$15 ticket to Kingdom Trails, One jump, Priceless

I want to write a whole diatribe of how great the day was at Kingdom Trails today, but I think that would be too much talky for what is the most important.

Last year, I did this and I stuck the landing:

This year, I did this:

I did walk away like this:

So please laugh away at the video!! It was pretty dang funny!!!

Week off - Day 3 - 10

Is it really over? It can't be over! I only surfed 4 days in a row... I'm only fried from my head to my toes... Does it really have to be over?!?!? :-(

Of course my week off is ending with my phone not working and saying it needs to be restored, but when I restore it ends in failure...

THANKFULLY, Nate's phone died a few weeks ago (that is not the thankfully part) and he said that he wished he made a back up of all his pictures before it died. So I made a backup of all my pictures... but it didn't need to die this soon... Nate's theory is that apple puts a "die-date" on their products and after some time, they just die. No rhyme or reason, just death to the apple product.

To get back to my vacation, I had a blast. I'm soooooo tired and am ready to just sit down at work for 8 hours.... so I'm not really ready, but I am really tired.

Day 3, my whole dang family headed to State Farm Park. My dad was an employee for State Farm Insurance for over 35 years. As a perk to being a lifer, they gave him guests passes to the park. He got to take us all along with him and it was a great day of fun. We played on the diving boards and the slides. We went down the lazy river a bunch of times. It's definitely changed from my younger days, but still a good time.

Part of the lazy river and the kiddie slide splash down area

Nate playing on his phone after going off the board 600 times.

The following day, Ann's family and David's family headed home. PJ's host is a member of BCC so PJ took his kids there for the day of fire works and July 4th Celebration. That left Kris and I to show Kris's kids the ropes. We took them down to Ewing park for our own little urban adventure. (Pictures will be entered in later). 

We also went to see fireworks with Kris's kids and her husband. They were better than I have seen in the last few years so it was pretty exciting. When we got home from fireworks, Nate started packing to go home and he was super sweet and said that he didn't want to leave me alone to drive home by myself. I was like, 'well, what if we leave in the morning then?' He agreed that it would be a great idea so I told my parents that I was leaving early and that Nate and I were driving back together. I was sooo bummed to leave early, but so happy to have someone to ride with. We got up around 4:30 and powered our way back to New Hampshire. We got home at midnight and then I had 3 more days of vacation to fill!! 

First day in NH consisted of stand-up paddle boarding with Scout and Oakley. I wish that our waterproof camera was working, because I would've had some awesome pics. We took off from Fort Foster in Kittery and paddled to one of the islands off of the park. Oakley got to hang out on my board most of the time and Scout swam around. Poor Scout must have been pooped because after 2 hours of swimming around, he headed to the beach and wanted NOTHING to do with swimming. 

Second day in NH vacation consisted of teaching my brother how to surf and mountain biking. My brother PJ just moved back to the Northeast and is living in Rhode Island near Narragansett Beach. He thought it was about time that he learned how to surf. I took him to my favorite cove and I taught him the basics of catching a wave. He struggled for a while and finally caught a wave at the end. After surfing, I napped and then went to ladies ride. It was super funny because all of our heads were in the gutter and then we saw squirrels mating. There were lots of giggles and lots of comments. Then the squirrels fell out of the tree while I was trying to take a picture of them and almost landed on my back. I screamed like a little girl! 

My last day of vacation consisted of more biking and more surfing. I took the dogs to some trails in Rollinsford on Friday morning. It was pretty fun and I was able to power in 5 miles in an hour. Then I went to the foundry, cleaned up the pupkins, and headed to the local breakfast joint and enjoyed a yummy bagel sandwich. After that I got ready to go surfing with my brother again. After a day of learning how to catch a wave, he was all ready to stand up. He caught a few waves and ended up standing up towards the end of the session. It was awesome!! 

Then, I was still on vacation, but it was a Saturday so Nate was home too!! Nate and I went and picked up our fruit and ice cream from the Applecrest CSA in North Hampton and then toured the beaches to see if there were any waves. The waves were teeny tiny so we decided no surfing but we'll take the paddle boards out. We went up to York and paddled from long sands to the harbor and then back again. As we were coming back to Long Sands, the winds started picking up. The winds were heading out to sea and I was getting pushed out to sea. I really enjoyed my trip on Thursday with the dogs and was sort of in the ocean, but Saturday's paddle boarding session SUCKED!!! I ended up laying down on the board and paddling with my arms back to the beach because I could not for the life of me get back on the board! 

Sunday, Nate was invited by the boys to go mountain biking so I decided to take the dogs for a swim. After the swim, I thought it would be a great day for a surf session again so I called up my brother and off we went. We ended up having an awesome surf session. He stood up on pretty much his first wave, and caught a few more after that.  I caught a lot of fun little waves and had a blast. 

All in all, it was a nice vacation. I was able to do a lot of things but relaxed a lot too. I wish I would have been able to spend more time with my parents but I had a driving buddy and I spent 3 lovely days on the beach!! Not a bad week off!! 

Week Off - Day 2

On the second day of my week off, my WHOLE dang family (minus 1) met at my parents' house and proceeded to get ready for a golf outing. All of my siblings and their spouses and their chicklets were in tow. It was a blast. It was fun to crowd 20 people into a small house that barely held 7 while we were growing up.

At 1:30, we packed up the wagons and headed to the golf course to meet the photographer. We spent about 45 minutes taking family pictures. We then went and played 9 holes of golf. It was one of the hottest midwest afternoons that I have felt in a long, long time. It was 90+ degrees but with the heat index, it was over 100. Nate was BAKING!!!!

Here are some fun pics from the day:

The 8 carts lined up ready to roll

Nate: "I feel like I'm in an oven"

Kattie, Dave's wife, waiting to tee off

Megan, PJ's daughter, enjoying some shade as we wait

Kris with her husband Chris, her daughter Sydney and Ann's son Jake

Megan and PJ checking out the corn

Week Off - Day 1

I have been on vacation from work since July 1 and am loving it!

The reason I took a week off was because my family had planned to surprise my parent's in honor of their 70th birthdays. My dad turned 70 in February and my mom turns in January. We started planning all of this last year and it had many variations. The final plan was to all come into town on Saturday, we hired a photographer and we were going to surprise my parents and then play 9 holes of golf.

Here's what ended up happening...

I had talked to my mom a bunch before I started the drive home. She for sure knew that Kris and I were going to be home, but wasn't supposed to know about everyone else. I talked to my mom on Tuesday and she said, 'when is everyone else coming into town?' I said, 'what are you talking about?' she repeated herself, and again, I said, 'what are you talking about?' She said, 'oh, just you and Kris.' and I said, 'yes'... so I knew my mom suspected something, but she didn't know what.

Nate and I started our 19 hour drive on Thursday after work. We left at 7:30pm and ended up arriving in Bloomington around 2:00pm central time. We made pretty good time and took a detour and got to see the Chicago skyline. (we missed our turn off but it was a way prettier drive then taking 80 through the yuck).

We got to my parents house and hung out with my sister, Kris's husband, Chris and their two kids and my parents for a bit. Christopher went to pick up Kristin at the airport and my parents took Nate and I and Kris's kids to State Farm Park. On our way home from the park, Kris's kids looked up at my mom and dad and said, 'when are all of our cousins coming into town?' My mom was like, 'Uh, I'm not sure.' Sydney then said something along the lines of 'Yeah, all of our cousins are coming into town and we are going to get a t-shirt and then we are going to get our picture taken and then we are going golfing.' I just looked at Nate and was like, 'Sometimes, you just have to laugh because you might just cry'... The surprise was up with less then 24 hours before the big event. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because it was far less stressful and we got to spend a few more hours together with all of the family.