Author Archives: Greg Thames

Carlsbad, Ca AKA LegoLand…

Comment 1 Standard

We left our campground in San Diego and headed to Carlsbad for a day at…

215

216

Ezekiel was not convinced these giant Lego people were OK

220

223

243

 254

This was the ‘line’ for the rides.  Parents held places while kids created.  The kids loved it!

255

 261

Benefits of having a tall sister.

264

277

Both Zoe and Ezekiel went through the Legoland Driving School.  Zoe was very careful except for driving on the wrong side of the road but she realized quickly and corrected.  Ezekiel decided it was safer to follow the yellow line like a train.  He was very focused.

266

We headed back to the trailer for lunch and to change into our swim gear.  Then it was off to the water.  On a side note…they have a whole water park section we thought was included in our tickets.  Turns out we were wrong.  It would be extra.  Decked out in our swim wear and melting in the sun we decided to visit more of the park before deciding if we wanted to enter the lines of the water park.  I am so glad we did!  Just around the corner was a whole water section and only a couple of the rides had lines.  Most of it was more of a Great Wolf Lodge type structure.  A majority of our day was spent here.

  334

335

 333

319

It took a lot of courage for Oliver to make it over to this slide.  Like the Great Wolf Lodge they have a bucket that dumps water.  He freaks out over that.  When the bell dings before the dump he is on guard.  Greg got him over to this slide a little ways from the bucket and down he went!

322

Seconds after this photo the bucket dumped and this part of the slide was within range.  Poor Oliver.  He never went back.

302

This was more his speed.

305

Dumping water on his brother.

 298

Don’t you just love little kids in sprinklers?

299

294

We ended our day with Miniland.  This was one of Abigail’s favorite areas.

      352

358

Oh yeah we bought a bus!!!

Comments 2 Standard

Yes sir-eeeee, we bought a bus. Not just any bus. It is a 1982 Motor Coach International (MCI) M-9 New Jersey Transport Bus. 40 foot triple axle, diesel powered beast. It is big and it is beautiful.

20121203-175413.jpg

So you might be wondering “Has Greg lost his mind?” Well the answer would be yes, but that is a subject for another posting. Anyway, our hope is to transform this transport into our family’s motorhome. The prior owners of this Silver Bullet started the process by taking most of the seats out of the bus except the front 4 rows. They added a couch, table and bed for mom and dad. The kids slept in sleeping beds on the floor. They used it as part gospel ministry and part family RV.

20121203-180116.jpg

639

The “B” family would travel the country singing the praises of Jesus in local churches as a way to share the Gospel of Jesus. They would also vacation with this bus……and oh the stories….you know the ones that you can laugh about now but cause you to pray hard and asked God for help when they happen. Like the time they ran out of gas…..oh I didn’t mention the bus doesn’t have a gas gauge. You have to keep track of mpg and the miles you have traveled. Let’s just say they decided 500 miles traveled was the magical number before refueling to ensure that they didn’t run out of gas again. I think we will do that too.

20121203-182310.jpg

Or the story of them driving through a bad snow storm in the mid west. And the windshield wipers stopped working. Oh, I didn’t tell you that everything in the bus is powered by compressed air. From the brakes to the windshield wipers to the drivers seat (height controls). They had a leak in the air line to the wipers. Everything else worked but the wipers. They had the drive with no wipers until they could get to a truck stop to figure out how to fix them. But that is now fixed, and they were so nice they gave us the extra parts in case it happens again? I truly beleive they told us these story to make sure we could/would handle the downside that comes with owning a bus.

20121203-191909.jpg

But you know as we were driving down their driveway (As they were directing us, so as not to hit anything on their property like fences, water lines, trees, etc) I could tell that Mr. B and his family were a little sad that their bus adventure days were over. And just think ours are just beginning.

The Family Tree Hunt

Leave a comment Standard

Tis the season…

20121201-163855.jpg

Today the Thames family went on our yearly outing to search high and low for the best tree this side of the Nooksack river. So we headed to Fullner’s Tree farm.

20121201-165407.jpg

The perfect tree was found and everyone took their turn with the saw.

20121201-165610.jpg

This was our first year at this farm and we thought it was great. They have a wood elf named Hans. He is hidden somewhere on the farm and if you find him you get a prize. we didnt take the time this year to search (something about high winds and rain) but next year he better watch out! He has his own cabin and everything.

20121201-170124.jpg

Bye Fullner’s see ya next year….

20121201-170437.jpg

Here is a picture of the tree all dressed up…..and of course as soon as the the tree was done the house lights went off. So we could play under the lights.

20121201-170641.jpg

Merry Christmas…… But don’t forget the reason for the season……

How to…By Abigail

Leave a comment Standard

How to guarantee an immediate bath…

And look darn cute doing it! Need I say more?

This was taken earlier this summer. As I was refreshing my knowledge of this site I’ve been away from for so long I noticed this wasn’t posted. And well, it’s a must! I will be getting back to our California trip soon.

Back online….

Standard

Hear Ye, Hear Ye……

I am trying to get the site back up and running.  It looks like we got the old post minus pictures but I am working on it.  And as soon as I get this site back up and running we will be moving our online home to www.THEbellinghamthames.com…  But that is later……but until then we are going to get this up and running again.

San Diego – The Beach

Comments 2 Standard

Our San Diego visit will have to be spread out over a couple of posts.  We had a lot we wanted to see and do in this area.  One thing for sure was the beach.  The real beach.  A beach with actual waves.  Surfing.  Sand.  A beach with real ocean breeze.  Salty smell.  I love the beach.  And I love beach pictures.  So needless to say we have a few.

Very friendly ‘resident’ campground ducks loved the kids when crackers were involved.

The campground we stayed at was right on the water so as soon as the trailer was set up we headed out for a little walk.  One common theme in most of our beach adventures was our clothing.  I don’t think we ever had our swim suits on.  I don’t know why exactly we would just kind of end up at the beach.  And there was no way we were going to keep the kids out of the water so we just went with it.  And had a blast.

Pure Joy

This beach was on the bay so there were no waves.  The water shallow for a good while and so warm.

Another beach adventure took us to Mission Beach.

This sand is so incredibly fine! As we visited more beaches up the coast it was fun to see how the sand changed. The further north we went the more coarse it became.

I know what you’re thinking. The cutest 17 month old you ever saw!

Oliver was cracking us up as he would grab a chunk of seaweed and throw it back into the waves yelling, “My baby, My Baby, My baby!” as the waves pushed it back onto the shore. Over, and over again.

The wonder of waves

Not crazy about waves. At this point she was yelling “No, No, No!” when I tried to put her down.

We're back!

Leave a comment Standard

This time I (sort of) have an excuse for letting the blog laps.  OK, not really but I have got some great pictures to share so I’m sure you’ll forgive me.

We just returned from our “home-school” family trip.  We like to take a trip in September when all those poor public school children head back to their rooms.  Campgrounds are empty and lines are short.  This years trip was a bit bigger than normal.  Lasted 3 weeks. Visited 3 states.  Saw 3 countries.

 So, without further adu, California here we come! 

Sand!

Our first stop was northern Sacramento area.  Yep.  You read that right.  First stop.  21 hours.  But we were there and ready to party. After some sleep.  We met up with my brother Mark and enjoyed some good old fashion visiting.  Can you believe how lame we were?  No pictures.  A total bummer.  While in the area we ended up heading to Lake Tahoe.   There we took some pictures.

 

 

 

The boys loved this old fire truck.

 After a few days hanging with family and playing in the sun we headed to our most southern destination.  San Diego!  But that will have to wait till next time.

Cousins

Comment 1 Standard

This past month we were so excited to have Greg’s cousin and son come visit us from Milwaukee.  We had a blast doing all the touristy things us locals don’t get around to doing.

We started out at Deception Pass and were blessed with a beautiful day (which this summer has been few and far between)

Making the kids sit pretty in too many pictures warrants a crazy picture

We then headed to Friday Harbor.  Someplace I had never been in all the years living around here.  I loved it!  We headed to the American Camp first to explore. 

We headed down a trail to Grandma’s Cove.  It was my favorite place.  Almost like being at the “real” ocean.  You know…not the sound.  That would probably be the one thing I do miss about California.  The real ocean.

Grandma’s Cove had it just about right.  Never mind the mountains you would see across the horizon.  If you closed your eyes it had the right sound, the right smell and the right breeze.

Some of the local wildlife even came out to give us a show.

The ferry schedule restricted us from being able to explore the island too much more but I would love to go to the English camp next time.  It was a great weekend visiting with family and making memories.