Two Lakes Three Families - Part One

For our family vacation we had eleven blissful days of pure relaxation and fun! It started out in Twain Harte, CA, a cute little mountain community with a members only lake where families have been coming back every summer for generations! It felt like a good old fashioned family vacation from the 70s. We shared a cabin with the Warrens, so it was lots of girls and then Owen. He took it upon himself to become everyone's pesky little brother. But they had so much fun together. We did a little bit of everything. Here's some of the favorites:

Visiting the mining town Columbia. We got to pan for gold, ride in a stagecoach, and of course drink some sassparilla!

A day trip to Yosemite which involved lots of rock climbing, channeling Ansel Adams and two bears.

Could there be a more perfect backdrop???


A beautiful bike ride through the mountains.



Girls' shopping trip

A round of 70s style mini golf

Family bingo night at the Snack Shack

And of course the lake!

Thanks to the Warrens for being such great vacation buddies!

Sunday morning photo shoot

We were ready early for church on Sunday so we had an impromptu photo shoot. Unfortunately, we got so carried away, we actually ended up being late for church. But we did get some cute shots.

Best Cousins

Can you believe they will be starting their last year of middle school?

Boy cousin sleepover - not so scary.

We hosted the Keeler boy cousin sleepover. Owen was counting down the days and it did not disappoint. They had a great time. Chris took them to the abandoned house next door to shoot paint ball guns at old stuff on the hill. Sounds really classy, huh? That's the way we roll!

Are we a crazy cat family yet?

Introducing the newest Keeler family member. June the kitten. All I can say is don't even go over to the people with the box that are standing in front of Walmart. And whatever you do, don't look in that box. You never know what might be looking back at you. In our case, it was this adorable little thing. How can you say no to that face? Lesson learned ... sorry Chris.

Going for Orange

Owen and Ethan tested for their Orange belt in Tae Kwon Do. This was their first time sparring. It is quite hilarious and disturbing at the same time. When Owen first got his sparring equipment - he took out the "diaper" as we call it. It has thick padding in the front and straps on in the back. He took a long look at it and said, "well, at least the front is covered." He thought that he didn't wear pants under it. He is that committed to the sport he was willing to go bare bummed. Although he was visibly relieved when we told him he wore it over his pants!

Here's a video of him in action.

School's Out!

Last day of school - four of the most beautiful words!

Shelby finished fourth grade with a bang. Straight A's all year. Wow, we are impressed missy!

Owen's last day of Kindergarten! That boy is going to miss his teacher sweet Mrs. E. He was a little disappointed that he didn't get a "real" goodbye hug from her. According to him, she only put one arm around him and gave him an "air hug". I think he was looking forward to a real squeeze. Love that boy!

Towing ability and Che Colbert - what more could a guy want?

One of the best things about Chris is that he is quite easy to please. Take this year's father's day celebration. The only thing he asked for was a Stephen Colbert Tshirt. Easy enough, I ordered it and it came in XL instead of Large. So they sent me another in the right size. So not only did he get the tshirt he wanted, he also got one for a fat friend. It turns out that the XL wasn't too bad so he is his own fat friend and he can wear his new tshirt most days of the week because he has two. This makes him very happy. Also, Chris finally got a hitch put on the car and he was anxious to carry things around with it (I am told it is a sign of manliness). So we loaded up all the bikes and headed to Mission Bay for a family bike ride. It was a beautiful day. Finish it off with some barbecue and you've got a real celebration. Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever!

Love a great deal on family fun

It's officially a tradition ... family day at Castle Park. It's a small amusement park in Riverside that sells their all day unlimited ride passes for $5 per person through the Christmas season. For the past two years we have all bought them and spent the day at the park together. We were missing some this year, but we'll do better in 2010. Can you beat that deal? Chris particularly loves it as you can see.

Beautiful Zion

We had a great family trip to Zion National Park this Spring Break. We looked at a map to see where we haven't been that was within a day's drive and Zion won! We loved it - can't believe we hadn't ever been here. The drive wasn't bad at all. We stayed at the adorable Pioneer Lodge in Springdale. The cutest little town. We loved that it was so non-touristy. The restaurants were all great, we got to see Coraline on a humongous movie screen, we rode our bikes, hiked a bunch and went in the hotel hot tub during a dust storm. There were all kinds of adventures to be had. The weather was perfect. We hope to come back to hike the narrows someday when the kids are older. Good Trip!

The adventure pose...