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.