Traveling to Mt. Shasta (all 7 of us!)

This is how we travel   :-)
With 7 people now occupying every seat in my Honda Odyssey, it's great when the 3 youngest are asleep at the same time!  (No, I didn't drug them!  LOL!)  Can you see Luke's reflection in the mirror?

After a 6 hour trip (it should only take about 4 without kids!), we finally arrived in Mt. Shasta City.  John Michael loved playing on the bridge my dad built for my parents' yard. He spent most of his days going up and down this bridge.

 Such a big boy!

My Mom has always had an incredible green thumb.  Here in the front yard, John Michael and I explored and found an old rail car amid the daisies, pine trees and fruit trees.

John Michael and I collected a few apples for the horses on the property behind my mom and dad's place.  He decided to take a few bites out of one of them.  While this one looked good to me, most of the apples are wormy, and this was no exception. Luckily, John Michael was tired of the apple before he got to the "bad" part.

North Shore of Lake Siskiyou.  John Michael loved feeling the rocks and water.

 

Several long logs floating in the water made for some fun water play.

 

The kids were in heaven here -- we thought it was pretty nice, too!

Mt. Shasta Memories -- July 4th, 2009

John Michael and Daddy hanging out at Lake Siskiyou (Mt. Shasta, CA)with majestic Mount Shasta towering in the background.

Nicolas plowing the back acre with Opa's tractor.

Playing a little Frisbee with Anna...

Greta at the Mt. Shasta 2 mile Fun Walk

Nicolas, my super trooper, carried John Michael the whole way on his back because Daddy and Anna left with the car before we could get the stroller out!

Doug and Anna ran the 5 mile and 2 mile races. John Michael is hiding in the backpack. It was a hot, but beautiful day!

Gorgeous sky above Mount Shasta, a 14,162 ft volcano.

My patriotic bunch!

John Michael reaching for a blue butterfly that is just being released at Turtle Bay in Redding, CA.

(* No butterflies were harmed in the shooting of this photo)

An Erato butterfly. I've never seen something so beautiful! We followed it to see where it would land. What a beautiful rose it chose for a great photo.

The Art of the Brick was the title of this show. Very cool!

Here John Michael is stacking Mega Blocks, something he's never played with before. He continually shows me that kids with Down syndrome should be given the same opportunities as any kid!

An actual T-Rex named "Sue" from North America. No flash was allowed, hence the low light. This was quite amazing to see in person. * They don't really know if it was a female, but that's the name they gave it.

As you can see, we had a fantastic July 4th weekend.

I hope yours was, too.

God Bless America!