Weekend in Newport Beach

This weekend I flew down and meet up with Bryan for a weekend without the kids. We had some great meals, saw a movie and just enjoyed some fun times times with friends. On Saturday we met up with some of our great friends and went to Darren and Kristen's wedding in Newport Beach. These were all my guy friends from college that made my expierience in the CM department at Cal Poly so much fun. It was a beautiful day and the wedding was great......fun times had by all. It was so fun to be with everyone again and celebrate with Darren as he married his beautiful bride Kristen.

Bryan and I at the Lido Isle Yacht club (where the reception was)

Darren and Kristen made their grand entrance to the reception in style cruising through the Newport Harbor.Nothing like a blue martini that matched the colors of the weddingOh the memories with these guys.....Greg, me, Darren, Dave and Jill
Bryan and IGreg and his girlfriend Deanna.....she fit in just fine. Jill and DaveOh this was a fun table to be at, I think we now know why we are always all put in the corner at weddings. But man do we have fun.

Marine World with the kiddos

When Bryan's family was here we went up to Marine World for the day. The kids had a blast. Since Chris was taller this time there were a ton of rides that he was able to go on. I think Tony Hawk's ride was his favorite, he laughed his way through the whole thing. Dani of course was not thrilled that she had to sit out but she had a blast.

Dani loved running around seeing the animals, riding the rides and dancing to all the music. After a good 6 hours there the kids were beat though and we headed home.

Dani had a nice dance party with the dolphin

Bryan and Chris at the whale show

Dani was mesmerized by the whales

Shouka the Whale

Dani got to go on the airplanes all by her self.....such a big girl

Chris ready for the rideUp, up and away!!!

Auntie Brooke and Dani touching the sting rays

Dani was in love with the helicopters

Family ride in Harold the Helicopter

Auntie Brooke & Dani enjoyed their lemon treat!

Baseball time

Finally some pictures...

At the beginning of the summer Chris started baseball. In Tracy they have a Jr. Giants league. We figured this was a good place to start him since it was a non-competitive league that focuses more on the basics of learning the game rather then the score and who plays were. It is quite hilarious to watch, but Chris is having a great time.

Here are some pictures from his first game.

He was so serious in the dugout before they took the field

Check out that swing!

Doesn't every ball player play with the dirt in the infield?

.....just not all of them make castles with it.

Our little baseball stud!

More to come

The past few days have been filled with fun and adventures. Bryan's parents and sister were here for a few days. The timing was great because Bryan had a few days off too. On Monday we took the kids to Marine World, Tuesday was lots of playing and tee ball, and Wednesday was a trip tot he city and the Exploratorium. All this to say I do have pictures but life is busy for the next few days.

We are getting ready to say goodbye for Bryan for a while. On Sunday he will be heading down to Riverside to attend the Police K9 Academy at Adelhorst. It is a six week course that he will go through with his new dog Basco (he is the replacement from his second dog Fasco who blew out his knee this summer). It is going to be a long 6 weeks up here but we are going to do our best to keep busy. We already have two weekend st hat Bryan will com home and one that I will go down there without the kiddos YIPEE!!!! I know the kids are going to miss their daddy,s o that will be the tough part.

All this to say I will have plenty of time on my hands after Sunday to post some pictures from the past few days.

Farmers Market Fun

Saturday morning after the gym I took the kids to the Tracy Farmer's Market. The weather was great and then kids had a blast.

Dani searching for strawberries in the bag

She ate her body weight in strawberries

Nothing like dancing in the streets

Hi mom!

Dani's new love

The nice thing about tee ball is that we can take the wagon and the scooter to the games since we live behind the sports complex. Dani has taken full advantage of the uninterrupted hour that she has full access to her brother's scooter. In the past few weeks she has really become quite the rider. I see a pink Razor in her future.....

Okay so this next picture is just because it made me laugh. I ran upstairs just now to go get some laundry and I peeked over at the kids room. This is what I saw at Dani's door. Needless to say she is still getting out of her bed occasionally, but now she stays in her room and usually just talks to the dog through the door. Precious, I know!

A crappy day.

Today was a long day. One of those days that you know will be long when you wake up and you have to hit the snooze button a few times just to be able to get out of bed. The first half of the day was spent working out in Brentwood at church. Bryan worked a midnight shift last night and then picked up a swing shift today, so needless to say he was not around to help with the kids today. So this was a bit of a challenge come tear down at church. But we managed with only a few melt downs, mostly the kids. By mid afternoon the kids missed Daddy though and so did I. We decided to head out to Castro Valley to see Bryan and have dinner with him. This was also a way of getting the kids out of the house for a little bit not having to cook dinner. Unfortunately the car ride was less then pleasant and I was worn to pieces by the time we made it to Chipotle. As luck would have it Bryan got a call on his way to meet us so we had to wait about 30 minutes for him.

The kids saw Bryan pull in the parking lot and got all excited. I took Dani out of her high chair so she could go see Bryan. She was sitting on my lap while I put her shoe back on. As she slid off my lap to go run to Daddy I noticed my jeans were smeared with poop. Yep, that is right, smelly poop all down my leg.

Not knowing how exactly it got on my leg, I panicked. Dani was running towards Bryan to pick her up. The problem was that he was in uniform and I did not really want him covered in poop all night. I yelled out to him, "Don't pick her up, she's covered in poop." I quickly realized that this is not the best thing to yell out in a restaurant.


I will spare you the details of the clean up. Needless to say we had bath time when we got home and the kids were off to bed. Hence my crappy day. Tomorrow is a new day.

Finally some 4th of July

I realize that it has been a few weeks but with school and tee ball starting.....life has been busy. So here are a few pictures from our weekend in Truckee. The kids had a blast being up there and the weather was great. Like always we hit the Truckee 4th of July parade and then headed down to the lake to watch fireworks and BBQ with the Benson's. Next time I will try and bring a functional camera so I have more then just pictures from my phone.

I think Dani consumed her body weight in watermelon throughout the weekend.

Chris had a blast learning how to fish off the Benson's dock on Donner Lake.

Dani just relaxing at the park

One of the winning crawdads in the crawdad race the kids had. It was actually pretty funny to watch, the kids both thought it was hystarical.

Nothing like an old school life vest for a girl who just over leaning over the edge of the dock to look at the fishiesCat, Ali and Krista

I think a definite highlight of the trip was hanging out with Cat and Krista and the kids. Krista and Cat are some of my closest girlfriends from high school and before, we have all been friends for 16+ years. So many of our fun memories were spent in Tahoe during the summers on the lake and winters on the mountain.....so it is always fun to get together up in Tahoe. These girls are both such great friends to me and now my family too. We have been through it all together.....we have gotten married, had babies, said goodbye to friends and moms, and mostly just gone through life together as friends. I always treasure the times with these gals because no matter where we are, when we are together it is like we are 14 again hanging out on the dock and just being girls.

Homework in Kindergarten?

School has definitely changed form the days when I would cut color and learn to share in Kindergarten. They are no joke these days. Chris came home with homework for the first time yesterday. The funny thing was that he was so excited to do it. That is why I figured I should at least blog about it so I have proof in a few years (or weeks) when he is protesting doing it.

He was so proud that he finished it and even wanted to continue on to the page for tonight. Now granted it was just writing your name five times on the correct lines, but still he had to sit at the table, take out his folder and listen to the directions.

Once I got him started he looked at me and said, "Mom, I think I've got it. you can go do something else. I need to do my homework. " Alrighty then....

Poor Man's Pool

.....what else are you suppose to do when it is 110 out !!! The nice thing is he had fun, and it was "free fun"