Fiascos and other fun

Tatum attempted to make her first fancy cake in a fluted pan. This is a vintage Bundt® pressed aluminum pan that we picked up at a yardsale for 50¢ last summer. She's been itching to use it and with Nana coming to visit, she decided to try. Next time she will remember to treat the pan with some sort of spray or oil. The top half of the cake is stuck in the pan.

Keeli decided to take advantage of Nana's visit by getting a pink and purple toenail painting session. One toe is pink, the next is purple, the next is pink ... You get the idea. Nana has 5 more glorious days of this treatment.

This is Rick having the most fun he's had in weeks. It may be 7:44 a.m. on Sunday, but he isn't gearing up for fantasty football. He's headed across the skybridge to the airport and ultimately Los Cabos. Wait for me!

Blast off!

We had a rare opportunity this week to attend the NASA shuttle launch in person. The experience was fantastic! It was also the first vacation we've taken without children in 10+ years.

We watched the launch from the causeway between the mainland of Florida and Cape Canaveral. We were sitting about 5 miles away from the launch site with about 50,000 of our closest friends for the day. The view was unbeatable, the sound was deafening.

This is STS-125, the final NASA mission to the Hubble Telescope. Through my previous employment, I met NASA Astronaut Pilot Gregory C. Johnson. Our invitations to attend the launch and related activities came from him.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Kennedy Space Center. We hit all the tours, including the Rocket Garden, the Launch Experience. the art gallery, ate ice cream at the Milky Way and watched the new Star Trek movie on the KSC Imax.

These are models of the shuttle, the external fuel tank and booster rockets. We toured the inside of the shuttle - it is amazing how big it is for carrying cargo, but how small it seems to live in for an extended period of time.

After all the excitement of the launch was over, we headed out for some more fun in the sun. The first course we had a tee time scheduled for was socked in with smoke from a nearby fire. We ended up at the North Shore Golf Club and had a great time squeezing in 9 before catching our plane back home. We golfed with Pat and Roger, who were vacationing in Florida from England.

Vacation Dangers

All throughout Yellowstone you are reminded of the danger of thermal areas. Signs constantly warn you not to walk in certain areas, especially those which may be a thin crust over pools of scalding hot water. It wasn't easy herding and keeping track of 3, 4, sometimes 9 kids and seeing the sites in a leisurly manner.

Some of the signs at certain park areas are simple to read, telling you to stay out. Others are pictures worth a thousand words, telling a story of danger and how to avoid it. My kids laughed at them, calling them old fashioned and silly. Apparently they are still good enough to catch their attention. My 7-year-old asked why people would jump off the path into the super volcano.

Visitors should not step off the boardwalks, they may step directly onto a geyser:
Visitors should keep their pets on a leash, as pets don't realize the dangers off the path: Geysers may erupt at any time. You should not leave the marked paths to inspect them:
The most dangerous things we encountered were people, People who think it is okay - safe even - to approach bison and elk to get a closer picture. On our final day in the park a grizzly bear was roaming about 40-50 yards off the roadway and people were chasing after it to get a photo. We made due with photos of the bear from the car window.

Yellowstone - seasoned tourists

We've been here the better part of a week and for our last full day together on vacation, we split up. The dads and the older kids all went white water rafting. The moms, the little kids and Nana and Papa hit the road to see what was at the Grand Teton National Park. The mountains and the glacial lakes were beautiful. Pictures will follow.

Rafting was apparently a scream! A good time was reportedly had by all. Rick and Myron were at the front of the raft. Ashlie and her boyfriend Riley were in the center. Myranda and Jesse were in the back with the guide Ricky Bobby.
They were rafting the Gallatin River, described by the guide service as a "small technical white water river with continuous rapids and scenic beauty featured in the movie "A River Runs Through It"." Well, the river went right through and over our rafters more than once.

Yellowstone - 1st time tourist

Our first trek through the Upper Geyser Basin at Yellowstone National Park was great. The kids were excited to learn about volcanoes, geysers and they all wanted to know where the lava was. Luckily we bring along our own in-house science teacher for just such occassions. We were watching this little tiny geyser gush and gush for several minutes. Rikard declared Beehive Geyser his favorite. And then...All of a sudden the real Beehive Geyser behind the little indicator geyser rumbled and erupted. Rikard and Bailey were soaked and people were running in several directions to get out of the spray. This geyser shoots more than 130-feet into the air. It was a spectacular site. Everyone in our group was a big fan.

Within minutes Old Faithful went off. The scene is spectacular, but according to the kids, not as great as see all the different kinds of geysers and pools you can see walking around the park.

Around a couple of corners we saw some steaming pools. Walking through the hot steam on a hot day smelling sulfur was not one of Rick and Dad's favorite pasttimes. But, they weathered it well and keep driving us to see new wonders each day.

Fore! and other fun

We hit the road over the weekend for our annual family trek. This year's destination: Yellowstone National Park.

Our first stop on the road trip was a quick visit with Auntie Kelly in C'dA to drop off a baby crib and give a nice big birthday hug to the ol' girl. Next stop was lunch at the $50,000 Silver Dollar Bar. We didn't let the kids go into the bar, but they came out of the place acting crazy anyway. Our destination for the first night was Anaconda, Mont. You may be asking yourself, what the heck is in Anaconda, Mont.? It is an old copper mining town, but had enough activities to keep us all entertained for the day.

Our primary reason for staying the night was to let Rick golf at Old Works, a Jack Nicklaus signature course. They utilized the former copper smeltering site and tons of slag for the construction of the course, they even incorporated old equipment into the site.While Rick was golfing the kids and I explored Anaconda. We found this great display of the Anaconda Copper Mine rail cars downtown.
We found this huge pot from the smelter at the Anaconda Smoke Stack State Park. The 585' 1.5" stack is on the hillside behind the pot, but it's just a big chimney, not very photogenic.

After the sightseeing, we went to the skate park where the locals took it upon themselves to teach Rikard the basics of boarding. He got a skateboard for his birthday two weeks ago and has yet to brave letting it move while he is standing on it.

A couple streets over we found a little park that features a 40-foot slide. The first 10-feet is nearly a straight drop. The kids had a ball! After watching the big kids for a couple of trips down and up, Keeli finally got brave enough to go down. She looked so tiny on that slide and the first time down you could tell she was holding her breath. After that there was no stopping her.

On to Yellowstone.

Back at the Beach

Sand, surf and sunshine are always a good combination to keep the kids entertained.

Tatum was overwhelmed by a wave while searching for sand dollars.
Keeli played it safe all day and waded in the tiny waves.

Lisa and Rikard got a little crazy dancing and jumping over the waves while Tatum searched again for sand dollars and Justin and Collin waited for another big wave.

After a while all the waves are the same and the sand gets more interesting. Collin and Austin started to bury one another at the beach.

Clam Digging

Morning dawns cool and cloudy on the Pacific coast. The mist was rolling out when we got to the beach in the dig clams.

Digging wasn't as difficult or uncomfortable as I imagined. Rick and Cindy were expert at using the clam gun. The clam gun is a fancy little contraption made of PVC tubing and handles which costs about $15. It sure beats digging them with a shovel!

We each went home with our full limit. We had 90 clams to clean. There is a lot of chowder in our future.

While walking around in the surf alternately snapping photos and digging clams, I found two sand dollars. Tatum was thrilled when I returned to the campground.

Catch o'the Day

Friday started early.

The alarm went off at 4 a.m. and Rick was gone by 5 a.m. He went to dig clams with his uncle, aunt and cousin. I stayed in bed under the guise of having to stay and watch the kids, but secretly enjoying the comfort of the cabin and snuggling with the kids in the early morning.

The brought back 75 clams! We spent the morning making great plans for chowder and fried clams for dinner. I avoided learning to clean them - this time.

Randy taught us to catch crabs with a folding net that attaches to the end of a fishing line...

and with a crab net or bucket. Rick got pretty good at throwing it in and pulling it up.

We brought home 14 crabs, that was enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Dinner was great!

Vacation Day #5

It was our last full day at Cannon Beach. After breakfast and a trip to The Kite Factory, we went to the beach in Tolovana to experience the wind. It wouldn't be a traditional trip to Seaside/Cannon Beach without flying a kite.

All the kids (except the littlest, 1YO Charlie) got a new kite. Keeli had a great little kite that didn't need any assistance getting into the air. Michael and Bailey chose pirate kites. Rikard had a colorful tree frog with long legs as the kite tails. Tatum and Madison had butterflies (see photo above). Jesse had a horse kite with a 25' tail. Although they were all running wild on the beach they never tangled kite strings.

Rick bought himself a small stunt kite and had a good time learning to fly it. He had an admiring audience and when I took over and continuously crashed the kite they made fun of me.

Vacation Day #4

We spent the day at Seaside, exploring the beach and ocean, visiting specialty shops and riding the carousel. The bigger kids couldn't wait and went chasing waves the minute their feet hit the sand. Bailey, Madison and Tatum were soaked, but having a fantastic time.

Keeli had her first contact with the cold Pacific Ocean waves. She had fun running away from the waves and really liked it when there was just a skiff of water on top of the sand.

Tatum and Rikard were busy making sand castles using the sand dollars Tatum found in the surf.

After hitting the foot washing station and using it to rinse the sand from legs, arms, feet and in one case hair, we went on a stroll through all the little shops. We didn't buy anything, but the girls had a good time visiting Roxy and everyone had fun in the kite shop. Then, it was on to the Carousel Mall, where we rode the carousel. Note to self: buy t-shirts/sweatshirts at the $12.99 store in this mall on our next visit.
Then it was time to return to camp, get some scrum-dilly-uptious steak and pepper sandwiches made by my brother and - of course - s'mores for dessert. My new invention called for a Resses Peanut Butter Cup in my s'more rather than a little piece of plain chocolate. This is Michael and Bailey's favorite part of the day.

Vacation Day #3

Today we were off to Tillamook in a mini-family caravan. The drive was long, windy and full of great scenery. Thankfully, our drivers are patient and kind. First we stopped along scenic Highway 101 for a view to the south.
Then we stopped for a view to the north.
Our first stop of the day was the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was a great tour! We watched as 45 pound blocks of medium cheddar and pepper jack cheese being cut into "loaves" and packaged for retail sale. Tatum and Rikard had a million questions about how the factory and production line worked. Keeli napped through the entire tour.

After learning how cheese is made, it was off to the line for FREE SAMPLES. The extended Lyons clan (my parents, Bailey and Rikard) positioned themselves well. Just as they arrived at the front of the line, the hostess dumped new bags of cheese samples on the trays. Apparently, there were no bad samples.
Then, we had a free hour or two to squeeze one more vacation memory into. It was off to the next scenic wonder.


We drove from Tillamook toward the coast and visited the Cape Meares Lighthouse. The walk down to the lighthouse offered several places to view waves crashing against the rocks, ocean going birds and some great rocky landscape.

Then we hiked to the Octopus Tree. This is a very interesting site, the tree is larger than you can imagine and the Native American folklore surrounding it is very interesting.

Vacation Day #2

Our tour through Cannon Beach came to a screeching halt when the kids came upon the pink and white striped storefront of Bruce's Candy Shop. The taffy machine was busy in the window cutting and wrapping chocolate taffy.

Bailey, Tatum, Rikard and Keely were fascinated. We went inside and bought one handful of each flavor available.

We window shopped along with the other tourists and came upon a few stores selling sea shells, t-shirts and other items.

Then, it was off to the beach. On the way there, Rikard fell into an estuary and was soaked up to his armpits. Once at the water's edge, the kids ran in the surf, jumped over the waves and collected their "treasures" (otherwise known as bits of shells.

My dad checked his primary vacation goal off his list and took Sadee for a walk along the beach.