25 posts tagged “family fun”
My brother and Roxanne introduced us to a game called "Spoons" and we are so addicted! Now anytime we have company over it turns into a Spoon game, ok, scratch that. It turns into a all out WAR with spoons.
Last night Charlie and Holly were over and we taught them how to play. We managed to get really involved and played until after midnight. I won 2 of the three hands.
Holly was so tense, my palms were sweating, its kinda ridiculous how competitive we each are!
For vacation this year we took the kids, the dog and the trailer to Malibu for 10 days. Our campsite was amazing. This was the view from our spot
It was unbelievable waking up to this every morning. We would sit in our seats in the misty sea air, warm cups of coffee in hand and watch dozens of dolphins swim by.
We toured the famous Adamson house. The Adamson's were the family who founded Malibu and later sold land to Pepper-dime University.
Everyday we strolled the shore lines, where the kids found sea enemies, starfish and shells galore.
We spent one day in Santa Monica. We walked alot of downtown, did the kids school shopping at the Promenade, walked the pier, browsed the street vendors and rode the original carousel which still sits at the beginning of the pier.
Kenna loved to stop at every single telescope along the boardwalk
One morning we woke up to a thick marine layer so we ended up driving inland about 30 minutes to sight-see in Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
We stopped in and checked out the wax museum and Guinness museum
Jules had plenty of fun camping and handing with the family
Of course we spent plenty of days lounging and playing on the beach!
What
a
perfect
vacation
enjoying
this
beautiful
world
GOD
created
with
my
husband
and
children
We're in route back home after having a great family vacation for the past 10 days.
We lounged on the beach. Did some sightseeing. Plays tons of games. Shopped. Ate at some delicious restaurants. Saw many stars. And are brings home a new pet, or should I say...pets?
Driving home sucks, not only because we're leaving the beach, but because we're headed back to the heat. Headed back to unpack. To do the laundry. Do the grocery shopping. Pack Christian for surf camp. Head back to reality.
We started our vacation last Friday when we packed up the car, attached the trailer and headed to Malibu.
Upon our arrival we were mesmerized at how utterly breathtaking the Pacific ocean is from the top of our little cliff which we will call home for the next 10 days.
After unhooking the trailer from the suburban we took a short walk down to the water, where we climbed some rocks and searched for seashells. Christian was excited to find a perfectly shaped purple starfish lying on the sand.
There's a severe surf advisory so each night we've be lulled to sleep by the sounds of the harsh bearing sea crashing against the dense rocky cliff-side.
Yesterday we ventured down Pacific Coast Highway to Zuma beach we're we put up our umbrella, played in the sand and soaked in the California sunshine.
Last night we took a winding dirt trail down the hillside to the Beach Shack for the most delicious fried fish, shrimp, chowder and piping hot sourdough...
Friday we took the kids to Kids Pace (a hands on's kids museum at the Rose Bowl) and had such a good time! Heres our day in pics.....
Summer is here and we are in full swing summer mode! Schools out, swimming lessons have begun and vacations are planned....
Our schedules and always packed and there's never a dull moment with four children. Our weekends consist of bbqs, friends, family, celebrations and very rarely is there time to stop and breathe. But, you know what? I love it! I love constantly being surrounded with things to do, people to meet and fun to be had!
So, this week and weekend are no different. Ryan had four nights of summer school, Maddy went to two sleep overs, the babies had swim lessons twice, the kids and I worked on a "secret project" with a good friend, I walked two nights with Michelle and now onto the weekend. Tonight Holly, Charlie and their girls are coming over to hang out and have dinner. Tomorrow my mother-n-law is taking the two little ones to a craft thing, while we take the two older kids bed shopping for Christian. Sunday my husbands family is coming over to celebrate a belated fathers day and Maddy birthday combo and then Monday night we're going to my brothers to celebrate our cousins two June bithdays with a bbq and swimming.
See what I mean. The calander is always full. We are so blessed with a houseful of children, good friends close by and tons of family!
Last Friday night, Maddy wanted to go to dinner and then cosmic bowling for her 8th birthday. Since her big brother, Christian, and cousin Grant are out of town, she decided she wanted to ask Uncle Eric, Aunt Roxanne and Nessa to go and bowl the three of them verses the three of us.
So Aunt Roxanne, said "we would party like 1999", which Maddy thought was funny. So we started our adventure at Bj's restaurant where we were up to our eyeballs in food followed by the worlds largest cookie topped with 6 scoops of vanilla ice cream!
Maddy's eyes about popped out of her head at the sight of her jumbo birthday dessert! Then she opened her gifts.
Then we were off to find, and when I say find, I mean LITERALLY find the bowling ally. You would think this would be an easy task, but it wasn't. The first one we went to was totally full and had an hour wait, so we piled back in the suburban in search of another one. We arrived at one a few miles away and Maddy was throughly pleased that they would be starting their CoSmIc bOwLiNg in an hour.
After we all had on our snazzy bowling shoes we listed our names in the computer and "Butthead" (Eric) was up first.
After 3 frames of totally sucking, we decided to ask for the little bumper rails (which we said we needed for Madyson) and that really improved our game. We all managed to shoot in the hundreds....
Once the lights were out and the fog was thick, Maddy and Nessa proceeded to dance on the lanes!
and Eric showed off his professional bowling stand.....Dad you would be SO proud.
Ryans sister graduated from Massage Therapy school and also got her AA. We went to the ceremony and dinner with his family
After our 4 day trip to Nor Cal, I've had a hard time catching up with our schedule.
So lets rewind alittle. We drove far and long, stuffed into Ryans car like sardines.
Yes, five of us fit in the fit but it was cramped to say the least. We stopped and played for a few hours in San Francisco
We took the kids down to Pier 39 and got some fish and chips and clam chowder. Then over to get some bread to take to my sisters for dinner. On the way to the car we got stopped by this street dancer.
After we took the picture I had to check and see if any of his silver spray paint rubbed off on my naturally blond hair. He was lucky. So we paid our $14.00 in parking and hit the road!
My sister lives in the quaintest little town. It's so beautiful and peaceful feeling. To give you an idea this is the view from the deck on the back of her house.
Wow! Its breathtaking, isn't it? Before dinner my brother in law gave the kids something to look at. He went in his back yard and sprinkled corn everywhere and then wild turkey and deer quickly appeared from the green brush to eat
But if you think the view and the visitors in the backyard are interesting, let me show you the view in the house. My sisters husband and boys are avid hunters, So Rocky and Bullwinkle reside above the couch
and then Norm has a den thats filled with all kinds of stuff. I swear the below pic was not on purpose Mom. The Karaboo on the wall behind you made you look like you have horns...
and I caught Christian admiring a duck
We visited and even took tours of the valley below her house.
While we were there, my oldest nephew Michael graduated.
His graduating class had 27 people in it, which was strange for me since mine had something like 1,500!
The day after graduation my sister hosted a bbq for 27 people. Her house was bursting! Her husband decided to give us a "show" since were big city people. He made "barrel chicken". Which meant he took chicken and smoked them all day in a barrel outside. He found it amusing that I felt the need to take pictures.
After dinner he made a campfire and we roasted marshmallows and made s"mores on the back deck. The kids were in heaven!
The day we got home we had some babysitting dilemmas and Makenna had to come to work with me. She was perfect!
We are doing our part to be eco-friendly and cost effective in the harsh economy.
For the past 2 months we have been building a garden in our pack yard. It's been a large project and very time consuming, because we decided if we were going to do it, we would do it right.
So we started with mapping out a 8 feet by 16 feet space in the yard, removed the grass and layed down a week barrier. Next Ryan, Christian and Grant built a 8 x 16 foot box out of redwood. Then we had a company deliver 16 yards of fertilizer to fill in the box. After several days of hauling the dirt from the drive way to the back yard Ryan layed a drip sprinkler system in the box and then put up and fence.
Next we planned out what to plant. Each of us picked our desired veggies and fruits and then headed to Lowes, where we purchased both seeds and plants in biodegradable pots.
Then the fun began! The planting.
We have: Strawberries, corn, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, radishs, chives, 3 kinds of tomatos, hot peppers, cilantro, green beans and broccoli.
Now, aside from being eco-friendly. The kids have learned the difference from a store bought veggie and a home grown veggie. The size
and more importantly the TASTE!
A veggie thats fresh from the garden is so much more flavorful! Saturday night we had steak, salad and baked potatos with sour cream and fresh chives from the garden.
Ahhhhhh.....................
I love long weekends.
Our run down will be as follows.
Friday- off work early, doctors appt. Drop Christian off for his camping trip, go out to dinner for Maddys award, rent a movie from the Red Box and relax.
Saturday- sleep in, soccer games, clean house, do the yard, have some friends and family over for some carne asada, margarita and the Freeway Series. (Angels walked the Dodgers to a win....stupid)
Sunday- make brunch for my Mother-n-Law and visit, then spend the rest of the day working in the garden followed by some bbq and dinner in the back yard and then a few rounds of Phase Ten with the kids.
Monday- nothing. rest. lounge. siesta.
