We've had some busy but fun filled weeks and I've fallen behind on the blogging. So here are a few pics of some random fun. Here's a pic of some mall fun. We went for dinner at Hot Dog on a Stick, took a train ride, checked out the pet store, and took family pics in a photo booth. All in all, a fun family Friday night.
Nothing beats a hot day but a car wash. :)
Even Tatum got in there and got wet.
Tatum's preschool friend Kaitlin turned 4 and Tatum had fun at her
Rapunzel Birthday party.
Here's a pic from a fun pool day. But from Ty's face, you'd think he wasn't having fun. Apparently he has a very sensitive head because he started crying after Garrett gave him a
Mohawk. So sensitive.
But Tatum enjoyed herself!
Grandma has been in town quite a bit so we had some fun at
Sea World. There are some new things to check out like this new raft.
We enjoyed all the rides...
and everyone had a great time and a fun day.
Love the new turtle section!
I had a free weekend to enjoy with my girls, Shauna, Leanne and Jenny. (she missed the first day of fun but came the next day)
We headed to Palm Springs for lots of sun, sips and delicious food.
It's always fun to dress up and get pretty with your girls!
I had to take a picture of this sign since it had Lee and Tatum's name on it. So cool! This must be a future venture they'll be
conquering later in life since they both LOVE shoes. :)
Tatum started her first day of her second year of preschool. Look at this sweet little girl. She was so excited to get back to class and meet her new teacher and new friends.
She's been going for a month now and loves Miss. Kristen and her class. She's even had some new play dates with new friends! Her class room has lots of great areas such as a listening station where they can listen to and read books, a dress up area, a play area outside with a panting table, water bin, and a garden! They also just got a class pet, Winnie the
hamster! She also gets to sign her name every day when she comes to class which is helping her to practice her writing. The kids have share bag every week and bring 2 to 3 things to share with the class that start with the letter of the week. Tatum loves this and enjoys going through the house finding things that start with the appropriate letter. And she loves standing up
in front of the class and sharing. Great for our shy little girl.
We no longer have zoo passes but we have some very sweet friends that invited us to join them at the zoo and let us use free passes. So we enjoyed two fun days there. The first one was with Kelly and
Keira. Here Ty and
Keira enjoyed holding hands and walking through the park. So cute.
Keira showed Ty one of her favorite things at the zoo, these large foot massage chairs. :)
Beautiful butterflies!
Oh, the petting zoo. When Tatum was this little, she wouldn't dare touch a goat, or even get in the petting zoo area for that matter. But Ty, he loves it! As soon as we walked in, this little black goat was on the floor in front of him and it was love at first sight. I don't think he left her side the entire time, and as you can see, holding...
laughing and sharing jokes,...
and hugging were all things Ty and the goat were sharing. By the look on the goats face, I can't say she felt the love, but Ty sure did. :)
The
giraffe is one of our favorite animals so we had to get over and see them. We have a book about a Strike at the Zoo and in the book the giraffes wear sweaters around their necks so we had to get over there and see if these giraffes were wearing sweaters. :) No sweaters but we saw some cute babies!
And then there was a lot of monkey business going on. Tatum and Ty both came with me and wow, was that a hardship. I always say that Tatum and Ty are like Jack Sprat because if one wants it, the other doesn't. Which is a good thing when you have an Oreo, one eats the center, the other loves the cookie. But I had brought a one seat stroller that day and only one kid wanted to sit in a stroller, Tatum. Of course, that left the wild man available to roam and
grrr, I now see why people buy those kid leashes! By the end of the day, I was done and we said good bye to the zoo
amongst a screaming Ty strapped in the stroller so we could make it through the dangerous parking lot and out to the car. One of those days. :)
The next trip to the zoo was just with Ty to meet Erica and Jack. Look at these boys! The hair! I think it might be hair cut time!
They enjoyed the petting zoo, the play ground, a few animals, lunch, ice cream and then a ride home. We love the zoo and plan on getting a pass again soon but we just got Disney passes and still have Sea World so we're definitely busy enough with those for now.
They put on the last movie in the park of the summer and it was none other than Tangled! We absolutely love this movie at our house and have all seen it too many times. So many that my 2 year old says, "Best cat EVER!!!" which is close to a line Rapunzel says in the movie, just funny. Anyway, we threw out a blanket and some chairs and got ready for the fun. I was wondering how they were going to show the movie and as you can see from this picture, it was on a big blow up screen. We had a great view!
Me and my sweet pea.
And look at this little boy, as cute as can be all bundled up on his side, ready for his favorite movie.
Of course, it wasn't long after this that a group came and sat down right in front of us so he had to sit up and then was moving around for the rest of the movie. But we had a few calm moments here, and so precious.
Grandma bought a new home!!! She will be moving down to San Diego not more than 10 miles away from us and we're so excited!!! She closed on escrow on August 30th and is still in the process of painting and recarpeting, but she hopes to move down mid October. It's a 2 bedroom condo in Rancho Bernardo and the best part is that she's already met some wonderful friends in the neighborhood.
Here's Desiree, our realtor, handing over the keys. We ran over a half hour before Grandma was to be there and decorated her front path and door. We had champagne waiting and she was very surprised and excited!
We had some really hot days a few weeks back, here's our thermometer at 101 degrees! Which, to me, is hot! Too hot. We had a power outage which at first they thought could have been due to the heat. I was convinced it was but it turns out it was due to human error at one of the plants.
Anyway, it led to a power outage around 3:00 pm which lasted till well past midnight, so we had quite an interesting evening. It was like camping. We started by heading outside and picking lemons. Then we cut them up, squeezed them and made lemonade!
The kids loved it! We also planted some plants, played some games, grilled some food, ate up all the popsicles since they were melting, took a long walk around the neighborhood and saw many neighbors hanging out in their front yards, lit candels, ran around the house with flashlights, and were all in bed by 9. :) It made me realize I need to keep bottled water on hand at all times, and get a battery operated radio. :)
So as you can see, we've been busy and having lots of fun. We had to say good bye to summer and now it's on to fall and many more adventures!
We braved our first family camping trip over the weekend of August 27th at Santee Lakes, campsite #30. I have to say, for our first experience, it went pretty smoothly. We got to the campsite around 5 on Friday and quickly got the tent pitched and things in their appropriate places. Then Garrett whipped up a delicious meal!
But before we unpacked anything, Garrett needed to get a pole in the water. :) Our site was right on this pond and the kids loved watching Daddy prep the pole and fish. They were so good too, after he'd get it ready and in the holder, they'd just sit and watch it, never bothering it, waiting for the fish to bite. So cute. Maybe we've got some fishermen (or fisher woman). :)
Our friends, the Richardsons, were camping a few sites away so as soon as they were done setting up their camp site, they came down to enjoy dinner and some smores. Lots of fun!
Garrett decided it wasn't necessary for us to bring a pack n play so I decided it was necessary that the two boys sleep together on one side of the tent, and the girls sleep on the other. :) Not that the three room tent was really three rooms. The room is made by hanging a sheet of tent to block off a section, but Ty found he could just crawl right underneath and come sleep with Mommy. He kept coming over and asking for me to sing him a song, and then crawling back over to lay with Daddy. This was all at 10:30 pm! Finally, by around 11 he fell asleep. Actually, the whole tent was asleep besides me. Who said sleeping on the ground was a good idea?! Next time we'll be using air mattresses! Anyway, I got up pretty early (if I ever fell asleep at all!) and our late sleeper was asleep till almost 8! Look at this little man, so cute.
After a great breakfast provided by chef Garrett, we headed off on our first hike. :) Well, it was more like a stroll, but we checked out some other camp sites and found a fun play park for the kids.
Here are the Richardsons! I'm so glad we tackled our first camping experience with them. The kids had lots of fun together, which made it a bit easier for us, and we all shared meals which also made it easier. We're definitely doing this again next summer!
After our hike, we packed up a picnic lunch and walked to the pool. Santee Lakes is great in that it has lots of amenities such as pools, play parks, a splash park, and lots of activities like paddle boats, a teen hang out room, etc. Keeps everyone happy and busy. We were able to find some shade and enjoyed our lunch in between dips in the pool. It was a very hot weekend, record heat I think, so the pool was refreshing and fun for all.
After a quick shower, we all enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching Daddy fish.
Here's Colin, Tatum and Ty down by the pond. They enjoyed watching the fishing, but loved riding their bikes around the site and playing with toys. Thank goodness we brought lots of trucks and stuff to keep the boys entertained.
Tatum, on the other hand, wasn't too interested in playing trucks. The heat was waring everyone down and at one point, the kids ended up in the tent, trying to get out of the sun, playing games on my phone. There's no napping in camping I guess.
Ty was definitely more interested in the fishing. He would sit up on the hill, playing with rocks, but always watching Daddy and the fishing pole. You'd think he'd lose interest but definitely not.
Finally, later that evening, Daddy caught a fish! A catfish! The kids were so excited and interested. 
They were amazed that a catfish has whiskers like a cat! :)
We were all up early Sunday morning and I think the general consensus was let's go home. But it was so refreshing to wake up under the beautiful clear sky and listen to life and nature around us. Here's a crane walking by our site, doing a little early morning fishing. Everyone enjoyed our first camping experience and we're looking forward to our next one in Carpenteria!
