vacation, part 2

We had another segment of vacation last week when we headed down south to Knott's Berry Farm and an Angels game. The contrast between motorhome and hotel room is staggering. The kids had a blast at the near-empty park (Tuesdays during the school year are great days to go) and went on rides multiple times. Jason was a really brave guy and went on a few roller coasters, and as it turns out, he's hooked! Cameron loved Camp Snoopy and the carousel. Hayden put up with it all in her usual agreeable way.

on vacation

Sorry it's been awhile since the last post. We've been spending a few weeks on vacation. Last week we went "camping" in the Santa Cruz mountains. I put camping in quotes because we were in the motorhome... with full hook-ups... cable TV... and Wi-Fi. Since we canceled our cable a few weeks ago the kids thought they had died and gone to heaven with full access to the Disney Channel. When the rain came down we were not soaking wet like I've experienced in a tent... for days on end... with a pesky little brother and his yappy dog. Instead we were luxuriously housed in the box on wheels... together... for days on end... in a tiny little space... Yet somehow the kids still managed an incredible amount of injuries and a ridiculous ability to get grime in every nook and cranny of their little bodies... even Hayden had dirt under her fingernails! In spite of the rain and the close quarters we got out to Roaring Camp and the Boardwalk. We all enjoyed the train ride up the mountain and back again and Jason especially enjoyed the miniature golf at the Boardwalk (2 hole in ones... or is it holes in one?). It's a short drive and beautiful scenery so we'll definitely go again... maybe next time with a tent!Anybody seen the movie "Stand by Me"? Don't look it up mom, you don't want to know what we did here...
Ever nurse a baby on an 1880's steam train in the rain? Fun times!
The golf pros! Check out Cam in her pink "train girl" hat.. this girl loves to dress up and wear hats.
We played enough skeeball to win tickets and turn them in for vampire teeth. Everybody's got to have a set of vampire teeth!

happy birthday jason!

On this day, 7 years ago Jason made his way into the world after 2 days of labor. Taking his sweet time... not much has changed. The boy who has the longest attention span of any kid ever is 7 years old today. Last night Darren put on video from his first birthday ( I cried, he was so cute...). Today we'll have a little party with all the grandparents. We'll eat too much and he'll get too many presents. And 7 years from now I'll probably cry again just thinking back to his 7th birthday and how cute he was. I won't be able to tell him he's cute at 14, good grief, I can't even say it now without an exasperated "Moooooooommmm!" He's a great kid, we love him to pieces and I can't believe time has flown by so fast! Happy Birthday Jason, we love you!
The kids found our tennis rackets yesterday. They played Guitar Hero, the cheap version... Jason rocks!

happy easter!

We had a lovely Easter weekend, with lots of egg hunts! The kids went to Grammy's house on Friday to color eggs and then hunt for them. We went to Nanny & Pop's house on Saturday to eat and search for eggs and then Sunday after church we went to San Luis to search for more eggs (Jesus, who? It must be confusing to have so many egg hunts while celebrating the resurrection.). The kids got way too much candy and most of it is stashed way up high in the pantry. Out of sight, out of mind totally works on our kids. So on to the pictures:

pretzel day

Yesterday's activities were a hit! We still have a few hems to sew for the banner so I hope to get to that today. The pretzels were very yummy and very simple to make. All pictures were taken by Jason:This is our yeast getting foamy. Yeast is pretty cool.Of course Cameron was in full baker girl costume.Hayden was not interested in baking; she prefers life in the jumparoo.Like I said earlier, Jason was the photographer for the day. This is his point of view. Sometimes pictures turn out great like this, other times pictures include unflattering shots of my rear end. I'll need to jump ahead about 20 pictures in order to spare myself a little embarrassment.


After hearing far too many giggles I finally snatched the camera away and took these last few shots. Pretzel day was a success!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KADIN!

That's right everybody, today is Kadin's birthday. So head on over to stonesinuganda and wish the little guy a very happy day.

Easter week

This week should be busy here on the blog. I have a lot of Easter projects and crafts planned for the kids, so hopefully I'll get them posted for you all to enjoy. We planted a few containers last week for a vegetable garden, or to be more accurate, a salsa garden. The potato project didn't exactly pan out... as usual my brown thumb struck again. But this time I bought Cameron a little watering can of her own so if these plants fail it certainly won't be from a LACK of water! Today's projects include homemade soft pretzels and we begin work on our "He is risen" banner. Pictures soon....