Olympic worthy?

 Probably not. AFV (America's funniest videos) - maybe.

Lea got a turn being launched - she's not so daring or she would have gone pretty far.

 Jeff and Eric taking notes from Mo and Abbey trying to time their flips.....I'd give it a 0 unless we're talking 'Un-synchronized Flips'

 Let's try this - climb on Nathan's shoulders, then he'll launch you in the air.....okay.

 well, that didn't work so well, let's have a meeting.....

 you ready? I guess.

 Attempt #2

 So 'Grace' is noone's middle name around here.

Eric's turn and by this time we are no longer the only ones in the pool, but does that stop us from acting crazy....nope. They know how to put on a show. haha!

 And not to be left out - Jeff tries. Unfortunately they have moved to the shallower water, not a good idea.

 Some loyal followers of our 'Olympic' attempts at greatness.

 Grandpa with Mo and Abbs

 Grandma with Kaibs

 Sharolyn with Paisley

 Bored of the big kids hogging the pool?? Head for the hot tub.

 

The ever popular 'Penguin dive' - notice a difference in form?

 front flips by Lea, Anna and Jase - I had a hard time watching these - they came so close to the edge it made me sick.

 Time to call it a night, sun was going down and it was getting rather chilly. Until next time - yeah, there's more. :)

Another day at the pool

 There was a clubhouse at our rental at Tahoe. We took full advantage of the pool and hot tub. It was nice to have Jeff around and the kids loved 'showing off' their mad swimming and jumping skills.

 Mo is fearless - notice how high his feet are to get over the 'lip' of the pool. It was all fun and games til he dragged his feet across the edge, then he was done.

 Abbey and Mo trying to jump together.....

 We had the place to ourselves

 Got it!

 We moved on to the bigger kids 'jumping'

 Nathan became the designated launcher - Lucas.

 Anna

 Lea

 Jase

 Super Lucas!

Pedicure Beach

 Okay that's not what it's really called, but that's what I got by the time we finished hanging out there and walking back to the car. It was awful 'sand' - mostly small rocks/gravel and it was hot too! The kids didn't seem to mind and the water was well it was frigid. :) I wouldn't have minded the water so much if the 'sand' was better in the water, nope - same miserable stuff. The one benefit was the free buffing and pedicure I received.

 Anna and Lea

 Abbey enjoying  a swim

 

 Steven brought a 'go-pro' water camera and was recording the girls as they swam towards him. This was the best 'toy' ever!

 Eric and Jeff showing off their 'flower' swim shorts. :)

' Where there is sand, a hole must be dug'. I think that's a Risenmay law. (Jase)

 Kaibs

 Mo would have nothing to do with the sand, so he and I sat on the blanket as close to the water as possible without getting in it.

 Not a big fan of Jeff - he took him out in the water....at my request so not really Jeff's fault.

 Steven, Jeff and Eric - Jeff finally braved the water to go all the way under.

 this is where I failed as a parent: I didn't sunscreen Abbey's back (she had a shirt on earlier) and her back was FRIED. I felt so bad and she was so miserable for the next couple days. We gave her tylenol and bought some aloe. It finally went away after another week and some burn cream I got from my mom's house really helped clear up the end when it started to peel. Poor girl - still reminds me of the time I forgot the sunscreen.......

 Nathan was a good uncle and buried the kids in the sand as requested. Lea, Lucas and Anna

 Lucas got swallowed up in an ant hill.

 Lucas chasing the geese and possibly disturbing the 'Zen' of that man.

One last time: Lucas enjoying the sand slide

 Lea is a little more hesitant to throw herself down the sand hill

 Not to be left behind, Abbey took a turn.

As fun as that was, we vowed not to come back because the sand was so painful - well I did anyway. 

Middle of nowhere Nevada

 On our way to Lake Tahoe and we decided to go a different route than the Phoenix to LA then North to Tahoe route. We decided to take Highway 89 to Lake Tahoe literally through the middle of nowhere, Nevada. We brought 8, 3 liter containers of water just in case. We stayed in Vegas the first night at Jeff's parents house - they had already headed out a few days before so we arrived to an empty house. 2 hours into the trip from Vegas, we got stopped for about an hour in Beatty, NV. Nothing like sitting in 'traffic' from construction so long your car starts to heat up and you have to turn the a/c off - it's only 110 outside. awesome. We said good-bye to civilization and headed North and as you can see from the picture below - it was 'scenic'. A few abandoned towns along the way - one Lucas had to use the bathroom........I was afraid to stay there very long. There was plenty of cars, just no people. We found the 'public bathroom project' (there was a sign - said so) - a small brick building - 2 doors. They opted to go around back and then we got the heck out of dodge. It was like the song Hotel California - you can check in any time you like, but you can never leave......creepy.

 movies and music are essential

 more scenic sites - looks vaguely familiar to the above photo, but they are two different locations on the drive......exciting!

Hawthorne, NV - home of the army depot for miles to see. Truly amazing to see and such pride for our nation - seriously. When you grow up and your high school mascot is a Bomber (B52 - Days Pay plane and the nuclear bomb) - you can't help but swell with pride for every military location and person in the good ole USA.

 Windmills made out of old bombs - how cool is that?!

 The entrance to this cemetery is line with 'bomb tips'

 

I have an appreciation for old cars thanks to my dad. This was on the side of a building we stopped by to figure out which way to go from Hawthorne.

Bonus travel tip

So here's a bonus tip I thought of as Lucas and I headed for Good Night Pediatrics. 

Bring a puke bowl or bag. I remember many a trips using my pillowcase to puke in (I was really sick when I was about 7 and I'm a social puker - seeing someone else puke, makes me puke)

Bring plastic sandwich/gallon (for food that's not individually wrapped) bags to also hand out snacks.

Bring plastic grocery bags for soiled clothes, garbage and just to have.

Oh and wipes - we bring wipes for everything and each 'row' gets their own package.

That's all - we're sleepy over here.

Travel tips

My 15 favorite TRAVEL TIPS: 

1: Individual food items or containers to split up food are so much easier to manage. We put all of our food in an empty diaper box to keep it contained. Have a schedule for food too - this way you don't feel like you're eating all the time and the kids get sick eating so much in a short period of time. Have a garbage sack for each part of the car - not hard for little cars, but you don't want to be passing garbage around as well as the food.

For example: breakfast - 7 am

snack 10 am

lunch 12 am

nap time

snack 2:30

dinner 5 pm

bed time - hopefully we're almost there!

(yes we travel for days at a time)

2: Cooler with fruit slices and sandwich makings for the grown-ups who appreciate a little more than a lunchable.

3: Water bottles! Bring extra water too, not only to refill the water bottles, but also in case of emergency.

4: Special toys for each kid - that's where their bag comes in handy. Each toy must be put away at every stop to avoid losing them getting in and out of the car.

5: Flip/flop basket. Granted we travel most during the summer, but one summer I was driving a 5 hour part by myself and at one stop, a flip flop was missing. Insert tears of panic from the 5 year old boy, irritation because I had to carry the infant and the 5 year old into the restroom along with the 8 year old and 3 year old. It was definitely NOT awesome. So I have a small green basket and every stop, they take their sandals and return them to the bucket after getting in. Keeps stuff from getting stepped on with dirty shoes.

6: Movie list. If you have a dvd player, a movie list is a must. There's no fighting over what's next - the list is final. :) Make it together so everyone gets an input.

7: Clothing: I over pack - alot. So to reduce the clothing we took, we made a new plan. Each child would have 8 gallon storage bags - 1 for each day of the week, plus an extra. One outfit per bag including underwear for each day. Sunday had a 'change into' for after church. 2 pairs of pj's, one long pant, sweatshirt and 2 long sleeve shirts. I got smart after the first week and couldn't remember how we matched some of the clothes, so I wrote what was contained in each bag on the front of the bag. Each day the kids would come grab the bag of the day and put their pj's in the bag to be worn that night. THIS WAS AWESOME!! That way I could hand a bag to my husband or other adult and say 'here's the clothes, please help me'. It also helped when we were only staying overnight somewhere - we only had to bring in the bag for the next day instead of ALL the suitcases. Make sure you think ahead to travel days and what will be most comfortable and what you don't mind getting dirty from long car rides with food and snacks. Each week we'd do laundry and reload the bags.
Note that my 6 year old boy only has about 4 pairs of shorts so we matched what we could and told him to reuse the shorts he wanted to wear again. My girls definitely have more clothing options.

8: STICKERS! I bought sticker packets for each kid - $1 at Walmart. They loved it!

9: The BIN: In the backseat with the girls, I had a smaller storage bin with clipboards, coloring books, crayons, dvd case, and other stuff we thought would be good. This was the collector of all so we'd put their bags in their too to keep it out of the way. The clipboards and paper came in handy for the stickers. :)

10: Headphones for the driver. :) Jeff likes to drive and I don't love it. I get sleepy driving from one side of the valley to the other. So to keep him awake and alert, he had a cd player or his phone with music, a laptop set up or something available for him to listen to a book on cd, endless hours of music, etc.

11: Potty chair: seems a little silly right? Well it doubles as a footstool for when we arrive places and my kids are still a little short to reach all sinks. Plus if we had to in an emergency, the girls could use it on the side of the road - at the very suggestion they can hold it. haha!

12: New toys: My now 2 year old was having a birthday shorty after we were getting home, but I picked up a few gifts in Washington - different selection. I pulled those toys out along the way home - he loves the little people super heroes.

13: Seating is crucial for us - noone wants to travel for hours listening to fighting and screaming. We put the girls in the back to play 'barbies' and the boys in the middle so I could reach the baby and pass food around. The other person in the middle gets to be the passer-back and needs to be willing to help out. 

14: The one thing we haven't figured out is where to put the cooler so it's easily accessible to the passenger (me) to get food for everyone, but still have leg room, room in-between the front seats for cell phones, chargers, wallets, etc. We did use a small 'lunch' cooler for Jeff one time that seemed to work, except it was not a good cooler - leaked when the ice melted......

15: We occasionally buy treats at the gas station - this was my favorite part of traveling as a kid. We'd get to Boise, stop at the Flying J and my dad would buy some sort of ice cream treat......good times. 

I think that about covers it - sing songs, play the ABC game, find the truck, find the American flag, find the LDS church or Temple. Have fun and enjoy being in the car together!! Happy travels! One last thing: start and end with a prayer.