The First Day of School

It's that time of year. While Le was excited to start school, Daniel cried himself to sleep. I worried ALL day about Daniel. But, I picked them up from school and Dan was all smiles. Both boys got great teachers and I'm hoping for a good school year for them both.

The Marks' Girls Come South!

A couple of weekends ago we were lucky enough to have Paula and her girls come and spend the night. They were in NC getting Nick settled into college and touring colleges for Lily. ( I remember the first time I ever went to Ocean Reef and met Paula. Nick and Lily were playing in the lagoon and Emme was still in a diaper playing at Paula's feet. I KNOW we are not growing older as fast as they are....) We had a very nice visit albeit short. Once again, Daniel (Little Sandy) was a Bit TOO forceful in his political opinions. We are going to have to teach that boy some manners! We are lucky that the Marks' girls aren't easily offended.

A Good Time Was Had By All

Charlotte, ever the serious one...... Check out these monkeys! Notice Daniels bolero. Also, notice Bailey quietly waiting for scraps.

We had Charlotte, Rob, and the kids over a couple of weekends ago. It was so good to catch up. I can't get over how fast the kids are growing up. The kids got in the pool at 3pm and didn't get out, except to eat, until around 10pm!

By the skin of our teeth!

I took my Great Aunt Sue Joyce out on the farm four wheeling. More than once she said "Faster!"

Check out Daniel dancing with Shadow. (Poor Shadow! She's a good sport.)
Isn't this cool? Check out the different plants growing out of the tree.

Here's Aunt Vivi modeling her "Maiden of the Mist" Niagara Falls outfit.

Check out everyone dancing to the B-52's "Lobster Rock"

Believe it or not we were able to make a second trip to the farm. We decided on Tuesday we could do it and hopped in the car Wednesday morning. It was a quick trip but a lot of fun. We didn't tell Vivi we were coming and were able to go up to her school and surprise her. We labeled our days FFAV days. Our days were filled with Fishing, Four Wheeling, Alex, and Vivi. The weather was GLORIOUS! Hi's in the mid 80's with NO humidity.

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!

Today we met Mom and Daddy downstairs for breakfast. The boys took there cards and played which gave us a chance to really enjoy a nice slow breakfast. We said our good-byes and drove to the Hoover Dam. The tour director said if you rubbed the feet of the statues you would have good luck in Vegas. (Hence the picture.)

After HD we drove into Las Vegas. Daniel wanted to stay in the Pyramid hotel so we stayed at the Luxor. It took over TWO HOURS to check in. After standing in line for 20 min. we were off to our room. It was dirty..........We waited 45 minutes for the bellman to to bring us our new rooms keys. We go to our room. It was dirty...........We waited 20 minutes for the manager to call us back. We gave up and went down to the front desk. Third times the charm. We FINALLY got into a room that was clean.

Las Vegas was way too much for Le. He was over stimulated with the noise and lights. By the time we walked to dinner he was begging to go back to the room. After a week of beauty, peace, and quite Las Vegas was a shock to all of our systems!

The next morning things were much better. Our flight didn't leave until 3:30pm so we had the morning free. We hung out at the pool and took it easy.

Now we are back home safe and sound. It felt good to sleep in our own beds last night.

Poor Sandy had to go back to work this morning. We didn't get home until 2:30am so I know he will sleep well tonight!

Day Two At The Grand Canyon

We made it to sunrise this morning!

We've had another great day. We took the boys to the IMAX to see the Grand Canyon movie. It was very good as all IMAX are. Daniel decided he was having a heart attack at the start of it. Once I convinced him his heart was racing because of the movie he calmed down and enjoyed the show.

We checked out a couple more view points of the Canyon and did some gift shop shopping. We then drove over to the Grand Canyon airport for the helicopter ride. We really didn't know if Dan was going to do it or not but he did! They loved it. Brian, Makenzie and I watched from planet earth and took pictures.

WHAT A DITCH!!!!

Today we arrived at the Grand Canyon. It's HUGE! I can't wrap my mind around its enormity. We met up with Nanny and Pa around lunch time. After lunch we took the afternoon and drove through the park pulling over at every view point.

This morning Pa and I made a date to watch the sun rise over the canyon. We missed it by 10 minutes but it was still spectacular. We will try again tomorrow. Anyway, we walked out the front door of our hotel (which sits on the rim of the canyon) and not 30ft away were two huge elk. They were so close you could see the fur on their antlers.

It is still early here. We plan to see some more canyon, do the IMAX, and the boys are going to do a helicopter tour. (Julie will NOT do a helicopter.)