My mom’s long-time friend, Lisa, delighted us all when she made a surprise visit to wish mom a Happy Birthday! It was great to see Lisa and catch up. We realized it had been 6 years since our last visit.

Mom enjoyed some fun with her grandbabies.

Leave it to the boy in the family to create a bow-and-arrow out of a party hat!

Happy Birthday Mom. We love you!

We have grown Magic Rocks in a variety of colors! Grown bacteria in our kitchen-made petri dishes.

Dissected an owl pellet to find a mole skeleton

Bubbles are always a summer treat. James kept busy pretending the sudsy water was a dinosaur burial ground, a lake with boats, a lake with boats & swimming dinosaurs that ate the people in the boats… and of course, he had fun blowing through a straw to make BIG bubbles. A good way to keep a 5 year old busy for 5 minutes!

The sleeping bag was a cave, and of course Max wanted in on some of this floor-time fun!

We’ve also enjoyed cousin time. Maya is getting so big! She is starting to really enjoy playing with the big-kid toys. Her Mama was tending to her animals on Farmville – I think Maya was gardening (big grins!)

I turned a brown 3dollar Goodwill hat into a lovely Red Hat for Nana.

(The yellow on the above flowers were later covered in purple glitter glue, a much better match)

Nana looks amazing in her fancy hat… but it’s not hard to make her look amazing, she is one of the most beautiful ladies I know!

We attempted a plan earlier in the spring, but we just couldn’t get things worked out for our paths to cross this summer. Funny how things that are meant to be, fall into place.

We enjoyed an amazing, fun-filled couple of days catching up: laughing-singing-dancing-swimming-wave jumping-eating-drinking-relaxing-smiling-dreaming-it was perfect!

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley

Our final night of travels was spent in Pasco, Washington where we enjoyed a delicious meal of chili-dogs & talked about our most memorable moments of the trip.

James set up a store and we all were invited one at a time to come buy things from him. He has a great imagination and sold many things – none of them rocks.

The last stretch of our trip took us so close to our Alma mater, Eastern Washington University, Josh & Abbie decided we should take a quick trip down memory lane. Wow, how things have grown!

Here is where Nana & Granddad would camp when they came up to visit. It still looks the same.

The city has a new & much improved sign. The University must be doing quite well ~

Here are some fun photos from the remainder of the drive home:

The “Fishing Game” a favorite game of the kids on the trip!

Once I left the Northwest, I had trouble finding a Starbucks… so I found these at the gas stations along the way… they are my new favorite!

A super-fun-filled trip! Glad to be out of the motor home though.

We all had to take turns posing -

on the walk up to the opening of the viewing area are the flags of all 50 states. I got a little sentimental and had to take a picture of our home states:

We stayed at a KOA the night before and the cowboy poet by night and pancake artist by morning, John, made these Rushmore cakes for the kids – he said, “you don’t go to Disneyland without Mickeymouse cakes, so you don’t come to Rushmore without these!” The kids giggled and happily ate their breakfast.

Lots of amazing sites to see as you drive through the Black Hills – we were in a hurry to head home, but look forward to a return trip in the future.

It was on this day, I found Max & Ruby starting to snuggle!

]]> http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=802 2 http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=799 http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=799#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:08:50 +0000 Stacie http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=799 Our drive the next day was short as we planned to spend the day playing at an indoor water-park in Rapid City, SD

James was loving the water, but nervous about the slides at first

Once he went down with Abbie, he realized just how exciting the slides could be!

and he was off to slide and slide and slide

The kids all played Leap Frog

and then the girls discovered a ride called The Toilet Bowl where they spent the rest of the day running up and down the stairs to spin and spin until they were pulled down the drain!

James finally worked up the courage to go down with Josh

and convinced me that because he was 5 and went down, I should go too. It didn’t end well & I wasn’t pushed to ride anymore slides. James & I somehow went down backwards and plunged underwater, where we both inhaled water through our nose, mouth, & eyes.

Even with the extra gallon of water inhaled, we all ended up having a fun day!

and doing this:

We said good-bye to Minnesota and hello to South Dakota

We stayed the night near Chamberlain, SD on the Missouri River

and ate Josh’s famous grilled chicken quesadillas for dinner

]]> http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=796 1 http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=793 http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=793#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:29:38 +0000 Stacie http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=793 We eagerly agreed to power-drive to Minnesota. We weren’t so eager to get home though, so we made a few stops along the way making each day’s drive worth our while!

The first day we drove through Minneapolis/St. Paul

on our way to Mall of America

Once inside, the kids went straight to the Nickelodeon Amusement Park,

where we told them they were welcome to go on as many rides as they wanted. They were thrilled – until they realized we meant they had to use the “trip$$” we gave each of them… all of a sudden, $20 for 5 rides seemed expensive and the rides didn’t look so appealing!

Together, we decided Underwater Adventures looked worthwhile-fun-&-educational!

The girls hanging out near a beaver dam (just like the one Jim showed the kids on the lake!).

Entering the shark zone!

There were lots of other sea creatures as well

We learned lots about the Seahorse Family -  many different types & sizes.

I loved that the exhibits were all at a kid-friendly level. James was able to enjoy it all the more!

The Jelly Fish exhibit was by far the best!

We learned a ton about these tiny creatures – I told the girls they should definitely study jelly fish if ever given the opportunity. I am hoping James studies them in Primary School!

We learned one type of jelly fish is immortal -

We really enjoyed this underwater adventure!

We ended up skipping our plans of Chicken Quesadillas in the motor home & opted for a tasty dinner in the Mall.

]]> http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=793 0 http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=755 http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=755#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:06:56 +0000 Stacie http://www.johnsonfamilyblog.com/?p=755 Our time with Bill & Erin was amazing.We packed so much fun-in-the-sun into 5 or 6 days.

It was the perfect summer vacation.

**Abbie took this photo at 5ish am – her goal was to see a sunrise on the lake – Bill said it was the best**

Jim (Erin’s Dad) taught Abbie & Chandler how to drive a boat.

and then set them free ~

He took James & Chandler canoeing & searching for beaver dams – and they found one!

Josh was able to take the very first outing on Bill, Jim, & Jesse’s new sailboat!

They learned lots about sailing – we did a drive by in the fast boat!

James spent hours on the dock – fishing for sunnies, exploring…

catching frogs

we enjoyed refreshing drinks

…and fun foods – Bill even turned eating into a game to get James to stop fishing long enough to eat!

We spent time with family we felt we’d already met…

April & Laura (Erin’s sisters), Jesse (April’s hubby), Sawyer & Kate (the cute Little’s in these photos)

Bill gave Abbie & Chandler a lesson on how to water-ski

Both girls gave it their all – but never made it out of the water

Abbie drank lots of it though! We forgot to tell her to let go of the rope if she didn’t make it up right away (opps!)

Chandler gave it many goes – but in the end – she learned she had fun trying!

Bill sharing his super-cool skiing skills!

James tubed with the girls & then decided it would be more fun by himself.

Erin & I sunned ourselves in the boat while our guys and the kids swam over to Twin Islands for jump into the water.

They made a plan and jumped one after another into the water – putting on a show for all to see – Splash!

After all that work, we motored over to ( ?? ) <can’t remember the name of this beach> for some snacks and much needed rest!

and of course, some fishin’ and exploring

I caught a fish. It was this big… but it got away.

Black Bay was our favorite place to play. We spent lots of time here swimming.

and being silly

and having fun

We weren’t always on the water. Bill took Abbie for her very first-ever motorcycle ride! She loved it.

Erin made more tasty treats!

The Guys and Kids toured an underground mine.

And they wore these stellar hardhats on the tour:

There was  nothing that could have been more perfect about the time spent with Bill and Erin at their home on Lake Vermilion. It was everything we imagined and more.

Friends are family you chose for yourself ~ Author Unknown

We spent the the next few hours settling in, spreading out, and catching up!

The next morning we woke early and headed into Tower to catch the annual 4th of July Parade (always on the 3rd).

Later that afternoon as the guys & kids played on the lake, Erin took me with her to her cousin, Stacy’s surprise birthday party! It was great to meet some of her family – many of them I already felt I knew