Ears pierced, at last!

Okay, so....I met my friends Kim and Jo at Pizzatopia today. And we had a great chat, the kids played, I ate, and my boys argued with me about eating their food of course. Then, somehow we got on the subject of piercing ears, and I mentioned that I STILL hadn't done it. Before I moved back to Utah, these gals had been trying to drag me out and finally get it done. I had always been wanting to buy some earrings that Kim sells from Silpada Designs. Well, finally Kim got all giggly and clapped while she said, "Let's do it right now, before you go home tomorrow!". So, we packed up the kids and ran over to Claire's. I got all nervous and sweaty. We picked out some very "RaeAnne" star studs, and I signed the paperwork. I feel as though another chapter in my life has started, isn't it silly?! Here I am getting stabbed. After. The instigators!

On another note.

So, this evening I turned on the TV for the first time in quite awhile to find the news about Michael Jackson. Headlines quoting "Michael Jackson, dead at 50". Sheesh! And Ed McMahon died yesterday. Wow! Although I loved Michael's music, what is with him trying to look so much like his good friend Elizabeth Taylor? I like her too, don't get me wrong. But....he is an African-American MAN, she is a Caucasian WOMAN. (Okay, I didn't find very good pictures to compare, but you get it right?) Whats the deal? Sorry, that's been on my mind for the last decade and a half. But still, great tunes. His music will be missed, but I am not too sure about his latest photo.

Oh yeah, I forgot...

My friend Sheri reminded me that while at McDonald's with her Wednesday, we saw two guys on horses (in Thousand Oaks, CA no less) ride up to the drive-thru and order food. She said when she pulled into her parking space they were just leaving. Crazy! I took a picture of it with my phone, I had left the camera in my car. The picture isn't good quality, so I won't hurt your eyes by adding it. But I giggled about that for a bit, and Tristan kept running to the windows to see them, my little animal lover.

Another vacation update...

Tuesday we went to the beach again. It was an awesome day, we arrived there at 10:07am (to be exact) and stayed until 3pm. It was overcast most of the day, which made the weather perfect. The last two hours warmed up and made the sand burn our feet. You know how when your a mom, you always take care of your kids first and you last, if at all. Well, I had a problem with that this day. I made sure the kids all got sunblock on the entire bodies. But, me....not so much. I had Colby spray me down when I dropped him off at work on our way, but there must have been sand or something stuck in the spray nozzle. I thought I was getting sprayed, and I covered the rest of me after the kids were done when we got there. But, my sunblock must have mostly just been spraying cold air with sunblock only here and there. Granted, it was an old canister. I came home with the most ridiculous sun burn ever. Speckled and striped is what I am calling it. And.....I didn't remember my face at all! So, I have the opposite image of my sunglasses imprinted on my face for awhile. It's extremely embarrassing. Oh well, such is the life of a mother having an airhead moment. But, hey! My kids were completely protected the whole day. Woot! We had such a great time playing in the water and sand, especially with the Toones there. Thanks for joining us guys!

After a shower and some naps, we headed down to Thousand Oaks to meet up at the Hoffmeier home. We shared some dinner, and the kids all had a great time playing together while we chatted. Thankfully, Colby got away from the office for a bit to enjoy this time with us.

Paul and Blanca Hoffmeier, Eliza Toone, and Colby.

Wednesday we chilled out in the room for the first half of the day, then hit one of my favorite places for lunch: The Habit. And then...over to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. Mmmm...cake batter ice cream with fudge and brownies mixed in. (Sorry for that brief Homer Simpson moment, it won't happen again.) After quiet time, we met up with our friends the Foster's for some play time at McDonald's. The kids hadn't had enough time to burn energy, so on the way back to the hotel we stopped at one of our favorite places: Coyote Park. Notice that B isn't wearing his glasses, he accidentally stepped on them and bent them.This is where we used to have park day every week before we moved back to Utah. Then my friend Jo called and invited us over for homemade chicken enchiladas. Of course my picky kids didn't eat, but I thoroughly enjoyed every bite.

Today we had a date to meet up with Jo and her kids again. We found this place in Oak Park called Fo-Fo Figgily's and/or Bright Child. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Much better than Chuck E. Cheese. The website said that part of the new movie "Imagine That" was filmed there. It had one gigantic, and a couple small, play structures inside, like those at McDonald's. It also had a big kids basketball room, and a little kids basketball room. Nice shot, Gabe! And Tristan scores as well!

A fire truck near the food area for the kids to climb on. A soft Lego pit. An arcade, a couple electric keyboards for kids to play, and a huge fish tank. Did I forget anything? Maybe, but who cares, we (me included) could have played there all day long if not for a much needed nap time. Robert and Braxton shooting foam balls at us on the bottom level. Everything is proportioned for little guys. Even in the bathrooms, the toilets and sinks. Carly and Gabe at lunch. (Only 3 weeks separate these kiddos in age.) Robert and Braxton enjoying there food. (You would never know that B is older.) G and T putting some foam balls. Braxton enjoying the zip line, while Tristan waits for his turn. Tristan, Carly, Rob and Braxton lined up for the basket up top to dump foam balls on them. Rob started this trend, it made fun that lasted quite awhile.

Later, Colby came home for 2 hours to have dinner with us at the Simi Towne Center (a big outdoor mall).

Of course it's not all fun and games with us right now. There have been multiple melt-downs, fights, punching and injuries. But, I have chosen to only post the positive on this blog. Kinda like a gratitude journal. I am too much of a negative person. If I used this site to vent, you would get done reading it, and think I was a terrible mother. So, we just post the positive and other major events in our lives, and that helps me forget the trials and frustration that come with being a parent. Okay, enough of that. Way too serious. I shall be back with more of our week, when there is more to report. TTFN: Ta Ta For Now!

First Week of our Trip.

We left Gabe's birthday party last Tuesday night, about 8:45pm, to set out on our long drive. A stop at Paradise Cafe & Bakery in Bountiful eased our growling stomachs. If you haven't eaten their, try it next time your in that area, it's amazing! We had changed the boys into PJs back at the Layton Classic Fun Center, so we were ready to drive all night long. Braxton and Gabe settled in nicely, but we soon realized that again Tristan was not going to let this trip be easy. Every time we stopped to switch drivers or get gas, he woke up and screamed until about 5 minutes before our next stop. The two older boys found a way to sleep through it, Colby listened to his iPod, and I found a set of earplugs that I bought on a whim before we left North Ogden, smart move on my part. Colby finally decided that he was going to drive the majority of the trip, just to avoid waking the little bugger up again. This was one reason I was happy for Colby's weird sleeping habits, he was wide awake all the way until about 5am. Do you know what is so wonderful about having all boys? When you have passed a bathroom stop, or the gas station restroom is broken and all locked up, you can just pull over inconspicuously and let them drop their drawers. It's such a relief! We arrived in Simi Valley at 7:20am their time. A car full of sweaty, cranky and sleepy people, just to find out that the hotel messed up and didn't have our room reserved for Tuesday so that we could check-in Wednesday morning, like they told us they would. Nope, we had to hang out until 2pm before we could unpack the car and shower. So, we crashed in on our friends the Toones' just as they were getting ready to leave for their last day of school. They left and we napped on their couches until the Hotel called Colby to say our room was ready. What a day! I ended up dropping him off at work, then coming back to get settled into our home away from home for the next two weeks.

That evening I had a dinner date planned with some friends from my previous ward. We were all in the Young Women's presidency together before I moved, and we have a tradition that we follow when I come in town. We find sitters and hit my favorite Mongolian BBQ called Wok-n-South, after we gorge ourselves there we head to the Cheesecake Factory in The Oaks mall for some dessert. It was a fun night, though I have to apologize to my girls, I was so tired. I kinda just stared off into space and listened to their chatter.

Thursday me and the boys hit the beach. We met our friend MaryAnn there and soaked up the sun and surf. We had so much fun, and had a seagull try to take off with our ENTIRE bag of giant Cheetos. Tristan had left a couple of unattended cheetos on our beach blanket and the gull gulped them down quickly. He decided that those were heavenly and waited until we were down by the water for his next venture. He actually got off the ground with the bag in his beak as I chased after him. I ended up just trashing it, he had pecked a bunch of holes into it, trying to get to the cheesy good stuff. We all had a good chuckle over it and Tristan kept chasing any gull saying, "Naughty, naughty." Braxton and Tristan fell asleep on the way back from Malibu, but Gabe just chattered on talking about his day and the 3 tunnels we drive through on the way. We stopped in Thousand Oaks to drop off some money to a teenager that watched my kids a ton for me last August. She was here to attend high school for a year, and was heading back to Mexico the next day. Tristan loves his dear Allejandra, and she was so surprised to see him walking and so big.

Friday we loitered around the room, did some shopping, and then hit the pool after nap time. Pretty easy going.

Saturday we headed off to the Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark after we dropped Colby off at work. It was the busiest we had ever seen it. Tristan was glad to be somewhere that he could walk everywhere. He is also my animal lover, so he was in heaven. Braxton and Gabe were excited to ride the Cow Train and the large electric train that they have there. The cow train was actually fun for all of us though. They took us on a tour of the farm behind a tractor. We saw all sorts of fields of berries, and fruit trees. There was this great wall of sunflowers too. It started lightly raining as we were playing at the playground so I loaded the kids up in the car with a movie while I bought some fresh produce to make our lunch with. We always look forward to fresh fruits and veggies after the farm. We napped again after lunch and then I dropped them off at the Toone home while I went to attend a stamp camp. This was something I looked forward to monthly when I was selling Stampin' Up! A bunch of ladies get together to stamp projects that are prepared already, eat and chat with each other. It's a blast, although the name is a bit corny. Braxton was invited to sleep over at the Toone's home with his friend Lucas, so when I was done stamping I just took the other two back to the hotel and tucked them in.

Father's Day we slept in a bit, since our breakfast at the hotel is served until 10am on this day of the week. We also got Colby all to ourselves finally, he had been going to work between 9-9:30am every day(including Saturday) and coming home anywhere between 10pm and midnight. That is a heavy work week for him. We went to pick up B after we ate, and gave Colby his Father's Day gifts there. Then we visited with Rob and Eliza and kids until we all decided to head to the Thousand Oaks mall for some lunch and checking out the renovations made since our last visit. It's gigantic and gorgeous. Back at the hotel we got in the pool again.

So far today, I have washed dishes, gone to the laundromat, hit Costco, and cleaned up all the crap scattered all over our room. It's an easy going day of recovery from a week of chaos. I will post again when there is more to talk about.

A little taste of our vacation so far...

Here we are hanging at the Toone home this afternoon, and Rob decided to use our children for some of his tricks. Very entertaining for all, including the participants.

Quick Question...

Hey does anyone know of a place in the Ogden, UT area that rents out those inflatable bounce houses, it needs to be reasonably priced? Let me know, I need to reserve a rental for my son's 4th b-day party ASAP. Thanks.

I will hopefully posting about our summer thus far soon...gotta fly, things are getting really crazy busy around here.

P.S. Hey all you fun friends in Southern Cali, we are headed your way. Arriving June 17th and departing June 29th....so count yourself warned. Get your schedules cleared so we can get together for play dates, dinners and beach days. See you soon!