Beaches & Baseball

I love Disney, and I also love the other fun things that are around town once you're there. Our favorite place to go eat is Popeye's Chicken. We eat there twice every time we go. Something about their chicken strips and cajun red beans and rice that I love. I also love to go shopping at Sketchers. Don't know why the shoes are so much cooler in cali? Not like there's not sketcher stores here, right? HAHA.

I also like the beach. We had the opportunity to meet an old friend & neighbor, Kristen at her stompin ground this time... Laguna Beach. We met at a cozy little restaurant on the beach, it was gorgeous! You could overlook the beach from our table on the patio. She looks great, and it was fun to catch up with her.

Another one of our loves is baseball. We really like the Dodgers, but since they were on the road last week, we saw the Angels.

Funny story with our tickets!! We bought them from stub hub. We got a great deal on some great seats. They were row WC. Come to find out, when we got to the stadium and tried to find the seats, they were on the wheelchair row, and seats didn't exist. They were just spaces where you bring your own wheelchair. NICE!! Luckily the usher showed us to an empty row where we could sit, so it all worked out.

Note to self: Never buy seats on the wheelchair row! They are BYOC (Bring your own chair). The angels had a great game and it was fun just being there.

A Quick Jaunt...

... to my favorite place!!

Well, after our 1200 mile round trip drive over to Montana, the next day we turned and headed out on the road again for my favorite place... Disney!

Charley's parents were flying out for a short three day trip, and we (ok, mostly I) wanted to tag along. I felt like it would be good to get Charley out of the house. We left after work Tuesday night and drove through the night to get to the airport in time to pick up the inlaws Wednesday morning from the airport.

This is the very first ride we went on! I've decided it's my new favorite attraction. I even had to take a picture of the score, or Charley would never admit that I beat him. (Twice for that matter). LOL.

It was three short days in Disney, but we sure had a good time. It was definately HOTTER than we thought it would be, but still worth it. A lot of the rides were closed down for refurbishing, and they were also getting haunted mansion & space mountain ready for Halloween.

I love Disney!! It's so much fun, no matter what age you are. This time was a little unique. Four adults and no children. It's a different park when you don't have kids with you. Although we missed the kids, it's still so much fun to just get a few days away.

As long as I can keep going back to Disneyland, I'll be a happy camper! (And we will live Happily ever after!!

Labor Day in Montana

Charley's family reunions are usually Labor day weekend. Normally everyone meets in Filer and goes white water rafting and then to the Filer Fair. This year, everyone headed to Montana. Charley's oldest brother, James purchased property in Montana and invited everyone to come see the property & camp. This year everyone was able to make it except for Danne's family & a few of the grandchildren. There were 29 total Blackwoods there!

Here are some pictures that were taken on James's property. It was huge and the view was awesome. They are planning to build a cabin on it, but for now, it's nature.


After, we all headed to a campground to spend the weekend. Nate was excited to go camping since he hasn't been for a few years. He also knew there would be several cousins for him to play with, and he couldn't wait to sleep in a tent. He thinks that's "real camping" since we've been spoiled and have taken the trailer the last several years. Here's a picture of the tent we borrowed from Craig & Heather. It was HUGE! Sleeping in a tent actually wasn't that bad! Good thing we had air mattresses! We had a total of 5 tents, a tent trailer, a large RV motorhome, and one corner of the campground to ourselves. There was so much to do! Nate & some of the boy cousins spent a lot of time playing with Heath's dogs:
They played catch:

We shot BB guns

Charley tried to burn his fingers off:

And of course, we don't go anywhere without our laptops:

We even had a family picture taken. This is everyone assembling in one place for the picture.

Luckily Travis had his tripod & camera there so we could set the timer. Everyone had to gather around to make sure we got "ONE" good shot.

Here's a picture of some of the kids. (Keep in mind I have 5 of these pictures, but this is the one where everyone is looking). This is Braden, Brogan, Peyton, Nate, Jordan, Mylie, & Madison.

We ended up leaving Sunday afternoon. (We were going to leave town again Tuesday and needed to get home so I could work two days). We had passed "Blackwood Road" on the way in and wanted to stop by on the way out and take a picture, so we did. (Actually, Charley wanted to steal the sign, but he couldn't reach it!!).

We left early enough so we could drive through Yellowstone Park on the way. Although we got there just before dark, the drive was beautiful. There is so much wildlife, and they come right up to your cars!
We also stopped at Old Faithful and watched it "erupt" It was dark, but it was still neat to watch. I haven't been there since I was a child, and this was Nate's first visit to Yellowstone. Definately something you need more than a few hours to drive around. We're going to add it to our list of places we want to go camping.

It really was a great weekend. A lot of driving (1200 miles total in two days) but it was well worth it to spend time with the Blackwood family.