4th of July in Jackson Hole

We had so much fun in Jackson last year for the 4th of July that we decided to go there again and we invited Layne's fam to go with us. This time we rented a 4 bedroom condo just outside of town at a place called The Aspens. It was awesome! We had the most unbelievable view out the back of the condo as well as a cute little creek with a bridge out the front. There were lots of coyotes in the meadows. Every night they would sit outside very close to the condo and howl at each other. It was pretty cool.

Jama and Jampa Reed, Jess & Arnauld, Kevin, Benita and Arnauld's mom Ginny who was here visiting from Africa all went with us.

On Saturday, we decided to take a drive through Yellowstone to show Arnauld's family. Grandpa wasn't feeling well so he and granny stayed behind. We had a great little trip. We went on a few little hikes and saw a lot of beautiful scenery. There were less animals in the park than I am used to seeing, but we were able to see a few. Upon entering the park, there was a bear that was down in some tall bushes that we stopped to see, but after some time the park ranger assured us that we were going to have "lots of opportunities" to see more bears in the park so we left.....lying broad!!! Needless to say...we didn't see another bear! We did, however, see a BIG brown beaver (haha). There were lots of people lined up along the road so of course we thought is was a moose, a bear, or something cool. Then some people informed us that it was a beaver and we started to laugh that people were stopped to see it......that is until we saw it for ourselves. It was huge and actually pretty cool to see.

We also saw a some elk and were able to get pretty close to a few bull's.

On our way out of the park the truck in front of us pulling a brand new million dollar boat hit a big elk and totally mangled their vehicle. We stopped to help them out and actually ended up pulling their boat back into town for them so that they didn't have to call a wrecker. Holy cow....am I glad that it wasn't us!

Sunday was the 4th and we got up early to go to the breakfast on the square. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. After the breakfast, we went and sat on the main drag and watched the local parade. Scoots was excited about all the candy he was collecting...with the help of many! Arnauld and his family joined Layne, Corbs, Granny and I for the parade and it was fun to have them there. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at all the little shops. Layne and I got the bright idea to get Scoots a some little guns. OH MY!!! I had no idea I was raising a little serial killer. From that moment on...he has been absolutely obsessed with the guns and shooting anything and everything possible. It was kinda funny cuz a few of the guns needed to be cocked before each shot and it was too hard for him to do by himself so he had to ask for help each time. He learned that if he smiled a little manipulative smile...and asked softly..."will you help me?" that most of the time he could find a sucker to cock the gun for him.

That evening we went to a nice dinner at the Gun Barrel and then to the fireworks at Snow King. It was a bit nippy, but the firework show was excellent...as usual.

I think everyone had a great time and we are glad that Layne's family was able to go with us!

Lake Powell 2010

And yet another successful trip to Powell thanks to the help of many great people. We had a awesome trip this year with our family and friends and fortunately for us with no major catastrophes! We were there with Jama Lori, Hovie Hover, Ty, Crystal, Meg, Melissa, Pat, Granny Green, Riki, and Cody(or should I say...Tootles?...we warned you!) and I think everyone had a great time (really it's hard not to when you are in such a beautiful place).

This year Layne and Ty found us a great little secluded spot for the houseboat where we had good beaches, great hiking areas and privacy from the rest of the lake (Good Scouting Boys!). We had phenomenal weather the entire time and the water levels were higher that they have been so we were able to get out an see some sites that we have been unable to get to in the past.

As usual....Hovie kept us laughing the whole time she was there. Our favorite was her trying to get into the Caribbean Island. Granny Green came to the back of the boat with her lawn chair just for the sheer entertainment of it watching it all go down (and I mean....all the way down :)!!! HAHA). It took several attempts before she actually was planted upright on the island without sliding right on through the middle or having her feet sticking straight up in the air. Meanwhile, the rest of us were laughing so hard we could hardly breath. She then proceeded with what I am sure was a several hour sun stroke event in which she tried desperately to come up with a name for this new baby. Let me just tell you she has quite the imagination....ROY PEBBLES REED! To say the least....we all had a few hours of good laughs!

We were also very successful in getting everyone up that wanted to on the wake boards and even a few on a slalom ski....YEAH!!! And of course....we all had got plenty of laughs at the expense of those crazy enough to get on the tube.....and for many that was over and over again...go figure?

There were lots of long adventure and exploring trips to the ruins, Hole in the Rock, and also to LaGorce Arch (one of our fav's), as well as a lot of heated evening matches of 31 and "How to screw your neighbor."

Scoots LOVED his squirt guns and was loaded and ready to shoot any willing (or even not so willing) participant at any moment. Whistal (AKA: Crystal), Ty, Pat, Meg & Melissa ("the Gools") were all great sports and would play along for hours on end. He loved his "BIG SHIP," "Little SHIP," and was so proud that he drove his "Sketkies." He went on several hikes with Jama Lori and the rest of the gang and he even spotted a rainbow....which he thought was really cool and sprinted up the mountain to go chase.

We had lots of great campfire pies and some good laughs to go along with them. I think we are all going to be in need for a crash diet after all that delicious food!

During the trip we also celebrated Father's Day and our 5 year anniversary. Scoots gave his dad a few new shirts and an awesome tool belt that he made especially for him at the daycare. I have no doubt that daddy love them. Thanks for being such a good dad and a very Happy Anniversary to you!

Thanks to everyone who made this such a great trip. We had an awesome time and hope to be back soon!

San Diego

We decided to take a little trip to San Diego during Layne's 1 week break between Spring and Summer semester and my birthday. It was a little colder than we had hoped for, but still very pleasant. Initially I thought we were in for quite a vacation when within minutes of our arrival we ran into a bit of a problem.

We took all of our luggage and Corbin and rode the shuttle over to the rental car office to pick up our car. I proceeded to the counter as Layne stayed back with Scoots and the luggage. The lady at the counter asked me if I wanted to have another driver on the car and I told her to add Layne. I got his drivers license and handed it to her to add. After a second or two she gave me a strange look and informed me that his license had just expired on his birthday a few weeks ago. I turned (a little disgusted at his irresponsibleness) and informed him of the news and then turned back to continue with the check out process. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before she informed me that my license would also be expiring the next day which happened to be my birthday! She then informed us that she would be unable to rent us a car under those circumstances. Needless to say...I nearly crapped my pants! I informed the lady that we couldn't be without a car and she sincerely apologized, but reassured me there was nothing that she could do to help. I asked to talk with the manager who essentially gave me the same response. After much pleading and begging to no avail....I retreated to the back of the office and Layne and I frantically called the DMV for further assistance. To no surprise....they were of even less help to us and almost downright rude!

Fortunately, the manager of the rental car place took pity on us and began calling every low down rental car place in town. Before too long he had someone on their way to pick us up. On our way to the new rental car location, Layne was thanking the man for helping us out with our predicament and the man replies "no problem, happens all the time....in fact I haven't had a license for about 10 months or so."...should have been our first clue!

Once there...I went to the office to take care of the paperwork while Layne transferred the luggage into the rental car. After a few minutes he came in and asked me to come look over the car and sign for any previous damage (it would have been much simpler and much more efficient to go over the areas of the car that weren't damaged!). This thing was beat to all heck! Still grateful for the car....we finally took off for our hotel. It only took seconds before I was totally overwhelmed by the cigarette smoke smell of the car. Being pregnant it was almost too much to bear, but being as desperate as we were I just plugged my nose and continued on. As we merged onto the freeway and started to increase our speed...we noticed that the car had a death wobble and the back window suddenly fell down into the door. We quickly named the car..."THE HOOPTIE!" Corbs really loved the hooptie and could spot it among a million cars....and besides...Beggars can't be choosy!

Once that ordeal was over, we were able to really enjoy our time in San Diego. We took Corbin to Seaworld on Tuesday and we had a blast. The park was relatively quite and we were able to get around without much of a crowd. One of the first things that we saw was the Shamu show and we decided to be brave and sit dead center in the "splash zone." Needless to say we got WET!!! Thank goodness we decided to buy a poncho at the last minute that we threw over ourselves for some reprieve. Corbin was just amazed by these enormous whales.

The remainder of the day we covered the rest of the park and Corbs just ran himself into the ground. We had a great time and when it was all over it was literally seconds in the car before he was dead asleep!

Wednesday we decided to go to the beach. When we woke up, however, it was not looking like such a great day. We decided to go anyway. We got ourselves some sandwiches and our swimsuits and headed for La Jolla. Once we got there we realized just how cool it was outside, but we weren't about to let that spoil our day. We sat our our blanket and began eating when within minutes we had sworms of seaguls moving in on our food. Corbin thought that they were hilarious and spent the rest of the time frantically chasing the seaguls around the beach. It was adorable!

On Thursday, we took Corbie to the San Diego Zoo. It was really cool. We were able to see lots of animal and spend time together having fun.

The highlight of the trip for Corbs, however, was undoubedly the POOL. Every second that he possibly could...he wanted to be swimming. The hotel was very quite so we were able to pretty much have the pool to ourselves the entire time. We bought Scoots some little dolphin squirt guns at Seaworld and he loved squirting Mom and Dad every chance that he could.

All in all....despite our slow start....we had a great trip and Corbin hasn't stopped talking about Shamu and the sharks! I think they were a big hit afterall.

Sand Dunes

Grandpa Reed just got an old school jeepster that he is very excited about and asked all the fam if we wanted to go to the sand dunes to take it out. We decided to go and asked Granny B. if she would be willing to let us take the Renaissance (for those of you that don't know....that's Grandpa B.'s motor home). She was kind enough to let us take it and boy was it a hit with Corb's. He seriously thought it was the coolest thing in the whole world! It was so much fun to watch him be so excited about it.

Everyone was able to come and we all had a great time. Somehow I was able to avoid DEATH on the back of a 4 wheeler with Benita. She asked me if I would teach her how to drive it and I agreed to do so not knowing that I would be in for quite a ride. Fortunately, when it was all said and done we managed to make it back safely to camp somehow (WHEW!!).

Scooter had a great time riding around on his little 4 wheeler. All the other little kids there had similar little motorcycles and they all had a great time playing on them with him. He wasn't, however, so fond of the jeepster. Dad took him on a ride out on the sand dunes and I think that he was sure he was going to die. Needless to say....there was only ONE ride! Thank goodness....the rest of the guys (including Dad) really enjoyed driving it around.

The last night we had the pleasure of having Jessica and "Narnauld" stay in the motor home with us and we were able to experience Jess having a major claustrophobic meltdown on the top bunk. Beforehand, she assured us that she was going to be fine on the top bunk, but within an hour or so of being up there I could suddenly hear her ripping here clothes off and flailing around. When asked if she was okay her reply was "THE AIR IS HOT!!!" Arnauld responded by saying "I don't think it has anything to do with the temperature!" We invited her to come down and lay on the big bed with us on the lower level for the remainder of the night and things seemed to go much better. Let's just say....we all had a pretty good laugh over that one the next morning.

Thanks fam for a great weekend at the sand dunes!