Summer 2012



Well..... I've taken a few months off from blogging not that I didn't have anything to write about. My daughter wanted to read my blog today and was disappointed that I hadn't written anything since May. I thought I'd do a recap of our summer.

June - Ben finished transitional kindergarten, Nicholas completed 3rd grade, and Victoria graduated from 5th grade and moved on to junior high (middle school). Victoria and Nicholas had a great camp experience at Forest Home Adventure Mountain at the end of June. Thankfully, they didn't encounter any of the local bears. Our most exciting news in June was that we added a new family member. She is cute, white, and furry. The kids have been BEGGING for a dog for a couple of years now and when we met Magenta we decided that she would fit in just fine with our family. Honestly, Allan and I were really hesitant on getting a dog. Let's face it, we already have four kids. We were thankful that she was house broken and plays really well with the kids. Although, we have to remind them to do their dog chores (feeding, walking, bathing, and cleaning up after) they do take care of her and love her. Magenta also puts up with us or should I say Lizzie and Benjamin. Those little ones like chasing her, wrapping her in blankets and putting her in the laundry hamper. Luckily, we have a small home, so I quickly figure out what those little ones are up to.

Magenta was trying to get used to her new home.

Benjamin is always climbing on someone or something..



Victoria and friends were the first to enjoy the pool at camp.



At our church, they had a morning of celebrating the 5th graders
moving up to the jr. high group. Victoria is here with some
of her friends and Sunday school teachers.



We had lots of lazy days and nights just playing games
and watching movies with the kids.
 



July-We had a really fun 4th of July with a group of friends and some family. We took our 1978 RV to Lake Skinner and "roughed" it in the great outdoors. When we camped at Lake Skinner we went with a big group of friends from our church life group class. It was great sharing meals, toys, and conversations with our friends. The kids enjoyed a week of golf lessons at Lakewood Country Club. This was their third time learning how to drive, put, and chip a golf ball. I also had all the kids take swim lessons for 2 weeks. This was Elizabeth's first time taking a formal lesson. She cried the 2nd day and I let her stay out. On the third day, I put her in the water crying, walked away and she was fine afterthat.

Lizzie playing with homemade slime made by Nicholas.

The kids chowing down on breakfast at camp.

August-We had several beach days with different groups of friends. I love to watch my kids dig in the sand, build sandcastles, ,and swim in the water. I've learned that although the kids need sunscreen I need to keep reapplying suncreen for myself because of my fair complexion. We visited the local library almost every Tuesday after Victoria and Nicholas' piano lesson throughout the summer. We take home about 30-50 books every week. I finally broke down and purchased a small kiddie pool for the little ones(and the big ones) and a slip and slide. The grass and plants have appreciated the extra water.

 

It was a fun and relaxing summer, but I was anxious to start school with Victoria and Nicholas and to send Ben off to school. I'm glad to have more structure  and a set schedule on a daily basis. I hope you enjoyed your summer!

 

 

Lizzie and her cousin Dean, who she LOVES to spend time with.
"Play with me, Swim with me, Sit next to me........."

A beautiful sunset I shot one evening. I just want to lay on
the grass and stare up at the sky with no interruptions.

 

 



I love this picture because you can't tell if they love each other
or if they are trying to harm each other. We were on the outside of
the California Science Center. We love that place!

A Hiking We Will Go

I just realized that I haven't blogged for a month as I watched Victoria reading the last post I did on our trip to Utah. I've been trying not to get distracted from our daily homeschool routine. I think we only had two days in May with nothing on our calendar. We took a hike at the beginning of May to San Pedro bluffs which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. We walked down the steep trail to see an awesome assortment of sea creatures (sea cucumber, starfish, sea anemones, and more). It was a great hike for the kids and us adults. Allan and Nicholas went on the hike again on the 20th with their cub scout pack. I wish I took a picture of the steep steps we walked up another portion of the trail. Lizzie had to use her knees to crawl up the steps, then I would lift her from step to step and eventually Allan carried her. Benjamin hiked up and down the bluff as well as the rest of the switchback trail. He is such a great hiker at age five. We will definitely have to go back there again! (Below past the pictures are the directions to the trail)


The boys led the way to the tide pools.




We crossed on a plank of wood and there was a
good fall depending on which way you fell.




Lizzie & I carefully going down the steep and slippery hill.




"Look mom and dad! I found a starfish"




The kids had a blast jumping from rock to rock.





Lizzie needed to take a rest in the shelter
which included a bbq.

 


This is the beautiful view we had while hiking.

Switchback Trail from Warmouth in San Pedro.  From the end of the I-110 freeway, take a right on N. Gaffey St. and then a quick left on Summerland Ave.  Go a mile and turn left on Western Ave.  Go 2.5 miles to the end of Western Ave. and head right on Paseo Del Mar.  Go 0.5 miles, turn left on Stargazer.  Follow Stargazer to its end and head right on Warmouth.  Park on the end of Warmouth and look for an open gate leading from the south side of the street.

Check out the website for more info:
http://nobodyhikesinla.com/tag/switchback-trail/


Utah Trip continued part 3

Day 5 - Tuesday

We spent another day at the hotel which the kids loved. We played games, watched TV, and I took a walk with Victoria to the local park.

It's snowing!!!!! So much fun!!!!!!

Allan helped Lizzie and Benjamin color & work on puzzles.

Elizabeth reading the Bible from the lodge.

Day 6 - Wednesday

Since we brought all of our snow boots, coats, and gloves we needed to get some use out of them. There wasn't much snow left in Park City, so we drove about 5 miles up the mountain. We found a closed ski resort and we asked an adjacent art gallery if it was okay if we played in the snow there. It was quite an adventure getting all of our gear on (snow pants, boots, gloves, hats and jackets). We were able to borrow four sleds from the lodge we stayed at and my brother loaned us three snow ball makers. This was Elizabeth's first time in the snow. She loved helping her big brother build a snow fort and making snow balls. Victoria and Nicholas got tired of sledding and decided to build their own forts. They tried recruiting the other family members to their side. Benjamin loved sledding! I think Allan and I sledded the most because it was tough for the kids to climb back up the hill. We saw about 6 dogs taking a walk with their owner with no leash. Wow! Imagine all that space to just roam! Our favorite part of our snow day was our snowball fight. We had a few casualities with hard snow hitting a few faces, but thankfully we didn't need to make any hospital visits. To get down the hill, we rode down on the sleds. Lizzie hadn't braved the sleds yet. At the end of our sled run, she exclaimed, "Let's do it again mommy!" But it was time to go back to the lodge, get warm, and drink some hot cocoa.

Allan thought it was quite funny that my foot got
stuck in a deep hole in the snow.

Nicholas and Lizzie working on their snowfort and snowballs
for our snowball fight.

Day 7 - Thursday

No more sitting around the lodge, it was time to visit the sites around Salt Lake City. We bought a two day connect pass that we could use at up to 13 locations/attractions. Our first stop was The Lion House Pantry Restaurant which is the historic home of Brigham Young and is located in Temple Square. We walked 3/4 mile to The Lenardo, a really cook sci+tech+art museum as well.

These are some of the beautiful flowers at Temple Square.

Nicholas trying to write his name using a mirror at the Leonardo.

Victoria & Benjamin getting creative with paper.

Trying out how it feels to walk with prosthetics.

Does this picture look like me? Ha! Art is not my best subject

Nicholas trying to walk down stairs. He
feels like he is walking on stilts.

Day 8 - Friday

Needing to get the most out of our passes, we started early at the Discovery Gateway which is an interactive discovery center for younger children (8 and under). Across the street, we headed to the food court for our lunch. After we devoured chinese and pizza we headed for the Clark Planetarium. We could have watched a film in the dome or IMAX theaters but opted out since we figured the littles would get bored viewing those films. Instead, we moonwalked through the space exhibits touching moon rocks and exploring other planets. Oh no! Our day was not over yet. Another recommended activity was Thanksgiving Point which we were able to visit their Museum of Ancient Life and their 55 acre gardens during their tulip festival. The museum has an amazing discovery room with hands on science. After leaving the discovery room, you begin your adventure back in time for a super-sized, hands-on prehistoric experinece. The museum is one of the world's largest dinosaur museums. All of the kids enjoyed the sand table and dusting sand off the dinosaur fossils. We probably should have gone home, but we wanted to visit the gardens down the road from the museum. We walked and walked and walked through thousands and thousands of tulips. The garden was very impressive! We didn't even make it to the children's garden. Oops! Sorry kids!

Victoria and Nicholas building together.

One picture of Lizzie that she is actually
willing to look at the camera and smile

We are about to enter one of the largest dinosaur
museums in the world.

The kids loved digging for fossils at the dinosaur museum.

This gives you a glimpse of the acres of gardens we walked
through. There were waterfalls, fountains, and large statues.

Nicholas and Lizzie resting by the rows of tulips.

Day 9 - Saturday

Let's hit the road Jack! We were back on the road heading for Las Vegas. The blazing sun lit the sky which was a vast difference compared to the foggy, snowy trip we ventured into entering into Utah. Las Vegas greeted us with high temperatures in the 90s. All the kids were told no electronics, so they played games, played ball in the house, and ran around with nerf guns. It was fun to see all of them playing together ranging from age 3 to age 14.

Ben, Nick, and cousin Diana playing go fish.

Day 10 - Sunday

Benjamin begged to stay and live with his cousins for a little longer. It was time to go home to our sunny state of California. I couldn't wait to sleep in my own bed because it is so comfortable. Of course we hit traffic, but the kids for the most part behaved well. As we drove up to our little house, I asked Lizzie, "Where are we?" and she said, "home sweet home."

I rubbed my rubby slippers together and six hours later we were home
because "There's No Place Like Home"!

Utah Trip continued

Day 3 - Sunday

It's raining & snowing here in Park City, UT so we decided to stay in and relax for the day. When we have an entire week of vacation we usually try to throw a couple of "do nothing" days in. We are staying in the Sweetwater Lift Lodge in a three bedroom, two bath, kitchen and living room lodge. We've learned from past experience that it is best for us to find a resort or hotel that has more than one bedroom. Allan took the litttles (Lizzie & Ben) to the park down the street once the rain stopped. He also stocked up on groceries, so we can cook when we are "home".



Benjamin and Lizzie played on the fun playground at the
local park. There is still some snow on the ground.



The kids enjoyed staying in the pjs most of the day and
watching tv, reading books, and playing games.

Day 4 - Monday

One of Benjamin's classmates' moms gave me a list of some fun places to visit in Utah. The first place we ventured to was Kennecott Copper Mine & Museum. We only had to pay $5 for vehicle entry. You don't actually enter the mine, but look down at the mine from above. They have a really nice museum about the history of copper, Kennecott mine, & Bingham Canyon where the mine is. It was a fun and an inexpensive outing! The kids were starving so as they ate and whined in the car I went inside the gift shop to buy a few souvenirs. I purchased a copper bell to ring at school, a copper snowflake shaped Christmas ornament, and a black with copper etching spoon rest/holder. We try to buy an ornament at most places we visit. It is fun to look at our Christmas tree during December remembering the fun places we've visited as a family.

This is the copper mine that has over 500 miles of roadway
going into it.



Lizzie and Benjamin observed the mine through the telescope. 


After our outing to the mine we went to Hollywood Connection, an indoor activity zone. We played minature golf, rode on rides, played laser tag, and played arcade games. They even had a skating rink which we passed on out of exhaustion and the littles are just learning to roller skate. We registered on Groupon for the city Salt Lake City, so we've been receiving emails about groupons in that location. This one was a sweet deal for our family at only $39 for everything we did there! Now I have to be honest because everyone is smiling in these pictures, but vacations aren't always perfect and we are human in our mistakes. When we started playing golf Victoria started crying and I was having a hard time finding out what was wrong. She just wanted to go home. Then her attitude rubbed off on Nicholas and he became super whiny. Come on kids were on vacation! We're supposed to be having fun! Okay, I didn't say that, but I wanted to. Well it turned out that Victoria had a headache and stomachache and Nicholas was just hot. They started having fun eventually, but I just like to be honest that kids are kids and we all get tired, whiny, and fussy and unfortunately it can be contagious. We used our gift card to Olive Garden (thanks Kevin & Violet) and the kids were super excited about going out to eat. It ended being a really fun day!


Fun for the little ones



We didn't even need to put coins in for Lizzie.
She was happen just pretending to drive.

The fierce duo - Ben & Allan aka mini-Allan & Aldog

Oh yea, watch out for Katie & Nick!
They will sneak up behind you!

Time for Vacation

Wow, it has been over a month since I've posted on my blog page! I barely have time to post or time to myself because I am constantly interrupted by a child who needs help with something. I'll keep posting as I can for anyone who happens to read my posts and especially for my kiddos who also enjoying reading some of the things I write.

Vacation Day 1
The kids were very excited for our first destination. We drove on Friday to Las Vegas, NV and arrived 4.5 hours later, a record time for us, to visit my brother and his family. The kids hung out with their cousins and Allan and I got to chat with my brother and our sister-in-law. We were thankful for managing to avoid the rain during our drive.

Allan giving a thumbs up to a much needed vacation.

Benjamin loving his time with his cousin Dean playing on Dean's XBOX.

Hanging out with Diana before her softball game.

My nephew Trevor relaxing on the sofa.

Vacation Day 2
We hung out more with our family in Las Vegas, said our goodbyes, and then loaded our stuff back into the van. We traveled through three states: started in Las Vegas, drove through Arizona for about 20 miles and then entered our destination state of Utah. Upon entering Utah is when our adventure began. First we were in awe of the towering, majestic mountains, green fields, and grazing farm animals. We knew that the forecast was rain and snow, but being Californians we didn't know what to expect. First we encountered some rain, which quickly turned into white snow flurries. We were on a main highway and Allan stayed in the lanes with more cars because the snow was more melted or wet. To our surprise, about 10 cars in front of us all the cars came to a quick stop, so we did the same. I started praying that the other cars behind us would do the same thing. A truck with a horse trailer drove off the road to our left to avoid hitting a vehicle in front of him and another smaller car did the same. We sat and sat and sat. Fear entered my mind not knowing exactly what happened ahead of us. Snow quickly began covering in the black highway around us. We left our engine on with our windshield wipers wiping away the snow. A few people climbed out of their vehicles and stomped through the snow to see what transpired ahead of us. Allan rolled down the window as one of the men with snow covering his eyebrows came back with news that there was a 15 car accident involving semitrucks,  motorhomes and regular cars. Thank you Lord for not letting us be one of those cars and please protect those who were injured! I think we were stuck there for about an hour. Sweet, chewy candy, silly conversations eating powdery snow and peeing in cups kept my family occupied for that time. We were so relieved when one lane of traffic opened up and vehicles began moving slowly to escape the traffic and view the unfortunate destruction of vehicles ahead. We headed straight to the nearest fast food establishment to eat a very late lunch.

The beautiful scenery that surrounded us! Can you imagine
being alive when the first Americans traveled over the rockies?

This is what we were driving toward on our drive into
Arizona & Utah.

It's snowing! It's snowing! This is just minutes into
our sudden traffic stop.

These are just some of the vehciles on the right that
were part of the traffic accident.

This car was badly mangled and it looks like the owner is
from Canada.

It continued to snow as we left the restaurant, but as we drove into a new valley, it stopped. Fog and dark gray clouds loomed ahead. As we entered the fog that engulfed our car, it began to rain and then hail. We saw flickers of lightning in the distance. As we drove through the quaint town of Provo an end to our long day of traveling was in sight. We hit our final destination of another charming town, Park City, Utah. Time to unpack, eat dinner and RELAX!

Time to stay warm & cozy and enjoy time with family