summer vacation friday

Friday we continued swim lessons for the boys.  Friday night we all went to the local pool and the boys got to show off their swimming skills to dad and the kids got to play with friends who were also at the pool.  

After some swimming we came home for a family room sleepover.  Mattresses and excercise mats were brought down and we cuddled in for a movie - Spiderwick Chronicles.  Kind of an intense kid movie.  Nathan had been eager to watch it since he just finished reading the series a month or two ago.

it ends today

I'm happy to report that today was my last day of getting up at 6 stinkin' morning to get Nate of to Cub Camp.  Oh how I wish I could get back to bed.

No, Happy 15th to YOU!

Does anyone know who this lady is? If you read this blog, you may have noticed that she is usually the one behind the camera and doesn't get in too many of the shots. She is pretty hot, isn't she!

Well, I couldn't say enough good things about Denise, but I will share a few reasons why I am even luckier than she is to be celebrating 15 wonderful years together.

1) Denise personifies charity. I am often amazed at how much she does for others and that she doesn't ever feel like she is done enough. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have seen her notice someone is down or in need and immediately go into action to brighten their day.

2) She is the BEST Mom ever. My kids don't know how lucky they are. She is loving, caring, fun, dedicated, etc. Who else cooks quesadillas on the dashboard?

3) She loves the gospel of Jesus Christ. She makes great efforts to stay close to the Spirit and to follow it.

4) She is my best friend. I love talking to her, laughing with her, and just being with her. Unlike my kids, I do know how lucky I am to have such a wonderful, caring, beautiful wife.

Just like the song says...."lucky I'm in love with my best friend"

Love you Denise!

Derek

happy 15th

I couldn't have said it better then this song.

15 things I love about my hubby...

1.  married me in spite of a sometimes rocky courtship

2.  has worked to make our marriage almost completely non rocky

3.  is one of the most understanding people I know

4.  constantly finds the bright side of things and helps me to do the same (I'm just not near as good at it as he is)

5.  keeps me and and the kids laughing - he makes family life totally fun

6.  works hard at both work and church

7.  is an amazing dad

8.  sees the good in everyone

9.  goes along with all my hair brained party ideas and now even joins in on the planning and execution 

10. is thoughtful and constantly thinking of others feelings

11. is helpful around the house

12. dishes out lots of hugs and kisses to me and the kids

13. doesn't freak out when I start loading the garage with Halloween props in the middle of June

14. knows how to balance all the commitments he has with work and church so that his family doesn't suffer

15. is ok with $100 in roaming charges so that he can call me each night while he is away in Mexico to see how the kids and I are doing.

I'm so lucky I'm in love with my best friend!

party chair

I so want a table full of chairs like this one - all with different numbers.  What a great way to seat party guests.  I'd even love numbered chairs for my family although the one picture above is more party for my taste it doesn't say everyday to me.  

I've had my eye on these chairs from Pottery Barn for awhile but just can't justify spending the money when I already have black dining room chairs.  I thought about stenciling numbers on my existing chairs but there is not enough room on the back rest.

summer swimming

The boys started swim lessons.  We found a great teacher that teaches them more in a half hour then some of their past teachers taught in a 2 week period. We have to drive a bit far (Santa Ana) but it is so worth it.  Lessons will last 2 weeks and the boys are totally enjoying their classes.  

Luke is in a class with 2 non swimmers - we thought Luke was a non swimmer but after one class with Miss Denise (his teacher) he is much more of a swimmer then we thought.  We had Nathan in the same class as Luke but after Miss Denise saw Nate swim she moved him into a beginning swim team class.  She teaches the class with a swim team format and is helping the kids to learn various strokes.  

The boys are doing great and beg us each night to go to the community pool so they can show off their skills. We are all getting our fill of summer swimming.

fun in the sun

Monday started bright and early with Nathan, Luke and me heading off to Cub Camp at 6:45 in the morning. Going anywhere that early is not right but it is especially wrong during the summer months.

The theme this year was Fun in the Sun - we had fun and sun although there seemed to be much more sun then fun for the adults.  It was so hot on Monday!

Nate had a blast.  What boy wouldn't have fun running around with friends, getting dirty, shooting arrows, racing go karts, digging through owl vomit and finding a totally in tact shrew skull, having a water fight, watching a spider eat a beetle, using a saw to build a birdhouse, doing obstacle courses and much, much more.

Luke got to hang out at the sibling camp all day.  I didn't see him the whole day until pick up time but if his dirty clothes and smile were any indication I'm guessing he had a great time.

sunday

We spent the morning at church and then headed home to get dinner ready since my brother Ryan, his wife Katie and baby Carter were coming over.  We enjoyed a Sunday family tradition that I grew up with and that I continue with my own family - Sunday afternoon cheese, chips and guacamole.  Instead of eating a big lunch after church we feast on some south of the border goodness.

In addition to all the eating there was a lot of Carter holding (especially by Emily - she loves him and is so good with him)
Game playing (this was mostly between Katie and Luke with Luke making up new rules along the way)
and Wii playing between who else but Nate and Ryan.
We tried something new for dinner.  We had brisket that we cooked in our new smoker.  We picked up the smoker on Saturday at Lowes.  I loved cooking in it.  It cooked outside which was nice since I did not want to use the oven inside the house that was already way too hot because of our heat wave.  I didn't like the rub we used on the brisket but the cooking method was great.  I think we will be doing a lot more smoked stuff this summer.

Sunday evening was spent getting Megan and Emily packed up and ready for girls camp. It is fun to see what ends up in the suitcases.  The girls always take the essentials...stuffed animals, nail polish, crazy toys for secret sister gifts, funky clothes and accessories. I'm anxious for them to come home so that I can hear how it went.  

saturday

I'm a few days behind on my summer vacation posts so let's get caught up...

Saturday we ran errands, tried to fix our sprinklers and then crashed our old Bishops house for a night of swimming.  The swim was a welcomed event - the extreme heat we have been receiving here has been a bit more then we like.

i refuse to do anymore dishes, i'm not your wench

Only a few days into summer and I was already washing a million cups.  My big activity of the day was pulling out the plastic cups and black sharpie and  threatening the kids with their life if they dirtied any cups, glasses or mugs.  The results...I didn't have to wash any drinking paraphernalia - success!

Our evening activity consisted of a trip out to Buena Park for dinner and a show at Medieval Times to celebrate the birthdays of Izzy and Riley (our friends kids)  

Derek and I had been before (years ago we had gone for a friends birthday)  Our kids had never been so it was a fun, out of the ordinary dinner experience for them. Luke was too shy to be in the picture below

His shyness soon wore off and he was happy to get his joust on and pose for pictures.  The boys continued to joust nearly all the way home

Nate was thrilled that there was no silverware for dinner and that you had to eat with your hands. He does this at nearly every dinner anyway (and yes we are trying to teach him to eat like a normal human being)  He thinks just about every food is a finger food.

On the way home we stopped for some Golden Spoon yumminess to complete the night.

what we did during summer vacation

So I had this bright idea to have someone in the family post everyday - journaling what we did that day as part of our summer vacation.  I was hoping to be able to look back at the blog in September and have a great record of what we did during summer vacation. Problem is...it's not so easy to sit down everyday and get it all down.  I don't want to be a quitter especially since we hadn't even gotten one summer post written so we're going to try to go the distance and see how well we actually do.

Day one of summer found us making our lunch bright and early in the morning (If you call waking up at 8:45 in the morning bright and early - yea, for sleeping in) In high school some friends and I would throw together some quesadillas, wrap them in foil and leave them on the dash in the car so the cheese would be melted by lunch.  I decided to try this little culinary wonder with the kids.  Each kiddo made their own "dilla", wrapped it in foil and sharpie'd their name on the ready to cook foil packet.

We tossed them onto the dash and let them do their thing for a few hours.  When we finally pulled them from our "oven" we feasted on yummy quesadillas and hoped the neighbors hadn't seen our little packets baking in the heat of the car - wonder what they would think?!?!
We also spent some time finger painting.  Luke had been begging for days to be able to finger paint but I was so overwhelmed with end of the school year jive that I was the mean mom constantly saying no.  I finally said yes and the kids had a blast creating their masterpieces.

Our other summer activity that we started was Summer Bridge Books.  The kids are always excited to start these the first few days of summer but then their excitement dwindles.  We signed contracts complete with rewards for finishing their books so hopefully their motivation will stay.  I agreed to reward $15 to each kid (Except Megan - she doesn't have a book) to spend in Mexico. Just let me note for the record - I don't normally pay kids for school work but I want my kids to have spending money for when we go to Mexico and this seemed like a good way to go.  I also threw in an outing/activity for each kid that they got to pick.  Luke wanted to do a lemonade stand, Nathan wanted a day at the pool just for fun - no parents telling him to practice his swimming and Emily requested a trip to the bowling alley.

finally

It's the last day of school!  

Megan is celebrating the end of middle school with a district wide 8th grade party at Wild Rivers.  

We are all looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning.

the last hurrah

We decided to spend Family Night at California Adventure & Disneyland since our passes would be fading to black on Wednesday.  We won't be back there until the end of August and you don't know how thrilled we are to not have to fight the summer attendance at that park.

We started by going to the animation drawing class.  I think I mentioned it in a previous post and it has become a must see for us ever since we have discovered it. 

Em and Nate learning all they can from the artist.  The artist/animator walks the class through each step of the drawing and explains why the artists do some of the things they do - rounded features = good guy, sharp/angular features = bad guy and other tidbits of information like that.

The class we went to worked on Pluto.  Here are a few results...
I'm digging Nathan's Pluto above.  I love that he followed the directions but then like any true artist he put his own spin on it.  He is so proud of his finished masterpiece.
Megan loves to draw so she thoroughly enjoys going to these classes.  

After our art class we decided to walk over to the new attraction  - Toy Story Mania.  We knew that the ride wasn't open yet (at least not to the public - it was open on Monday to the media) but we wanted to see what it looked like.  And that is when our theme park miracle occurred.

A man approached Derek and asked if there were 4 in our party.  Derek replied we were 6 to which the man replied that he was with a radio station in San Diego and he had a ticket for 4 to ride the new ride.  Derek being the smart guy he is piped up "I have 4 kids, they can go on" so the guy and his wife/girlfriend? took our kids on the new, not yet opened ride.  NOTE...the ride opened Tuesday the 18th.  The newspaper said folks were lining up bright and early and that the line quickly approached 150 minutes long - yikes!

Our kids waited 0 minutes - that's right 0 minutes.  With their new found radio friend they walked right up to the front and got on the ride.  I wish I knew what radio station our new friend was from because I would give him and the station a huge shout out.

The kids loved the ride.  I am glad that they were able to go on because their parents (yes, us) aren't near nice enough to stand in a 150 + minute line.  That one ride will have to last them awhile.

The only other ride we got on was Haunted Mansion (my favorite)  Is it wrong to want to live in that ride.  I so wish that was my house - maybe not my house, house but how about my party house.  While walking over to HM Luke found some headband/contraption thing and decided to wear it.  I know, I know - who knows what was on it.  Yes, I'm a bad mom for letting my kid pick up something from the ground and plopping it on his head.  Yes, he wore it around like this and no we didn't tell him to take it off we just giggled (a lot)  Oh that Luke, always good for a laugh! 

Before we left the park we saved the park guests from sudden death by holding back the huge boulder that was making it's way towards millions of people in it's attempts to roll them to death.  You can thank us later!

we heart daddy!

While Derek got a much deserved Father's Day nap after church the kids and I got busy with meal preparations. While the roast was cooking we started on the apples for Derek's requested dessert - apple crisp.  We got to try out the apple peeler that we got from Bernice.  Why did I not have this gadget before now?!?!  We whipped through a bunch of apples getting them peeled, cored and cut in no time.
Luke was especially happy about the "apple peel spaghetti"
The table was set and we were able to sit down to enjoy our Father's Day feast.  Roast, potatoes, carrots, onions, corn, green beans, gravy and rolls were all on the menu - Derek's favorite meal.  
Of course the day wouldn't be complete without lots of little handmade love notes from the kids.
Here is what the kids love about their dad...

Nathan "I love him because he is my daddy.  He helped me with my pine wood derby car.  I love him because I love him."

Luke "I love daddy because he is silly and cause I love him.  I love him because he is awesome."

Megan and Emily's comments to come - I haven't had a chance to talk with them yet and I have been working on this post for 2 days and just want to get it posted so that we can let Derek know we love him and we hope he had a nice Father's Day.