Seven Blissful Days at Lake Billy Chinook

Our week in Oregon was one word: Ahhhhhh. We relaxed, read books, swam, relaxed, partook in water sports of various kinds, ate delicious food, chatted and laughed, and...relaxed. It was amazing. Over the years, my in-laws have truly become the second family of my heart. I love spending time with the Conlin Clan and am blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. Besides giving us the chance to grow our love and enjoyment for one another, this vacation proved one thing: we Conlins definitely know how to take a load off, laze around and eat a lot of food. This vacation was the essence of chill. And I also have to give my love to and say how grateful I am for my wonderful parents who were willing to watch the kids for a week so we could go. Everyone needs a Nana and Papa. Anyhow, the pictures say it all....

Adam trying out the wake board for the first time, not bad!!
Taken from the upper deck of the houseboat.
The ladies taking a dive, Angie (A's sis), Alea (A's sis), Nicolle (A's mom-middle), Ashley (A's sis) and I (in black).

Looking hot in the sweet hot pink and purple P.F.D. (that's Personal Flotation Device, to you landlubbers).
Lake Billy Chinook is surrounded by these awesome towering igneous cliffs.
Full relax mode.
Adam's little bro, Ryan, turned 30 on the trip. So since we were on a boat, we HAD to have a pirate themed party, what else?! This is just before we sent him on a treasure hunt throughout the cove where our boat was anchored.
Alea and Zach and I looking sleepy as we got ready for an early morning ski (just to clarify, I didn't early morning ski, it's not nearly hot enough at 7:30am to get in the water, just Adam and Zach did that...crazies.)
Nope, I'm not practicing to be a highway man. I'm preparing the blueberry-ginger relish for our pork chops which included serrano chiles that were so spicy they were making me cry and choke while I chopped them, hence the lovely Old West-style robber gear.
Success! I may look WAY COOL on the slalom ski, but really it took me 10 tries to get up. Once upon a time, I could get up on the first try and actually looked like I knew what I was doing! So sad that it has come to this!
Contrary to my not-so-lovely form above, Adam really does look way cool here. The man still has it!
Adam and "Mr. Grin" the crocodile with our house boat in the background.
This is what we did pretty much all day long...reading in the sun then cooling off in the water.
Don't worry, this is a G-rated blog. No kissing actually took place...wink, wink.
Ash and I screaming our heads off on the tubes. Tubing was incredibly fun, but I couldn't lift my arms for four days afterwards because I was clinging on with all my might!

Alea and I tubing in a more relaxing style, slow and easy.
Adam (blue rash guard) is up on the rocks with our bro-in-law, Mike. And you probably guessed it...they are getting ready to jump the 25+ feet down into the water that is so far down in this picture you can't even see it. It makes me nervous just thinking about it!

Boing!!!!

Me: Let's get a playset for the backyard. The kids need something fun out there.
Adam: A lot of people have trampolines here, that is another possibility.
Me: Well, I think a playset would be more fun, since the kids are so young.
Adam: That's fine, let's do that....Well, they could grow more into a trampoline, and you know they would love it.
Me: True. Well, you make the decision, because either is fine with me.
And so he did.... Below are pictures of all the boys (I mean all of them) on our new trampoline. He says it was for the boys...well...you be the judge!

Luke loved being bounced! He was so mad when we took him off!

Ben and Zach catchin' some air.

Josh and Nana, instead of jumping himself, he likes to make you do the work boucing him.

Adam...now we know who really wanted this tramp.

Adam and I are off on a trip to Oregon, then the boys and I are heading to Washington, yipee! So pictures to come after the 14th! Have a great 4th!

Some Pre-Fourth of July Fun

Here is a link to an MSN version of the Citizenship Test. It was kind of fun...and I am proud to say I only got one wrong, the number of constitutional amendments, oops. Thanks History BA, I knew you were useful for something! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25461301/ Don't miss the post below on our visit to the mining museum that I just added last night, but I thought this was good prep for the 4th on Friday! Give it a try!

One Final Adventure

Ahhhh, sweet peace and quiet. While Adam and the kids are out at the Nickle-A-Play video arcade and the baby is snug in his bed, I have time to post. We had one last "exploring Colorado Springs" adventure before all the fun of July vacationing begins. Today we went to the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. It was a really cool museum exploring mining and the industrial advances that came about as new techniques for mining were needed from the "Forty-Niners" through today. We attended the tour, which was interesting enough to keep the boys mostly listening, watched a video, and then explored on our own.

The museum was full of hands-on exhibits and large steam-powered machines. The tour guide turned some of them on and they were loud; they freaked Josh out so much that when we were going to go back through on our own he refused at first because he thought we'd have to hear the loud ones again. It was one of those museums that make you glad to live in 2008, with all of our modern conveniences, safety laws and labor laws. Just looking at pictures of the young boys, the "Grease Monkeys," Zach and Ben's ages, that worked oiling the machines or those just a few years older who were already going into the mines as full-time, 10 hours-plus-a-day miners, made my heart lurch. In August, they are having their Outdoor Machine Day where we get to see the big Steam Shovels like MaryAnn in Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel in action. We are excited to go! Sorry about all the commentary on the pictures below, obviously I was way too fascinated by this museum, I felt like everyone needed to be educated!

Weighing the different ores...this is coal mined in the Western States, some of the cleanest burning coal in the world.

Zach panning for gold, this is early-style mining called Placer Mining, or surface mining. Gold was discovered in Colorado in 1859 and then came the Placer Miners with the slogan "Pikes Peak or Bust!"

Before the deep blast mines came (where they blasted out rock with dynamite deep into the earth), this is how they got gold out of rocks...one hammer ping at a time. Seriously, this was their livelihood they were working for.

After hammering away for awhile, they used this tiny scoop to scrape out any small gold pieces that may have been chipped off. Can you even imagine the tedium of it? Thank goodness for salaries!This part of the museum had the loudest of the loud machines, the steam-powered jack hammers for drilling holes in the rock face in which to place the dynamite. The tour guide turned on one of the jack hammers and said there would be four going at the same time all day...many of the men went deaf at an early age. Surprised? No.

Modern mining safety gear; I don't think Ben is ready for the mines yet, since the boot is as long as his leg.

Zach operating the elevator on the miniature late-ninteenth century mine. Talk about dangerous jobs!

This was the biggest steam engine they had, one of the biggest ever built. Amazingly, it was pretty quiet compared to some of the smaller ones when it was running. This would be used in one of the larger mines to power any number of things, elevators, water pumps, electricity, etc. This is the one the little 6 to 8-year-olds would be running up and down oiling with little cans.

This is one of the noisy small engines I was referring to. This was used to power the pump to pump water out of the mine. Even though it was noisy, it does sound so cool, like listening to the past.

This was Josh's favorite steam engine, because it was red like his shorts and they didn't turn it on.