Family Road-Trip 2013

We have been visited my Mr. Jack Frost this week. Good thing he came to us when we are home and not on the road. 

For the week of Thanksgiving, I decided to invite myself and my little family to my brother's house in California. Them being the amazing people they are, they said "Sure!" and off we went for a whole week. 

The drive down went by so fast, I believe my excitement made the drive very enjoyable. SW Idaho and SE Oregon are pretty flat and dry and empty.

We drove for what seemed not so long when we came upon a funny named town: Winnemucca. After stretching our limbs and eating a little subway sandwich, we carried on to our southern journey. For many many miles we drove as we listened to music and told the children to quit fighting over whatever they were fighting over, then we saw hints of civilization again. A small city called Sparks came into focus. We thought it was Reno because we could see a few skyscrapers with flashy lights luring people to leave their money on their gambling tables. Sparks is kind of the Jamaica Plains of Boston, the West Valley of Salt Lake or the Meridian of Boise. 

Clowning around

Airborne

He can Fly!

One of the entrances

 










Reno was fun. We stayed in a place called Circus Circus. It was very interesting how people walked around with their little families inside the building with cigarettes in hand. Circus Circus was like a Chuck-E-Cheese with smokers but with lots more lights. My kids had fun for about the 1st 20 minutes. We went up to our room to watch Mrs. Doubtfire and jump on the beds. Shh, don't tell anyone!

Bright Lights in the City

Bennett Family Reunion 2011

On Saturday, July 16th, a few of the Bennetts got together at Grandma Barbara Bennett's house for the annual Bennett Family Reunion. When Zach and I got there, we found Grandma sitting in the corner of her favorite sofa, the long one under the mirror. She looked very pretty. She was glowing, her cheeks were even rosy. She sat there as everyone that came, talked and ate. She was holding her right arm, and then she wrapped it with a dry rag. She said it was hurting and it felt really cold. She had a little bit of lunch and then took a long nap in her bedroom. When I took the pictures she was sleeping and then when I wanted to take her picture, the camera's battery died.
Here is what I want to say about Grandma Barbara Bennett. I met her just before I got married and everytime we visited her, she made me feel very welcome. She has been a sweet great-Grandmother to my 2 little monkeys and she is that way with all the children that visit her. This August she will be turning 97 years old. She is a living treasure. I love this great lady. Because of her, I have my little family.

Colleen and Pam smile for the camera....can you tell Colleen is a proud grandma of a gorgeous baby boy? Well she is!

Burke and Zach goofing around and having fun

Burke is a decent guy, he didn't let Zach get a feel for his bossoms.

Chow time: Chicken thighs and drumsticks and chicken tenders for Chester's along with lovely salads, and that sweet coolwhippy salad with the little marshmellows and jello and cottage cheese...oh yeah, and my salsa fresca with cheeeeeeeps.

Most of Burke's and Julie's babies....except for the 2 cute mexicans :) those are mine, all mine!

Uncle Lynn and his bride, Alice and their family.

say cheese!

Phyllis and Larry and Aunt Caroline...these 2 blouses I  thought were so cute, super cute!

Robert pointing at the yummy plate Zachy made..."this here chicken is the best Preston has to offer"

Stay Thirsty My Friends

Discussing the mission and the weather and Zach's videos

Smart idea to set the tables under the shade of those gorgeous big trees. Here's Chris enjoying the shade and the light cool breeze.

Cool Burke and Jaxon

Did Julie want to go outside with the others?

The livingroom was the hangout place for the girls

Burke and Julie's beautiful family just before they left to swim at Downata Springs, FUN!

This was supposed to be the 'silly' shot....not everyone got that memo it seems!

you can add your own caption here.................

This shot was to be the serious one.....good job Zachy!

Granny, here are your granddaughters from Idaho......wish Jackie was here! or is it 'were here'?

We were so happy to see Gramps again. Little Franklin bawled his eyes out when we left. He wanted to take Gramps home

The Traditional "Let's go See the Vacas Shot" They were specially stinky this day. But we thanked them for the milk and then my camera's battery died.

Work and Learn

This last weekend we took a trip to beautiful Utah. We went there for work. The whole family, even Danny. He went to help us with the kids. Danny is so kind to the kids, but I think he had enough kid time to last him the rest of the year. My kids are unstoppable. So if you're reading this Danny, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

We learned a whole lot and ate even more. The biggest lesson I learned was to KNOW your goals, and work toward them, otherwise we're just wishing...Wishing is not a very good business plan.  We also got to hear Jamie Clarke, a super hyper- awesome guy from Canada who climbed Mt. Everest. Talk about not giving up, he is also funny. And also we got to meet Patrick Duffy, the actor from the old TV series "Dallas". I was a kid when that show was popular, all I remember was guys in cowboy hats and all the ladies in the show had way too much make-up and super poofy hair. Patrick was a very down to earth person. Very kind and somewhat funny. There were music bands in the evenings. Of course, the kids were among the biggest dancers on the resort. Great fun. But now it's time to work.