Our Little Diver

So our little monkey has taken up a new sport and she is pretty darn good at it. She has only been in for a few weeks and she is excelling in it already. Check her out! We are so proud of her!

Purple Belts

Yay, both kiddos  tested for their purple belt and they both passed. I am so proud of them! They have been working so hard to get to where they are at.

Eastern Sierra Nevada's

We just got back from our annual trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada's. This trip was a blast! We broke through to a whole new level of fun with the kiddos. We had many great adventures; they are now so into hiking and exploring. For our first night Peggy followed us up and stayed one night. It was good for her to get away for this short time, and it was a treat to have her.

Day 1- We went up to Red Meadows and hiked the  Devils Postpile National Monumet trail. The kids were amazed by the formations; they were so excited to see one of our nations geological wonders.

Later that day after Peggy left we took the kiddos fishing at Mammoth Creek. I sat on a rock for a while trying to catch a fish that I could see staring at me. To my left you have my boy in the brightest shirt and clumsy water shoes tromping through the water coming towards me. I figured I will let him have my spot since it was clearly completely disturbed. Jake jumped on the rock that I was sitting on dropped his line and in seconds he was reeling in my fish. The kid just has that kind of luck with fish!

Day 2- We headed back to Red Meadows to hike the Rainbow Falls trail. It was such an eerie trail with all the burnt out trees everywhere. 

Here are the kiddos in one....

Because of the fire that came through this area in 1992 we had a major lack of shade on this trail; hence complaints from the kids. Once we got to the upper view point for Rainbow Falls we were struck by the beauty of it along with the spay from the mist. We were instantly cooled off! We hiked to the bottom down by the river and had ourselves a picnic.

The view from the bottom...

Day 3- We took the kids to Mammoth Mountain, road the gondola to the top and hiked down. While we were coming down the trail a young bald eagle took flight right over us from the nest. It was amazing! As soon as we got down from the hike we filled our bellies at the German pub. Right after lunch the kids zip lined and rock climbed until they couldn't take it anymore. After our time there we met our friends the Silva's for pizza, the kids were so happy to see friends! After we we back at the RV for the night Tim and Laurie can to visit us, we enjoyed a fire and smores with them. Yum!

Here are the kids in front of Mammoth Mountain..

Day 4- Happy Independence Day! As we traditionally do we went to the Mammoth pancake breakfast and met up with the Silva family. We all walked around the art fair then it was off to our seats for the parade. The kids always have such a good time with these activities. 

Here they are on the parade route with their zinc oxid faces, lol...

After the parade we walked up to the park and watched the orchestra perform. It was so good, this was the first time we have done this, and now will not be a last! After the show was over we went back to the RV and got on our bikes and headed off to the Volcom Brothers Skate Park so Jake can get his skate on. David and Jakob both skated, Dave was feeling rather confident and tried to drop into the big bowl. Needless to say he landed with all his weight onto his shoulder, was not very good!

Here is Jake doing his thing.....

Day 5- Today we drove to show the kiddos the beautiful hot springs; the colors were so pretty. After we left the hot springs we headed off to Mono Lake, it was such a beautiful afternoon. This was such a visual & educational visit. After we visited the tufa's we went to the Mobil station for lunch. Sounds odd but it is really a great restaurant! On our way back we stopped at Lake Shasta for a swim.

Here we are at Mono Lake....

Day 6- We were Yosemite bound! We left Mammoth first thing in the morning so we could get a good start on our day. I forgot how pretty the drive is going in. On our way in we came across this lake that still had a bit of fog on it and the sun was rising up over the mountain. I got a little lens flare but I kinda like it!

We stopped at all the view point areas on the way in and the kids loved all the sights. While driving we even got to see a bear eating berries. The kiddos love it! We went on many hikes and took the tram all over the place. I cannot wait to take the kiddos back during off season!

Here is one more shot....

Day 7- We woke up early and went to one of our favorite places; Convict Lake, I just love the way the mountains shoot up just behind lake. We had no luck with fish, but we enjoyed our view and company. We spent the afternoon swimming at Horseshoe lake, then off to the Village for a little shopping and ice cream.

Here is a shoot from Convict...

Day 8- I have to give a back story to this next one. At home we watch a show called Man Women Wild, the kids love it. In one episode the wife is afraid of encountering a bear, so to scare them away from the area she repetitively yells "Bear, Bear, Bear!" Also she has a cute little English accent. So the whole trip the kids were mimicking her by yelling "Bear" with their own version of an English accent.

Dave and I were packing up the RV and Jake starts up with the "Bear" thing again. I tell Jakob to please stop it is driving me nuts, I was done with it at this point. We he looks at me eyes bulging out of his head and tell me "No mom there is a bear in our campsite!" Well that was a surprise! In all the year of camping in the Sierra Nevada's this was a first, and we all loved it!

Here he is getting away...

After all the excitement we finished packing and departed the mountains.  It was such a great trip for all of us. As we were driving through the desert the RV had kind of some funny issues. It didn't get really bad until we cam to the stop in Mohave where you stop and turn left. Once we stopped all we had was first and second gear. We seemed to have lost third and forth gear. We went 40 miles an hour to try to at least get to Acton where my mother in-law lives. We got off at her off ramp and we have lost the entire transmission.

Here is how we ended up.....

On a flat bed tow!!! Yikes, thank God for AAA RV package! It was all covered. 

Blueberries and Braces!

With June came a lot of fun.

We ended our fulltime schoolschedule
Beach Days Started
Morning Hikes
Lots of Swimming
Blueberry Picking Season
Braces

The Kids were very happy to meet up with old friends to go blueberry picking. It was a very hot morning but well worth it to pick fresh berries. The kids had a good time playing afterwards.

Jakob was so excited for some reason to get braces. He was a ball of nerves not knowing what to expect; he did so good while having them put on. He has a double cross bite so hopefully this will do the trick!

Mt McCoy Hike in Simi Valley

Today America celebrates Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in honoring our nation's wars.

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
                                 -Moina Michael

This morning we hiked the Mt McCoy trail with the kiddo and Peggy (mother in-law). The morning started off nice although it was pretty hot along the way. With the heat came complaints from the kiddos. Once we mad it to the the top the complaints dissipated a cool breeze came through and the kiddos took in the views. We had a complete beautiful 360 view of our valley; we could see the hanger at the Reagan Library with a great shot of Air Force One.

 As we were heading down the trail we took in all the wonderful wild flowers and and sights. I loved how the Yucca flowers looked against the bight blue sky. It really make me want to plant some and have out whole front-yard verascaped. Here is the Yucca bloom, there are some dead blooms as this is towards the end of the season for them.

Mikayla's 10th Birthday

Ten years ago today my life completely changed for the best when I became a mother for the first time to the sweetest little girl. I am so proud of the person she has become and wants to be. She fills our hearts with so much happiness and love. I am very sad that she is now in the double digits; it feels like yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital. 

She woke up today with the biggest smile on her face. It was so nice for her to have Anzia here on her actual birthday, it meant the world to her. She loved all her gifts and was so happy that she got the scooter she asked for. She was so gracious and even let her cousin build one of her new lego sets. The only thing that she absolutely had to have was her traditional birthday apple pie that we made vegan since we had Anzia.

Mikayla's Birthday Party

For Mikayla this year she wanted to have a craft party. It was such a cute theme, all the girls got to make all of their party favors, and they had a blast doing it. She was lucky and had her cousin down from Washington for her party, and Oma and Opa as well. The girls all had such a good time and when they were all done they crated some games of their own. All the little girls were so sweet and it was a blessing to have them all over. It was so fun to watch Mikayla open her gifts she was such a gracious host. I love her!

Jakob is 8......

Today is Jakob's 8th birthday! He woke up early and was ready to get his presents open. The lucky little guy ended up with more Lego's and a new skateboard. Mikayla was happy to make him pancakes and treat him like a king. After building a few Lego's it was off to the Moorpark skate park to test out the new wheels. His wish was to have corn dogs and fries for lunch so we made a pick-nick out of it. Since my boy is not into cake and desserts he wanted a turkey cheeseburger with candles in it, so he got it! I can't believe how fast he has grown, I wish I could slow time down. He is such a blessing to us!

   

Jakob's Lego Party

My little guy is turning 8 on the 14th, he just had his Lego party and it was a blast! This was the first year he had a all boy party. Up until this year the kids always wanted to have their parties together, this was the year of the split. It was so sweet Mikayla was the only girl invited; he couldn't imagine his party with out her. The kids all got to build police cars and race them along with other Lego inspired games . They all had a blast chatting all about Lego and their many builds. I know that Jakob really had a great time with all of his friends, he was grinning ear to ear all night.

April 2012

April came and went by so fast; the month started off with a hysterectomy for me. Not the best way to start a month off, especially a few days before Easter. My hospital experience was horrible and it allowed me to be home early. This was very stressful on the whole family; the good thing was I woke up in my own bed on Easter morning.

Because I was laid up it made for some firsts. Since I became a mom this was the first time I had to completely let go of everything and let others do my job. There were firsts for David as well. I woke up Easter morning kinda sad knowing we would not be having our typical Easter dinner. Silly I know, I just love traditions! David came to the rescue; for the first time he baked a chicken, made homemade gravy, mash potatoes, and all the sides. I was so happy and proud of his great job. See he can cook when he needs to, now knowing this he will just have to start cooking more dinners.

After Easter I was blessed with my mom coming down to help us out. It was planned for her to be here for a week; it was approaching the day for her to depart us and she sensed my fear of her leaving so she stayed for another week. I was so blessed! She helped in so many ways, it really kept us balanced. I am very thankful that she was so willing to do all that she did. I love her!

Thank you mom, Peggy, and Laurie for all your help, also thanks to all the families that supplied dinner for us and Stacy for putting the dinners together.

At the end of the month we decided to go camping in Carpinteria. David thought it would keep me from doing work around the house. My father in-law Don joined us for the beginning of the trip and we had a great time with him. He is so easy to camp with! It was great David also did all the cooking, and I did a lot of reading. Our friends the Hester's were also camping there as well, that was nice to spend time with them as well. Mikayla and Jakob had a blast in their new wetsuits and boards! I am so happy they love the beach!

My little Wahine!

My Happy Boy!

March 2012

March was filled with many fun events. The kiddos favorite had to be flying to the Pacific Northwest to surprise their cousin for her 8th birthday. My sister held Anzia's birthday celebration at the Great Wolf Lodge in Washington. That place was a blast and it was so fun to see the excitement in Anzia's face when we showed up to the hotel door. The hard part was as this was a water park so it was not easy capturing photos. Here is one from the hotel lobby....

 

After all the fun settled from our adventure north we regrouped and got back into the swing of schooling. With that came a field trip and we set sale to go whale watching. Although we didn't get to see any of those large majestic creatures we did get to see a few others. We started off with a view of some harbor seals; I would say that the big dude in the middle posed well!

After we set off past all the harbor jetties there were a few sea sick kiddos on board as the water was pretty choppy. As we did not get to see any whales we were blesses by witnessing a mega pod of dolphins. The crew that was on board informed us that it was 3 miles wide and it was amazing. Dolphins were shooting out in all different direction and causing such a stir in the ocean. This was well worth the trip.

Hollywood Blvd.

So the kiddos have been wanting to go see the walk of fame and all the stars and footprints. We saw it all and they were so happy to see their favorites.

So for some reason my sweet little girl LOVE'S Celine Dion. That is one performer that I would cringe when I would hear her music. Go figure through my daughters love of her music I grew to like her. Mikayla was so happy this was the first star she saw.

This was one of Jakob's highlights, he loves Micheal Jackson's music so much. If his music comes on the boy gets his jig on. I love the fact that he was so proud to pose next to this.

Of course this photo was a given!

My beautiful babies!

Molly

So we decided to get Shadow a friend to cheer him up. As you can see in the background that is not the case yet. She is such a sweet little dog! We shall see how this all turns out as we are going through the motions of a puppy yet again. We have been seeing bursts of energy from Shadow so this is a step in the right direction. Wish us luck!!

First Stripe on our Yellow Belt!!!

Today the kiddos got to do their first belt testing at their new Dojo. There were many nerves flowing through these little minds today in preparation for the event. Nana and Papa, along with Tim and Laurie made it for support. They both got a strip on the yellow belt.

LegoLand

Oh boy, these kids have an addiction to Legos something fierce. They have been begging us for years to take them, and we finally gave in with 2 days at Legoland. We had such a great time in Carlsbad having fun living life through he kiddo's eyes. The park was so amazing; beyond what we imagined. The detail through the whole park made us feel like we were in a toy store.

The kiddos had saved all of their Christmas money and blew it at the store. They both got kits that they have never seen before so it felt so special to them. Since we were able to go for 2 days we went to the Hotel early so daddy could watch the Super Bowl; they were happy tinkering with their Legos. Family time is priceless!

San Pedro

We were invited to go to a birthday party in Palos Verdes so we decided to make a field trip out of it. We too the kiddos to the Point Fermin Lighthouse and the site of the The Korean Bell of Friendship. The kids had a blast over looking the beautiful Pacific and taking in the park. I love that we can take time on the weekday's to see the sites when others are not around. The beautiful wonders of homeschooling!  The party to follow completed our beautiful adventurous day.

Keepers Tea Party

Today was my Keepers of the Home Tea Party. We had a "Happy Un-Birthday" theme where we celebrated all the girls birthday's all at once. They also had their secret sister reveal; they did such a good job at keeping it a secret, pretty good for a group of 9 year old girls. I also did their the awards ceremony at the end and they received their pins and lanyards. They are all such a special group of girls, I am so blessed to have them with me twice a month.

Make a picture slideshow

A day at the CA Science Center

We went to the CA Science center to see the IMAX movie "Born t be Wild"; great film loved it, and I recommend it for kiddos. We had such a good day. We took in a few exhibits on subjects we have been studying lately. The kids were amazed by the Apollo Command Module, we can't wait to see the Challenger once it is all set up. 

Black Bird CA Science Center

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

MCP Action Free Camera Giveaway

MCP is having a camera giveaway...

It just takes a minute to focus on this. MCP Actions is giving away a professional d-SLR camera. The winner of our contest will choose from a Canon 5D MKII + 85 1.8 Lens OR Nikon D700 (Body Only).

Click the link below:
http://bit.ly/AgETLE

This is our Best Friend

So when you look at him he appears to be healthy. NOT! He looks so cozy in the widow basking in the sun. Tomorrow I will be shearing his fur down because of his allergies. It is so sad I have Cocker that can't have pretty hair. I wish he was healthy!I love love my Shadow!