More summer fun

So, as many of you know we went to MN to visit my parents a few weeks ago and we did so much and had such a great me I felt like it needed its own blog.  I mean, there were 400 pictures from that trip, but don’t worry, I am not going to post all of them in this blog, most, not all.

The trip started out with a great flight where all three kids were so great.  We got them each their own little mp3/video player and loaded a few movies and videos onto them so they had plenty to watch and do while flying.  It worked out great! 

Our first day there started out with breakfast on real MN farm.  It was so fun!  We saw sheep and cows and farm cats and dogs, bees in a hive, and chickens who were laying eggs while we were there!  Dom got to pick up a freshly laid egg, it was warm is what he he said.  Kind of cool and kind of gross.

We did so much it is almost hard to remember.  We went to an amusement park type place called Como town where they have rides and games just for younger kids.  We boys rode a ton of rides, even a roller coaster!  They had a blast.  We also got to walk through the butterfly exhibit.  Sadly, no butterflies chose to land on any of us, but it was really cool nonetheless. 

We also went to the, wait for it, MN state fair!  This has been a dream of my mom’s for a long time, to get us all to the fair.  My mom and dad go each year and it is always a highlight of their summer.  We certainly didn’t see everything that was there, it is like a small city it is so huge, but we did see a freshly birthed baby cow, baby ducks, baby goats, and baby pigs.  There was a parade and a lot of yummy fair food.  Everyone was pleasantly worn out at the end of the day. 

One of the highlights for the boys was swimming at the lake.  We went to a lake where they have a huge 10 foot dock that you can jump off.  It has a diving board or you can just jump off the side.  The big boys did so great and loved jumping off the diving board.  We also went fishing and caught about 20 fish altogether!  Dom caught the biggest catfish of the night, so big in fact that someone asked to take it home to eat it.  I think he was a bit freaked out, but it was really fun.  Everyone caught something even Nico caught his first fish. 

Joe and I were able to have a couple date nights which was so nice.  the weather was just perfect, minus a couple hot humid days.  The boys loved playing in the big backyard and working with grandpa in his workshop on their wooden plane sets.  They rode in the go-cart grandpa built and has fixed up since their last visit, and basically just had a great time MN style.  Even though Joe had to work a little while we were there I think we all felt really rested and relaxed and didn’t want to leave.  We were already planning next year’s trip while we were there.  I am thinking two weeks next time, so we can do everything two times!  Oh, and I really like running in a nice flat neighborhood. 

Enjoy the pics!

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I had to to three web albums there were so many pics!  Enjoy, I know we did.

First day of school and end of summer fun

So, remember that time I said I wanted to blog each week?  Well, we all know how that worked out.  Did you know that having three kids is actually a lot of work?  I thought that as they all got a little older things would get slightly easier, and in some ways they have for sure, but in others I feel like I am drowning in laundry and snack making and lego clean up!  But it is all worth it of course, my three boys are perhaps the most amazing children in the world, and although I am biased, it’s still true. 

I have to say that this past summer was truly great!  I didn’t feel like it dragged on in any way and I think the boys did a lot of fun things that they will remember forever.  I am sure our mild weather had a lot to do with enjoying things a bit more.  Of course there were days when I longed for a nice hot summer day, but for the most part it was great to be able to go to the park and not overheat, or head to the beach and not feel like you were melting.  The big boys were able to do one week of day camp at the YMCA and LOVED it!  They did Radical Reptiles and were able to hold and touch a ton of reptiles and bugs, so cool when you are a 7 and 5 year old boy.  That same week Grandma Janis took Nicolas for a few days and did Grandma Camp with Nicolas and Gavin so all the kids had a great week and I had relaxing week where I was able to organize toys and closets.  I will never be able to repay either set of grandparents for how much they help out with the kids when they are able to.  I am so blessed to have the most amazing family in the world!  And I love that if we wanted to we could start a soccer team right now without any help.  Gotta love having boys. 

Our last big summer hoorah was a labor day camp out in our backyard!  I have to credit Auntie Erin with this idea.  We talked about camping somewhere else, but of course waited too long and every place from San Diego to Oregon was booked that weekend, so we made our own campsite.  It worked out so great.  All the boys, minus Brody, slept in the tent and the mommies slept inside.  We cooked out on the grill for dinner, make s’mores in our firepit, and told ghost stories before bed.  The highlight, at least for the adults, was when Gavin was telling a story about a guinea fowl and Nicolas kept calling it a chicken fish when he was retelling the story.  Anthony also lost another tooth at dinner and we weren’t sure if the tooth fairy would be able to find him in the tent, but she did! 

Now on to the first day of school.  Tues was everyone’s first day, even Nicolas’.  Anthony started 2nd grade, Dom started kindergarten, and Nicolas started preschool.  I can hardly believe any of my babies are old enough to go to school all day, but here we are.  We all went to drop them off and to help with parking issues Grandma Janis drove our van around with Nico while we did drop off.  Saved us from a repeat of what happened on Anthony’s first day of kindergarten where I couldn’t find a parking spot and missed saying goodbye altogether.  Not a good day for mommy.  So, we dropped off Anthony at his line, met his teacher and then we headed down to Dom’s class.  Dom was a little overwhelmed, I think, as he looked like a deer in the headlights as he put all of his stuff away, but at the end of the day he was smiling and talking about how much he loved school and his teacher and all the new friends he had made.  And Anthony had two friends he knew in his class so he was so excited and had a great day as well.  I have to say I was a bit worried about Nicolas’ first day.  I had to register him in the afternoon class because the morning class was full but he did not sleep well Mon night at all so he was super tired right about the time he was supposed to get dropped off.  But, we did a special McDonald’s lunch and then he was ready to go.  Drop off was a snap and he jumped right in to things and hardly had a moment to kiss me goodbye.  The great part is, I asked if there were any openings in the morning class with the same teacher and there were!  So now he will go in the morning and be a much happier camper and I will have two days with more than 30 minutes to myself! 

All in all this summer and the beginning of the school year have been great.  Thanks to all our family and friends who helped make it so much fun. 

 

Cell phones and yankee doodle

I am finding it hard to believe it is actually July, not simply for the fact that summer is flying by, but also for the fact that it has felt more like Seattle in September here than San Diego in July.  It is almost like a kick in the head to live here and wake up and think, nope, can’t go to the beach today, July 9th, IT’S TOO COLD!  But, we did see the sun for a short time today, so hopefully that means we are on our way out of this weather funk and back to our old San Diego. 

So that leads me to my other big news (not really, but there wasn’t a good transition), I got a new cell phone.  Now, I am not what you would call a “cell phone” person.  I don’t have a job that requires me to have a phone ready for use at all times, I am not a super important celebrity who must tweet and text the minutiae of my life all the time, and I am not at all cool enough for an iPhone.  But, Joe got a new phone that had a couple features I thought were pretty cool but in no way did I think I would ever have a phone that could do any of them!  Now, I already have a Blackberry, purple nonetheless, which I thought was pretty cool, already way out of my league phone-wise, so even the thought of another phone seemed utterly ridiculous to

me.  But here I am, the proud new owner of an HTC Incredible, which is just that, incredible.  I can read books, take great photos, map my runs using gps, and make grocery lists that link to recipes!!  I also have a virtual coin I can flip whenever the boys are having a hard time taking turns.  Now, I certainly do not think I am worthy of this phone, in fact, I hesitate to use it when I am out and about for fear that people will point and accuse me of “phoning beyond my coolness” or some other such thing.  But mostly I just really really love it and love that Joe was sweet enough to surprise me with one at a totally unexpected time.  But I still know that I will never be cool enough for an iPhone.

Yankee Doodle, yes, I was getting there.  Well, most of you know it was the 4th of July last weekend.  We were all a bit out of sorts this year as our tradition the last several years has been to spend the 4th in Bakersfield lighting our own fireworks and eating way too much junk food.  But this year marks a new turning point in the lives of Joe’s parents and so we ended up spending the 4th weekend up in Murrieta and down here.  It ended up being really fun!  On the 3rd we went up to where Erin and Joe’s parents live and Janis taught the boys a few patriotic songs, got them matching shirts, and they put on an adorable little show for us.  We popped party poppers and waved flags and ate a very patriotic dessert of strawberries, blueberries, and whip cream.  Then on the 4th we watched fireworks at a local high school with some friends and had a really great time.  But that isn’t the entire yankee doodle story.  Yesterday I was driving in the car with the boys and Nicky started singing yankee doodle.  The other boys joined in and then all of a sudden Anthony says, “let’s sing it DJ style!”  He proceeded to rap the song, complete with hand motions like he was scratching a record in a dj booth, and ended the song with “aw yeah.”  I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard.  Delightful, simply delightful!  
    

Saying good bye, but having fun doing it!

This weekend was bitter sweet.  It was our family’s last weekend staying at Grandpa Gene and Grandma Janis’ Bakersfield house.  Erin put together a wonderful going away party for them full of church friends and great memories.  We spent as much time as possible in the pool and tried to hit up as many Bakersfield haunts as we could, places like Hodel’s for Sunday buffet brunch and Smiths Bakery for donuts.  Sadly our family missed out on one last trip to Rosemary’s where they make the best home made ice cream and yummies, but perhaps that is a good thing seeing as how all we did was eat all weekend!!  I have complete confidence in the fact that Gene made up for our missing out by having his usual enormous banana split.  Before I post the pics from the weekend I wanted to share a couple stories.  I will start by saying that even though I have only enjoyed Bakersfield for the last 10 years, from the first time I stepped foot in their home, their church, their lives, I felt right at home.  They have been blessed by their time there and have wonderful memories to show for it.  Now it is time to move on to new and better things, more great memories in new places.  My last story happened as we were leaving on Monday night.  The boys had been swimming all day and were sad to have to leave, but Anthony took it the hardest.  He just cried and cried and kept saying how much he loved this place and how he didn’t want to leave.  As if it wasn’t hard enough on everyone!  Poor guy.  So, we soothed him as best we could, packed the car, and headed out the door.  I was driving and pulled away slowly to wave to grandma and grandpa and I looked over at Joe and saw he had tears in his eyes.  Then of course I had tears in my eyes!  He blamed Anthony for making him sad, but I know it was finally hitting him that this was it, the last time we could drive to this house or leave this house.  Enjoy the pics.

one of the last breakfasts at this counter

playing in the pool

 

who knows what they are plotting

 
the amazing cake Erin had made for the party

it was tough keeping these little fingers away

Benjy drew a picture of the house and they had people sign the matte

I made a photo book of pics from the house

connecting with friends

Joe is and forever will be, a ladies man

 
 
some people shared their favorite memories of the Spinozzis, including Tiffany Manning, a lifelong friend of Erin’s

more chatting and reminiscing

these two cuties (the babies) are just a month apart

this was right before he wet his pants and then asked if he could poop in the dirt

 
ain’t that the truth

me and all the cousins eating the last batch of Smiths donuts

(I didn’t eat them all, I just ended up being the only adult in the photo)

one last look as we drive away

one of the few things we WON’T miss about Bakersfield

It was such a great weekend and we are so glad we were able to go.  There was a brief moment when we weren’t sure we could.  It would have been sad to not get to say goodbye and see old friends and enjoy the house one last time.  Thank you, Spinozzis, for your generosity and hospitality that follows you wherever you go!   We have loved 7016 Eilas, but that is only because you made it such a great place to be.  Wherever you end up will be just as great or BETTER!