Granby Zoo

For our final fun adventure before the official end of summer, we met up with our friends the Jagemanns and headed up north to Granby Zoo.

The animals are all in beautiful, spacious habitats. It's so fun to wander around and look at them.

One of my favorite things about Granby is there are lots of ways to interact with the animals. Lucy went on a camel ride and fed a piece of fish to the manta rays.

There's a building full of parakeets that you can feed little cups of nectar. Gavin loved the parakeets.

And apparently they loved him back! He was standing there feeding a bird when it suddenly jumped up on his head.

That was pretty cool.

The parakeets liked Austin too.

They didn't try to land on any of the rest of us. Hmmm, maybe Gray men have a special affinity for birds?

Another thing that makes Granby fun is the amusement park rides. Here we are getting ready to go on the Anaconda roller coaster. Gavin has become a super fan of roller coasters this summer and he couldn't wait to go on this one.

Lucy and Gavin had a blast and I . . . survived. Next year, I'm hoping Gavin's tall enough to go without a parent!

Bumping into each other on the bumper cars. There's a grown-up bumper car ride as well, which Austin, Jason and Lucy went on. I wish I could have got some pictures of Lucy's face zooming around bumping into her dad. And some pictures of her surfing the wave pool at the water park. Seriously, every zoo should have rides and a water park.

I had Poutine -- a Quebec specialty -- for lunch. French fries and cheese curds smothered in gravy. Yummmmm!

But dinner was the by far the best. Our friend Aimee -- who has a cottage not far from Granby -- invited us to stop in for a spaghetti supper. Such a beautiful little place in the rolling hills of the Quebec countryside. I just LOVE visiting Quebec. I feel so lucky that it's only a couple of hours away.

Happy #41 Austin!

The kids worked really hard today getting ready for Austin's birthday.

They decorated the house and wrapped all the presents and chopped the ingredients for Austin's favorite Waldorf Chicken Salad.

Austin was in court all day, so we were all ready to party when he got home!

Favorite birthday gift: a wetsuit. Just in case he has to jump into any frozen ponds next winter, you know.

Then there was a birthday concert. Gavin played "Birthday Party."

Lucy played "Happy Birthday."

Then Austin went out for a gallop on Major, who conveniently arrived just last night, in time for the birthday festivities!

Lake Sebago

For this year's friends' campout we met at Lake Sebago, just outside New York City. It was amazing how isolated we were, considering our proximity to the largest city in the U.S.! We stayed in rustic cabins overlooking the beautiful lake.

We did some fishing . . .

. . . some canoeing . . .

. . . some kayaking . . .

. . . then we buried all our children in the sand on the lakeshore.

It was a great way to keep track of them while the grownups chatted!

(Notice Lucy and Ava's mermaid tails?)

A lovely weekend was had by all. Thanks, guys!

7. California

The final state we hit in our seven-state vacation extravaganza was California. After all our family events and visits, we still had five days before we were scheduled to fly home out of Las Vegas. We thought of lots of different things we could do with the time but finally decided to go -- where else --?

Disneyland!

Lucy's favorite ride was the Indiana Jones Adventure.

Gavin liked the Star Tours ride, with the cool 3-D glasses you got to wear. Sometimes, when asked, he would say this was his favorite ride. Other times, it was Space Mountain or Small World. But most often, he said his favorite ride was the Pirates of the Caribbean, which we went on three times and would have done a few more if Gavin had his way.

Gavin insisted that we stand in line to meet Mickey Mouse himself.

Austin found a comfy spot to read the paper on Mickey's front porch while we stood in line.

We last came to Disneyland when Lucy was barely three. She wanted to go on no rides, she just wanted to meet all the Princesses and eat Cheetos. She wasn't interested in princesses this time, but she still loved the Cheetos!

The next day we went to the beach. We got a hotel near the pier in Oceanside and walked down early one morning, expecting to be the only ones on the beach. Nope, it was prime surfing time, and the waves were full of people on surfboards. It was entertaining to watch them.

Within a few minutes, the kids were begging to get in their swimsuits. They ran and played in the waves for hours. We don't live far from the ocean, I can't believe we don't take them more often!

They played in the sand and hunted for sea shells, completely happy.

Check out Lucy's curls!

Then we went off to Legoland. It's not as great as Disneyland, but it's also not as intense, so in some ways we were able to relax and enjoy it more.

Legoland is full of sculptures made entirely out of Legos. Our Lego-obsessed kids loved it.

One of the best parts was the Lego Waterpark. There was a lazy river with tubes that had Lego building platforms on them, so while you were floating you could pick up giant Legos from the water and build onto your tube. I wish I had some pictures of our creations, but I was too busy having fun to go get the camera. I did get a picture of the "family dryer" where, for just $5, the entire family can get blasted with warm air. Wish we'd have found this earlier, since we didn't bring towels!

There were some fun rides, like this Technic Car rollercoaster. There was also a dragon coaster that took you on a tour of a Lego castle full of amazing Lego creations before sending you through death-defying dips and turns.

Watching the Lego artists at work.

The Star Wars Lego creatures were a huge hit, of course.

I loved this -- there were Lego replicas of major world cities, including Las Vegas. Which means we got to see this Lego replica of the Las Vegas replica of New York City. Cool, but I think I'd rather go see the real thing. (Maybe next weekend?)

6. Arizona

Since we were so close, we decided to take the drive through Fredonia and Jacob's Lake to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon lived up to its name -- and I loved the North Rim, so much less crowded and touristy than the South Rim! Even the drive was gorgeous. And Austin told us all stories of the summers he worked with a river company running the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I hope someday we get to see the canyon from the bottom, not just from the top.

5. Utah

The Grays rented a house in Kanab, Utah so we could spend five days just being together with the family. I forgot how breathtaking the southern Utah desert can be. This was high desert, fortunately, so not so miserably hot. And the house was really great.

It was some serious cousin-palooza. There are 14 Gray cousins, all within a few years of each other in age. The kids all got along wonderfully well, as they always do. Here, they're hard at work decorating their official Gray family reunion t-shirts.

The house had a fantastic swimming pool with a waterfall and slide. We all spent hours playing in the water. The perfect way to enjoy a summer weekend.

Gavin's awesome swim gear.

Austin and his "little" brother Jordan.

It's not a Gray Family weekend with out family pictures! Austin took some pictures of Jordan's family while we were waiting for the official family group shot. This is a very well-documented family. I didn't take many pictures because Sharon and Mardi are much better at it than I, so I hope to be able to post more pictures of our weekend in Kanab after I get copies of their pictures.

My sister Lydia drove up from Flagstaff to visit, so I got to see all three of my sisters in the same week!