The Packer 6: May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Memorial Day on the Boat

First boat trip of the season - loved it! We made a day trip to the Oroville Afterbay to avoid the holiday crowds. The water there is very cold - but it is worth it for the great water. We set up camp at our favorite sandy beach and enjoyed a day in the sun. I was not able to ski last season since Holden joined the family on July 25th. So, I was so excited to ski again, but paid the price the day following with some seriously sore muscles. I forgot how much work skiing is!

Dawson paddled himself around on the raft for a long time. No worries - we tied the raft to a long rope so he couldn't go too far :)

Manning the flag

Major News - Will, my brother-in-law, learned how to ski! He tried last year with no luck, but this year he was skiing on his second attempt. Pretty Amazing. By the end of the day - he was cruising around the lake. I think he will be able to graduate from the beginner ski pretty soon.

Taya's max tubing speed is about 10 mph. It's so slow, it's funny. Will gets pretty restless and starts dragging his feet off the side for a little thrill.

Dawson is exactly the opposite. This boy was built for speed. The faster the better. He is nothing but smiles out there. They went over a crazy bump and Dawson just barely held onto one strap and pulled himself back onto the tube then sat down and smiled like nothing happened. Will was not so lucky - he got a refreshing dip.

Enjoying a lazy day

My dad gave Holden a great ride in the raft.

Dawson tried skiing again this year with no luck. Jason tried a new technique, but it's really hard to teach someone to get up, especially a 6 year old. Dawson is dying to ski, so we bought him the EZSki this week. Hopefully, this will let him gain the confidence to transition to real skis and it should be a lot of fun for him.

Monterrey Trip

The kids and I went to Monterrey a couple weeks ago for work/pleasure. We had our annual Users Conference for work at a great hotel in Monterrey, prefect location right on Cannery Row next to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. My dad works for the same company, so my mom came with us and we played for a couple days and then she watched the kids while I worked. The weather was wonderful and we had a great trip - I love Monterrey.

The kids were so proud of themselves for climbing to the top of some very large rocks. Even Taya joined in on the fun and was so brave.

We rented a surrey to ride around in Monterrey. OK, these things are a LOT harder than they look. At least 3 adults and 3 children on the small one is. Our first problem is that we tried to fit way too many people on the smaller surrey. The second problem is that our surrey had a broken pedal. We were quite the sight - my dad was working up a sweat, I was trying really hard to pedal with a broken pedal, and my mom was sitting in the middle doing nothing laughing hysterically. My mom and I started laughing so hard I thought I was going to fall off the thing. We quickly decided this was not going to work and went back for the bigger surrey. That worked out a lot better. We got a LOT of oohs and aahs with the 3 kids riding in the front. How cute does Holden look in the little bike helmet. Adorable!

3 kids crammed into one double stroller

We had so much fun at the beach. Monterrey is a bit cold, but the kids didn't let that stop them from playing in the sand and splashing their feet in the water.

Holden loved the sand - he loved digging in it, playing in it, crawling in it and especially eating it.

Dawson digging for crabs

Taya got a bit too cold

We tried to go to Monterrey Bay Aquarium on Tuesday and within an hour of arriving, Dawson became incredibly sick with a fever, headache and the chills. We headed back to the hotel and some motrin seemed to do the trick for the next 24 hours. We tried again on Wednesday with success! Just as we were leaving the aquarium, Dawon's fever broke and Taya's started. Holden's then started the day after. At least it only lasted 24 hours and they were all pretty happy with motrin.

Laying on the ground watching the sardines swim circles.

Taya and Dawson loved the touch pools. Taya especially loved the pink star fish, but would not go near anything that moved. Dawson was much braver and touched crabs and everything else he could.

My favorites were the jellyfish and the leafy sea dragon.

The hotel had a very small pool, but the kids loved it just the same.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Davis Family Reunion

While my family was in town, we had a Davis family reunion with my Dad's entire side of the family at my parents house. It was great to see everyone, it has been far too long. Thanks everyone for making the drive!

The kids table - Dawson, Taya, Madison and Michael

We had a great time visiting, eating, playing Rock Band and taking pictures of each other. That seemed to be the theme of the day. No one wanted their picture taken, but they sure wanted to take pictures of everyone else!