Summer Vacation - Part 1

At the end of June, we took our wonderful vacation with the Anderson family crew. Since that vacation, I have been struggling to stay ahead in all aspects of my life. Between catching up at work, another horse auction, swimming lessons, and all the everyday happenings between, it has been crazy at the Stanleys. I can definately do my share of complaining but over all we are having a great and fast summer.

I had mentioned in earlier posts that we were taking our extended family vacation to Disneyland this year and it definately did NOT disappoint. My kids are still talking about it and want to go back next summer. (ha ha) If only money grew on trees. The cast of characters that went on this trip are as follows:
Gran & Paw Paw - Joe & Pat Anderson
The Vosses - Randal, Pam, Anna, Avery, Ashlyn
The Daniels - Todd, Penni, Hayden, Elli Kate
The Stanleys - Jody, Amy, Savanna, Shane

We all decided that it would be easier to plan our own way there and meet up at Disneyland for 3 days. Of course, my mom does not fly so they drove all the way to California - yuck. But good for us because we were able to pack our clothes early and have them take them for us. Anyway, we decide to fly into San Diego - visit the San Diego zoo and then travel on up to Anaheim to meet up with the rest - visit Hollywood and then Disneyland. It was the best trip ever!!!

I took around 500 photos. My O My. For today or part 1, I have selected SOME from our flight into San Diego and our trip to the zoo.



On the plane - they did so well. I brought coloring books and my laptop to watch movies.

Jody sat next to a very friendly and nice man who was flying back home to San Diego so he gave us directions and told us about some great places to visit while we were there. But since we were staying over only one night, there wasn't enough time to do everything. With what we saw of San Diego it is the neatest town and we would love to go back one day. This was a seafood place that the airplane guy told us about and it was so good.

Outside of the resturant, there was this performer who was painted and looked like a statue and the kids got a kick out of him scaring people when he moved.

Below are pictures of our ZOO time on Father's Day.

The zoo had recently opened up a new part for their elephants and it was amazing.

We gave the kids disposable cameras to use and Shane took all of his pictures within the first 10 minutes that we were there and from then on he would continually wind it which drove me nuts.

In the park, they had a zip line that the kids loved riding and the views of the zoo were neat to see.

I always love getting pictures of them like this.

These flowers or plants below were in the reptile exhibits and I thought they were unusual but pretty.

While we waited for an animal and sea lion show, I was scoping out the next place we should go. There was so much to see - it would probably be better to see it in 2 days instead of one. We were so tired by the end of the day and we still had to drive another hour.

When we would ask the kids what their favorite animal was, Savanna said this one below was her favorite. She called it half zebra, half mule, but I have no idea the name of it.

We had to wait in line to see the pandas - they are so cute.

Our drive up the coast to Anaheim - we took the scenic route and stopped at a beach along the way.

To be continued ..... hopefully soon.

UP

We took the kids and Rody to see the movie UP Friday and I highly recommend it to anyone. It was so good! It's one of those movies that I would definately watch again.

Not A Good Blogger

I have not been a good blogger lately. I haven't read other blogs or worked on mine - so sad. I am going to keep trying to stay updated on a weekly basis, but don't hold me to it. When I get behind I get frustrated with myself and then I go into procrastination mode. I really need to work on not putting things off.

Anyway, here goes with another long update. Every Mother's Day weekend there is a Western Heritage show in Abilene and Jody sets up there. We have gone with him the last couple of years, but this year I thought I would stay behind and celebrate Mother's Day with my mom. The kids and I spent the night with Mom and Dad on Saturday night and then went to church with them. After that, we went out to the Voss' (my sisters in laws) beautiful place for lunch where all the men served the ladies and kids. It was so nice to be waited on.

Gran and Paw Paw with all the grandkids.

After lunch, some of the kids put on a Mother Day's show for us. There was singing, dancing, and poems. We were so entertained!

The kids then hopped on the mule with Mr. Voss and went on a wild ride on their place. When Shane got back, I asked if he had fun and he pointed at Mr. Voss and said, "He's crazy!" Everyone got a good laugh out of that because he IS crazy. ha ha

They must have went through some kind of grass that upset Anna's alergies. I felt so bad for her. Her eyes got so swollen. In the picture above, she looks so much better than when she first got back.

The following weekend, we went with Jody to set up at another horse sale that was a disaster, let me tell ya. It rained just about the whole time we were there. And the picture below was taken at the beginning for sure because by the end of the day both Savanna and Shane had mud up to their knees. Yuck! At least they had fun. And good thing I brought an extra pair of clothes for them.

Savanna's teacher at school sent a note home at the beginning of May and said that they would be celebrating summer birthdays for the kids in class within the month of May. So since Savanna's birthday is August 22, they were going to celebrate or treat May 22 as her birthday in class. I wanted to do cupcakes so it would be easier to serve. Of course, I am so untalented in the cake or cupcake decorating department so I used a very talented friend to do the work for me. What a good mom (sarcasm). It turned out so great and Savanna loved her cupcake cake!

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell that she lost another front tooth and this time the tooth fairy remembered her. Yay tooth fairy!!

We gave out sunglasses as party favors and got a picture of the kids posing with them on. Of course, Shane wanted to pose with his on too. (below)

Jody has been gone a lot and we were so busy with our spring auction that we felt like we hadn't been spending quality time with the kids, so 2 weeks ago we took them and their cousins (Rody & BreAnna) fishing Saturday morning on Jody's uncle Mark's place. Jody's cousin Sarah stopped by with her boyfriend who helped us out with the kids. We really had a good time.

And finally, on Memorial Day we invited both our families over. We pulled out the water slide from last summer (it's getting a little worn out so this will probably be the last summer for it), cooked hamburgers and hot dogs, ate watermelon and let the kiddos play and play and play. It was great day!