Sand, Sand, Sand.

We only made it to the sand dunes once this summer. We always have a good (albeit dirty) time. Here we have the troops all buckled in and ready to go. A small tip to parents...if you buy some of those 6 inch suckers currently being held by Aeva, you get hours and hours of quiet time to yourselves. Just make sure you have a few wet wipes for sticky hand clean up.

My least favorite thing about the dunes is having to have dirty feet when I go to bed. My solution was to wash my feet, then wrap them in some paper towels while I walked around getting everyone else in bed. Then I simply removed my feet from the dirty proof towels and slipped them into my bag. Ta Da! Genius! However, I then watched Troy come into the trailer, take off his sandals, and hop immediately into the same bag as me. I tried to pretend that he had already cleaned his feet while sitting around the campfire. What are the odds that that actually happened?

The trailer often turns into their favorite place to play. Kind of "the fort" type feeling.

Oats even managed to sleep on a sleeping bag at night. This was a rare treat as he usually has to sleep in his crate. I think he seems quite pleased with himself. Does he think that I don't know what he was doing?

I love catching my dads hair at random moments. One day I will have to do a "My Dads Hair" post. Must be a quirk of mine. Makes me laugh and laugh. I like it the most because he just got done combing it and thinks he was successful.

My mom also loves the fact that I always post her when she is looking her very best. I love my mom...who else would pose so willingly?

If you can't tell from some of the pictures, it was WINDY all weekend. Finally, on Sunday we couldn't stand being hit in the face by sand anymore. We loaded up the Expedition and headed for any place that wasn't surrounded by sand. We ended up here....Bear World. I know it was the holy sacred Sabbath but...the sand was truly killing us. We had no other choice. The ox was in the mire (and the sand).

The workers told us to "keep our hands in the car with all the windows rolled up at all times." I said "ok. Thank you very much." I then drove off and proceeded to roll my window down. I have never been one to follow rules. Who wants a picture of a bear with a big flash reflecting back off the windshield? Troy protested each time I rolled down the window or hung myself out for a better look. I couldn't help myself. I was driving and had ALL of the controls at my fingertips. He was powerless against me. I had a blast making my little "rule follower" self implode. Aren't these pictures worth a small amount of danger? Besides, these bears were so fat that they would have been unable to attempt any sort of speedy attack against me.

So, the bears were a hit but the rides...no contest. My 3 girls were the only kids in the entire ride area. Unlimited rides with no lines. Who cared that there were only 5 rides to choose from. This was Lagoon at its finest hour. Makes it all the more fun when your girls are best friends.

The petting zoo was also a big hit.

I think Aeva may grow up to be a "deer whisperer."

Troy informed me that this must be "an Eastern Deer because it has white spots." What? I will be forcing him to find a legitimate picture of "an Eastern Deer" before I will accept such a declaration of profound zoological knowledge. I, after all, am the zoology major and have never heard of any deer being classified by its corresponding hemisphere.

This was awesome. This little ride was supposed to go up to the top and then make several sudden "drops" as it came down. Troy and I managed to cram our dairy-airs into the small plastic seats in order to create a memory for our children. 3 times the thing got almost to the top and then stopped and slowly came back down. No sudden drops. Finally the ride runner man mentioned that we might weigh a little too much and that this could be setting off the default on the ride. Was he implying that we might be too radondish? We would have been offended other than once we got off...it worked just fine. Oh well, the twinkies were well worth it.

Now for the final gem. On our way into Bear World I saw several small children exiting the premises with stuffed animals in small animal boxes. "Suckers!" I thought as they passed by me. Don't parents realize that those things are very overpriced? What child in the world needs a $17 stuffed animal? Insanity!

I didn't know at the time that these were wishing animals. Not only did you get the animal but a small yellow star that you held in your hand, closed your eyes, and made a wish. The star was then inserted into your adorable little animal with all the other stuffing. Your wish could then be taken with you. How dare they make something cute like that! My girls were making wishes, stuffing animals, and picking out outfits to put on them. I could only rationalize such cuteness by telling them that they would have to use their birthday money to buy them. They quickly agreed. They probably will never realize that their mother is much to lazy to actually remove the money from their accounts to pay for it. I hope they never catch on or I will be in big trouble!

Happy Bear World everyone!

May all of your wishes come true.