's his propane tank that he decided to doctor up one day.  The next year, he did an ear of corn.

And this time around, he'd used an old fertilizer storage container to make a can of rootbeer.  Is this not so awesome?!?

Grandpa is just the coolest!

So after all the fesitivities, Medals were given for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  We were so proud that Cameron won the Bronze Medal, mostly for his Swimming Heat wins.  =)

Cousins Nicole and Brandon got Gold and Silver.

4th of July dinner was awesome, and afterwards, of course, Grandpa's home made ice cream.

So fun!

Later we went to my inlaw's ward party at a ward member's home for swimming, more food, playing, and hours of fireworks in the culdesac.

Next up, the baptism day!  All the grandkids sang a Primary song.

We look slightly tired.

The whole crew.aren't the kiddos being baptized so very cute!!  Congrats, Francine and Kyle!  (in the center)

There was more swimming and a birthday party, church, a great family home evening, and lots more fun.  It's hard to leave, as always, but we had a great time and a nice little gettaway.

(Be sure to check out my video below)