La Goon's

Why do I feel like I need a vacation to recover from a vacation?

Probably because I wrestled the kids without Byron.

He stayed home while I took the crew to Utah for the weekend.

First stop?  Lagoon Amusement Park.

 The girls took off and hit some of the "bigger kid" rides

while Kean and I hit a bunch of the small fry options.

Reese was a good sport and joined up with us to ride with

Kean on many of the rides I could barely get my long legs in to!

 And then, bless their sweet souls, were my nieces, Morgan and Lindsey.

They rode with Kean on several rides that would have had me barfing- like this one-

a ride that spins and lifts up.  

It was, hands down, Kean's favorite.  Get this, he rode

it EIGHT times with Morgan and Lindsey.

 My favorite was the ol' Rattlesnake Rapids-- a rafting trip

down a river and through a waterfall.  Because of Kean, we

got to ride every ride twice before getting off.

And on this one, boy, did we get soaked.

 Our tickets to Lagoon were free-- part of our parting gift

from our Make A Wish trip we took to Florida back in

November.

 We didn't get the rock star treatment like we did on our

Make A Wish trip, but we did have a blast cramming in

as much as we could.  The lines weren't bad and Kean

surprised us with his stamina.  As long as we kept him

on rides, he was happy.

The girls were just crazy.

 We topped the night off with a stop for dinner

at In and Out.  

Kean wolfed down his own milkshake.

You can see someone's hands in the pic- all

ready to grab the shake.

That would be because he has a habit of

tossing things when he's done.

For example, a near full cup of root beer

in the car (make that, all over the car we had just cleaned 

from top to bottom)!

 Notice, the girls are all responsible drinkers.

 The other big highlight of our trip was visiting my

grandmother at her new assisted living center.

Of course, Kean waltzed right in, found her bed

and pretended to take a nap (snores and all).

 Her new place is lovely.

Seriously, I'm tempted to sell off my kids

and move in there with her.

It is that nice!

 We got a tour of her new digs...

 look at how cute the area is just outside her door.

 We even had lunch with her in the dining room.

We actually were there to help celebrate and honor her

on her 98th birthday.

We gathered in a room upstairs and many of her children,

grandchildren (there are 86 of us) and great grandchildren (she has over 300)

took turns performing for her and sharing their talents.

Greer was one of the first to go-- she sang a solo.

 I thought you'd like to see my darling Grandma

and her children.  I love every one of these people

more than I can ever express.

I count myself pretty blessed to come from such goodness.

Now if I can just figure out how my grandmother seems

to have much more energy at 98 than I do at .........