Water Fun

This year I promised Josh that I would take him to a water park for the day. We used to go to Water World pretty regularly a couple years back and he missed the wet thrills. I almost broke that promise because I just didn't have the money to fork out for this family of four to go, the cost of entrance isn't bad for one but for four plus the cost of food and it gets outrageous. I almost broke the promise but my friend Cristina came through. She had four free tickets to Sunsplash in Roseville from her work and she wasn't going to have the chance to use them before Sunsplash closed for the season so she gave them to me.



Today I took my two kids plus Christian, Cristina's son and Josh's friend, for a day of water park fun. We had such a blast even though it was crowded and some of the lines for the big slides were really long. Carley wasn't tall enough to go on all the rides but she was able to go on quite a few that were for "big kids". There was one that was a big "bumpy" slide. Remember the ones that they have at state or county fairs that you ride while sitting on a burlap bag? It was like that but you lay face first on a foam pad with handles. The pad curves up in the front in order to keep the water under the pad and you on top. We all went down at the same time, there are six lanes next to each other. Carley was big enough for that. It was her favorite.

Anyway, it was a great day. We all had fun. I'm exhausted. I was telling Josh how tired I was and he said he wasn't. When I told him I didn't believe him, he said he was "only half tired". Guess who was first in bed.

I didn't want to take my main camera with me so instead I took my old point and shoot that has some problems. Wow. I was shocked at the difference in these pictures compared to my Nikon D40. The pictures even look worse uploaded here than they did on my computer. I couldn't bear the thought of not getting pictures of the day so these are definitely better than nothing.






This one here is of Josh (on the left) getting drenched by the bucket full of water. It looks like he actually might've been holding on for dear life. That's a very big bucket.

Grampa Thiel

Walt's dad came out to visit for a long weekend. It was so nice to have him here, it's been a couple years since the last time. We didn't do much out side of the crazy new school schedule but we did spend loads of time visiting. It was fascinating to hear stories from Dad's childhood, things that Walt doesn't even remember hearing before. I also particularly enjoyed talking photography with him. It's a passion of his as well, in fact it was his early career until he became a scientist. Thanks Dad for the visit, come again any time.
We had a family barbeque on Saturday and Kiele got to stay the night with us, something Carley has been asking for months. Kiele also brought her new Wii and we all enjoyed playing games together. Carley is a rockstar when it comes to Wii bowling, she beats everyone almost every time.
Look at these two Thiel girls, it's almost like seeing double.

Kindergartener Carley

Ready or not, here she goes. Carley started Kindergarten today. She was so proud and so anxious to go, it seems like she's been counting down to attend Josh's school forever. Now it's her school and she calls it "my school".
We all walked to school together. Once we got to the campus, Josh walked away from us without even a good-bye like a cool 3rd grader. I took Carley to her class, got her situated, said good-bye and she gave me a kiss like a cool Kindergartener. I walked home feeling so proud yet heavy-hearted. Ready or not, here she goes.

For Fun

Wow! That's some BAD quality there. I took the little video with my phone but it doesn't do much for you, huh? So that white-like blob with the brown hair is Carley. She is jumping around the room made of trampolines. While watching the son of a friend on Friday, she paid for us to go to a place called Sky High. There are "rooms" of tramoplines all connected together by padded areas. Even the walls are trampolines. The kids had a blast. The boys mainly played in the dodgeball room. After an hour (it's one hour at a time) the kids were beat. Me too, but it was so much fun!

Well, the picture is a bit better quality so you get the idea what part of the room looks like. It was HUGE. I would guess maybe 80 feet by 40 feet, maybe bigger.

While I was on my phone's SD card I found a little video from last November, probably only a couple days before Carley's fourth birthday. Okay, I already know the video will be awful on here but hopefully you can hear it. It's Carley's then version of the ABC song. She starts Kindergarten tomorrow and thankfully knows the whole alphabet now.

And here's another oldie, sometime last year or the year before. It's my all-time favorite slide which is still metal and down the side of a hill at a park in Red Bluff, CA. You seriously have to hike up truck tires stuck in the side of the hill (you might be able to see Carley climbing) and then climb a ladder to get to the top of the slide. Boy can you get going FAST too.

About Our Trip....

I'm posting all the Washington posts next to eachother (as August 3rd) so if you're looking for those check for post titled "WA: Day..." I'll have all of the days of our trip posted over the next few days.

California Kids Triathlon

click for Division Results

Josh has been asking all summer to do a race and decided to sign up for the California Kids Triathlon at the Woodland High School campus (previous years were in Davis) which is the largest kids-only triathlon in the US. It's his first triathlon and he did a great job but most importantly he had a great time. I am so proud of him.
Swim 50 yards
Bike 1 mile
Run 1/2 mile

And they're off.

Transition area.


Bringing the bike back to the transition area.
The beginning of the run through campus.

Into the finish line.
His finishers medal.

The cheering section.

Home Again

The kids and got home last night after a two day drive down I-5. It was a nice trip, not too much driving with the overnight stay in Oregon.

While in Washington we did LOTS. We did something almost every day but didn't feel over booked or that we were doing too much. We all really enjoyed our time there and miss our family tremendously.

I have almost 2000 pictures to sort through of the trip up, our stay, and the trip back. Soon I'll have some selected to post on here and you all can see what we were up to over the last week and a half but give me a couple days while I adjust to being home.

Road Trip: Heading Home

We left Wednesday and drove to southern Oregon where we got a hotel room for the night. We arrived early enough that there was time for the kids to swim in the pool and watch a little tv.

Initially I was going to make them stop but then figured why not and took pictures.

In Gold Hill, Oregon we stopped at the House of Mystery, Oregon vortex. The vortex is a "whirlpool of force" and causes differences in what we see and expect to see. It was really interesting. Some of it seemed like an illusion especially while in or near the crooked house but some spots didn't have anything crooked by and it was harder to reason away what we saw. For example, this picture below shows Josh and Carley on a platform which was proved to be level and the beams on the side were proved to be plum and the same height. Look at the stick on the heads of Josh and Carley, the angle of it changes dramatically when they switch sides. What is said to happen in the vortex is when approaching magnetic north your body condenses and shrinks a little. Magnetic north in the picture is on the left. This was shown my several visitors in several locations in the vortex. The one with the same height beams is the one that was most believable to me.

Okay, maybe the little picture don't do it justice but seriously in person it was shocking with every example.
We didn't do much sight seeing on our two day trek home but the drive was easy enough and the kids behaved so well it was a pleasant trip. All in all, we had a wonderful time during our twelve day road trip and Washington visit. I look forward to doing something similar again with the kids and maybe even Walt.

WA: Saying Good-Bye

Wednesday, August 6th

Saying good-bye was the hardest part. We had so much fun in Washington with all the sight-seeing and family time. Seven days just wasn't long enough. I've already told Dave that I might be staying a month next summer so we have time to grow sick of each other before I hit the road for home.

Alex, Matt and Owen came over Tuesday evening to get in a last visit and hug. Wednesday morning we packed up the car, said good-bye to Grammy who was leaving for work and got in some last play time with Grampy before heading South.

Okay, Josh didn't really get decked out in the motorcycle garb for this little thing but I thought it was cute. He got to take a ride with Grampy Tuesday evening on the real deal.
Josh had a ton of fun riding this little Harley in circles around Dave's shop.
This was Carley's preferred "Harley" until she's able to ride a two-wheeler by herself.

WA: Day 7

Tuesday, August 5th

The morning started with a very competetive game of UNO between Grammy, Grampy and the grandchildren.
We spent most of the day with my sister Alex and nephew Owen. We took the kids to a free movie provided by Regal Cinemas (they run every Tuesday and Wednesday through out the summer vacation) and watched Surf's Up. Afterwards we hit the local Chuck E. Cheese for some pizza and fun games. It was almost empty when we got there and had lots of fun spending our tokens in a variety of games. It was so much fun to hang out with Alex and Owen.

WA: Day 6

Monday, August 4th.

Today was our day with Grampy Dave. After a lazy morning, we drove to Sequim (an hour from my mom's house) to the Olympic Game Farm. It's like a zoo in a sense but you drive your car through a variety of fenced areas and feed animals out the car window. We saw (and fed some but not all) llamas, yaks, zebra, deer, elk, bear, moose, buffalo, prairie dogs and whatever birds hovered around to steal the animals food.

After enjoying the Game Farm, we went to a lavendar farm. I learned that Sequim has the largest concentration of lavendar farms in the United States, 35 to be exact. We went to Jardin du Soleil and cut our own lavender. Mmm, the whole area smelled so good. It was a gorgeous day, bright, sunny, warm and the whole area was covered in lavender bushes.

I grew up about 20-30 minutes from Sequim. We'd play against them in high school sports or go there for church events there. I remember Sequim being a po-dunk down where a bunch of old, retired people lived. We didn't get to go to the Olympic Game Farm and I don't think there were 35 lavender farms back then. Now Highway 101 even has a route around the outside of town rather than through the main street. It's a cute little town that I see in a whole different light. I'd love to go back to visit sometime and maybe even stay overnight in a little cottage on a lavender farm.