Yahhhh WE ARE HOME!!!!

I am so excited to be home and back to normal....well it will take a few days but it is so nice to be here right now.

First of all we woke up really early yesterday morning to Pismo Beach and found lots of shells and Sand Dollars. The kids were thrilled and had a blast in the ocean. Benjamin actually was running through the waves and splashing. We also saw seals out in the water playing by the surfers. We then left the horrible hotel and was on our way to Oxnard to meet up with Brenda and her beautiful daughter Kristen. It was so nice to see Brenda and reminisce about the good ole days in the military. I was so excited to meet her little girl and see how smart and pretty she is. It was a short reunion but we had to be on our way for another trip to San Clemente. We ran into a lot of bad traffic along the 405 but we got there just in time to shower and head to Nick and Kelsey's reception. It took us a while to get there since we were lost but it was worth it. They both looked so happy and had the honeymoon look in their eyes. It was held at Kelsey's parent's house and it was beautiful. They had a pasta bar and chocolate fountain. I have to get one of those for my kitchen. I also enjoyed seeing her beautiful cake. I am so very happy for them and was thrilled to see Bill's uncle and aunt and the rest of the family. They are all so wonderful and we don't get to see them too often so it was nice. This morning we were off one more time home. We didn't hit any traffic that really stopped us so we made good time. We only really had one major meltdown with Matthew so we were lucky.

Now that we are home and sitting down a little, we are all about to pass out. It has been a rough couple of weeks but it was all worth it. I miss my family and friends already, I am happy to have Shannon here with us though. She is kind of my piece of Sonora here...I am going to be heart broken when she leaves. Love you all and hope you enjoyed our journey on our vacation with us. Here are some pictures of us all these last couple of days.

We are in Pismo, CA

We are now in Pismo Beach, CA, a half-way point between San Francisco and San Clemente. We were going to go to Port Hueneme and stay the night but it was quite a drive and we thought it would be fun for the kids to get sand dollars if they are there. Anyways, we started our morning going to Lombard Street. We actually got to go down it in the van...it was actually really exciting and really pretty. We then drove through China Town, which probably saved me from stopping and spending a lot of money. I saw a lot of great deals and really wanted Bill to jump out and grab something at every stop light but I resisted.
We are now at a beat up old motel that is pretty gross and broken down. I am very dissapointed and will never stay at another one. I have no pictures to post, I am so sorry but I really need to get some sleep because we have a very full day tomorrow. We will go to Port Hueneme to say hello to Brenda and then we are off to San Clemente for Nick's wedding. Nick is Bill's uncle's Mike's son. Does that make sense? Well, we are exhausted and really need to get some sleep so I will let you all go. I will try to get some pictures posted tomorrow for you all though. Goodnight.

Marine World Six Flags

Wow, what a day it was yesterday. As you can see, I passed out last night before I had a chance to write on our blog. We are up early and ready for another day though. We went to Marine World Six Flags yesterday with the kiddos and we just had a blast. We couldn't get Justice on any big rides but he did ride the Tony Hawk one which was a pretty good one. We rode other rides like Medusa, Kong, V something, Tony Hawk, Water Rapids(where I got soaked) and some others that Ben got to ride with Shannon and Justice. I took Matthew on the Thomas train that he loved as well.

We also got to see some shows of the Whales, Dolphins, Sea Lions, and Tigers. During the Shouka the whale performance they were asking the audience questions and giving away stuff for it...Justice got picked and got a shirt and stuffed whale. He sat in the soak zone and got pretty wet. All the performances were just incredible and everyone loved it. They also got to meet some really nice characters like Tweety Bird, Sylvester and some others I can't think of. We are off to see Lombard Street and heading down to Pismo Beach. I hope you all are enjoying this blog and of course here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Loving San Francisco.

We have arrived in San Francisco and enjoying it too much. We have enjoyed ourselves so much that I will keep this one short so we can get some sleep before our big day at Marine World tomorrow. Today we got into town and stopped at the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. It was very cold and foggy, but it was still breathtaking. We hiked only halfway across the bridge and back and headed to the hotel. Our hotel is beautiful and is big. We then headed back downtown to Pier 39 to go on a bay cruise and see the Aquirium of the Bay. They both were phenomenal...pictures to prove it.

Placerville was a BLAST!!

Lets see where I left off. We took our journey to Placerville, CA to visit family. Placerville is where I was born and raised for a good portion of my life. We stopped in at the Round Table Pizza downtown and met up with my cousin Cassie and her boyfriend Mike and my great friends from well a long time...Stephanie and her son Jack and a friend I can't remember how I remember...Teresa and her beautiful daughter. I also got to see Keoki, Shelly and their son Kayden when they dropped off Michael. It was so nice. I even ran into my cousin Elizabeth who I went to church with when I was just a kid for years. So many memories just flood my head when I go to these places and reunite with my family and friends and it is just so heart-warming. I greatly enjoy all these memories and getting to see so many people. I have to say thank you to everyone for making it a point to come and see me, I know it is out of your way at times but I do appreciate it very much. Before we left home we stopped and got some pictures of Brent's and Grandma's graves. They are so loved and missed. Brent is my sister's Laura's kid that passed away when he was almost three months old. It was a tragic event for all of us and he will always be in our thoughts.

I got to spend the night with my sister Samantha and just had a great tri-tip dinner that Mike cooked and also got to meet his son Chris. What a beautiful house they have with so many animals. I saw goats, chickens, ducks, dogs and cats and more dogs and more cats. If you know Samantha...you know what I am talking about then. She is so wonderful though and I just love them all. So this morning we drove back to Sonora and got to visit with my brother Bobby, Sister-in-law Teresa, Cory and Shannon. They are growing up so fast and just so beautiful. Yes, even Cory is beautiful to me. We sit and reminisce about the good ole days and just laugh. We had such a good time and didn't want to leave. So now I am back at my sister's Valerie's house who I have greatly enjoyed visiting to spend one more night before we head back to Sam's house. We picked up a straggler on the way and Shannon will be coming home with us.

BBQ at Pinecrest

We all headed out early to Pinecrest, CA today to enjoy some wonderful weather and beautiful scenery. I was so excited to be with fresh air and with a whole lot of family and friends. It is just so wonderful to see family and friends that I havent seen in forever. My Aunt Dean and Uncle Doyle are here who I haven't seen in a couple of years, I haven't seen my Aunt Ola or Uncle Albert in who knows how long...I can't remember. I even got to see my cousin Julie and Jeramy and their...well tall kiddos Chase and Jillian.

I was so excited to go kayaking with Heather and got to finally meet her little girl McKenna and can't forget Josh her husband. They are some of the greatest people out there and I am so grateful that we have kept in touch for all these years. Later on Laura, Dustin and their clan also joined us. What cute kids we got to see and so many memories just flooded my mind from seeing everyone and being back in Sonora. It even sprinkled on us at the lake. Well i promised you all some photos so here they are...the first one to the left is Matthew chasing me...

Okay the next one is Heather, Josh and McKenna. The next one is Laura, Dustin and their kiddos. Then there is Julie, Jeramy, Chase and Jillian. Now the next is my beautiful mother, can you believe how pretty she is? Speaking of beautiful, next is Aunt Ola and Uncle Albert. Then there is Triston and CC. Finally there is Aunt Dean and Uncle Doyle. I had a blast and appreciated everyone coming out...thank you

We are in Sonora finally

Hello everyone, I wanted to update our blog whenever we got anywhere. Our trip started out well and we got to Las Vegas and had a killer time in there. We loved our room in the Luxor, but didn't care for the food buffet on Fremont Street. The kids had so much fun and we were able to meet up with Bill's cousins once again. They are such nice people and we just wished we could spend more time with them. We were then off to Sonora for our long trip...about eight hours long. We did good and so did the kids until we were about an hour away from Valerie's house. Benjamin was complaining of a stomach ache...something we all had from dinner on Fremont Street. Well finally the very curvy roads got to us all and Ben hurled all over the car. Thank goodness we are not in Phoenix weather and we were able to roll down the windows. The GPS told me that we were there at the house and I couldn't find it so I pulled over and Matthew hurled all over then. I tell you what, I was ready to get inside a house and a bath. CC came and rescued us and we got there. I was so excited to see my family, my Aunt and Uncles were even there to see everyone. It is just a great feeling to be back home and I am so happy to be here...even with the puking.
I now have Matthew passed out in my lap and I need to get Benjamin still down. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow....we are meeting up atPinecrest with everyone. I am very excited. I will try to post pictures of this beautful area soon. Oh, I forgot to mention that we passed snow up on Sonora Pass...it is almost 10000 feet elevation. Look forward to more posts...

Children's Museum

I have to start this blog about my library experience. This is a new experience for me, not the books but getting these Culture Passes that they have. It is where they give you four free passes to one of like nine different museums and stuff to do around Phoenix. Anything to break up the zoo visits is fine for me. Anyways, I saw that they were going to have a Children's Museum one available this morning and Sherry wanted to meet up there to see it. I got there a little early and parked the stroller as close to the entrance as I could without feeling rude. I have learned that between these passes and the internet, people rush in as quickly as possible. It is almost funny to sit and watch an old man running for the culture passes that was infront of me. Okay, this isn't a short story...I got the kids seatbelted in for a ride of their lives and bolted with everyone else and got the pass....wooohooo!!

I showed Sherry the library and we were off to the Museum after a stop. We got there and was so happy that we had the culture passes since it is $9/person over 1 year old. I feel that the price was a bit ridiculous but was happy to be there. The place was just awesome and I loved it, the kids even loved it more. They had all kinds of rooms with different themes. I will show you some pictures and explain them to you as best as I can.

On this one...when you walk in the whole wall is covered in CD's hanging down the wall. As you can see on top that the light shines down and reflects off the disks and it just looks so cool. I couldn't capture the reflection like I wanted to but one day I will learn to use my nice camera.

Okay these are from the same area. There was a whole room full of these foam green noodles like the ones you put in the pool. They are all hanging and you just make your way through them all. There was a couple of open areas in there where we squeezed and took pictures. On the outside there was some huge shoes sitting there (the other picture) so I put Matthew in them. I sure hope they were there for people to play with and I didn't put Matthew in someone else's shoes. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost Benjamin or Matthew in the middle of those noodles...I would be there all day looking for them.

Okay these ones are just random things that were out in the hallways. The first one was by a ramp that you set these little cars on and you can race them on all kinds of different ramps. He loved climbing up there and riding his motorcycle. The other one is a great gift idea for anyone you want to drive nuts. It has a metal piece to bang on all types of wrenches. It wasn't as loud as another toy but it was pretty neat to see.

Okay these ones are pretty cool too. The first picture of Benjamin sitting infront of all the white stuff is shoes. Yes, they are shoes nailed to the wall and all painted white. You would think that I would get it that they want you to take your shoes off for the next room but I didn't know until I was in there already. The next of Ben with the flowers is a little house that you can pretend cook and sit at the table, pick flowers and all. The next room over had a grocery store where you can shop and check out and all that. It was just so cute. The one on bottom Matthew was sitting in this little spiral spot tha was kind of cool looking. I only got this picture because Robert was nice enough to help me out. It is so difficult to try to explain to a one year old where you want them for a picture. Anyways, still was cute and fun.

Okay on the bottom floor we took the boys back down and let them play. The first picture of Benjamin in the tunnel was a whole tunnel that went all the way around, pretty neat. I was asked to remove all shoes so we moved on to the drums. I do not like to take off the boys shoes or my own in public places...I just think that the floor is way too gross to go barefoot. The boys really loved the drums though as you can see. Matthew was just having a blast though and really enjoying himself. We finally were done and I didn't even want to leave but I was pretty tired. We had a lot of fun and appreciated Sherry and Robert going with us.

Happy Birthday Matthew

What a day for Matthew, it is amazing how much birthday parties take out of you. I want to first say how blessed I am to have such an amazing little boy like Matthew. He is just so sweet and full of love. He tried to make it an all dayer without any naps but he didn't make it. Everyone showed up and we played some games and ate a lot of food. Bill grilled up the hot dogs and I tried to make a killer cake. Sorry to say but we didn't get a picture of it. It was chocolate icing, chocolate cake and chocolate filling...topped with rasberries. Oh it was so good, well I liked it. Matthew got a lot of nice stuff and we are just so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Matthew waited till everyone had left and sat on the floor and dug into his cake. He stood up and I could see the look in his face....cake on floor...Matthew standing in front of it...I didn't think so. I snatched that boy up before he could think twice about it. Thank you all for being there and sharing that special time with us. We love you all and appreciate all the gifts Matthew received. Here are some pics of the party!!

If you look at how close Ben is throwing the water balloon at Kiera in the water balloon toss

Matthew showing off his teeth and laughing at his Papa Bill.

He had to wait until everyone left to dig into his cake.

Cruising the house on his new quad...he is just too cute.

Day trips...

We have taken a couple of day trips, last week we went to Prescott and this week we went to Sedona. Just trying to get out of the heat and just enjoying time with each other.

Prescott was beautiful of course. We first found Heritage Park Zoo that was pretty cool, it is in rough shape. We did get to see some animals that the boys have never seen like a badger, all sorts of snakes, coyotes, peacock, racoons, emu, and I can't remember what else that he hasn't seen. We loved it though, the peacock had its feathers all spread out and beautiful. That was the greatest part of this trip, that and Ben getting to see the deer. He loves animals and wildlife, we took home a snake and a giraffe. We then took off to the Yavapai Downs where the horse racing takes place. We really enjoyed that too, those horses are so beautiful and you get an adrenaline rush just watching them run so fast. Benjamin and Matthew really loved watching the horses. We ended our trip in downtown Prescott on Whiskey Row, they had a little garage sale type thing going on with a bunch of antiques. They were closing shop when we got there though. So we had some chocolates, ate dinner and headed home.

On our latest trip on Sunday the 14th of June, we visited Sedona, AZ. If you have never been there it is quite a sight. The mountains and rocks that surround the area are all bright red. It is just gorgeous, especially with all of the beautiful green trees and rivers that are there. We went through Oak Creek that is right by there and took the boys to the Rainbow Trout Farm. You can rent poles and catch fish there. You have a pond with hundrends of fish, so the boys chances of catching a fish was great. Both Justice and Ben caught a fish, we got them cleaned, took them home and ate them. Ben and Justice both loved the fish too, I was so proud of both of them. Boy Benjamin is just too excited about his fish too, he couldn't stop talking about it. He wanted to tell everyone. We went across the street to the water company today and out of nowhere he started telling the ladies and guy about his fish. He was asked if it was big or small, he told them small. They all were nice size since they are fed all the time. We had a good time though and so did the kiddos. These trips aren't much time away but we sure do enjoy them. We love getting to spend that extra time with each other. We are also trying to get the kids prepared for our long road trip coming up...we are traveling everywhere in the van so we will see.