We picked up Ben from school on Wednesday and headed down. It was a long drive, but nothing that a little Scooby Doo and Indana Jones couldn't handle. The boys fell asleep about 15 minutes before we arrived...at midnight...and this was the beginning of being thrown completely off their sleeping schedule! Photo 2 shows the entrance to Pirate's Cove--you can see our car in there, just in front of our casita. (I took a ton of pictures, and I couldn't resist putting quite a few in.)
Bright and early the boys were up at 6AM the next morning!! (It never fails on the days they can sleep in they are up early, and then it's like trying to wake the dead on school mornings) Each morning they got up a few minutes later, so by the last day they were up at 7am-nice! We ate breakfast every morning outside, overlooking Lake Mead. It was a gorgeous sunrise on this first morning!!
From sun up to sun down the boys made the most of their time at Pirate's--they found some lifejackets, and were off to play. Jake jumped off the pirate ship over and over, which was pretty impressive for a four-year old, Will liked checking out all the pirate stuff around, and Ben headed up the mast first thing to jump in...
Photo 1: rules of the mast. Photo 2: if you look close you can see Ben standing on the mast, trying to psyche himself up to jump off. Photo 3: Ben's view looking down from where he was standing on the mast--with a skeleton pirate heading up to get him! Photo 4: the jump!!
Most of Jed's family was at Pirate's Cove as well. It was fun to meet them and hang out with them, and there were plenty of kids around to play with. One evening I crashed the girl's "Hannah Montana party," and after I painted Grace and Addison's nails, they painted mine and brushed my hair. It was fun to play with them, and I'm pretty sure it will be quite a while before something like that happens to me again. One of the highlights was dinner every night. Jed has turned into the master pizza maker, using the pizza oven they have there. I didn't get any pictures of the pizzas because I was busy making salads and such, but they were very creative and very good!
I'd have to say that, without a doubt, Will's favorite thing there is the ice cream machine. If ever there was a time you couldn't find Will, he would be found loading up another ice cream cone, and he got quite good at it! You can see what eating too much ice cream can do to you, though!! That's why he followed up a cone with playing in the water. He loved the rope swing, and still sang the Indiana Jones song every time he was on it.
If ice cream was Will's weakness, this was mine--the slushie machines!! All-you-can-drink for days on end. Does it get any better?!
On Saturday afternoon Jake, Ashley, Ben, Jackson, and Matt decided to all jump off the pirate ship at the same time--what a blast! Daren and I did this too with all our boys, but no pictures.
While the kids were jumping off ships, the big boys were hanging out inside the cove watching a little college football, and Will was enjoying his own free time while not being heavily supervised so he could finish off the rest of the Doritos...
...and everyone else was playing in the outside section of the cove. It was a glorious day!
And then it was back to reality--thank you so much Jed, Alisha, River and Diesel!! We had a blast there.
Bright and early the boys were up at 6AM the next morning!! (It never fails on the days they can sleep in they are up early, and then it's like trying to wake the dead on school mornings) Each morning they got up a few minutes later, so by the last day they were up at 7am-nice! We ate breakfast every morning outside, overlooking Lake Mead. It was a gorgeous sunrise on this first morning!!
From sun up to sun down the boys made the most of their time at Pirate's--they found some lifejackets, and were off to play. Jake jumped off the pirate ship over and over, which was pretty impressive for a four-year old, Will liked checking out all the pirate stuff around, and Ben headed up the mast first thing to jump in...
Just some cool pics of Will and Daren jumping off the rocks.
Most of Jed's family was at Pirate's Cove as well. It was fun to meet them and hang out with them, and there were plenty of kids around to play with. One evening I crashed the girl's "Hannah Montana party," and after I painted Grace and Addison's nails, they painted mine and brushed my hair. It was fun to play with them, and I'm pretty sure it will be quite a while before something like that happens to me again. One of the highlights was dinner every night. Jed has turned into the master pizza maker, using the pizza oven they have there. I didn't get any pictures of the pizzas because I was busy making salads and such, but they were very creative and very good!
I'd have to say that, without a doubt, Will's favorite thing there is the ice cream machine. If ever there was a time you couldn't find Will, he would be found loading up another ice cream cone, and he got quite good at it! You can see what eating too much ice cream can do to you, though!! That's why he followed up a cone with playing in the water. He loved the rope swing, and still sang the Indiana Jones song every time he was on it.
If ice cream was Will's weakness, this was mine--the slushie machines!! All-you-can-drink for days on end. Does it get any better?!
On Saturday afternoon Jake, Ashley, Ben, Jackson, and Matt decided to all jump off the pirate ship at the same time--what a blast! Daren and I did this too with all our boys, but no pictures.
While the kids were jumping off ships, the big boys were hanging out inside the cove watching a little college football, and Will was enjoying his own free time while not being heavily supervised so he could finish off the rest of the Doritos...
...and everyone else was playing in the outside section of the cove. It was a glorious day!
Later in the afternoon Jed's mom, Joyce, and Leah put together a treasure hunt for the kids. The hunt took them all over Pirate's Cove, and in the end was the big prize--skulls! (What else?!)
We popped a bunch of popcorn for a late night movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is one of Will's favorite movies right now, and he does a mean "Jack the Pumpkin King" face! He knows all kinds of songs from the movie--"This is Halloween, this is Halloween, trick-or-treat." Or, "What's this? What's this?" He cracks us up!!
Ben got to sleep outside with River, Diesel, Leah, and I'm not sure who else, on the last night there. What a beautiful view to wake up to!! This picture is Diesel and Ben.
We popped a bunch of popcorn for a late night movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is one of Will's favorite movies right now, and he does a mean "Jack the Pumpkin King" face! He knows all kinds of songs from the movie--"This is Halloween, this is Halloween, trick-or-treat." Or, "What's this? What's this?" He cracks us up!!
Ben got to sleep outside with River, Diesel, Leah, and I'm not sure who else, on the last night there. What a beautiful view to wake up to!! This picture is Diesel and Ben.
So on Saturday night Ben and Jake were messing around near the waters by the pirate ship and the mast. Jake thought he would be funny by pushing Ben off the rocks into the water, and as Ben was coming to the surface of the water, Jake jumped in right on top of him! Their heads collided and this is the result of what happened. Photo 1 is Jake the next morning--he looked like Igor or something, it was so puffy. A few days later the swelling had gone down, and all that was left was a black and blue eye. School pictures were last Wednesday--looking good!!
The following pictures are some of my favorites I took around Pirate's Cove. I could take pictures there forever because there are so many fun things to see:
Photo 1 is standing on the mast looking toward the pirate ship and to the cove just past it. Photo 2 is standing on the opposite end looking back at first the cove, then the pirate ship, and then the mast. You can just click on any of the pictures to get a better look at them. Our casita is on the top left of the picture.
The band and the flowers. These beautiful flowers lined the sides of the stairs, and got to see them a lot with all the stairs (there are 4 levels of stairs) I climbed up and down there! Seriously, it didn't matter that I didn't go running there because I'm sure this was a better workout--I must have climbed the stairs from the cove up to our casita (and the slushie machine) at least 75 times!!
The band and the flowers. These beautiful flowers lined the sides of the stairs, and got to see them a lot with all the stairs (there are 4 levels of stairs) I climbed up and down there! Seriously, it didn't matter that I didn't go running there because I'm sure this was a better workout--I must have climbed the stairs from the cove up to our casita (and the slushie machine) at least 75 times!!
Top of the mast, pirate dude on the side of our casita, and the rack of lifejackets
I loved all the treasure boxes there! This is just a sampling of them.
The last photo is the entrance to our casita--I just wanted to remember it.
I loved all the treasure boxes there! This is just a sampling of them.
The last photo is the entrance to our casita--I just wanted to remember it.
3 comments:
What a great post! Tons of pictures and lots of talking about food I can't get here - awesome. :)
So glad you guys could come! Love all the photos!!
A kid's (and parent's) paradise, for sure...love you!
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