Eldon's Navigation service

So last week Melissa was in town camping at the beach.

Several times during the day I would get a call on my cell phone that would start something like this:

"Hey do you know where Ralphs is?"
"Hey what exit is Costco on?"
"Hey we are lost over by downtown but we are hungry. Where is the best place to stop with kids?"

Hmm. That last one threw me for a loop. Lost but needed a place to eat that was just right for kids...

The funny thing is I am the worst with directions? Mindy kept laughing at me for even trying to help Melissa because I am so bad myself with directions. I am always missing turns or getting lost.

I am glad to know it is genetic. Call me anytime Melissa because at least I can use you as an example of how I inherited my complete lack of direction.

(I loved getting the calls and seeing you and the family)

California Trip

Here are some pictures of our beach trip!

We decided to take a break one day and head to Sea World. It was a lot of fun.

Allison was soggy that whole day because she loved sitting in the "Soak Zone".

Another day, we headed to San Diego and took a tour of the aircraft carrier the USS Midway! Talk about some cramped quarters!!


Then of course we spent lot's of time just playing on the beach!

Sammi lost at cards that morning, so she had to get buried alive!

We had fun torturing her and making her look buff!

Allison spent the entire time boogie boarding. She couldn't get enough!

We are happy to be home and out of the sand. We had a great time!

Bears, Bears, Bears!

We caught a bear running through our back yard Sunday morning. All the cousins were out playing and I heard shouts of a bear. I jumped in the Suburban and started picking up kids. We followed the bear and took this picture with my camera phone.

It's Summer & It's Hot

Every Saturday is a swim party this summer!


Even Rusty likes to party!!

Meet The Thomases

I thought I'd pick up where Jeff and Russ' wives left off with the whole in-law blog entry. I'm still a relatively new addition to the family and only seeing everyone around the holidays or family vacations has not made the newness of the Thomases completely wear-off yet.

My first encounters with the Thomas clan came during Christmas almost four years ago. The biggest thing for me to get used was the noise level. My family tends to be more reserved, so meeting up with all the Thomases was a lot to take in all at once--in fact it was pretty overwhelming at first. The one thing that helped me adjust to Thomas family life, was how accepting everyone was of me from the beginning (or at least you all acted that way). I think it helped that I gave Brent a welt on his forehead with the boys' Christmas present that year.

Since then I've enjoyed getting to know everyone a lot more, whether it's through our small stint living in California, Melanie living up in Provo for a year, paintballing with Russ, talking with Brent via iChat, or golfing with Dad. Now that we've acclamated to Colorado and we're getting into a house, any of you are more than welcome to drop in (especially to escape the Arizona heat).

More Summer Fun!

April and the kids came down this past week and will stay into the weekend. We're all going to Grandma's Pool tomorrow afternoon for swimming and a BBQ (more pics later). Tonight we had a fun time just hanging out eatin' burritos. Life is good - even though it's still 108+

Sabrina (almost 3) & Emma Lee (2 1/2)

Cousin Camp continued

Last Sunday we took the girls with us to Balboa Island, our yearly tradition. Mindy and I have come to this island every year since we have been married, and Mindy and her family have been coming here since the 1950's.

We have several traditions. One is that in the morning the kids can go by themselves to the little shop and buy a doughnut for breakfast. Here they are heading out.

One of the other favorite activities is riding the ferry over to Newport Beach and the fun zone. They have an arcade where you can earn tickets for prizes and a ferris wheel. But riding the ferry is half the fun.



But according to Sam her favorite thing of the whole trip was Kayaking!



So ended a great day at Balboa.


We get to stay this year for a whole two weeks!!!!!!!!! Yeah baby.

New House

We're finally getting out of apartment life and moving to the burbs. We found this great little house in Highlands Ranch (about 15 miles south of where we are now). It's two minutes to the rec center, two minutes to church and a five minute walk to the elementary school. Needless to say we're excited. We close on August 10th and we'll start moving in the week after that.

San Diego Cousin Camp 2007

Continuing the tradition of swapping girls (anybody want to take Garrett for a weekend?) Sam and Alison flew to San Diego last Friday.

Mindy didn't let them sit long. They drove straight to Sea World from the airport. After 5 hours of fun and crowds they came home to chill out for a bit. That is until I came home. Then I took the girls back to Sea World for another couple of hours of fun in the dark.

Nothing like those rides where you get yet when it is dark and cold.


Notice how wet Alison got despite the poncho.


Saturday we equally as busy. We watched Paige play basketball in the morning. By the way she would have fouled out if they were keeping track. She is aggressive on the court.


When we got back from the beach everyone just wanted to chill out. Sam and Alison found some warm bodies to snuggle up to.



Sunday and Monday were whole new adventures, but I don't have those pictures downloaded yet, so stay tuned.

My favorite comment was Alison on the way into Sea World. "This is so cool that it's cold. I can't believe I'm cold."

Dueling Denominations - A 4th of July Battle

Question: Does spending lots of $$$ pack the benches on a Sunday? Well, for two nearby churches, that seems to be the case. Especially on the 4th of July.

The "tri-clops" church on Brown/Val Vista throws a mean fireworks show. Theirs lasted a whopping 25 minutes! With a grand finale - bar none!

BUT... the Central Christian Church, which is also in visible view from our driveway, decided that MORE is better. 33 minutes packed with powerful pyrotechnic punches. The GRAND FINALE would just not stop! IT was wonderful!

But Linnea said it best, "I just love being able to walk thru the garage if the girls need to go to the bathroom!" This led into reminiscing about the golf course days, the coolness of the grass (we were sitting in chairs on still-hot concrete) and Mom stating, "Be sure you use the bathroom BEFORE we walk out to the fireworks." I guess it was a long way!

We had a pool party over at Mom and Dad's with Melanie, Russ & Linnea and Russ's brother and family. Jay and Alice DeWitt came over too. It was just wonderful to be somewhere cool! We grilled some chicken and ate some fruit followed by cheesecake and smoothies at the firework show!

Open invitation to all for next year: We still had plenty of seating and parking.

4th in San Diego

So we tried to pack in a full day. Mindy got up early and ran a 15K on Coronado Island while I cooked pancakes and made salsa.

Then we hooked up with another family with 4 kids and played a rousing game of Kickball!



Now all you AZ folks remember that we went out to play in the middle of the day.

After being beaten by the kids we went swimming.


Then a BBQ back at our house complete with Mindy's homemade Peach Ice Cream.

Then fireworks at Target. (see story)


No wonder all the kids were asleep by the time we got home.

San Diego County Fair

Every year the Fair is held a couple of miles from our home. And every year we do two things. First we curse the traffic caused by the fair, it takes me an extra 15 minutes to get home everyday.

Second we go to the fair and have such a good time we forgive the traffic.

How many State Fair's are held a few hundred feet from the from the beach?

We of course spent too much money on rides?


Including the Ferris Wheel overlooking the fair and the Ocean.

We also touched a lot of animals and washed our hands many, many times.

More fun with Bears

We had another visit from our friendly neighborhood bear. (link)

I was gone with the kids to the fireworks show in Heber on saturday night. While we were gone, Volker (my father-in-law) returned from the store and sitting there in the driveway was a bear. It didn't spook away. It just sat there watching him. Well, Volker being a good father-in-law, loaded his 9mm Glock and stepped out of his truck. The bear didn't move. So he fired into the ground and it shot off like a scared rabbit. April and Mimi (April's sister) ran to the windows because of the gunshot and were so pleased to hear that the bear had returned.

I will keep you posted on the Bear. I still don't have a rug in front of the fireplace!