We Finally Made It

We actually made it to Knott's Berry Farm on Monday to enjoy a beautiful, warm spring day at the amusement park. Despite Madison's bronchitis, she was a great time but was totally worn out by the evening.

Ashlyn still can't go on many of the rides that the older kids like to go on so she wanted to go on this, but there's no way I was getting on this spinning thing. I was amazed that she went on it all by herself. Brave girl!

Progress, Thwarted Plans and Beach

It's the end of the week and we were planning on going to Knott's Berry Farm since we have annual passes. John even planned to take a day off, which is a big deal. He only has about 9 years of saved up vacation days because he never takes vacation (or rather hasn't had the time) so we were really planning on this. We (mostly he) was a wee bit stressed on the timing as we decided to go forward on the bathroom project this week, which means he's doing the plumbing, which means the contractors will have to wait for him to do his part but he doesn't really have much time since most of Saturday is being taken up by a youth temple trip.

Wouldn't you know it that this spring break was pretty chilly and mostly cloudy. The kids really wanted to go to the beach at least once, but frankly it was just too dreary except for this morning.

The day we were going to Knott's.

It was bright and sunny when we awoke. Oh well - plans are made and we go forward with them. After going over the details with Randy (the contractor) as to what we want done, we hit the road. We made it all the way to the 405 freeway (about 20 minutes because there was no traffic) when John casually asks if I have our passes. WHAT???

Oh

My

Gosh!

Right as we were in the car and leaving the house, I said to John - I don't need my purse, right? I didn't need money since John had his wallet. I didn't want to leave it in the car, nor did I want to have to shlep it around the park, so I ran it back in the house. Of course the passes are in my wallet, which is in my purse. The irony is that we both, on three separate occasions, thought about having to remember to bring the passes which we knew were in my wallet and yet we both had this strange stupor and disregarded the purse!

He sadly had to announce to the kids that we weren't going to Knott's after all and turned the car around.

Can you imagine the disappointment?

Instead we stopped at the plumbing store on the way home and picked out the shower fixtures that we needed immediately and John ended up having the entire day to get highly important 'home' things done. Also, a big weight was lifted as he now had more than just a couple of hours on Saturday morning to try and do an extremely complicated plumbing project - one that needs a great deal of time and attention paid or else we could be facing disastrous leaking problems under the floor.

We don't want that.

Disappointed children problem averted as I announced we'll go to the beach instead. Our good friends the Johnsons were planning on being there, too and remember when I said it was sunny?

Well, it turned out to be a blissfully perfect day at the beach.

We even saw a WHALE! How cool is that? I really wish I had my telephoto lens, but the giant whale was super close, right near the jetty and it would come up and spout water. What a treat for us all. We've seen our share of sea lions and dolphins, but never a whale!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

The shower got framed with one pony wall, two benches and three shampoo boxes.

And tonight John is doing the plumbing project which is as difficult as I anticipated especially when he has to contort himself in awkward positions to weld.

He's a stud. There's nothing he can't do. He's even going to try and take Monday off since that's the official last day of spring break and we'll try to go to Knott's then. Let's hope the plumbing will let us!!

Spring Break Demolition and a Tea Party

TWENTY-TWO MONTHS in the making . . .

Say goodbye to the existing tub/shower combo.

The demo crew has arrived and we are once again seeing progress on the never-ending home improvement project that is

the master bath.

Once this is done, we just have the mirror and medicine cabinets and then the master bath can officially be D-O-N-E! Is it possible? The funny thing is that I don't even notice the mirror being hung with duct tape anymore (or maybe I try not to?), or the huge hole that is supposed to be the medicine cabinet.

Contractors always have their tunes and this one is industrial strength. Nothing can hurt his bad boy.

Little by little the walls and tub are disappearing and I couldn't be more thrilled!

Amid all the chaos and noise, we managed to have a play date with the Gredings. While Christian and Owen played Batman Wii, Madison and Brooke put on a lavish tea party for Ashlyn, Summer and CJ.

Even the waitresses dressed up in aprons and high heels. Fun girls!!!

Spring Break Fun in Santa Barbara

We've never had a bad day at the Santa Barbara Zoo. It's less than an hour away, it's small enough to easily maneuver, yet has such a wonderful variety of animals and other things to do that we've had annual passes for a while now and still love it.

Plus, who doesn't like seeing lions with an ocean view?

There is also an "Ant Hill" which is super fun if you have a piece of cardboard to slide down on. We were prepared this time and brought a piece. I should clarify: Christian brought a piece from home and carried it the whole time.

WooHoo! Go Christian! He's excited that he can now go down the hill standing up. That new haircut is giving him serious confidence!

Madison shredding the hill.

The zoo has a new resident: this cute little baby giraffe. We still miss the giraffe with the crooked neck. This little guy was so fun - he was galloping all over the place then came over to us and posed. I want a giraffe for a pet!

On the way home from the zoo, we stopped in Carpinteria for a treat. I wish we could have walked along the beach to the tide pools, but there was no time, and it was a bit chilly out.

We went to a cute cupcake store called Crushcakes, but the kids (except for Ashlyn) wanted the traditional Fosters Freeze instead. So off to Fosters it was - and it was strange to be there in the daytime, not smelling like campfire smoke.

Christian was so hilarious with his giant Dipped Cone! And this is a medium size!!

When we got home we blew off track practice (since Madison was the only one who had it anyway). Christian and Ashlyn were invited to an outdoor screening of Tangled at our friends' house so I seized the opportunity and took Madison and Brooke to see Soul Surfer. SUCH a good movie! Go see it.

Easter Break . . . Spring Break

I'm glad that our school district still has Spring Break at Easter time so it can still be Easter Vacation instead of yet another attempt to make more distance from religion. However, Easter is quite late this year and I can tell because we were really ready for a break.

Vacation means no baseball practice or games . . .

. . . although he looks super cute as a catcher. It means no track meet this Saturday, although there is still practice this week, albeit somewhat abbreviated. But the best part of Spring Break, or Easter Vacation, is NO SCHOOL which means NO HOMEWORK which means NO CARPOOL which means NO PACKING LUNCHES! Yipee!! This is going to be fun!

We started out giving Christian a haircut. He was in desperate need of a trim, then we talked him into something like daddy has. Christian has a history of abhorring buzz cuts so this was a big deal. However I about cried when John took over with the shears and it started looking like this:

I tried to hide it, but it made John nervous as he has never cut anyone's hair before (besides his own). It was nerve wrecking! Luckily, it turned out cute and Christian actually loves it. He's super excited to use gel and spike his hair.

Monday morning was met with doctor visits for both Madison (12 yr physical) and Ashlyn (5 year physical - kindergarten!). They are super healthy and passed all their tests. Christian came along because I suspected he wasn't quite over his recent bought with tonsillitis. Righty-0 he has strep! Another round of antibiotics and he's good to go. I'm glad it's not slowing him (or us) down a bit.

We are looking forward to a fun-filled week!

The Week in Review

Spring Break '08!

This has been such a nice, relaxing week off . . . somewhat like a taste of what summer is to be- which is what the weather felt like so much that I kept forgetting it is only the beginning of Spring and we are back to the grind of school next week.  

We had our first Track Meet today (Saturday)!  It was a lot of fun and best of all, Madison and Brooke had a blast.  They were so nervous at first, but after their first race, they were pretty jazzed.  At the end, they wished they signed up for more events (each did 3).

Flying at the long jump

On Friday, John took the day off and we went down to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  It was crowded, but a lot of fun with amazing sea life to experience; like touching sting rays and sharks.

This is huge:  Brooke is absolutely terrified of animals and we have been working on it for several years . . . after the Lorikeets crawled all over Madison for quite some time, Brooke finally allowed one to go on her.  Quite the experience for her!! 

To avoid the ever-present horrendous LA-405 traffic (especially on a Friday afternoon), we took PCH home and stopped by a favorite spot of ours: The Malibu Fish Market for a wonderful dinner with a great view.

We got new patio furniture this week (Hooray!!) and it came in very large boxes that quickly became forts.  They were so much enjoyed they even served as sleeping quarters for a few nights.  I hope our children aspire to more than living in a cardboard box! 

On Thursday, we ventured out to good old Zuma Beach.  The weather had been so spectacularly warm and beautiful, we had to get in at least one beach day during break.  Unfortunately, the breeze was a bit too strong, and a bit too freezing to be thoroughly enjoyed, but the kids had fun anyway and we stayed for a good 3 hours.
Madison, Brooke, and Olivia (Maddy's friend from school) were trying to warm up after attempting to Boogie Board in the arctic waters.
Christian and his good buddy Harrison.  They are just a few days apart and love to pal around together.
Ashlyn is the bathing beauty who LOVES the beach and hanging out with the big girls.

Wednesday was spent visiting the dermatologist first thing in the morning (more procedures - yuck!) and then getting Madison and Ashlyn's annual portraits taken.  I'll post those when they arrive.  Then Maddy went to Olivia's house, and I brought home Harrison and his brother Sam to play for a few hours.  

Tuesday was our trek to Costco.  You'd think that wasn't a big deal, but it did encompass more than four hours.  Maddy and Brooke went with a friend to see "Horton" (again - we saw it last weekend), so I had the two littles who were quite the troopers with all the waiting and trips back and forth, and renting a truck to haul the furniture, etc. 

Monday, the start of our glorious week, was spent frolicking at the park.  See grandma's blog for photos.  Afterwards, Madison rode her bike all the way home from the park (nearly 3 miles) which was a first to do alone (but I followed her in the car). 

Tomorrow, to end this week (or start the new one?) will be spent at Ward Conference (no lesson to prepare!) and then having the Missionaries over for dinner.  What to serve, what to serve?  Maybe we'll do "breakfast".  The good news about WC is that (besides not having to teach), is that John doesn't have his hours of back-to-back meetings . . . but does have a 6:30 a.m. Priesthood meeting.  No sleeping in, but at least he'll be home the rest of the morning.  I don't want this week to end!  Because starting next week my baby turns TWO, and then John starts his maniac traveling again which will find him all over the globe for the month of April, only being home for a few days :-(