The "Schite-leys"

I had to put that hyphen in so you know for sure that the "i" is pronounced as a long vowel sound and not a short one. This is the name that we came up with for the Schillings, Whites, and Rileys when we go into a restaurant and have to put our name on a list or something else like that. We came up with that while sitting around waiting at Applebees in Grants Pass on Saturday.

All three of the families ventured down south (boys (and Nati) in one vehicle and girls in another) to spend the night at La Quinta Inn and get up early to do the brunch run of the Hellgate Jet Boat excursion. We took our time getting out of town on Saturday. The guys went golfing in the morning, while we putted around packing. We finally put to use the walkie talkies that John had got for Christmas many years past and had an extremely goofy time talking to our husbands over the airwaves. Lots of laughter on that roadtrip.

Applebees was fun, however, the service was less than exemplary and led to a conversation with the manager (when the whole group has already left the table to go keep the kids occupied outside by the time John and Travis get their order - with Travis' still not being correct - I think there's a problem). We had much better service at Baskin and Robbins - I love their "Raspberry Cheese Louise" and Chocolate Chip Mint....

Back at the hotel the kids swam and swam, I think Michael was there for a full 90 minutes with Ellie and Traig begging him for even more. What a good daddy.

Overall, I think I'll look back on Saturday as one of my favorite days of the summer. It was full of all of the ingredients for the recipe of happiness for me - fun anticipation, lots of laughter, incredibly awesome people surrounding me, I just found myself "permagrin" most of the day.....

Regarding these pictures - I love the look on the faces of Travis and Stephanie at Applebees - as if saying, "How in the world did we end up with the crazies?"