Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Forced Family Fun!

Boy have we been busy this summer! My family loves to joke that everytime we hang out it is "forced family fun". It really isn't forced and almost always qualifies as fun! ( I say that joking because sometimes it is only fun or funny after it is over.....story to follow.) At least it is never a dull moment. I love my family!Here are some of our recent adventures.

Lagoon !
I was so happy that Courtney and Adrianne were willing to go on this ride with my kids. I couldn't even watch them on it without feeling sick. I think Adrianne and Dan are the ultimate "theme park" people. It is like theme parks were made for them... and vice versa. If you are going to a theme park- consider taking them along. You will not be disappointed and neither will your children. The only downside I can see is that maybe your kids won't want to come home with you.
John and Sophie on a ride. That before it started John got off of. Like I said, Just take A and Dan.
Family Reunion to Zion's National Park
This was a fun little trip to my Mom's family reunion. To save on gas (and of course be more green), Adrianne and I came up with a great plan to smoosh our two families into one car. In order to make that work we sent Annie ahead with my parents and then climbed into A's car. It certainly was fun and we just might do it again.
It was fun to see some of my Mom's cousins that I remember from when I was little. They are really fun. But the most memorable adventure was all of us attempting to hike to the Emerald Pools inside Zions. (Though we did miss Courtney and Scott who went on their own hike!) What we thought was a 45 minute paved walk to a "pool" turned into a couple hour ordeal. To say the least we were caught very unprepared. We ran out of water. My two sisters were in flip flops. My mom was carrying this huge purse the whole way. Sophie was beyond hysterical and a wimp. We lost my dad when he stopped to talk to some Germans, and we didn't see him again for two hours. In attempt to cool down we decided to go to the very top which was VERY uphill because we kept hearing that the third emerald pool was the biggest and you could get in and cool off. Get in we did. Afterwards we spent $60 on ice cream to cool down and then bought a bunch of french fries and diet coke. It was by far one of my favorite " forced family fun" activities in a long time. (At least now that it is over- way over!) I still crack up everytime I think about my mom carrying her huge purse on this hike. I think everyone that passed us wondered what in the world we were doing. And honestly- we were really wondering the same thing!
John and Parker in one of the little slots along the hike.
Adrianne and Nicole at the top. I think that they look like polygamists in this picture. Ha ha!
This is the last uphill to the pool at the top. Just an idea of the terrain here.
I felt a little white trash when my kids stripped down to nothing to get in the water- and then realized it was well worth it. I think if we had been the only family there it could have gone to that for everyone.
The view was amazing! It really was pretty even though it was kind of more that we thought we were going to be doing. (Notice my Mom's rather large purse that she carried! Ha ha ha.) And yes... Where is my dad you say? We didn't know! (turns out he was running up and down the mountain trying to find us...)
At least Parker was comfy. He fell asleep on the way back down.

Well- Zions... We will be back, but most likely without our children and in a different season, and at least with better shoes and more water.

And Lagoon- we love you and will always return.

Love the forced family fun. Can't wait to see what we do next!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ashley,
Thanks for the plug, however, its Annie you want to take to the amusement park. She's been on every rollercoaster at lagoon and Disney World. She's a six year old thrill-seeker! We survived the trip to Zion's, but we'll have to see if we're going to make it to California. We'll see.

Adrianne said...

I am sure there is a bathroom stall somewhere at Lagoon that says
"For a good time bring Adrianne"

Adrianne said...

Thanks Ash for helping me get the word out I am a really cheap nanny at Disney World too- all you have to do is buy my ticket, and airfare, and hotel, and rental car- and give me a huge food allowance to allow me to drink the $12 diet coke!

Adrianne said...

And the polygamist thing- I am standing rather close to John in the family photo. We are food spouses after all.

Courtney said...

A- I love all your comments. Ashley- I loved the forced family fun...and loved going on the rides with your kids. They were so much fun to watch, and Zions was a blast too! Really wish I could have been there on the hike...it looked like fun! (and a good funny memory too!)

williamsfam5 said...

Sometimes do you feel like you need a vacation from summer vacation? It's so fun though...at least you didn't get food poisoning. Check out my recent blog post if you haven't heard the story.

Kysha said...

Ash, you had me laughing out loud with your "forced family fun" and your Mom's purse debacle (sp?). I think I need to start using the "forced family fun" phrase.

Jenny H said...

That might've been me with the purse on the mountian. That was a cute story. What a fun family you have, even if it is forced :)

Everyday Sparkles said...

You have an amazing family . . . and tell your Mom that I completely understanding the notion of hiking with a purse. We would get along great! I'm glad you eventually found your Dad.