Summer Vacation

WOW! What a vacation. We started by going to the Donner Swim Meet down in Columbus, IN. It was at a fun outdoor pool. Lyle swam the 200 Free on Friday night, June 6th (he was supposed to swim the 200 IM as well, but for some reason they didn't have him listed for that event) and both Anna and Lyle swam on Saturday. There were major thunderstorms all morning, but they cleared out long enough for the afternoon session to take place. They both swam very well, cutting time in almost every event. I found out today (June 20th) that after we left on Saturday night, there were major floods around Columbus and alot of the swimmers had a hard time getting out of the city. Those who stayed at the Holiday had to be evacuated to a school..... we were blessed for not swimming on Sunday!




Lyle is the swimmer at the top of the screen.

It was a long, hot day for Blaine, but he was a trooper!

This kept everyone busy while we were waiting for the thunder and lightening to quit.

Left to Right: Gary Kostbade, Chase Pickford, Lyle, Ashley Pickford.

So we made it home without too many flood induced diversions, packed, went to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and then headed off to O'Hare. We arrived safely to find cancelled flights and huge lines of disgruntled passengers. We decided to hop back into the car, drive to Cincinnati and then fly from there. We had a pleasant, surprisingly fast trip down to Cincinnati......we were just biting back at the Universe all day long! We found a great Hotel, were able to park for $10 for the two weeks (an unbelievable bargain) and made it out of
Cincinnati without a hitch on Monday morning. The Marriott's were very good to us in Orlando and we had a great time. Even the hour and half sales pitch that we had to sit through was bearable.....and we learned a few things to help us with our own time share. (We never did mention that we were Disney Vacation Club Members, and felt that we were being a little deceiving. Not enough to tell.)

We went paddle boating on the ameoba-ridden lake!