Day 3 (Monday, June 16)

We visited the Sacramento Zoo in the morning before it got too hot. I thought it was a fun zoo. Derek was bored most of the time. He told me "all we are doing is standing here staring at animals". I guess he didn't catch the entertainment in that. He wanted to play on the playground he saw on the way in.
McKenna is so pretty! She was such a good girl all day...as usual.

Man, those giraffes are tall...about 15 meters wouldn't you say, Dave?! :)
Derek got excited about all the palm trees or "Hawaii trees" as he referred to them. He takes after me. I love palm trees, because if you see them it usually means you are on vacation!

We had entirely too much fun at this painted board. I think this was one our longest stops taking pictures here.

Grandma and Grandpa.

We ate a picnic lunch at a park across the street from the zoo. It was great food and great company! Sadly, this was our most complete family picture taken all week. Lindsay (too injured to walk), Jared (orthodontist appointment), and Jacob (on a mission in Peru) are missing from it and others can't be seen behind heads.

After our family home evening about fathers, the grandkids playing in the wading pool in the backyard. The water was cold, but only Taylor seemed to care.

Day 4 (Tuesday, June 17)

We packed up and went camping at Sugar Pine Reservoir. All the winding roads made Derek a little car sick. Another trait he gets from me. Darn. He moaned from the back seat "Mommy, I'm going to throw up". I couldn't find the barf bucket that I brought for just that reason, so I grabbed what I could find at the moment...a pringles can with a few chips left in it. I gave it to Derek and few minutes later we hear crunching coming from the backseat. I guess Derek got hungry and decided to finish off the chips. It made me laugh, but not so funny when I saw those chips later. I know, I know...gross, Natalie! :) We camped just a short walk from the lake. Grandpa brought his kayaks and we all had a great time in them. Derek and Taylor couldn't get enough. Devin (brother in law) took Derek on a long ride and Derek still wanted more. Derek said that they "discovered flowers" and he delivered one for Janene from Devin. The next day he brought me a flower after a ride with Jared. Cute kid.
Spencer (Dave's brother) and Dave.

I wish I could have spent more time in the kayak, but McKenna needed my attention. :( It was such a beautiful lake. The water was so clear.
Cute Allie (sister in law, Spencer's wife).
Spencer and his daughter Emery.
After spending the day at the lake, we roasted hot dogs and chicken and made s'mores. Yum! Grandma and cousin Emery.

Janene (Dave's sister) and her son, Clayton.

Day 5 (Wednesday, June 18)

The next morning we ate a yummy breakfast of hashbrowns and eggs prepared by Judy (aka Grandma)! Thanks! We packed up camp and spent more time down by the lake. On our way out, Dave and Jared found this rope swing. This is one of the reasons that Dave loves this lake so much. There is usually a rope swing left by another camper. After the rope swing, Jared and Dave went snorkeling as well.

Devin about to swing.
Jared.
Dave's feet made a cool spray. He said it was like waterskiing.
Taylor tried the rope swing as well...on a smaller scale of course.

Day 6 (Thursday, June 19)
This is a lot of pictures, but I didn't know what to cut out. On Thursday we drove to Vallejo, CA and played at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Marine World). It was a blazing hot day, but we battled through it and had another great day.

McKenna and her cousin Clayton. Such cuties!
My sister, Laurel, and her family met us at the park since they live so close by. Here's a shot of us waiting to watch the killer whale show. Derek has a stuffed killer whale that he has named "Killer Swimmy". Since buying this whale for his 5th birthday, he's been so interested in killer whales. So we were excited to take him to this show, in fact, it's the whole reason we wanted to go to Discovery Kingdom. We weren't disappointed. Derek loved the show! We all loved it. I think it's amazing that dolphins and whales can do tricks on command by following sign language. How on earth do you train an animal to do that!?

Here are some clips and photos of Shouka the Killer Whale.

There's a fun Thomas the Tank Engine town inside the park. My boys have outgrown Thomas, but the rides were still fun.

Jason (Dave's brother) and his daughter M'li

Jason and Meaja were kind enough to sponsor Derek and Taylor's carnival game. Derek chose a penguin and Taylor chose a Thomas football for a prize.

These pictures were taken just after a dolphin show. You can see that the trainer in the red shirt has just sent a dolphin over to splash us. Moments after I snapped the photo we got wet. Not funny.

It took some persuading to get Taylor to pose for this picture. He saw what happened when Derek posed.

We had a breakthrough with Derek. The last time we put him on a ride was years ago. It was a little boat ride, you know the kind. The boats are attached to a wheel moving at a very slow pace and the kids sit and ring the bell on the boat. Well, Derek screamed in terror when we put him on this one, so we've taken a break from rides. It's been years, so we decided to try again. Derek and I went on the above pictured roller coaster (you can see my head and his lime green shirt). At first he screamed "I don't like it, I don't like it", but in his next breath he yelled "I love it, I love it! This is the best roller coaster ever!" The rest of the day he begged for more. He was addicted to roller coasters. So Dave and Derek went on "Monsoon Falls", where you are guaranteed to get wet. Below is a video clip of them on the ride. (Dave is wearing a blue baseball cap)

Here's the brave boy after the ride. He was so cold!

Once again, McKenna was an angel, even though she was sweating most of the day in her car seat. Poor thing.

No that is not a shadow. We went on a white water rapids ride and got pretty wet.

Laurel (my sister), Ethan, Doug, and Madeleine. What a cute family!

It was such a fun day that it was hard to leave, especially since it finally cooled down as we were heading out. We returned to Grandma and Grandpa's house and that evening, after the kids were in bed, Judy, Dave, Jason, and I played Hearts until early in the morning. We were all a little tired and had the giggles. It was such a fun night. I especially enjoyed it since I won the last game of the night by shooting the moon! Yes, I'm sure everyone is tired of me mentioning it, but it's rare for me to successfully shoot and I did it against the best!! :)

We drove back home on Friday and arrived at 3:30 in the morning. We are still trying to recover from the whole week and the drive. Thanks again Judy and David for the fun week. I know that you put so much work into it and I hope it was all worth it for you. I can't wait until next year's reunion!! Should we show Derek some real "Hawaii trees"? ;)