Ready to head out - one tv per row, belongings under feet, toys all over the car and loads of snacks...
12 hours later, we ended up in Redding at my Mom's house. The smiles were not so big at that point. The next morning we took a walk to the ruins.
And spent the day swimming and hanging around the house...these kids were NOT getting in the car for any reason!
Then we started going on all the short, yet rewarding hikes I could think of...
...and spent loads of time at the lake.
K is into building dams, filling them with water, then screaming, "Free the water!" and breaking the dam to watch the water flow out. I don't get it, but it keeps her busy. :-)
We also made a visit to Turtle Bay and the Sundial Bridge.
From the bridge, we walked along the river to the park that has a small dam and a trout run...the kids made it just fine and we went almost three miles...good kids!
Back at the bridge, we needed some pictures.
Another little hike that ended at one of the small falls around the lake.
Along a creek we went to in order to throw rocks...
No, they are not throwing rocks, but really, I swear, that is what we did here!
Of course we spent one afternoon at the water park.
Three dollars for fun in the sun...that is most definitely my love language!!
Oh, let me see...our week was not without drama...I mean, we did have four pre-schoolers...Em got stung by a bee...
Gotta love my reaction though - I was inside making dinner while they swam and when they came in the door with a crying Emily telling me she had been stung, I took one look at her face, realized she was breathing fine and my only thought was, "Good! She's not allergic to bees!" Don't worry, I picker her up, hugged her and eventually got her to put her finger on ice. :-)
We even had some pretty sweet shots of the moon...even without a tripod it was big enough to get a pretty neat picture.
At the end of the week, it was overcast and drizzling, so we headed up to the dam...the real one...Shasta Dam. The water level is already pretty low and, as you can clearly see, the children were quite worried about it.
Shasta dam is the second largest dam in the US. Hoover beats it in height but obviously not width.
Eating popcorn by the fountain next to the pool at Nana's house. Popcorn was our favorite treat. With no dairy for her kids, no eggs for mine and J pregnant again, so nauseated, we had quite the limited diet. Thankfully, it is full fruit season and we took full advantage of all the fresh, ripe fruit available.
This is totally out of order but that's all right...on to the rest of our drama. Somewhere in the middle of the week, the kids made this lovely train or car or bus, whatever it was this time, when Andrew slid right off the back of his stool and smacked his head on the bricks of the fire place.
That doesn't really show the full amount of blood as you might guess since head wounds bleed like crazy but we wanted to show how upset he was.
Not enough for stitches but more than enough for a nice knot, the need to cut the hair away and to keep him up for a couple hours to make sure he was all right. He was certainly all right with all the attention and his head is healing quickly. :-)
Well, we made it back last night...this time in ten and a half hours...we skipped lunch to push through while Andrew was sleeping and got a solid three hour nap out of him. He was quite a trooper and did a great job traveling, but since he doesn't watch tv yet, he had a much harder time than the girls. Thankfully, he likes food so we killed a lot of time eating. :-)
We had a great trip and thankfully we are all safe and sound. Today we are having a down day and spending some time with Dad before he goes to work this afternoon. Hope yours is great! God Bless!!
