Well, as you may have read from Cami’s blog, we had a great family vacation this year to California. We tend to make it out there once a year or so and all love the beach more than anything else, although Disneyland is always a huge hit.

I won’t go into a lot of detail here because of Cami’s post. It pretty much sums it up for us all. But I do have a bunch of photos that I have uploaded to flickr that you can check out if you want to spend a few minutes.

Here are some of my favorites:

Even though it’s not the beach, the boys still loved the water at the pools and were there in the mornings (before the beach) and in the evenings (after the beach):

This is one of my favorite pictures of Koby and Spencer. They were on the boogie boards a lot and had a great time. Are they cool?

Here is one at Newport Beach of Cami and Clay. They were made for this.

Clay can never be left out of the action. He saw the older boys standing up on their boogie boards and skim boards and had to have one for himself. Finally he got up close enough to the water and it shifted under the wave a little and he thought he was pretty cool on his surf board.

Here are two more pictures of us. Cami and I together and then one of the family together. I love them all and seeing us in this setting is the best!

If you are interested in seeing about 380 more pictures of us in California, you can always look at my flickr set.

There seems to be a secret club our there that only those who ride motorcycle’s seem to belong to. You have all noticed when you are following a motorcycle down the road and they come upon a fellow rider and they have this little half wave with their left hand. Kind of like they want to shout out “hi” to the fellow rider, but are way too cool to do something like that, so they settle for this little half wave.You don’t see too many Honda Civic driver waving out the window at other Civic owners and being all cool and sly.

This last week, I became a member of a slightly less cool club, the Scooter Club. I have been riding my bike to work every day since we moved here and finally had the deal that I was waiting for come up on a scooter. It is one step up from the bike, but still not quite as cool as the motorcycle riders seem to think they are.

I have followed a few motorcycles already and have watched them wave at fellow riders, then blatently ignore me as I pass as if I don’t even exist. It is quite comical, really, and it got me thinking about the scooter club and if we had some secret sign that I didn’t yet know about. Like I needed to send in for my card or something.

Well, finally yesterday I passed a fellow scooter rider and he gave me the scooter wave. I was laughing about it all the way home and rushed in to tell Cami about what happened. She just rolled her eyes and laughed a little.

But anyways, I guess from now on I will wave at all the scooters I pass on the road (there are a lot here in Utah) and maybe you will begin to see more scooter waving at each other.

As much as I would love to live by the beach, this is a little bit extreme.

It is a movie about a doctor and his wife who gave up their medical practice, bought an RV and moved from Hawaii to the mainland and drove from beach to beach. They had 9 kids (8 boys and 1 girl) and they didn’t let them go to school, ever. They just drove around looking for different beaches and they would surf all day.

Now there is a movie about it. I would be interested in seeing it.

Cami and I just gt back from our Cruise and had a great time.

We sailed on the Royal Caribbean “Freedom of the Seas” ship. It was absolutely huge and amazing. Such a fun trip.

We went to Utah first to drop the kids off at Papa and Juju’s house so that they could have fun there with everyone while Cami and I went alone. We were gone for 7 days (April 20 – 27), then we returned back to Utah and stayed another few days there.

I am going to post for about the cruise this weekend, and a little more about the trip to Utah and our experiences in the Doctor’s office (which if you have seen Cami’s Blog, she talks about Spencer and Clay and our 2 trips to the Urgent Care on the same day). That’s life with the boys.

On the cruise we had three stops. First in San Juan, Puerto Rico, second in St Thomas and third in St Maarten (the best by far). The cruise ship is the biggest in the world (according to everyone on board) and had everything you could want. Tons of free food, a Rock Climbing wall, a FlowRider, a mini golf course, a movie theatre, a shopping strip, an ice skating rink, a couple productions stages, a golf simulator, a huge exercise and work out gym, a boxing ring, an art gallery, a casino and a bunch of bars and lounges. A few of those things we could have done without, but for the most part it was really great.

At the end of the cruise, they showed a “Cruise in Review” DVD that they sold and I was famous and made it onto the DVD from my sweet skills on the Flowrider (to bad it was of me wiping out and they played it on loop 4 or 5 times in a row). Oh well, like I said, I will post more detail later this weekend.

As for a few pictures of the cruise, here are some.

Here we are with the Freedom of the Seas. There are 13 decks on the ship and our room was on the 7th floor. We were talking to the personal trainers on board and they told us that the average person gains 2 lbs per day while cruising, so we decided to take the stairs everywhere we went.

It is an odd feeling to be on board for two days straight and not see any land. You feel kind of vulnerable, especially looking over the side of the boat when it is completely dark outside. It was great and the water that far out is some amazing colors of blue.

One night we went to a disco party, and these are the cloths we wore. Pretty groovy.

Cami and I took on the rock wall, and this is Cami in action. It is a lot harder then it looks.

Here is the famous FlowRider. Don’t be fooled by how it looks like I know what I am doing. This is about 1 second after I stood up and about a half a second before I ate it.  Some of the guys on board got pretty good at it, but I didn’t spend too much time there.

For some more pictures, visit my Flickr site here.

I am in Lafayette, Indiana today and tomorrow for a meeting with Lafayette Life Insurance Company and it is cold. I thought that I would bring my running shoes and take off a little early in the morning for a couple miles, but it is windy and only in the low 50′s, and I only brought shorts. I would run in the hotel fitness center, but they do not have one. I was bummed because I couldn’t work out  Monday and left early this morning  so I couldn’t run today either. Tomorrow I will be in meetings all day and traveling in the afternoon and will not be back to Colorado until late evening, so I guess it will have to wait until Thursday.

Lafayette is about half way between Indianapolis and Chicago. We flew into Indianapolis this afternoon and drove about an hour north to get here. It is the same city that Purdue University is in and this week they are hosting some of the NCAA  Women’s Tournament games. The company said that they usually put visitors to their home office up in a nicer hotel then the one that we are in, but it is not a big deal. We are comfortable and it is not a big deal. Tonight we went to the Outback Stakehouse for dinner.

We have meetings tomorrow at the home office and then fly out after. The trip home tomorrow is kind of a bummer because we drive to Indianapolis to turn around and fly to Chicago for a layover, then on to Denver, so it will be a long day.

Well, we are back and things have been fine while away at the beach for a couple weeks.

Couple things that interested me while I was away.

1. I took a bunch of photos of us at the beach. They are here. Todd, my brother in law also took a bunch that are here.
2. I realized that I have no desire to ever return to Las Vegas, although I have to in the next month and will certainly have to from time to time.
3. I picked up a couple good books while traveling.

• The Four Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferris (this is a great book that is changing the way I think about business and making money)
• Smart Match Alliances, by Judy Feld and Ernest F. Oriente ( I had this one before I left but took it with me to refresh my memory on the importance of alliances)
• The Gold of Carre-Shinob and The Utah Gold Rush, both by Kerry Ross Boren & Lisa Lee Boren (I had an interesting discussion about the gold in the Utah mountains)

Okay, after the couple nights at the campsite, the rain all Tuesday night and everything else, we were happy to head over to the hotel and take good showers, sleep in comfortable beds and have a little shelter. We got there and checked in and the kids wanted to go directly to the pool, which was okay with everyone else. They had it checked out before we got our room keys. We parked right by the room and got unpacked while the kids rode their bikes and waited to hit the pool. It was nice that the cars were right there and we didn’t have to lug everything upstairs and down halls. The doors were outside and opened right to the doors, it was sweet.

All the rooms were connected. There was one kitchen that had a hide-a-bed that Tim and Shelbie slept in. Adjoining to that room is where we slept that had two queen beds. Koby and Spencer slept in one and Cami and I shared the other. Jonny and Cara slept on an air mattress at the foot of our bed. The room right next to us was where Jonn and Judy slept. It had a huge king bed in it. Then the next room is where Kim and John slept with there family. It was quite the little set up. It was a great layout.

Jonn, being the tour director that he is, had a lot of activities planned out for us, so after we got the cars unloaded and dinner out of the way we headed out to the Colorado river trail that goes for a few miles along the river. It is paved so the kids could ride in the trailer and ride their bikes,  which made it fun for everyone. We went a few miles and had a good time. It was really hot out and the kids had a hard time being out too much without being in the water.

The next day we went to the Colorado National Monument to go hiking on a couple trails. We went on one called "Serpents Trail" that went back and forth up a road that used to be the highway back in the early 1900′s. It was really neat and had some very cool views. Koby and Spencer did pretty good, but of course were not as fast as the rest of us so we stayed back and took our time while the older kids like Jonny and Cara went ahead and did the whole trip. We tried to do the hike early in the morning before it got too hot, but it got hot early. After the hike we went to the pavilion and had lunch before heading back to the hotel for some time in the pool. Cami and Kim went to the shops downtown while we stayed back with the boys.

Later that night we went to the farmers market to check out the sites and sounds of Grand Junction. There were a lot of weirdos out dancing and singing, but it was pretty fun.

Friday, we got up early (well, at 7:30) and got ready to go because our tour guide had a river run trip planned for 9:00 in the morning. We went towards Fruita to a company called Rim Rock Adventures. We did the Blue Heron route that lasted for 3 hours. It was awesome. We had time to swim in the river, splash each other and just have a good time. There were two boats and we just had fun. The kids said that this was one of their favorite things about the trip. We got some good pictures and I will put them up as soon as Cami gets them on the computer.

That afternoon, the Hansen’s and the Jonas’ went over to Fruita to the Dinosaur museum. It was interesting and the kids really liked it. There were things for them to do that were related to dinosaurs, obviously. They had a dino dig that was like a big sandbox with bones in there and it was filled with crushed walnuts, which was cool. They had a few other things that they liked and we spent a couple hours there before heading home.

We all went to dinner at Red Robin that night, then to a park in the evening. It was a pretty good day, full of adventure.

The next day was Saturday. It was just getting up and packing the car, leaving for home. We got the car packed and had a couple hours before we had to go, so Jonn, John, Jonny and I went to the Colorado National Monument again to do another hike. We did the "Devils Kitchen" hike that was pretty cool. A lot of it was right a long the cliff that looked over a big valley. It was pretty interesting, and very beautiful.

We headed home after that and got to drive along I70, which is a great drive. We went through all the great mountain towns that I dream about owning a home in one day. Poor Cami had to listen to me talk about it again.

The first two days of or trip were spent at the Highline State Park, west of Fruita, CO. We met there on August 14, 2006 and were excited because we were going to eat s’mores, play at the beach by the lake and tell ghost stories. We did all of that and much more. The only bad thing that happened was that it rained the 2nd night and rained and rained. It kind of drizzled for about 2 hours then let up a little. Then it started raining again and the wind started. It continued on and on for a few hours. Luckily we were in our tents and dry, but it kept Cami and I awake. Luckily the boys slept through it. The wind had our tent all mis-shaped, but it wad pretty fun. Quite an experience.

Other then that, we rode bikes around the lake and around the camp. There was a pretty intense bike ride that went 3.5 miles. There were a few parts that had pretty good drops down the hill towards the lake, but nothing too intense. A lot of fun. Here are a few pictures of the park from the Colorado State Parks Website. I will put some of ours up here when I get time.

Most of the time, while not at camp was at the swim beach. We went early in the morning and stayed until the evening. A lot of the time there was only a couple other people there and we had most of the beach to ourselves. It was nice because there was a big grassy area right by the beach that had shade, tables and a play area for the kids. There were hills they could ride up and down and plenty of room for Frisbee. There were lots of rocks to throw into the lake and the boys did a great job doing that. It was great.

At camp, we played games, mostly "the Bidding Game" (or "Mormon Bridge" as the Hansen side calls it). It turned into the game of the trip and we played it any chance that we got. Dinners were good, as were all the meals. We had the chance to use the dutch ovens a couple times. The first night we used them both. One for chicken and one for potatoes. The next night we used one for a peach cobbler desert that was pretty good.

Spencer was sick with his respiratory/allergy sickness a little before we left and we were worried about how he would do. We took the nebulizer and medicine and hoped that he wouldn’t need it too much. Because we were outside and that aggravates the problem, he didn’t do that great. He is a little trooper and tried to breathe and didn’t  complain about it but we heard him wheezing a little from time to time and tried to catch it before it got to out of hand. I had to give it to him in the middle of the 2nd night and luckily it had stopped raining by then. He never fought it too much and I think that is because he knows that it makes him breathe better so he is okay with the medicine. We typically gave him 2 doses, which took about 30 minutes in the nebulizer. After we got to the hotel we could hear him clearing up right away and we only had to give him a treatment a couple times, so that was good to get him inside, if only just for that reason.

Well, it is getting late and I am ready for bed. I will catch up in the next day or two about the rest of the trip. It was pretty fun and I look forward to the trips in the future.

We met the Claybaugh’s this last week out in Grand Junction, CO for our 1st Annual Claybaugh Family Vacation.  We spent the first couple nights is tents at the Highline State Park and then moved on for three nights to the Country Inn in Grand Junction.

We had been planning for a family trip for the last couple months and
decided that there needed to be a few requirements to make it
successful. After a few years of watching and experiencing the BASS Lake family trip that the Garlock’s have been doing since before Cami was born, we knew that there were a few things that could be improved upon.

1. It had to be a central location. While it is always fun to go to the lake in central California, it is not an easy commute for those of us not in southern california. I am not complaining about it because the vacation was started when the whole family lived under one roof and it was super easy to go to BASS Lake together and they are not going to change it not, which is cool.

2. We all need to stay for the whole time. This is an important aspect. Again, comparing to the BASS Lake trip, people come and go as they please and it is much more fun to all be there the whole time together. This will be more and more difficult as time goes on. We are going to try Lake Powell in the future and have a house boat that would make it virtually impossible to get off the lake until the vacation is over, but that is a couple years down the road.

3. There needs to be water involved, to a heavy degree. As Judy has said about our family "Just add water"

4. The meals will be planned ahead of time and we will have a community kitchen where we combine snacks, etc. This makes it easy and keeps people from complaining about who is eating what.

These are just a few things that would make a successful family vacation, at least in our limited experience of planning and conducting said events. (Although after the fact I must say that it worked out pretty good.)

The next couple posts will detail the trip itself.

I found the following website that will tell you the cheapest place to get gasoline where you live or are going to be travelling.

Click on this link to visit msn auto.

The cheapest for me is $2.709 and the highest price in Greeley is $2.999.

What is it where you are at?