HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!

Today Hannah turns 15. Hard to believe isn't it. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that she was born. Remember her being in intensive care because of the hole in her heart. Thankfully she is well past that now. She is so much fun to have around. She has a great sense of humour and really loves life. Still one of the "two crazies". Here are some photos of her on vacation:

Hannah, you are such a special person, we love you so much. Hope you have a wonderful birthday.

We will be celebrating with a family BBQ on the beach in Peachland. Should be loads of fun.

SWIMMING WITH THE SEA MONKEYS

We arrived back in Kelowna last night. It was such a fantastic holiday. Now it is time to wind down again - a couple more weeks and we will be back into the regular routine at home again.

We had a wonderful time in San Diego. We went to the Wild Animal Park, the Zoo and Seaworld. While we were at Seaworld the kids participated in a dolphin encounter program. During this they were able to feed the dolphins and pet them as well as get them to do some tricks. They thoroughly enjoyed it. Apparently dolphins feel like rubber - no surprise there. While in San Diego we also took time to go to Corronado beach. We bought a couple boogie boards and had so much fun playing in the surf.

After that we headed out to Arizona. Our first stop was in Lake Havasu City - extremely hot, but we played in the water for a few hours. Then we went to the Grand Canyon where we experienced a huge thunder and lightening storm. We went back the next day though and hiked part of the rim. What amazing scenery - it looked like a postcard. Then we drove on to Page, Arizona. We went on a smooth water rafting trip down the Colorado River. It was so much fun, sitting on the pontoons and taking in the fantastic scenery. Our next stop was Bryce Canyon. We actually enjoyed this more than the Grand Canyon. It wasn't nearly as crowded and it was spectacular. Brian and I went on a hike to the bottom of the canyon while the kids waited at the visitor center. Pictures will come when I get home.

Salt Lake City was an interesting stop too. We went to Temple Square and had a tour around there of the Mormon headquarters. But the highlight was swimming in Great Salt Lake. There is so much salt that you can just float without any effort. We played in the water for a couple hours. There were tons of sea monkeys in the water (aka brine shrimp). It is a very shallow lake, so we had to walk quite far to get water deep enough. After we were finished in Salt Lake City we spent 2 days doing a lot of driving to bring us back into Canada. So, now we will spend a few days here in Kelowna visiting with family and friends. Then on Friday we move on to Kamloops, where we will be for a few days before heading home.

FLOWERS IN OUR HAIR

So, we got to San Francisco with "flowers in our hair" and we planned to meet some "gentle people there." (thanks Scott McKenzie). We didn't meet any hippies, but heard they were there. We did, however, explore Pier 39, do a tour of a submarine from WWII, and ride the trolley cars. It was such a blast. We didn't want to just take a tour of the city on one of the regular bus tours, we wanted the real San Francisco experience. So, we got on the trolley at the start of the line where they turn them around and rode almost to the end. Brian and the kids were all standing on the outside holding on, I was sitting down because there wasn't enough room to stand. You should have seen Hannah's face when they started going up the first steep hill - she was right at the front so she got the best ride of all. Her expression changed a little however, when they started going down the first steep hill. I think it was a little scary. We got off in Union Square where our first stop was Victoria's Secret of course. Then we walked through Macy's - that was an entire experience in itself - just the sheer vastness of the store. After that we walked through China Town. That was an incredible experience for our country kids - swarms of people, cars and shops. We stopped in at a Dim Sum restaurant - we just wanted some egg rolls and a drink. This old Chinese woman came up to our table and was trying to get us to take all these different dishes. One thing I did recognize was chicken feet. Ewww. We tried to tell her we just wanted egg rolls. Finally someone else came along and helped us out. Then we headed back to the pier, picked up our truck and drove to the golden gate bridge, which we walked on. It was a great day. The next day we spent relaxing.

We spent the last 2 nights in Malibu. It was o.k. Our campsite had a great view of the ocean. We spent all day yesterday at Universal Studios. Another fun day. Today was a driving day. It wasn't a long distance, but with the crazy traffic it took a while.

AND I THOUGHT I SPLURGED ON MY SKETCHERS FROM THE OUTLET MALL. This view was totally shattered today when we walked down Rodeo Drive. Fancy. Let me just say, we didn't even try to walk into any of the stores. Then we stopped in Hollywood and looked at the stars. But by this time the heat had really started to take off so we just stopped for a while then headed off to the campsite. Tomorrow we start our Disneyland marathon. The kids are so excited.

I will try to post again in a few days. Talk to you all again soon.

AS PROMISED: WHEN MUFFLERS DON'T MUFFLE

I can imagine that you are thinking that our muffler has fallen off. Well, you are wrong, this isn't about our vehicle at all.

Imagine, if you will, people like us, from a place like Ross River, actually feeling like rednecks. That is exactly how we felt when we pulled into the campground at the Oregon Dunes. We had driven all day and we were tired and hungry. To put it mildly we were shocked when we pulled into the campground that we had reserved. I guess I should have know it would be like this. The place was filled with R.V.'s that all had more than a couple of ATV's parked outside them. People were decked out in full atv gear and they were revving their engines non-stop. Some of these people actually booked their campsite over a year in advance! Hannah's first observation was "there was this fat woman that rode her quad about 6 feet just to go to the bathroom!" I just had to laugh. That just about summed up the whole campsite - quads and motorbikes being driven wherever and whenever possible. As we were lying in bed listening to all the revving I could hear the guy next to us telling his friends about his accident. The first day of his holiday and he totalled his quad and was resting his stitched up leg while the rest of them were out having fun. Let's just say one night there was enough for us. We felt like real city slickers for a while there. Scary!

WHITE-KNUCKLES:
But that is not all, oh no, that is not all. The next day we went to the Oregon Caves - they were absolutely amazing. The drive up wasn't so amazing - incredibly windy road - about 5 miles worth of it and we were on the drop off side. I spent the time clutching the door, holding on for dear life. Josh wanted something and I could barely pry my fingers off the door to get it. The caves though were very cool.

Then we drove on to the northern end of the Redwood forest in California. It was Independence Day, so we thought we might just take in the fireworks, etc. We just never expected it to be so crazy. People were setting off fireworks in the middle of residential streets. There was a smoky haze over the whole city, the smell of fireworks was thick in the air. To top it all off, after we finally found a parking spot, we mosied on down to the park. Once there is was more mayhem. People were wandering around drunk with open cases of alcohol (a big no-no in Canada), and they had big fires in the middle of the beach. After a quick look around we decided that it really wasn't our cup of tea so we took the kids for ice cream and headed home.

That's all of my stories for now. You will have to wait to hear about the Trees of Mystery and Paul Bunyan until next time (Sonya, you should definitely stop there). I will also post some pictures when I get home, so you will get to relive it all again. Hope you are all having a fabulous vacation.

OUR HOLIDAY THUS FAR...

Hello everyone. Well, this is turning out to be an eventful holiday. Here is a quick run down:

Day 1: We started out the day in Penticton with a visit to Midas. I had some trouble with the brakes overheating while we were in Kelowna, so we stopped to get them fixed. Our one hour stopped turned into 6 hours and approx $425 per person. It turned out the brakes needed a complete overhaul. Better to be safe than sorry.

Day 3: We were at Willipa Bay, Washington. We toured around the ocean, playing in the water. Then we bought some fresh oysters and cooked them. They were absolutely delicious.

Day 5: We were on our way to the Oregon Dunes so we stopped at the Tilamook Cheese Factory. It was such a blast. The kids were excited because they got to try some free cheese samples. One would think they were actually paying for everything themselves.

I would like to entitle today's post "When Mufflers Don't Muffle." Actually at this point someone is waiting for the computer so you will have to wait until later to hear more. Mwa ha ha.