OUR EXTENDED VACATION

Sorry for the break in posting, y'all. Things were just a bit busy around here with the holiday weekend and all. Now back to our adventures in Not Real Life Land...

At the end of our stay in Lake Tahoe, we decided that it would be most prudent (not to mention fun) to extend our vacation and head to my sister's place for a few days. We hadn't been there in, say, nearly 4 years. Yikes! For a while there, I got out there about once a year and then that tradition pretty much went town the drain. But that has nothing to do with our trip. So I'll move on...we had SO much fun visiting at A & J's. While Anne and I filled our time during the day with a bit of shopping, lots of talking, grocery shopping, swimming, etc., Max and Jordan worked on fixing the waterfall in their backyard, went to a movie, hit a few balls on the tennis court, and played Rock Band 2. And whilst we adults were preoccupied with ignoring them, the children jumped on the trampoline, played in the sandbox, partied in the play room, and interfered with Max and Jordan's plan to get perfect scores on Rock Band 2.

Becca and Claire chillin' on the trampoline.

Hudson catching some air.

Max and Jordan rocking out while Hudson plays the drums (or so he thinks) while Claire and Becca look on.

Claire burying her own foot in the sandbox...I think roughly 5 cups of sand came out of her shoe when I took it off.

In the evenings, we pulled out all the stops, eating dessert and watching the High School Musical movies. I'd heard a few of the songs before (and honestly found them to be quite catchy and entertaining) but had never treated myself to the Oscar-worthy productions and acting that are so undeniably present in these cinematic masterpieces. In all honesty, I thought that they were actually rather entertaining. My favorite songs come from the 1st and 3rd movies and aside from Troy (let out a scream, girls!) and whats-her-face, my fave character was Ryan (plays Ashley Tisdale's brother). We had one other night there and while Max and Jordan watched a "guy flick", Anne and I visited in the kitchen and then went searching for some very little but seriously loud frogs at the base of their waterfall. We found three frogs, caught one, and later saw and tried to catch a tadpole. It was rather far along in development with four very tiny, cute legs (it actually jumped a couple of times) but it's body still fat with the tail sticking out at the end.

The cute little froggy we caught.

In short, I am so glad that we took the time to go to Anne's place. We really appreciated Becca giving up her room for Max and me, Ben sharing his room with Hudson, and the kids clearing out of the play room each night so that Claire could sleep in there. A & J are always great hosts and they really outdid themselves (wink, wink). We love you, wildcats.

A couple of days before our planned trip home, we decided that we needed a vacation. So, instead of heading home after our stop at A & J's, we headed to my parents' place for the final leg of our trip...