The final bell has sounded on another school year!

We are anxiously looking forward to making a new video like this in a few weeks!

Until then, we'll remember the 2013 summer and the great memories it held.

Vegas, Baby!

To end our trip we made a stop in Vegas.  Being just a few hours from home after three days on the road was almost more than I could handle even though we had thought this little stop would be a great way to end our trip.  

We stayed off the strip at an Embassy Suites. The boys love the koi fish at our local hotel and were pumped to see that this one not only had koi fish but also two swans named Elvis and Priscilla in its atrium's pool. 

After settling in we decided to head to the strip and see the fountains at the Belaggio. We only had to walk a couple blocks, but it was about 100 degrees. By the time we got into place by the fountains with fifteen minutes to spare, we were all hot and quite sweaty. Both boys kept asking when we could leave and go back to the hotel. We finally saw the fountain show--all four minutes of it--and headed back to the hotel.

We made it back in time to enjoy the hotel's hospitality hour with free snacks and drinks. After that we headed out to the pool.  They had a beautiful outdoor pool complete with waterfall. 

Jumping through the waterfall

The boys enjoyed the pool for about 20 minutes before the wind picked up. And I mean picked up! The wind was strong enough that it blew the lounge chairs into the pool. We were dodging falling palm tree fronds and chairs and were running after our own things that were blowing around. Paul suffered the most since his shoes blew into the pool. :-)  We packed up our things since we were afraid of being knocked out by pool chairs and headed back to our room. Since we were across the street from the UNLV track, we enjoyed watching the wind wreak havoc there as well--blowing the jumping pits which took out a set of bleachers, knocking over a port-a-potty, and disrupting the baseball game. It was quite the show and was the highlight of our day!

Although our first afternoon and evening there did not meet our expectations, the next morning dawned clear and bright (and calm with no winds). After enjoying a sumptuous breakfast, we spent quite a bit of time at the pool (no danger of being taken out by palm fronds or pool chairs) before heading out. We visited M&M World which was fantastic. The boys had a hard time deciding what to buy with their birthday money but settled on a couple buddies.

At the entrance

They loved seeing all the Nascar stuff on this floor

We stopped at Jill and Mark's house to see them and Grandma B and have dinner with them before heading home (unfortunately, no pictures to document this part of the trip). It was a nice way to end our trip.

"On the Road Again" part II

On our drive back home we actually pulled off the road just for the scenic overlook, and it was worth the stop.

A timed picture--thankfully, the camera did not fall off the ledge

At one point I was looking for all the boys (Paul included) and could not find them. They had hidden under this rock so at first glance it looked as if they had gone over the side of the rock ledge where they had been standing a little bit before. The boys loved their little joke on me.

And one more shot of Paul driving while Isaac plays his 3DS.

"On the Road Again"

Some of the views on the first part of our trip this summer:

Co-captain on the first morning of our trip

Taken the same time as the picture above 

Entering Utah--pix snapped too early to read the welcome sign

Pizza Ranch buffet in Mandan, North Dakota

Playing the 3DS--determined to beat the level

Self-portrait while the co-captain played 3DS

Traveling to Gpa and Gma N's house

The Reagan Library

Over Christmas break we made the trek to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The drive there and back was long and the library was very busy, but it was a fun, informative day (that Paul and I enjoyed more than the boys ;-). Thanks to a fellow teacher who gave us a couple museum passes, we only had to pay the entry fee for the boys making for a cheap outing.

At the start of the tour...still interested

Looking at the teleprompters and showing us how he would look if he had to give a speech

In front of Air Force One before going inside it 

Stopping for a little snack

In front of the pub 

In front of President Reagan's burial place

There was also a Disney exhibit on display so we got to check out a few Disney artifacts including princess dresses, Tron, Ironman, and Pirates of the Caribbean things. Unfortunately, I cannot find those pictures. 

Brad & Kara's Wedding, Part IV

And after all the week's fun, we headed to the ferry with enough time for our cars to get in line and wait for departure:

Heading onto the ferry

 We all sat up on the top deck at the front of the boat for most of the ride. Riding the ferry in daylight hours and getting to see the view was a treat!

Brother and sister

Just being silly

Some people appreciated the view more than others

Enjoying some dippin' dots from the snack bar

Whoa! It was a little bit windy.

Again, not all moments of the trip were peachy for everyone

Exiting the ferry

Three days later we drove onto the mainland after a fun-filled whirlwind "weekend" with the family. What a blessing it was to be part of Brad and Kara's celebration and with most of our family!

Traveling--Lapka Style

...is not something many people probably ever want to do especially in light of our most recent adventures.  I realize that a lot of you have already heard our story, but I need to write it down so I do not forget how stress-filled our travels to and from (especially) Brad and Kara's wedding really was.

Leading up to Brad and Kara's wedding, we were busily preparing not only for our weekend there (packing and making sure we had everything for the wedding) but also for being away from our classrooms here. Needless to say, the days leading up to our trip were a bit busy. To make things more interesting, I was sick the two days before we left, and we also had our annual back to school night with our students' parents the night before we left.

Once we got that out of our way, we were set to enjoy the weekend ahead, but first we had to get to the island. Our early morning flight left San Diego on Wednesday morning without a hitch, and we met up with Jill and Mark and the girls in Dallas where we all took the same flight to Boston. We landed about 45 minutes later than scheduled which put us behind just a bit to make it to the ferry. We knew that the final ferry to the island left at 9:45 so we had about 2 3/4 hours to get our rental car and get to the ferry which should have been no problem.  By the time we grabbed some dinner and got our cars, we were down to about two hours to make the 1 1/2 hour drive to the ferry place. 

For regular people this would not have been an issue, but for us it was a challenge. We got lost getting out of Boston and for the life of us could not get out of the city. We ended up losing Jill and Mark who made it out without as many hitches as us. Every time we wanted to turn, it was a street on which we couldn't turn or the light would not allow it. We actually made it to the heart of Boston and saw City Hall; any other day it would have been great to see Boston but not this day.  Needless to say we were a little stressed by the time we made it on the freeway out of the city and knew that we were going to be pushing it to make that night's final ferry.  

Poor Brad. He had taken the ferry from the island to meet up with us and help us take the ferry over. We kept calling him to give him our ETA, and he kept assuring us that if we made it before they closed the doors at 9:45 and there was room, we could take that night's ferry (and avoid having to rent a hotel that evening on the mainland). To add to Brad's stress of trying to coordinate everything, we also found out from Brad that Brian, Gina, Dad, Vicki and Marlys (my aunt) had missed their connection and were flying in about the time that we headed out of Boston. (Vonda and her kids were there waiting for them since they were riding in the rental cars with them.) Poor Brad was also getting phone calls from them and Jill with questions about what we were going to do if we did not make it. 

At 9:39 we pulled into what our Garmin identified as the steamship authority, but we could not find the ferry. We could see a parking lot (mainly empty) that said "Do not Enter" but could not figure out where to go. We were on the phone with Brad and realized that we could see him across the way which was a relief since we knew we were in the right place, but we still were not on the ferry. Over the next few minutes, we flew across the parking lot to the ticket booth only to be told that we were supposed to be back over by the ferry office to get our tickets since we had a reservation. In the meantime, three mini vans pulled into the lot--they happened to be Dad's, Brian's, and Jill's vans. We all were like crazy people hopping out of vans, running into the ticket office to get our tickets and flying onto the ferry. We were the last vehicle to pull into the ferry at 9:44, and we watched the ferry folks close the door to the ferry as we turned off our car's engine. We could not have timed it any closer. (I am glad we made it because I think the stress of our arrival and departure might have been enough to put poor Brad over the top. Bless Trevor's, his best man, heart for being with him and helping him survive through all the craziness that was our family that evening.)

Proof of our time--my watch is four minutes fast

The door closing while Paul turns off the car and catches his breath

I am not sure what all the other people on the ferry thought as all four of our car's/van's car doors opened and 19 people started spilling out and yelling and greeting and hugging each other. There were a lot of tired looking people in their cars giving us the look.  That was our first day of travel. Fortunately, the rest of the weekend on the Vineyard was peaceful and full of fun times with each other.  More on that in a different post.

Let the people spill from the vehicles

The cousins upstairs in the ferry

On Saturday everybody (Brad and Kara included) headed back to Boston to stay overnight and catch all our flights the next day. We caravanned back to Boston after spending some time at the beach. We stopped in Plymouth for dinner and saw Plymouth Rock and the replica of the Mayflower. (FYI, do not make a special trip to see the rock--it is quite disappointing in the fact that it is tiny and not a gigantic outcropping of rock like I had always imagined.)

Tiny Plymouth Rock

The Mayflower (replica)

Eventually we all made it to our hotel despite the rain and the fact that one car went to the wrong hotel. Everybody got off to the airport bright and early the next day without any issues. We faced our first snafu of this leg of our trip when we found out that our flight into Newark was delayed enough that we would miss our connection. (This was after going through security, eating lunch and waiting at our gate for over an hour.) Despite trying everything, we could not get home that day. The best the airline could do was get us in the next morning. After Paul put up a fuss about this, he convinced them to put us up in a hotel near the airport which was a blessing. The boys enjoyed the pool while Paul and I made our sub plans for Monday and got them sent off to our principals. We packed up everything before bed and headed to bed at a decent time since we knew we would be up to leave for the airport at 5:00 a.m.

Calling the airline

Watching tv before dinner

 One of the other things the airline did for us was give us food vouchers. Since we had $120 to spend, we splurged at the hotel and then finished the rest of it at the airport the next day.

Isaac's partially eaten hamburger

Caleb's hotdog wouldn't stay on the bun much to his dismay

Paul and my steak dinner remains

With the oyster crackers which were the boys' favorite and our special milk

At 4:15, the fire alarms went off and an emergency was reported in the hotel so we had to evacuate. I know you are not supposed to do this, but we took all our stuff with us. I could just see our sitting out on the street for hours and missing our flight as a result and was not about to let that happen. We stood out on the street for 15 minutes and watched the firefighters going in and out of the hotel. By the time they let us go back in, we decided to just brush our teeth and head to the airport a little early. Thankfully, we did that because security was unbelievable (think LAX security--worse than that). We did get through with a little cushion of time and made our flight.

With all our stuff before leaving the hotel

In Denver as we walked off the plane, I was grabbing our booster seats that had been gate checked. I heard Isaac say, "Mom, I don't feel so good," turned around and saw his ashen face, and watched him start to puke. I was trying to catch it in my newspaper and was yelling into the plane at the flight attendants (who were thanking people as they walked off the plane) for a barf bag. There we stood on the jet way with Isaac puking into a garbage bag while everybody deplaned and walked past him. Lovely! We got some food into his system while we waited for our next flight (which was delayed, of course), and he seemed to be better. On the next flight he sat with Paul. Ten minutes into the flight our flight attendant came up and tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that my "other son was sick in the bathroom" so I headed back to the bathroom to help Paul and Isaac. 

We finally made it to San Diego about one and a half hours after we were scheduled to land. A friend picked us up in our vehicle, thankfully, since Isaac threw up one more time on the way home. Unfortunately, Caleb saw it this time which inspired him to throw up as well. 

We finally pulled into our garage at 3:45 p.m.--14 1/2 hours after the fire alarms woke us up that morning. The boys were in bed within 30 minutes and were asleep before 4:45. They slept through the night until 6:00 a.m. with no more mishaps.

We heard more than one person tell us (after hearing this story) that they would never travel with us. I agree...not so sure that I ever want to fly with us again, either.  And that is not our worst flying experience. If you are up for another saga, see this post.

Union Lake

The visit with my side of the family was a little shorter than usual since we are looking forward to being with almost everyone on Martha’s Vineyard for Brad and Kara’s wedding this fall. Even though our time was short, we packed in a lot of fun.

The weather was gorgeous—perfect lake weather—so we spent a lot of time on the beach and in the water. We made sure to include most of our lake traditions which includes eating brunch on the pontoon and then jumping into the lake for a swim; riding jet skis; turtle hunting from the paddle boat; swimming, jumping off the dock, and being launched by Paul.

The boys also enjoyed fishing off the dock and LOVED catching fish—even the tiny ones.

Isaac's first fish--an itty-bitty one

Caleb's second fish--bigger than his first

Roasting marshmallows, hot dogs and pudgy pies in the fire pit was a daily occurrence. In between all of the activities above, we spent time eating, laughing, chatting, and just relaxing with everyone. One of my favorite times was having a girly movie time tucked away in the bedroom with Vonda and Vicki while the kids watched their own movie--we got to be in our own little world sans kids which was a fun escape for a short time.

Again, it was such a gift to get to spend even a short time with Dad and Vicki and everyone else at the lake! Thanks for the great time and memories!