Houseboat Trip 2007

We just got back from our annual vacation to my parents houseboat on Lake Mohave on Friday. Fortunatly we got the camera working before the trip so I have plenty of pictures to share! We all had a blast, as usual. This time, no stitches for Will, which was definatly a plus! Also no major storms to report, which thrilled me, but Brian was a bit dissappointed. His hope was to capture the perfect storm on his camcorder and send it in to the local news stations. Oh, well, maybe next time.

The weather cooperated with us for the most part. The first couple of days were a bit windy so we didn't do much boating out on the lake, but the kids got to play on the shore in the cove that the houseboat was in. The next two days were calmer and we made it all the way to the marina at Katherine's Landing one day, and to Willow Beach, which is right near the Hoover Dam, the next day. Both were full days of boating and swimming and we were all exhausted by the end of the day. The kids slept great and the adults relaxed under the stars on top of the boat.

It was another wonderful vacation and our time there just flew by! We're now counting down to our camping trip at Leo Carrillo.

Some cute kid speak

The kids were in full form yesterday so I just wanted to share a few gems.

We were going to do some watercolor painting yesterday, but Ben's preference was to go shoe shopping. I told him that we'd be waiting for dad to come home before we went out and he said, "When I'm a grown up and I am an artist, and I have a phone, and it's a reading phone (he means a phone will caller id, where you can see the person's name who is calling you) and it says "mom", I'm not going to answer it.

Later on, Ben, still thinking about what shoes he was going to get said, "I want those shoes. You know, the ones I cried and cried for when you bought Sam's Crocs but YOU wouldn't buy them for me". Those would be the $70 Geox shoes from Nordstroms. For the record, he did NOT get the $70 pair yesterday either, he settled on a "jazzy, snazzy" pair of Vans with flames on the sides.

Will, on the other hand, was more enthusiastic about the watercolor painting. He piped up with, "This is even better than getting into trouble!". Indeed.

Moving up the ranks!

Will is now officially a Wolf in cub scouts. We had a bridging ceremony at a local campground and some families camped out for the weekend while others (us included) just went out there for the evening festivities and then came back again the next day for more activities. The kids had a great time. Roasting marshmellows was the biggest hit of the evening, of course!

Last week, Will spend Mon.- Friday at Boyscout day camp. It was a really neat experience for him and he is eager to do it again next year. He got to do archery, push carts, make a tool box in woodworking and a wallet in leather crafts, have relay races where they did silly things like walk on stilts, they had water play, tug of war, and did just about everything that a group of 6-11 year old boys would want to do! He came home filthy every day so I know we got our money's worth!

This might be my last update for awhile, as sadly enough, our camera has given out on us. We are going to try to get a new one this summer so that we are able to take pictures of our upcoming vacations.

Will's 7th birthday!

Will standing in front of the decorated car
The kids on Will's actual birthday eating some homemade cupcakes (decorated by them)
Will's Patrick cupcake cake, made by Grandma Zukie
Pineapple house Sponge Bob cake, made by Aunt Laura
Will with his friends at Chuck E. Cheese

My oldest "baby" is 7 years old! I can't believe it. Having older school aged kids is really starting to make ME feel old! Am I really old enough to have a kid going into second grade? He's just such a happy, good natured kid (most of the time anyway!) and it seems like 7 is going to be a good age. Right now, for the first time in many months, I am happy to report, none of the kids are going through especially difficult stages. We are on pretty even keel around here lately. Will had a great birthday. On the day of his actual birthday, I surprised him by painting the van with window paint that said, "Happy birthday Will" along with other messages, on all of the windows. His teacher made him a crown at school. The next weekend was his Chuck E. Cheese party with all of his friends from school and cousins. Pizza and video games. What more could a 7 year old ask for?

Ben's a preschool Graduate!

Ben with teacher Nick, taking a little bit about Ben's experiences in preschool.
Ben with a few of his buddies from school
This picture is a picture of the picture that they gave us at the graduation. They asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up and Ben said he wanted to be a chef. The expression on his face is so funny!

Ben has officially graduated from preschool! He is so excited to be going on to Kindergarten in the fall. He will most likely have the same teacher that Will had, which we are really happy about. He looked like such a big boy standing up there while his preschool teacher talked a little bit about each child. They also sang a couple of songs, which was really cute. Benny was very antimated to say the least! I wish I could show video of it on here, pictures just don't do justice to his "performance". He is our little ham! We are all going to miss his preschool teachers very much. Sam is on the waiting list for preschool, but this time around we are going to send him to a closer school. The preschool Will and Ben both went to is a good 20 minute drive from where we live and next year we will have 3 different pick up times for preschool, Kindergarten, and 2nd grade, so we wanted to simplify as much as possible.