Beach Day for the Treekids

Wednesday I finally had a break from work and we were going to the beach.  We invited one of the neighbor kids and then when we were getting ready to leave 2 other neighbors came out and wanted to come too. So when we left for the beach it was me and 6 kids!

We headed for Del Mar.  It was a cloudy, but warm day and Damon was able to meet us for lunch.  We all had a great day and I'm so glad no one got left behind because the kids had so much fun together.  We live in such a great place!

 I'm going to be so sad to see summer go.  It's been full of good times!

Fun in the Sun!

Part of the joys in living in Paradise is that there is good weather most of the time.  We were able to do a lot of fun things in the sun during the past week.

We have had swimming lessons every day so we have been at the pool.  Last week of Thursday I finally had a big enough break in my work schedule, which has been crazy, to take the kids to the beach.  Yippie!  We headed up to Del Mar and had a fabulous time there.  Adam loved having his own boogie board.  The water was nice and the waves were beautiful.  I even got in the water to ride some.

The best way to end a beach day is to go to the pool afterwards, which is what we did.  The kids were having so much fun we stayed longer than planned.

Friday Damon had a Luau at the Hotel Del Coronado over on the island.  So we packed a picnic dinner and headed over a little early to enjoy some family time.  The beach was beautiful.  We couldn't have asked for a better evening.  Before the show started we got ice cream at the hotel.  That was fun too and afterwards we sat ourselves in the sand to watch the luau.  A fun evening indeed!

Over the weekend the kids help their dad build a shelf for the boys closet.  The finished project looks really good.  They did a great job.

We also we to Zoo Nights at the San Diego Zoo on Monday.  Damon met us their after work.  It was a fun family activity.  We love going to the zoo.  There is always something new to see that we haven't seen before, like the Rhinos.

I can't believe summer is almost over!

A fun filled Weekend

This weekend was filled with fun and friends.

Friday we went to Motorola to a company carnival.  The kids enjoyed eating and playing the games.  I enjoyed hanging out with Damon during the work day and not being in the house.  That night my roommate from college and her husband came into town for a wedding.  I haven't seen her in 12 years.  Sad, I know.  Even sadder was that we didn't take any pictures.  Silly me.

Saturday we had a lovely breakfast.  It was Adam's birthday and he turned 9!!  We got to have pancakes.  It was so fun chatting with Jana and her husband.  They left for the day and Adam got to be in charge.  We went bowling, played outside, played Wii and made pizza for dinner.  

Adam couldn't wait to get to his presents.  He got an orange boogie board, a new Wii game, disney dollars and some gift cards.  We had chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.  I think it was a good day for him.

We are so glad Adam is part of our family.  He is just so goofy that we laugh all the time.  He is sweet and kind and sincere.  His heart is so big and full of love.  I can't imagine our family without him.

Sunday after church we hung out all day with Jana and Johnny and had some good laughs and great times and relived funny memories.  We taught them how to play Farkle and ate way to much.  It was hard to see them off Monday Morning.

I copied this one picture from Jana's blog that was taken right before they left at 6:45am.  I should not be photographed then.  At least it is archived now.

The Long Drive

Saturday we left at 6:30am and started the never ending drive home.  We drove back through Wyoming, still a whole lot of nothing, but we some some historical things along the way.  We followed the Pioneer Trail for a while and ended up at Martin's Cove.  It was fun to watch the kids pull hand carts and read journal entries from those who crossed the plains.  We were able to find my ancestors name's that were on a plaque.  I wish we could have spent a little more time there, but we were on a schedule.

We finally reached Salt Lake about 5:45pm and met up with our friend's, the Melansons, for dinner.  They just happen to be in town at the time too.  It was so fun to see them, but way to short.

We left for St. George around 8pm.  We were so happy to finally reach Nana and Papa's and even more happy to not have to drive anymore.

We relaxed Sunday and had a nice time and got to celebrate Adam's birthday a little early.  Monday we drove back to San Diego and back to reality.  It was a great trip with lots of fun memories.  We are all very glad to be in our own rooms and own beds.

Yellowstone/Wyoming/Keystone, South Dakota

This was a big drive day for us.  It was about 577 miles.  It took us forever to get to South Dakota because we averaged about 50mph.

Leaving Yellowstone we saw a lot of bison.  Twice we had to stop as they walked down the middle of the road right by our car.  That was pretty cool.

We stopped in Cody, Wyoming for brunch because Noah read a book that takes place there and he wanted to see it.  So we ate at a place called Granny's, which was a lot like Denny's.  After Cody we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere for a very long time.  We were the only ones on a two lane highway with nothing around for miles and miles and miles and no cell service.  Very erie!  There is a whole lot of nothing in Wyoming.

We finally hit I-90 and hit Keystone, South Dakota.  We walked around the town, if you could even call it that, got dinner, and went to bed.

The next morning we headed out to Mt. Rushmore which was cool.  After we walked around for an hour we were pretty much down and we weren't leaving the town until Saturday.  We kept ourselves busy by going on the Alpine slides, seeing lots of bikers, going cave exploring, swimming, getting an oil change, frolicking in a summer monsoon and going to Dairy Queen for the first time. 

Yellowstone Day 3 & 4

Tuesday we finally woke up to sunshine.  We were very excited about that.  We decided to take the route to Old Faithful today.

On the way we stopped at Firehole Falls, and Midway Geyser Basin.  We saw the largest hot springs in Yellowstone which gives off steam of different colors.  We also stopped at Yellowstone Lake, which is huge, after Old Faithful.  On the way home we hit the Mud Volcano and Dragon's Mouth, (no pictures, it was raining) while we drove through Hayden Valley.

Once home we went out to eat at The Three Bears.  The kids got a kick out of that and then swam again and went to bed.

Wednesday we took the Northern route determined to see the illusive bears.  We stopped along the way at interesting points.  We saw Mammoth Hot Springs Terrace which were dried up so they weren't very exciting.  We went to park headquarters and got an unofficial tour.  The kids got to learn about all the different jobs their are in the park.  They all want to work there when they get older.  Halfway through our drive we ran into a traffic jam on the road.  We were trying to see what the cause of it was and there were two black bear cubs in the tree playing.  Yea!  We had found the bears.  I asked the park ranger where the mama bear was and he said she was down in the brush laying down.  That's why he was there, to make sure none of us went to find the mother bear.

Lily lost her first tooth when we stopped for lunch at Tower Falls.  We hike down to the river and let the kids go wading in it.  On the way out of the park I thought I had seen something in a tree and so I had Damon pull over.  It was another (or maybe the same) bald eagle.  We were the only ones there to see it.  That was pretty cool.  They really are beautiful birds.  When we got back to civilization we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Center that was right across the street from our hotel.  We saw bears and wolves up close and learned a lot about them.

That night we didn't have a good dinner experience which made us all grumpy.  We went back to our room, packed and went to bed.  We knew we had a long day ahead of us the next day.