Part 2 - Las Vegas

I'm kinda sad I didn't take as many pictures in Vegas as I would have liked. I missed out on lots of opportunities with lots of family. :-(
I guess there's always next time.

Here are a few I did take...

Cousin Taylor, playing with Lauren.

Aunt Ruth snuggling with Lauren.

Uncle Larry, Sage and Carlee (with soon-to-be baby boy) playing cards.
We are a family that likes to play cards! :-)

Ashlyn and Lauren playing the DS with Sage.

This is how we slept most nights.

Finally a picture of Jacob, with his little sisters, at the Bellagio fountain show.

PART 1 - Disneyland & Sea World

Here are the pictures from our crazy, busy summer.
I have so many, so I'm going to take a couple days to get them all up.
I'm starting with part 1 - when we went to Anaheim and San Diego.
I hope you enjoy looking through them!! Check back, I'll get the rest up soon. :-)

We woke up super early to head out...Lauren was ready to go!!

Our first day, we had a family swim at the pool.

Lauren LOVED the water slides!!
She enjoys going down almost any kind of slide.

The first full day was at Disneyland.

The kids sitting in front of the castle.

My only character picture...Aladdin and Jasmine.

This is my FAVORITE picture from the whole trip!!
I LOVE how they are all looking and all smiling - nicely!!
This was at California Adventures.

Jacob "flying"!!

Jacob had to ride by himself, since Ashlyn HAD to have someone ride with her.

After California Adventures, we took the kids to Medieval Times.
Even Lauren had a good time!!

Our last full day, was spent at Sea World. They are waiting for the Shamu Show.

Very awesome show!!

While Jacob was riding a ride with Mike, the girls and I saw the penguins.
Ash LOVED this HUGE stuffed penguin in the gift shop.

This ride was similar to the Tea Cups at Disneyland.

Lauren was not walking yet, but she did take a step or two just so she could ride some rides. Riders had to demonstrate they could walk to be able to ride.
Thank goodness she cooperated!! But like I said, it was only a step or two.

Crazy, Busy Summer!! :-)

I'm finally taking some time to update this blog (while in my mind, I'm thinking of creating a new and different one, too). As the title of this post says, it has been one heck of a crazy, busy summer!! Where to begin?? Maybe the beginning back in JUNE when the school year ended. I'm warning you now...it is a LONG post, so beware. If you get bored, sorry...quit reading now, and just wait for the pictures to show you what we did. ;-)


6/15: The school year ended with Jacob's class picnic at the park on the last day of school. He had fun playing wall-ball with his buddies. Now he is a 2nd grader!!


6/16: Ashlyn's last day was her step-up program (stepping-up to the next segment of preschool). Following the program was a little reception in her classroom. She is now in preschool 2 (or Pre-K)!! Wow, my babies are growing up way too fast!!


PART 1

6/21: We headed to Anaheim, stayed at the Howard Johnson and swam the first day.
6/22: Fun times at Disneyland! We had a blast this visit. The kids rode a lot more rides this time then last time. The both rode Space Mountain TWICE!! We took advantage of the parent swap, so we didn't have to wait in line as much. I'm so glad they offer that.
6/23: Disney's California Adventure was next on OUR adventure. This is the first time going here for all of us. It was a lot of fun. The Soaring Over California ride was really cool!! We will definitely go back next time we do the Disneyland vacation again. We didn't stay as long at this park, because we wanted to take the kids to the Medieval Times dinner show. That made so many happy memories for all of us...Ashlyn getting a flower from a knight, and Lauren got awarded the Queen of Love and Beauty! Jacob just really enjoyed all the action of the show.
6/24: One of my favorite parts of this trip was driving to San Diego and going to Sea World. I haven't been there since I was a kid. It was amazing! We all had a great time. The shows were awesome!! It was a late night, because we didn't want to leave! Definitely will do this trip again!!
6/25: This was the end of part 1 of our crazy, busy summer. This was the day we took Mike to the airport to fly back to SFO, and the kids and I continued on to Las Vegas to see family and pick Gma up!! BUT, before we did that...we visited the Disney Vacation Club!! We are now proud owners of vacation points, and our home resort is in HAWAII - Disney's newest resort!! This was not something we were planning, but it really seemed worth it for us. So, our next trip will be Hawaii in October/November!!


PART 2

6/25-6/29: We were in Vegas visiting with LOTS of family. Best part for Ashlyn was seeing her 4-legged "cousin" Sage (or Sagie is what Ash likes to call her)!! The kids enjoyed playing and swimming. It was nice visiting with my cousin Carlee, and seeing her cute, little pregnant tummy!! On 6/29, my mom and I and all 3 kids took off early in the morning to head back to San Francisco! It ended up being around 11 hours with stops for food, bathroom, drinks, gas... The kids did great on the ride, but there were so happy to be home with Grandma!!


PART 3

6/29-7/14: Grandma's visit to Foster City, CA!! The kids had a list of LOTS to do with Grandma when she was at our house for 2 weeks!! This is actually the 2nd time visiting, but the first time was in March and it rained pretty much every day. So we were excited to get out and do things with her. Here goes the list of things we did... One of our first outings was Gilroy Gardens. It was VERY hot that day, I think my weather app on my phone said 102! But it was still a fun time. The kids and I rode the roller coaster 6-8 times!! Ashlyn rode a couple times more, because Jacob wanted her to go first (to make sure she liked it before he went). We also went to Happy Hollow (cute little family park and zoo). Again, this was a very HOT day!! I think similar temperatures as Gilroy Gardens. I love this little park, but we don't visit too often since it's kinda a drive away. We celebrated 4th of July in our little community, walked over to the festival during the day, then walked back to watch the fireworks with neighbors. We visited a couple different museums. I really liked the Exploratorium and Palace of Fine Arts. The other one was the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito (on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. And finally, the kids really wanted to go to Santa Cruz, so we went. Again, they rode a lot of rides this time that they didn't ride last time!! We also saw movies and did some shopping. Saying good-bye to Grandma this time wasn't too bad. We just said, "see you in a few days!!"


PART 4

7/15-7/17: CAMPING - Yes, I did say CAMPING!! We went with some friends on our FIRST family camping trip!! Mike and I hadn't camped since we first started dating when we went with our friend and his family. We really had a great time, and are looking forward to doing it again!!


PART 5

7/18-8/15: KANSAS CITY!!!!! Need I say more?!?! Okay, I'll list some of the things we did. We saw our friends!! LOTS and LOTS of friend time!! This is something I REALLY NEEDED!! It's hard moving to a new place and trying to fit in with everyone else. It just takes time. It was just nice being with friends and family that I know and feel comfortable with. I have met a few people in California that I am getting to know, and I can call them my friends!! And after time, I hope I can be just as close with them and I am with my friends in KC. The day we flew in, and within hours of being "home" we went to Monkey Business (like Pump it Up) with some of our BEST friends!! We also went to the zoo, on a day it wasn't 110 degrees!! Took the kids to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead a few times. Went to Crown Center to play in the fountains, went swimming, played in the sprinkler and kid pools at Grandma's house, the older kids spent the night with my brother and he took them to another pool, went shopping, went to the movies...I know I'm forgetting something....oh, had a few girls night outs with LATE movie nights!! It was just nice being back in Kansas City and seeing a lot of friends. I'm glad I was able to take that much time so I didn't have to feel rushed to get everything in (even though I still didn't get to see everyone I wanted to). Oh shoot, I forgot...one of the highlights of this trip...LAUREN STARTED WALKING at Grandma's house. :-) Now I really do have a toddler on my hands.


PART 6

8/6-8/13: A vacation within a vacation!! We went to Lake of the Ozarks!! The kids LOVE going to the lake, riding boats, tubing... Jacob and Ashlyn also went on the jet skis for the first time!! Jacob LOVED it, he loved going fast and "jumping" the big boat's wakes!! He went with Daddy, and I think Daddy had a great time experiencing it with Jacob!! I took Ashlyn out the first day, she was a little more nervous about it. Towards the last 30 minutes or so, she braved up...but she didn't want to go the next day. While we were at the lake we did some shopping, movies, mini golf, boats, arcades, and my mom and I played A LOT of cards!! Mike and I also celebrated our 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! We enjoyed a nice date night with a great dinner, movie and just being together.


On 8/15 we flew back home, back to our new reality. It was nice getting away, and I hope to do this again next summer (maybe not quite as crazy and busy). If you notice, all the dates above pretty much follow each other VERY CLOSELY! I really don't think I had a "normal" day in between. I'm sure I forgot some things that were worth mentioning, and I know my spelling and grammar isn't perfect. But I just wanted to get something out so I have it written. I want to keep these memories alive!! I want to go back and read this so I can keep vivid pictures in my mind and hopefully the kids minds too. We talk about things we have done on a regular basis. They love going though "old" pictures and asking about what we did. I really want to take the time and make those photo books of our crazy, busy summer!! I pray this will be a summer they NEVER forget!! We made some GREAT memories!!

Just being together as family and friends = True Happiness!!



Okay, now I'm done with the words...I hope to get SOME pictures up soon!!