Cousins in town!

S#1 & family came into town for the weekend. They live up in Iowa and don't make it to Dallas very often. They arrived Friday night and the whole family came over to our house. After much food debate, we got pizza, Mexican food and hot dogs from the grocery store. Everyone was happy.

Saturday we spent the afternoon at S#2's house. The Rangers were on and the outside television broke. The men made a quick trip to Sam's Club for a new tv, burgers and beer. The essentials.


They were able to put up the tv quickly and sat down to enjoy it.




The boys had splashing contests. I think my boys really liked having boy cousins to hang out with. B keeps talking about them.






It was a nice afternoon.

This morning they left for Houston to visit BIL#1's family and S#4. We met for breakfast before they headed out.










I don't know what was up with A this morning. She was out to goof up all the photos.

We were all happy to hang out with the Iowa cousins. It had been way too long. Maybe we'll make a trip up north to visit them next time.

The Big Trip Part V

Day 5 & 6

(Back from a long delay due to an absolutely sh%^$^&^ty week at work. This whole having a real job thing can be a big drain.)

Time to cruise!

We got up in Squamish and enjoyed a bit more of the scenery eating breakfast outside.


We took pictures on a walk around the hotel grounds. Giant slugs that the boys thought were poop and an artsy-fartsy photo of a huge tree.




We headed back into Vancouver to start the cruise. We happened to run into the cousins at the gas station filling up the rental car. The whole getting on the boat thing was much easier than when we went on the Carnival cruise last summer. It seemed only minutes after arriving at the terminal we were on board and the ship had taken off.

Goodbye Vancouver


Nice view from the veranda


We spent time exploring the ship. B found this Monsters University cutout.


There was a send off party on deck. The kids all got up to dance. J is hiding back there. B rocked the Gangnam Style




We had a lot of fun doing activities on the boat. Trivia, bingo, shows, euchre on deck. We all participated in the Disney 200, making Derby cars out of a carrot and a potato.








I worked with J & Cousin M and we made the Epcot Express. I cut the potato into the big Epcot ball, made a carrot Mickey head and stuck it on the carrot. We did well. The Epcot Express came in second in the race and got the best design for the car. The kids were suppose to come up with the concept and the parent was suppose to execute it. M outed me as the designer when she was interviewed by the host Speedbump Steven. Dh is still insisting that I am now the derby car designer in the family. I think there is a difference between a carrot & potato car and a wood derby car!

We went the ventriloquist show and cousin C was picked to help out on stage.


He did a great job up there and was very funny. It was a fabulous start to our cruise.

The Big Trip Part IV

Day 4: Whistler

We headed into Whistler in the morning to go up the mountains. We took the gondolas up Whistler.




The whole trip I tried to take pictures with Christmas cards in mind. Just to show my friend Susan that her kids are not the only ones.




















More photo ops with the Olympic rings at the top of the gondolas


You could take a short hike down a ways and take a chair lift up to the very top of the mountain. It was cold but we did it anyway.
















The last photo shows the hiking trails at the peak. I wish we had been more appropriately dressed and we could have gone for a short hike. It probably had some beautiful views.

After the chair lift we hiked back up the gondola landing. It was a lot tougher go up than going down. Next we went on the Peak 2 Peak gondolas that take you to Blackcomb.


We went across and got right back on to check out the glass bottom gondola.


Not all that exciting. At least we didn't sit through the very long line that was on the Whistler side. After a trip back across to Blackcomb, we had lunch in the cafe and took chairlifts down.




On our way back to Squamish, we stopped at Brandywine Falls to check out the scenery.