What time is it? Summertime!

Since I am just now catching up on my blogging, our last day of school actually occurred 1 month ago. Super early compared to other schools in Southern California. The district I grew up in, Duarte, is just getting out of school this week. Summer came upon us VERY early this year!

Since I was dreading Summer and having all 4 kids home all day long (fighting and making messes) I decided to start it off with a bang (and a positive attitude). I had read a lot of ideas over the years in magazines that mom's do to celebrate the last day of school and stored them in the back of my brain. In an attempt to get the kids excited (and myself for that matter), I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of fun summer stuff and made a Summer fun basket for the kids when they got home. When I picked up Maddie from school I had "What time is it?" from HSM 2 playing in the Car. She thought that was pretty cool. We headed to 7-11 to get Slurpees cause Summer is for Slurpees after all! Then when we got home the kids walked up to a sign on our door that said, "Welcome to Summer!". Inside was a fun gift basket full of Summer things to do; bubbles, chalk, water ballons, etc. I had also written a "Summer Goals" list that had things on it we had discussed like going to the library once a week, cleaning the house before going anywhere, going to bed at 9 each night, and many other hopes I had for Summer.

The kids posing in front of the door. All excited at the prospect of sleeping in, no homework and vacation! Sawyer is just excited to have his siblings home to play with!

Maddie and the Summer Fun basket

The kids tore right into the basket and started using the bubbles right away.

Since our last day fell on a Tuesday which is 99 cent scoop night at Baskin-Robbins, we decided to top of our fabulous day with some ice cream!

Fast forward to present time. One month into Summer and a lot of my high expectations for Summer are now deflated. We've been to the Library once, the kids have been to bed before 9 maybe once, the house has been a complete disaster more or less the entire time, Libby's completely off any kind of schedule and the house is so noisy she has a hard time taking a nap, I'm secretly counting the days til school starts and overall I've felt a little discouraged.

On the upside of things we have been to the beach twice, had a family reunion for an entire week with swimming, a picnic and a visit to the Zoo. We went to Disneyland twice, went to Las Vegas for my work conference, and that's just off the top of my head. So I guess I'm not doing too bad. I should just know that Summer always starts out with me having a vision of everything being perfect and it never ends up that way. I guess if I didn't start it that way then maybe it would be a disaster. Anyhow here's to another month and a half. We go back on August 9. Wish me luck!

Another Central Coast Trip (The last one for a while!)

If you read my blog or know me you know that since Chris started working for Odwalla (2 years ago) we've taken quite a few little trips up to the Central coast region when he's had to travel for work. He's actually taken MANY (too many as far as I'm concerned. He actually spent 6 whole weeks in San Luis Obispo once! Coming home on the weekends of course) but we've had the opportunity to travel with him several times which has been really fun. We have just fallen in love with the area, it is just so calm and relaxing, the beaches are beautiful and so natural and the people are so nice! If you've never been there it is a great place for families to visit, and live if you are lucky enough to find a job up there! Anyway, I'll get to my point... Chris has changed districts and is no longer over that area, which is nice because he is actually working a lot closer to home. He now has Orange County and Inland Empire! Until very recently he worked in San Fernando (at least an hour from home, 2 in traffic) and the area went all the way up the coast to San Simeon. The good news is he won't be going out of town much at all and the bad news is we won't be going to the Central coast anymore!

We did have one last little fun trip up to San Luis Obispo but this time I was the one doing the working! I had the opportunity to train a Pediatric Dentist office. I was a little hesitant to go out of town since we left 2 days after getting back from our Family Reunion and celebrating Chris' birthday it was a wirlwind! Not to mention 2 days after we returned, Maddie started school! I thought what the heck lets just have one last hoo-rah of the Summer. The shoe was on the other foot now and I worked two full 8 hour days while Chris played with the kids all day.

The night we arrived it was late and we carried the kids in to bed. Sawyer woke up in the middle of the night and decided to play with his poop and got it all over the bedding in the crib and his P.J.'s (This is a daily occurrence in our household for the last 6 weeks). The next morning he woke up before all of us, climbed out of his crib and played with his poop again and got it all over the white bed spread on our bed! So our trip got of to a great start. (Luckily Chris was able to smooth it over with the Housekeepers by speaking to them in Spanish!)

The first day of training couldn't have gone better, then when Chris came to pick me up, he said, "I'm so sorry honey... something bad happened" I started to panic and looked at Carter and his lip was HUGE and cut open. He had been jumping from the couch to the coffee table in our Hotel room and he hit his mouth on the table. His top teeth had been bleeding so I rushed him in to see the dentist and he took a look at them. He told me just to watch them but did recommend that he get a stitch on his lip. So we took him to Urgent Care and spent a few hours there. Carter was so brave he didn't even shed a tear. After we got out of there it was 8 by then and we were starving. Chris had waited in the car with the DVD player running for Sawyer, and the battery was dead! (Those things really drain the battery) We called AAA and they were supposedly on there way. Someone finally showed up around 9:30 and then we went to dinner. After that we headed over to the Laundromat to wash Sawyer's poopy blankets and clothes. What an exhausting day! Poor Chris felt so bad about what happened and kept worrying the rest of the trip that the kids were going to get hurt.

Luckily the next day went very smoothly.

After Chris picked me up we went to F. McClintocks in Shell Beach. It is a really cool restaurant where they cook everything over a wood pit. The food is sooo good. They also pour your water really cool too. I didn't get any pictures of that though.

Here is my yummy steak, it was at least 3 inches tall, a true baseball cut!

The next morning we got up and drove to Monterey (about 2 hours) and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was so much fun. Chris has been wanting to take the kids there for a long time and we were so glad we did. They just loved it! It was hard to get good pictures but here are a few. My favorite thing was the Jelly fish, they were so stunning! There were so many different kinds. They had these little tiny ones that look like little umbrellas. The kids loved the Otters. We walked down Cannery row and had lunch at "El Torito" right on the ocean, it was so cool! Later that evening we drove down to Paso Robles to spend the night and the next morning we went home! Other than the first day our trip was a ton of fun and we really enjoyed spending time with the kids before school started!

Trampoline Fun

As part of our backyard project we put up a trampoline. We don't have a huge yard but it works. The kids just love it! I still have to put up the net that goes around the top so it is safer. When the cousins were here we had so much fun. Here are some pictures I took with the cousins.

Another Trip to San Luis Obispo

This week Chris had to work in San Luis Obispo and since Maddie is out of school now we got to go with him! This time we brought Grammy along and it was nice having her there. Here are some fun pictures that we took. We did a lot of fun things that the kids really enjoyed. Hopefully it was a memorable trip for them.

Atascadero Zoo

Carter's favorite thing was the Spider Monkeys, they were fun to watch!

Carter and Grammy looking at the Flamingos sleeping on one leg.

Mommy and Sawyer

The most exciting animal there was a tiger, which was pretty cool for a really small Zoo.

Maddie and the boys in their matching zoo t-shirts

Avila Beach

The water was a little too cold for Sawyer, he had more fun playing on the sand.


Maddie is a little beach bum! She absolutely loves the water. She went pretty far out and I even caught her body surfing!


Carter loved the water too, especially with his toys, he is pretty cautious and doesn't let the water get above his knees.


The kids all loved playing in the sand, especially Sawyer, he could have played for hours!


Surfin' USA!

San Simeon
We drove up the coast to San Simeon where Hearst Castle is located. The coast line was breath taking. We took a moment to look out and see it's beauty.

If you look very closely you can see Hearst Castle at the very top of the hill. It is amazing how far up there it is!

Hearst Castle: The Enchanted Hill
Chris had connections at Hearst Castle because they sell Odwalla at the visitors center. So he was able to get a free tour for my Mom and I while he watched the kids. (He'd already been up there) We rode a bus up a long windy road to get to the top. It was breath taking. Hearst Castle was a vacation home of William Randolf Hearst, a wealthy publisher and Media tycoon. The Castle was donated by his family 50 years ago to the state of California. I was happy to find that as a California resident I own 1 38,000,000th of the property! The detail was just amazing. Here are some of the pictures I took. I am so glad I went and I would recommend it to anyone!

This is the outdoor pool which was just gorgeous, I just wanted to jump in!

Inside one of the bedrooms in one of his 4 guest houses.

All of the ceilings were just beautiful.

This indoor pool was just spectacular. Every inch of the pool and walls is mosaic tile!

This is the front view of the main house. It is 70,000 square feet!

Farmers Market

Thursday night is Farmers Market. The kids love to ride the trolley down to the Farmers Market.

Carter and Maddie got their faces painted. Maddie a rabbit and Carter a Skeleton. We thought they looked a little freaky! Carter looked like the bad boys in Karate Kid!

Delicious Barbecued corn!

Staying in Hotel with 3 kids can be a challenge, but not with I-pods! We had them fall asleep watching our I-pods a couple of times! And since it is so quiet, Sawyer falls asleep very easily! Worked like a charm!

First Jamba Juice
I had no Idea Jamba Juice was started in San Luis Obispo, so when I found out, I had to go to the first store! It was much smaller than any other Jamba Juice but looked similar to the other stores. It was first called Juice Club.