Family Camp

This month we participated in Family Odyssey.  This is a family camp for families of those participating in Timberline and other training groups.

I volunteered to come help on staff for Family Odyssey so we could have some time with my parents.   Here are some pictures of our time.

While we were gone, Dan built this gate for the top of the stairs to the basement.  I love how it turned out!

We saw lots of deer at camp.  This is from one of our little walks and the deer is at the top of the hill.

On Monday night after the campfire program, the kids and I were walking back to the truck to go back to camp and Irene slipped and cut her head open.  No stitches, and she was a trooper while Papa Jack and others worked on her.

Ruth and Irene crashed for a nap one day.

We had some special visitors from movies in camp.

I worked with Miss Amy and the Shining Stars (ages 2-4 yr olds)  Miss Amy was amazing with the little kids!

We got a kiddy pool towards the end.  The kids loved cooling off.

Another of our visitors.  I did not get pictures with Megamind

The kids having fun with marshmallow shooters and some of the camp staff joined us.

Dillon's age group made cardboard boats  with cardboard and duck tape.  He was so funny crying to me that his boat wouldn't win.  Guess what it did win!  He had so much fun!

We are all tired coming home after being gone for a week, and we brought home an extra with us.  My younger sister Wendy went to Mississippi to help my baby sister Alysha when she had her baby girl this last week.  So we got one of her kids while she is gone.  Rivers will be with us for a few more days.  The kids have been enjoying having a baby around.

So until next time!

It has been awhile!

Well it has been a while since I posted, so now I am back on the bandwagon!  We had a great trip to Washington State during the month of July.  Thanks for all who made the trip wonderful!  Here is just a couple of pictures!

Kids playing with the kitchen!

Dillon and Jennilyn riding!

Our Family picture at Dan's brother's wedding!

Ruth and Irene Riding

Emily and I in Ocean Park, WA

We had fun on the beach!

We had a great time flying kites on the beach!

Dan's Mom's maiden name!

Dillon swimming with the help of a noodle!

Jennilyn swimming with the help of a noodle, they became little fishes!

Irene having fun with chalk!

Van all ready to head home!

Our picnic with cousins in Dillon, MT

Dillon in front of a Dillon sign

We are on our way home!

Slice of Life # 44 ~ Famous Places

This weeks Slice of Life is Famous Places that we have visited.  How Ironic that this was the prompt for this week, as I have been thinking about this trip, and had just sent a request to some of my family asking for pictures, as I seem to have lost mine.


It is July 2001, I had just come home from my mission a few months before and the "Jack Dillon Clan" set out on a adventure of our life.  This is one of my most memorable family vacations.  You see most of our family vacations were camping or going to Washington to visit family, we did go to Disneyland when I was 14, but that is the only time I have ever been there.


Back to July 2001.  My parents and my 4 sisters and myself headed to Buffalo, New York on an airplane and then we rented two mid-size cars, to fit all of us and we started our driving tour of the East Coast.  We then ventured to Niagara Falls, going over into Canada and raiding the Maid of the Mist right up to the falls, oh that was so worth the trip!  We then traveled to Rochester, NY and the next day spent the day in Palmyra, NY and saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  We then traveled to New York City, our hotel was on the New Jersey side, and we were running late to get to our Broadway play of  Les Misérables, wonderful play, we took the subway from New Jersey into the World Trade Center, and since we were running late we decided not to ride to the top of the World Trade Center.  This was July 11, 2001, just two months before they fell.

The next day we went to the Statute of Liberty.
The line was so long to get into it and then it was so long to wait for the elevator to go up.  But here is the kicker, you can ride the elevator up, but you had to walk the 23 flights of stairs down, unless you had some kind of disability that would let you ride it down.  Well my family decided we had had enough of waiting in line as we had already waited for about 2 hours just to get inside by the gift shop, we decided to climb the 23 flights of stairs up and then the 23 flights of stairs down!  We still made it to the top before some of the other people we had been waiting in line with did.  


We also went to Elise Island and then we made our way to Gettysburg, Washington DC were we saw the sights, some of my sisters spent a lot of time in the Holocaust museum.   Then Jaclyn and I left everyone else at the National Scouting Jamboree, and we went and saw Williamsburg, Bush Gardens, and the Washington DC Temple before we went home. And Mom, Dad, Emily, Wendy, and Alysha visited those sights before they came home three weeks later.  Emily ended up meeting her husband to be at the Jamboree, so I think it was more memorable for all of us because of that!


I still want to go back to New York and see some of the other sites that we just didn't have the time for and get in another play, maybe one day Dan and I can do this type of trip with our kids.  It will be one that I will never forget.  Of course I can't find any of my pictures from this trip as this is before I got a digital camera.


I want to say Thank You to my Mom and Dad for taking us on this grand adventure to so many famous places!  The best part I think is that since we were all ranging in age from 23-16 that we will all remember this trip!
Thanks Again Mom and Dad for all the wonderful memories from not only this trip, but other family vacations.  

Family Vacation July 2010

This last week we went on vacation to Minnesota and Wisconsin.  We got to see many family and friends while we were there.  Sorry to those who we didn't get to see, maybe next time.

We started off by getting up at 4:30am and getting the kids up at 5am to get dressed and head to the airport.  We parked in an off sight parking lot and took a shuttle bus over to the airport.   Our flight was at 7:55am.  We got breakfest at the airport and boarded our plane to Denver, CO.  Once there we had a little time waiting for our next flight but not much, just enough to get the wiggles out.  We then boarded our plane to Minnesota.  Ruth was out for a nap before we even left the gate.  Dillon and Jennilyn fell asleep before the plane took off, and Irene wasn't far behind them.  Dillon and Jennilyn slept the whole way.  Ruth and Irene slept about an hour.  When we landed we went and got lunch and then rode a tram to the car rentals.   It took us an hour to get  our two small cars and get everyone loaded up.  Then we had a 15 min drive to Dan's Grandma Burke's house.  Once we were there Grandma got to meet the twins for the first time.  Irene is named after Grandma Burke and Grandma Bolstad so I am glad that she got to see them.  After Seeing Grandma Burke we went to Maplewood, MN to see our friend Marie Hunt who was in the hospital after just having surgery.  She had asked us to stop by and see her, and it was good to visit with her for a few minutes.  Then we went to Denny's for dinner before we made the 3 hour drive up to Duluth, MN.  At Denny's the kids got these cool soccer ball cups.  They had fun drinking out of them and making a mess.

The next day we went to the beautiful Lake Superior were we had family pictures taken.  When I get copies I will post them.  It was a beautiful site that Jennifer picked out.  I hope we got some good one.  Later I went to see the movie Eclipse with my sisters-in- laws (Sarah, Marsha, Annette, and family friend Katie)  It was good and I enjoyed it better then the first two movies.

After the movie we hurried to Floodwood, MN which is an hour away for the wedding rehearsal that Jennilyn was a part of.  We spent the next few days in Floodwood, which was busy was it was the Floodwood Catfish days celebration which ended with a parade on Sunday, which made it feel like it wasn't Sunday with a parade right out your window.  On Saturday was the Wedding and it was beautiful!  Jennilyn did a great job being a flower girl, but didn't want to do pictures later.  At least she walked down the isles throwing fistfuls of flowers on the ground.  She was so funny that at the end she threw her basket up in the air.

Sunday was the Tvit Family Reuioun and it was good to get to mingle and visit with everyone.  Dan missed this as he had to go back to the cities to catch his flight back to Salt Lake City.  The kids and I as well as my mother in law Nova drove back to the cities that night and we stayed with Brian and Sarah.

On Monday we took the kids to Como Zoo and Como Town which has rides.  They had fun and at the end of the last ride that involved race cars Jennilyn told me she couldn't get off until she finished the race, but we were out of tickets so it was time to go.

On Tuesday we meet up with Jackie and Ryan Mayer and played and visited.  It was good to see them again. And then we went to Uncle Tom's house were we enjoyed swimming and good food and company.  It was good to see Aunt Val, Uncle Larry, Aunt Kaje, Uncle Tom and Aunt Linda there.  Then we went to Grandma Burke's house for dinner and Aunt Kathy and Uncle Steve as well as Aunt Linda.  It was good to see everyone again.  I left the twins at Grandma Burke's so that Grandma Nova could take them with her to the airport the next morning and I took Dillon and Jennilyn back to Brian and Sarah's house.  Dillon and Jennilyn went to bed right away and when Brian got back he had brought Uncle David back with him so the 4 of us played Cash Flow 202.  Thanks for playing with us David, it was fun.

Wed we got up and got repacked and played outside until it started to rain.  Then we loaded up and followed my in-laws back to the airport were Grandma Nova and I loaded with all 4 kids to go back to Salt Lake City.  I had bought a couple of items in a gift shop and we lost them on the trip home.  I was so bumped.  We got to SLC and one of our car seats didn't make it on the plane.  Luckily the airline had extra's and gave me a loaner.  The delivered my car seat back and took their loaner yesterday.  Now we are in recovery mode.  It was a great trip and we had fun.   Thanks to our our family and friends for having us stay we enjoyed it!