Monday, May 19, 2008

Hotel Macnab

We took a mini-vacation last week to our favorite spot...Hotel Macnab! I feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful place to take mini-vacations...actually, they are the only vacations we get to take with 2 young kids. Last summer my parents added onto their house (the house I grew up in) so now the kids have their own rooms! In addition to making their house bigger, they also added A/C! Now we not only get to sleep in peace, but we also get to sleep in a cool room!

Hotel Macnab
Hotel Macnab offers a variety of services and activities...the best cook (my mom, of course!), childcare, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a river, bike trails, etc...what more could you ask for?

Fishing
Grandpa had a special present waiting for Brayden...a fishing pole! Brayden had fun learning how to cast and reel the fish back in! Grandpa can't wait to teach Brayden how to fish in the Deschutes River! Chris had a little too much fun playing with Brayden's fishing pole...he accidentally cast the fish right over the roof! The fun ended when he tried to reel the fish in and realized that it was stuck! Grandpa got up on the roof, freed the fish and saved the day! Bubbles
As you all know, Brayden loves bubbles. Within minutes of arriving at Grandma & Grandpa's house, Brayden found the new bubble gun that they had bought for him. It provided hours and hours of outdoor fun during our visit! Brayden had fun making the bubbles...
But he had the most fun DANCING with the bubbles! (Notice his feet off the ground in the first picture!) The 1970's Toy Camera
Both the kids have always found this "Pocket Camera" fun to play with...who needs new toys when you can play with the toys your mom played with as a child? Brayden loved to walk around taking pictures and saying "cheese"! Sienna liked carrying it around while she showed off her walking skills to Grandma & Grandpa.
Brayden's 4-Wheeler
I'm guessing that when Grandma and Grandpa bought Brayden the 4-wheeler for Christmas, they had no idea that it was actually going to be Sienna's favorite toy! Sienna loved to push it around the house as well as sit on it...all while pushing the fun buttons. Playing Together
Very rarely do the kids actually do what I would call "play" together. However, while Grandma was slaving away in the kitchen, they sat on the floor next to the kitchen and played nicely together with my old barn.
They also played pretty well together in Grandma & Grandpa's fountain. Well, that was until Brayden decided to try to use his cracker to stop the water from coming out of the lion's mouth! Somehow the mushy cracker ended up in the fountain...in a million different mushy pieces...sorry Grandpa! The Stairs
Apparently Sienna loves stairs. We've had a gate up since Brayden was about 10 months old so she hasn't had the opportunity to play on ours. Unfortunately, there was no such barrier in front of Grandma & Grandpa's stairs so we had to make a barrier with the kids duffel bags. Of course she could crawl right over the bags, but at least it gave us a few extra seconds to retrieve her from the stairs. Luckily she wasn't obsessed with the stairs...they only caught her interest every so often. In addition to crawling over the bags, Sienna also had fun taking everything out of the diaper bag!
She must have been trying to figure something out because she looked like she was trying to count on her fingers. ;)
Maybe she was just trying to distract me from noticing that she was about to crawl up the stairs! Grandma's Birthday
Grandma turned another year older while we were visiting! Brayden helped Grandma open her presents and read her cards...he was very interested to see what she got! Brayden even painted her card all by himself!

The High Desert Museum
In February 2007, Grandma & Grandpa and I took Brayden to the High Desert Museum and he had so much fun that we decided to go again on Saturday. I had even more fun this time because the weather was much, much warmer and Brayden was able to do more things on his own. You can check out the pictures from our 2007 trip by clicking here.
We walked through an old, dark mine!
Brayden loved to watch the river otter "Thomas" swim underwater.
Thomas loves attention!
Brayden and Daddy checking out the Plateau Indians' tipi!
What a nice horse and foal made of barbed wire!
Brayden found a big nest to play in...
And a super fast slide!
A trip to the museum wouldn't be complete without a walk through a cave!

2 comments:

Catrina said...

Wow! What great pictures. I love the bubble dancing AND Sienna's devious look on the stairs. Love it.

The Elliotts said...

Wow, what a fun trip! Thank you for sharing all of the pics! Sienna's hair is getting longer it looks like. Yay! Your Mom and Dad's house is beautiful!!! What a treat!

Love ya!