January 5, 2011

Kyle loves to make himself snacks. He does have a kids snack cookbook and he loves finding a snack, getting out all of the ingredients, and making the snack look just like the pictures. Today, Kyle decided to make his own sandwich. He put a bell pepper between 2 slices of bread and proceeded to eat lunch. Kyle has no problem with eating a bell pepper like an apple. I don't know why he decided to put it between bread today, instead of eating it like he usually does.

January 4, 2011

Today I took Tyler in for a physical. He is going to try out for High School Volleyball and the school requires all athletes to pass a physical. Tyler was excited to find out that he was in the 75% for his height. He has always been on the shorter side for his age. We also found out at the visit that Tyler would need some glasses. In one of his eyes he has astigmatism and he is near sided. So, in any of his classes where he sits in the back, he needs to wear his glasses. He was glad to hear he doesn't have to wear them all the time.

New Years 2010-2011

We went to our friends (The Crawford's) beach house down in Monterey for the weekend. Their were 6 families in total there. April Jacobs and the kids came down for Thursday to Friday, The Evans came Friday to Sunday, the Lees, the Crawfords, the Dolls, and us. Friday we went to Dennis the Menace park and the kids had the best time. Their is an actual train engine there for the kids to climb on and go inside, a maze, a bridge (which of course Chris loved to jump on and watch the kids all bounce), and it had a huge slide with rollers on it. The kids and adults loved making trains to go down! We rode our bikes to the park, and we rode all around downtown Monterey. The weather was perfect. Kyle even went one day with us on an 11 mile bike ride, he rode the whole time and without complaining! It was great! I pulled Riley Jo in the trailer behind my bike the whole weekend. We also went down to the tide pools, Kyle tried to bring home a souvenir. A starfish! Luckily I have learned to pat Kyle down before leaving places like that, so I patted him down thinking I was going to find a little crab, but I found a starfish instead. Funny boy he is. He said he just wanted one. He didn't know that it needed water to survive. We played a lot of games back at the house too. On New Year's Eve we even had a bonfire, and played with sparklers, writing our names and practicing how to write 2011. Thank you everyone for an awesome weekend!

Tyler and Riley Jo's Birthday

Tyler turned 14 and was finally able to go to the church dances. For his birthday he and some friends went to Marine World/Discovery Kingdom for Fright Fest again. We all went and hung out at the park for the day. Then Tyler and some friends went to the movies.
Riley Jo turned 5 and had a party at the house with her friends. They made cookies and decorated them.
For Riley Jo's family celebration we all went to Marine World for their Holiday In The Park. We went down the snow hill, to the animal shows, on the rides, and Riley Jo's favorite went to see Santa!

See Jane Tri

I participated in the See Jane Triathlon in Pleasanton for the first time in 2010. It is a Sprint, 400 yard swim, 11 mile Bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. I did this with 10 other friends. It was a ton of fun to train and compete in this event with friends.
The swim was horrible. We started on the shoreline and had to run out to start. I thought I was drowning. Everyone was swimming on top of me. That was the hardest part of the whole event.
Then the bike. I was thankful that a friend lent me her road bike. It made the bike experience a whole lot easier. I did a Tri in July and the bike ride was awful because I used my mountain bike and trying to go up and down the hills on the mountain bike was torture! The run was hard, but I was proud of myself for running the entire distance even though I was completely spent. I thank my friend Elaina for pushing me. She caught up to me on the run and we finished the event together. We finished at the exact same time!

2010 First Day of School

On the first day of school, my head was spinning. Riley Jo started Kindergarten, Kyle started 3rd grade, and Tyler and Michayla started High School! I don't know how time flew by so fast. Riley Jo was the only one who had a hard time going to school. Riley Jo was really excited that one of her very best friends was in her class, but when we got to school the idea of going to class was scary. But she went and had a great time! Tyler and Michayla were both excited at the idea of going to High School. But a little Scared too. And Michayla started in a whole new school district so the only person she knew in the whole school was her step brother who is 2 years older then her. So I think it was a little more scary for her.
The idea of the kids being in High School was scary to me. It wasn't very long ago that I was in High School. The most important thing to me is my kids having good friends. I know how influential friends are. So we told the kids that we wanted to know their friends. We asked that they bring their friends to our house to hang out so that we could see how they act with their friends. Tyler wasn't very happy about this idea. But in the end, he did bring his friends around so that we could meet them. Tyler had a different group of friends every year during junior high. So he didn't have a set group when he started High School. One of the downfalls of not going to the local schools. So far so good with his friends though.

San Diego Trip

August 3-11 2010

We went and spent 9 days down in San Diego. We met up with our cousins Conrad and Evie, and their kids Hayli and Hana. They live in New Mexico so we don't get to see them very often.
We spent some time at the San Diego Zoo, Legoland, Sea World, and The Wild Animal Park. I was able to meet up with my friend April Preston and her boys, Carter and Michael. They moved down to San Diego so her husband could go to Law School. The kids had so much fun! We also went down to the beach and took family pictures. Chris and my mom flew down on Thursday through Sunday. We went to a training seminar for ACN on Friday through Sunday. By the end of the 9 days the kids were tired of living in a hotel room.
At Legoland the kids all got their driver's license. Kyle thought that meant he could help me drive home. LOL! The kids all enjoyed seeing all the cities replicated by legos. They were amazing.
At the zoo, we waited in a long line to see the Pandas. They were happily eating the bamboo sticks. We also saw koalas, sea lion show, and went on the tour bus around the park.
At the Wild Animal Park, we went on the tour bus too. It was the back side of the park, animals we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. So that was pretty fun. We took the kids into the petting zoo and they were able to feed the animals. Riley Jo did NOT want to feed the animals. Everyone else enjoyed it though.
Sea World was our last day. We had a great time, but we knew it was our last adventure and we would have to say good-bye to our cousins. It was hard after spending so much time with them. We fed the dolphins, saw the dolphin and pilot whale show, the dog show, and of course, Shamu show. You can't go there without seeing that show. Tyler and Kyle were the only ones interested in getting wet, so they sat down low while we headed for higher (and dryer) seats! I look forward to our future vacations together.