Showing posts with label amusement parks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amusement parks. Show all posts

Monday, June 14, 2010

A Week with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came for a week. We had a wonderful time with them. Here is a small sample of what we did. I was too busy having fun to take pictures of everything :)

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They arrived on a Saturday and Grandma Buppie opened her suitcase to find that the TSA had moved stuff around enough in her luggage that the box of quinoa she was bringing us exploded. Just for the record, it is delicious, even after being salvaged from a suitcase!


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Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa came to church with us and heard Rachel give a talk. She did really well.

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Monday we headed to San Diego. We started at the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. Everyone loved it. The Church recently remodeled the displays and it was a lot of fun. Grandpa Dale introduced Michael to a big gun.

Everyone had a chance to pan for gold.

Naomi LOVED pumping water.


I think my mom's and my daughter's profiles look similar in this picture. What do you think?

I should have timed the people who were panning for gold. They kept at it for a while. My dad was having as much fun as anyone, which brings to mind the expression, "Boys will be boys and so will a lot of middle aged men."

There was a tower you could climb to look out over Old Town San Diego.

Michael needed a little bit of help with the binoculars.

There he goes!

It took some effort to drag everyone away from their prospecting, but we were getting hungry.

On the way out, Gwen was fantasizing about leading a wagon train...

...and Michael found an even bigger gun!

Everyone who wanted one got a small nugget of fool's gold from the prospectors, but this was my favorite souvenir :)


After the Mormon Battalion Site, we went out to lunch, then to Mission Beach where Grandpa, Summer and Rachel rode a roller coaster and the younger kids played in the water and sand.

On the way back home, my parents treated us to Italian food at Vigilucci's, which was so close to the beach that we could see the water. It was delicious.

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Tuesday, we recuperated a bit and went to see Gwen's school play.

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Wednesday, we took off to the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. We also stopped at the Graber Olive House and Handel's Ice Cream.

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Thursday, I let Gwen skip school and she, Michael and Kelly woke up really early (hence the lack of cheer) and put on their overalls and went fossil hunting with Grandpa!

Thursday night, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant I really like. After dinner, my mom, Summer, Rachel, Heather and I went to the Art Walk downtown.

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Friday, we went to the farmer's market and picked up lots of yummy things. For dinner that night, we ate corn on the cob, artichoke, and watermelon radishes. My mom also bought us some flowers :)

Since my dad had done stuff with all the other kids, he took just Heather on a date to see Shrek in 3D Friday afternoon.

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Saturday, Kelly was baptized. This is the dress my mother made when I was baptized. My sisters and I each wore it and five of our girls have, too.

Summer played the cello while the sisters of the two children being baptized sang. Here they are practicing before the baptism started.

When we got back to the house, my dad and I tortured everyone by taking multiple pictures before we ate. You can see my mom and dad, as well as our cousin Lorna, who was so kind to come for Kelly's big day :)

Everyone recovered from starving in front of the camera by filling up on taco salad and trifle. Yum!

After lunch, my parents hit the road for more adventures, beginning with a drive up the coast. Thanks Dad and Mom for coming!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Ends & Odds

Rachel is on the frosh/soph volleyball team at her high school. Here she is in her uniform just after hitting the ball during their first scrimmage against another school.

We saw this car in the grocery store parking lot and just happened to have the camera. The driver slowed down to let me get a picture. I imagine he gets that a lot. Notice the suitcases on top and the mannequins in the backseat.

Today, we went on our annual library reading program sponsored local amusement park trip. Fun, fun fun!



Sunday, March 16, 2008

Trip to the Big Apple

Gwen, Naomi and I flew to PA to visit my parents a few weeks ago. One of the things I wanted to do while we were there was visit "the city". To people who have lived there, there is only one place that qualifies for that name. Every other place pales in comparison. There are wonderful places all around the world and I've been to a few of them, but no place is as much of a city as New York. We drove to Staten Island and parked at the ferry terminal. Here is a picture of Gwen sitting on the orange benches on the outside deck of one of the new boats...

...and here she is on one of the older boats a few years ago.

What a cutie :)


Riding on the ferry and then getting on the subway brings back such a rush of memories for me. So many hours of my life were spent on public transportation - reading, talking, drowsing, pushing, daydreaming, flirting.

The first place we went was the Toys R Us magnet store in Times Square. They have a full size (three stories high) ferris wheel inside. Gwen is in the green car on the top right.

Each car had a theme.

After the toy store, we went to M&M world, which was a disappointment. It was just tourist stuff and m&m's for $9 a pound. At least the Jelly Belly Factory had free samples...

One fun thing that happened on our way out was running into a police dog (not literally). The officer kindly let Gwen hold his leash (the dog's).

The ferry has one of the best views of the Statue of Liberty. We also saw one made out of legos in the toy store and even a giant green m&m Statue of Liberty.

Last of all we went to the Metropolitan museum of Art. Here is Gwen entering the Temple of Dendur.

It was a wonderful day. We ate bagels, hot dogs off the street (better than it sounds) and pizza. We even tracked down a piece of cheesecake to take home to Stan. Thanks Mom for the fix. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the calendars!!!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

This is what Gwen had to say...

...about our annual ( last year) trip to the local amusement park.

Every year our family goes there. We earn tickets by reading books during the summer. This year I got cotton candy and ate it during a show. I went on lots of rides and got really dizzy. I had a fantastic time with my family.




Sunday, August 20, 2006

Amusement Park

Yesterday, we took the kids to a local smallish amusement park. We go every year because the kids get a free pass for reading twenty five books from the library during the summer.

Michael and I just watched. He is too short for everything except the carousel, which was closed, and I am too pregnant. I refrained for drooling on the fences around the rides, but he just couldn't help himself.

Kelly had a blast on her first ever roller coaster ride.

Here is Gwen being buckled into the Ferris wheel with her Dad.

Heather and her big sisters liked the Ferris wheel, too.

Rachel enjoyed getting wet on the log ride.

Summer went on the gravity tower with Rachel. It shoots up and down, while leaving your stomach wherever you were two seconds ago.

Stan and I are happy to be done until next year. :)