California reunion 2013 #3 Thursday

 Thursday morning we went to Ostrich-land and fed the emus and ostriches.  It was really neat.  Their necks are so long and flexible and they were very aggressive while they ate, you could tell they were very strong.

 The girls spend a lot of time in their stroller :)

 We took lunch to the beach (East Beach in Santa Barbara) and tried not to get sand in our sandwiches - ha ha.

 The girls were pushing the diggers we brought - sad that we buried them later and lost one - along with our red shovel.

 Lots of digging.

 Damon genuinely didn't want to get hit by the water coming in.

 Tyler tried boogie boarding, he had a lot of fun until a bigger waved rolled him.

 Salt water doesn't taste very good.

 Doug and I went out too, it was a lot of fun.  Chris was needing his nap right about now and came crying to me that he didn't want me to go in the water.   So I went out, then he started crying that we wanted me to go in the water, then he wanted to go in the water with me.  Then he didn't like that either.  Love 3 year-olds when they are tired.

 The wind was great for flying kites.

We had leftovers for dinner and just stayed up talking after we put the kids to bed.  I think I fell asleep on the floor while everyone else was visiting - playing hard and staying up late everyday for a week was getting to me.

California reunion # 2 Wednesday

 Wednesday morning we posed for family pictures.  My mom and dad had to leave the reunion early so my dad could have eye surgery.  We were glad they could come for a little while at least.

 After morning naps were went to a really cool park.

 misters - very cool

After lunch of sloppy joes and naps we went to the pool at the condo.  It was a great sunny day and everyone had fun in the sun.  I let the girls dip their feet then let them crawl around in the rec room that was nearby.

 The kids had fun throwing airplanes off of the third floor walkways - and got a little rowdy and had to be told to be quiet from the manager people. whoops :) (it wasn't that late in the evening, but I guess they had some complaints from other vacationers).

We had a great dinner of chicken and steak tacos from Marcus and Annie and played Gridlock after we got the kids to bed.  

California family reunion # 1 (Sunday - Tuesday)

So the beginning of our California trip begins with two long days in the van.  We left Sunday morning at 8:30 and didn't get to St. George until 7:30 PM (11 hours if you didn't figure that out).  The kids did pretty well.  We watched movies, played on the iPad/dad's phone/mom's phone, listened to stories, and napped.  We of course had to stop for lunch and gas and dinner.  The girls did ok, they had a harder time sleeping in these car seats.  This was the first long trip with their older car seats.  We had the one in the back facing front and the one behind me facing back.  They would take turns in each seat.  Monday morning we left around 8:30 again and were traveling for 7 hours.  We pulling into the Solvang WorldMark the same time as Marcus and Richard.

Solvang is a cute touristy town that is made to look like Denmark.  Monday evening we had our family home evening lesson and visited.  Mom and dad gave the kids lots of fun games and toys as a mock birthday party for all the up coming celebrations.

Tuesday we girls went shopping in the morning around Solvang and had some great danishes and puff pastries.  I could have eaten at least a dozen more - they were so good.  I got a new sweatshirt, some hair clips, and a Christmas ornament.  Soon I will insert some pictures of our outing - send me some please Tannie.

After lunch we went to the beach.  The boys went on surfing with a groupon that Marcus arranged.  I tried to put the girls down for a nap in the tent with pack 'n plays, but they didn't go for it.  So they were kind of grumpy and we kept them happy by feeding them lots of Chicken in a Biscuit crackers.  Jenna did not like the sand at all and Kaylee loved it - eating lots of sandy cheerios and seaweed.

 We had a great day at the beach and had some yummy hamburgers from Richard and Tannie when we got back.  We surprised my mom with a birthday celebration for her in the evening.  We made a book from the grandkids, and had some other gifts too.  I forgot my card at Shelly's in St. George - ugghh, but mom picked it up later.  After the kids went to bed we watched the slide show movie that I made for mom.  It was so frustrating that it didn't work in the DVD player or Doug's laptop.  Finally got it to work on mom's laptop, sigh, oh well.  We again visited late and enjoyed everyone's company.

Tyler - stitches and 2nd tooth

 On Thursday July 25th Tyler tripped on our deck and cut his chin.  So I drive him to the Urgent Care in Longmont and helped him get 6 stitches.  He did very well.  He screamed really good for the shot that numbed him up, but other than that he was really calm.

The Dr. said that the stitches needed to come out in 5-6 days, well that was when we were going to be in California for our family reunion.  I called a local Dr. there and they said they could take them out and it would just be the price of an office visit.  But since we were from out of state they would not take our insurance so it was going to be $125.  The receptionist said we could try and ask for a discount when we got there.  Well, we decided to try and take them out ourselves.  So Doug and my brother Richard worked together to take out Tyler's stitches.  Tyler did really well holding still and thanks to some scissors and tweezers we saved $125!

Then later that day Tyler was on the couch next to a cousin and they bumped somehow and Tyler got his loose tooth knocked out - crazy day.  The tooth fairy found Tyler even in California.

Bee Family Farm and end of T-Ball

 Finally put up our family motto on our wall: "Give your Best Effort and have a Good Attitude"

Our garden has been great.  The boys help me pick the beans and peas.  They shell the peas while I snip the beans.  I think quite a few peas get eaten along the way, but hey that's ok.

 Fun pin-wheel cookies I made for a friend's birthday.

 Tyler did a great job at T-ball.  He really improved throughout the year.  We were gone the time they had professional pictures done, so we did the best we could do.

 Tyler and his friend John.

 Jenna likes to push cars too, she even makes a vrooom sound.

 One of our summer saturday trips was to the Bee Family Centennial Farm.  They had a lot of cool things to look at.  Our guide gave us the full tour, which was a bit lengthy for our crew.  It was a pretty hot day and we were all getting tired of walking around.  But the kids liked looking at the animals and tractors and milking the pretend cow, and gathering the pretend eggs.

 The girls liked the sheep and even tried to baa at them.