Monterey Vacation

Over Easter weekend we went to Monterey for a little family R&R. We stayed at Asilomar, which was lovely. It was so much fun. We did all sorts of things, but I think my favorite parts were watching the sunset over the pacific and seeing sea lions in the wild! It was amazing!!! They were just hanging around on the rocks in the bay. Quite a cool sight.

We also went to the Monterey aquarium. It was neat - there were lots of things for he kids to interact with, which they both loved. We all decided that our favorite part of the aquarium was the Jelly Fish exhibit. It was beautiful.

On Sunday we went to the MY (Monterey Youth) museum and let the kids play. It was so much fun. There were costumes to dress up in and a grocery store and a pizzeria, and all sorts of things that the kids could make believe with.

We had super one night at Bubba Gump's and it was so very very yummy! We all ate lots of yummy sea food on our trip!!!

Monday we went to Carmel by the Sea and walked around and looked at all the shops. This was my choice of activity - the kids were good about letting me have my thing since everything else we did was for them. We ate that day at a little pizzeria called Allegro's where the kids got to make their own pizza. They thought that was the best. And Jack commented on the fact that the family next to us was not making their own pizza, by saying "that is sad for them." I think he was right, b/c it was really fun!

We also went to this really cool playground/park called Dennis the Menace Park. We did that on Tuesday, the last day, before we drove home.

On the way home we stopped at this place called Casa de Frut. If any of you have ever driven south on I95 on the North Carolina/South Carolina border, then you know of South of the Border. This place was similar to that, but smaller and much cleaner and nicer! It was hysterical. Everything was Casa de "something". We laughed. It was a wonderful vacation and we are headed back there again sometime!

Happy Birthday to Molly

While we were in Florida Molly had her 4th birthday! She is very happy to be 4 and has told us many times that she is a very big girl. So along with being home we also got to celebrate her birthday numerous times which makes her very happy as she loves to be the center of attention (sadly she gets that trait from both her parents - poor kids don't have a chance) :-) We first celebrated her birthday at Gigi and Boppa's (my grandparents). She got to have a sleepover with them and got to eat ice cream for breakfast (not a bad way to start the day as a 4 year old).

Next we celebrated at Uncle Joe and Aunt Janet's condo on the beach. It was so much fun. The kids spent the day playing in the pool and at the beach and then we had pizza (Molly's fav) and Cinderella cake (that is now 3 years in a row we have had Cinderella cake). But she enjoyed it as always, eating nothing but the frosting (again, apple does not fall far from the mother tree).

We then had a little birthday time at Grandpa Jim and Grandma Judy's. They had a card to give her and it had money in it for her birthday and I said that she loves cards. So Judy handed it to her and Molly said "Oh thanks Grandma, I hope its money". We all laughed so hard.

The next time we celebrated was at Beedi's house with Uncle Dan and Aunt Cindy - the kids are now calling Cindy "Aunt" now that she and Dan are engaged - yipppeeeee (we love you guys!!!) Deb made her delicious doll cakes and a crown cake. It was all so much fun!

We celebrated one more time with Daddy when we got home. Molly got this hysterical talking Barbie head from Aunt Jamie and Uncle Josh. She loves it so much and it makes us laugh really hard - you can sing karaoke with it and she does sing really loud and a bit off key, which makes us giggle.

Thank you all for making Molly's birthday so special. She had such a wonderful time at each party! Molly is always up for a party (unless it's in the morning) :-)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig...

I know, I know, it has been a ridiculously long time since I have posted anything new. But the weekend after the Snow Ball the kids and I took a trip home to Florida! I found these super low fair flights out of Las Vegas (an 8 hour drive from here) and off we went. Brian was already in Florida at the time for a conference. So our paths crossed for a couple of days - it was fun! So we began our trip with the drive to Vegas which was really cool b/c the scenery changes so drastically from where we live down to the desert. The kids were totally fascinated with looking out the window! We arrived in Vegas around 8:30 at night and Jack immediately declared that "this is the most beautiful place I have ever seen!" I told him it was a god thing we were there at night b/c it is not all that great during the day. We were a bit early for our flight so we drove down the strip to see all the lights and hotels and whatnot. The kids were so funny. Molly said "are we in Paris?" (she saw the Eiffel tower) and then Jack saw the Sphinx and wanted to know if we were in Egypt. It was pretty funny. So then off we went on our red eye flight. We had some good sleeps on the plane and then woke up and headed off to see our dear Beedi waiting for us! The first night we were there we had a delicious and a most favorite thing - low country boil!!! It was a fabulous meal and so much fun to see all out pals! The rest of the trip seemed like a blur. My grandparents and Brian's parents did not know we were coming and so it was fun to surprise them. We spent lots of time hanging out at the pool and seeing our friends. We went to Disney and the Zoo and all in all had a most excellent trip!

The flight home was crazy bumpy. I mean so bad that the captain had to get on the speaker and say "if you are traveling with small children, please hold on to them." I was a mess - thank goodness the kids slept through all of this. We did finally land back in Las Vegas at 11pm and then we got in our car and headed home. Tired and exhausted but thrilled to be back in our little nest in the world. I do love it here and if it weren't for our friends, I would want to stay here forever!

Yosemite Winter Club Snow Ball

This past weekend the Yosemite Winter Club had it's annual Snow Ball at the Wawona Hotel (which Brian and I think looks like a quainter version of the main hotel from Dirty Dancing). Anyway, we had such a good time. Almost all of our friends belong to Winter Club so we had quite the evening. We ate a wonderful meal and then danced the night away. I even learned to swing dance a bit from a friend of ours. It was a hoot!

It snowed while we were eating dinner and then while we were dancing and then later around midnightish it was still snowing - very beautiful we all thought. The next morning when we woke up, we found out that the road mountain road that takes us home was closed. In fact all the roads into the valley at that point were closed. So we called our very sweet 16 year old babysitter and told her we would be home later than expected. They finally opened one of the other roads and we had to drive all the way around (3 hours) to get back. It was fun and we knew the kids were having fun as well. Jordin (our sitter) had taken the kids outside to play in the ridiculously deep snow.

All in all we had an absolutely wonderful time. I got to wear my beautiful red dress from my bestest friend's wedding, again - Thank you Manda for your wonderful taste!!! What a great time!!!

This is one of buildings from the Wawona where we stayed.

A Visit from Aunt Sissy

Well my sister came to visit us here in the cold land of Northern California and we had a wonderful time. It was quite an eventful week. She arrived (3 hours late) into San Francisco Airport at 12:15am. I had driven the 4.5 hours to get her and then we turned around and drove home. We arrived back at our house at 6 in the morning. I don't think I have ever been so tired. We said a quick good morning to Jack and Brian (Molly had been with us) and then headed to nap land. A few hours later we awoke and set off thru the snow to get Jack from school. He was so very excited to see her!!! The next day was Jack's Ski day at school, so Sara and I became instructors for the day and worked with Jack and his good friend BJ. We had a great time, and it snowed the whole day!

While she was here we also got a babysitter and took Sara to Chef's Holidays at the Ahwahnee. It was a fabulous 5 course meal and lots of fun!! We really had a great time!

We took many little hikes and saw all the shops there are to see here in the valley and all in all had a wonderful time. We went back up to Badger on Saturday and the Sunday had a delicious Sunday brunch back at the Ahwahnee. After that we chilled out until Sunday night when I had to take Sissy back to the airport. It was sad. Both kids had to come with me as Brian was in Fresno over night for a meeting. Jack cried his eyes out when we dropped Sissy off (as he always does when she leaves). We all miss her and can't wait till she returns this summer!!!

Okay, I have to explain this picture to the left, where Jack looks like he has had some terrible fashion explosion. They had "Funky Friday" at school the week Sissy was here and he wanted her to take his picture dressed all wacky.

Our drive home from the airport turned fun as well - we almost had to stay in a hotel. It was snowing like crazy. But we pressed on and got home safe and sound.

God's Beautiful Creation

It has been so beautiful here lately, hard to imagine it could get more so every day, but it seems to. I had to put in some of the pictures we have taken around the valley. Miss everyone so much, but do you see what you are missing by not coming to visit!!! My sister is coming on Monday - we can't wait.

Fresno Falcons come to the Park

Our "local" (two hours away) hockey team came to the park the other night and the kids got to skate with them. They are the Fresno Falcons and their Mascot is Freddie Falcon. It was really cool. Jack had such a good time. He really wants to play, I think next year he will. (In the group picture Jack is all the way to the right, behind the kid in an orange jacket) They also had lots of fun giveaways and then they signed autographs. At first Jack asked me what an autograph was and why should he have one. So after I explained, I sent him through the line with his friends. When he was done, he came running back to me and said mom, quick, give me my puck, they can sign those too (I guess he got the whole autograph thing).

At that point Molly decided she would like to have whatever it was that seemed so cool, and off she went armed with her puck and a smile. She would not get to close to them and she would definitely not talk to the players, but good old Jack did enough talking for everyone in the park. In the end it was a good time had by all! Brian will be sad he missed the event. But I think Jack would like to go to a game, and I would love it, so we will have to do that before the season is up.

Molly is wearing "The Golden Jacket". That is what she calls it and I think it's funny - had to share.

Snowman

Yea!! We finally had perfect snow for a snow man on January 5th. The four of us went out into the meadow with Izzy (who loves the snow) and made snow angels and played for quite some time. Then we made a great snowman and since we can't use any food or all the crazy animals that live in the park will eat it, we had to use things like leafs and sticks for eyes and whatnot. It was really fun.


Jack also made a little snow sculpture (he called it) in our yard. Molly just had fun playing in the snow! It looks like it is almost dark in the pictures, and it is certainly getting close. We are getting used to it getting dark early and settling in and playing games inside. We have all become quite the game players.

And here is a picture of our house with its little lights and snow on it. Thought I would show you b/c we are moving to a bigger house in a few weeks, so this will no longer be our home - sad. It will be nice to have more room though! In the new house we will have a nice guest room, so come and visit!!

The Chair Lift

Both kids made it up the chair lift this week on their fourth day skiing, ever!!! They graduated from the baby hill and headed on over to the lift! It was very exciting to watch!! They loved it and both did really really well. Molly told she thought it was like flying and she said she thought maybe she was a bird - too cute! Jack has become a speed demon coming down the hill. I have a few pictures from Jack's school ski day on Wednesday.

Brian and I took the day as well and went up to join the school. Brian convinced me to try snowboarding - not a good idea. It was awful. Brian was very good at it, and I have decided once and for all that I do not like my feet stuck together on the same board like that. Also, I am thinking that it is a sport more suited toward men as the boots are not all that attractive and they make you look like you have kankles. But I did give it a go with the help of my nice instructor from Argentina. I think I would be dead if it were not for him. I got the hang of it, but I just really like the gracefulness of skiing. The next thing we are doing is cross country and snowshoeing. We figure, we are here, so we might as well try it all and enjoy it, otherwise, what's the point.

Okay, that is all for today. I am all chatty today - Brian is in New Hampshire for the week on a business trip, though he did call me this morning to tell me they were going snowboarding (nice business trip - maybe someone could send me :-) We miss him quite a bit, but are very busy this week and he will be back late Thursday night.

Here is a little video of Jack going down the big hill for the first time.