Getting into Fall

Here in So Cal where it's still in the 80's-90s on most days it's kinda hard to get into the spirit of fall.  But we sure try!  We did have a couple days of cooler weather that teased us and helped us to get into the spirit but, alas, it was followed by more warm (like 100 degree) weather!  Oh well, we still have September/October things to do! 

Like... visit the apple orchard!  This was actually a Luna event.  But rather than try to do keep control of Tyler who has his own agenda these days, Eric stayed home with him so Kayla and I were able to have a nice, almost relaxing, time at the orchards.  We went with our friends Kelly/Zoe, Heather/Kennedy, Toni/Soren, and Stacy/Jackson.  We walked, we talked, we pulled, we twisted, we ate, we danced, we called it a day.  It was a nice couple of hours.

And then a couple weeks later we hit up, though not specifically Fall, the IE Food Truck Fest again.  And again, Eric stayed home with Tyler so Kayla and I got to hang out with Kelly and Zoe for the day and have a great time!  Got some good food, played a little, got her face painted, and came home very full and tired. 

Then this week was full of pumpkin patch visits!  The kids and I went with Luna Moms Club on Tuesday and then our family of 4 went back today.  It's a huge patch complete with a corn maze, a hay castle, rides, bounce houses, and a petting zoo.  The rides weren't open when we went on Tuesday so we just did the petting zoo and hay castle, after getting a tour around the patch.  Today we got to do all the fun rides and bounce houses.  And after 2 visits to the patch I still don't have a picture of the kids in the middle of a bunch of pumpkins!  I might take them back to the one right by our house and make them sit there until I get one!  Ha ha

Corn Maze Leader???

Taking off like they know where to go!

We Love Corn!

Trying to feed the goats

He was only cool with the goats when they weren't right up on him.

Attempting a hay/pumpkin pic

Attempting a self family portrait

Riding the John Deere all by herself!  (Though she had serious issues driving it.)

Enjoyiing our time at the patch

Taking a mini quad ride

Trying to win a prize... we were unsuccessful.  :-(

Shooting a tennis ball out of a canon!

Posin for her fall picture!

And that's not all!  In the coming weeks we have a Halloween Movie Night at a friends house, the Claremont Children's Halloween Party, the Luna Moms Club Moms Costume Party, the LMC kids Halloween Costume Party, and actual Halloween!  So lots of dressing up in the coming weeks! 

Less Words Wednesday: GG and Papa

(I really did start this on Wednesday, but was having issues with pictures... )

This past weekend GG and Papa were in town to visit! And I'll tell you what, if I am half as active as they are when I'm about 80 years old I'll be doing good! We were nonstop!

We hit the park for some fun with bubbles and the swings.

We made pizza (a first for GG!!)

We took Kayla to art class.

Had lunch at Rainforest Cafe.  (No pics of that - too dark in there to take pics with the iphone)

Colored

And went to Disneyland.

The entrance to Dland

Teacups with GG

Tyler's 1st ride at Dland

Kayla's favorite ride - the Teacups

Kayla's 1st Roller Coaster (at Dland)

Tyler's 1st face painting

All in 4 days! And that doesn't include the walks they took around the complex in the stroller or wagon, the shopping, the cleaning, the reading, te bathing, or all the time they spent on the floor trying to distract Tyler from the fact that I wasn't in his line of site at all times. They need a vacation from their vacation!

San Diego Part 2

Happy, happy, joy, joy! We had a great little vacation to San Diego! Just a quick trip - 4 days - to an awesome little beach house in Mission Bay! I had found this house with every toy imaginable and only 1 house away from the bay. And we had convinced Gabby to come with us so there were 3 adults to 2 kids so it was going to be a nice vacation! We didn't have any specific plans for our few days there - just to try to relax, enjoy the house and the yard and the toys, and that's about it.

We got down there and did not wait to dive right into the toys! The car was a big hit. But it was missing something really important... Kayla thought she'd look under the hood. :-)

Once we found the battery she and Tyler got busy. We couldn't get them out of it hardly at all for the next 4 days.

Dad got busy doing what he does best - grilling and watching the Cowboys season opener!

And I, well, I relaxed. :-)

We also made use of the bike, the wagon, and, um, the bay!

Gabby and the kids had fun playing in the water. It was in the 60s and 70s while we were there so a little too chilly to actually swim. The kids did get in the water but only the lower half of their bodies. :-) Instead, Gabby tried to collect sea shells, but they dumped out the bucket. Soooo, I'm not sure who had more fun. This was also about the time I dropped my barely 1 month old camera in the water. That was strike 2 on the trip. Strike 1 came when Tyler fell off the lawn chair and bit his tongue (we think) and ended up with a bloody mouth. And strike 3 came later this first full day when Kayla was playing around instead of napping and fell off the bed, hitting her nose, giving herself her first bloody nose. :-)

You would think 3 strikes you're out but not when you're on vacation. We ended up going to the San Diego Wild Animal Park on Tuesday. We went to the Zoo last year so wanted to try the other Zoo.

Strike 4 happened at the Wild Animal Park- Rita handed me her camera and it turned off. Figured the battery just died but she plugged
It in and still nothing. Great- 2 cameras down in 2 days! Whatelse?

After another day of playing with toys (another no nap day for Kayla who instead found Gabby's lipstick and painted herself with it - strike #5!) and a fun date night touring the Gas Lamp District of San Diego we had to say goodbye.

But not after getting a cute little family picture.

Just like any other day or vacation there were ups an downs buy overall it was a good experience. We were so glad Gabby came with us- she was extraordinarily helpful and is awesome with the kids. She needed a vacation from her vacation!

(And you know what- the fun didn't end there- we hit up gymnastics on the way home and spent the entire next day at the LA County Fair! But that's another post...)

Plans, Schmans

You know that saying "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."  No kidding!  Life happens.  Crazy.  Fun.  Random.  Sad.  Exciting.  Life. 

We try every year to take a family vacation - even if it's just for a few days.  This year, just like last year, we planned a trip down to San Diego.  But this time we rented a beach house so we had some extra room for the kids to run around.  And, we invited Rita to come join us.  She was going to come out anyway - we just thought it would be a good idea for her to come while we were all together down in SD.  Plus that means we had an extra set of hands... and got to  have a date night!  So, the plan was for her to fly out on Sunday morning and we'd head down to San Diego after picking her up.  We also planned to go out on a group camping trip the Friday and Saturday prior to leaving for San Diego on Sunday.

But, Eric got a phone call on Labor Day letting him know that his only living grandparent, his dad's mom, had passed away.  We kinda figured that the funeral would happen on Wednesday or Thursday so we planned on driving out to Texas, attending the funeral, and then driving right back.  Yea, drive!  That's really long drive - we figured on 2 1/2 days.  We got the call at 4pm and were on the road by 8pm.  That night we made it to Phoenix.  When we got on the road the next morning I called his family and found out that the funeral was actually on Saturday.  Well, we immediately pulled off the road because we wouldn't be able to drive back from Texas after the funeral in time to make it to pick Rita up from the airport and make it down to the San Diego rental house.  So, we turned around and made arrangements for a flight out for Eric on Thursday and coming back on the same flight as his mom. 

But, we were all the way out in Phoenix.  We couldn't just drive back without having done anything.  I figured the Grand Canyon was only an hour or two away so we planned to drive north a little bit and see the Grand Canyon for the first time.  Turns out it was a little longer drive than I thought but not much.  And for some reason Kayla decided she didn't need to nap and Tyler didn't need much of one either.  So when we finally made it to the Grand Canyon the kids were not well behaved.  We tried to corral them for a little while, so we could enjoy the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon.  But it didn't last long.  Visitors center, walk, go back to bathroom, walk, run, pull, grab, hold, walk, grab, hold, walk.... repeat 67 times. 

We saw the Grand Canyon but it was a very stressful event. 

And after about an hour we were back in the car.  We did stop at another visitors center to give the kids some more time to run around in a slightly less crowded, indoor, area. 

I was highly disappointed!  That is not how I would have planned my first/only trip to the Grand Canyon.  I wanted the kids to have napped.  I wanted to be able to take the little tour bus around.  I wanted to check out the stores up there.  I wanted to be able to walk along the edge of it for a while.  But when it's stressful it's not enjoyable.  So, we packed up, headed out, and were home by midnight that night. 
Eric's flight went out Thursday evening.  I decided against going on the camping trip on my own.  I do a lot of things on my own with the kids.  But Eric and I were both at the Grand Canyon and we had issues controlling the kids.  I didn't want to try that alone camping for 2 days.  Which I was also disappointed about.  We had been planning this with my friends for months.  But whatcha gonna do? 

So, I planned to have 5 of my girlfriends come over with their little girls and have a pizza, pj, and movie night!  They all had a ton of fun!  They had a few bites of pizza and then let loose in the house.

Every toy in the house was pulled out!  They were running around checking everything out.  We did manage to get the house cleaned up and the kids ready for a movie. 

They sat there and watched about 10 -15 minutes of a movie before they were up and running around again.  That was actually okay with the rest of us - we turned on My Best Friend's Wedding and watched that while the kids played.  And ate some delicious dessert way too late into the evening.  Ha ha. 

It turned out to be a great night but not at all what I planned. 
The only thing that did go as planned was the trip to San Diego.  But this post is long enough so I'll save the San Diego post for tomorrow (hopefully).
I love to plan.  I have to plan.  But life doesn't always go according to, um, plan.  Here's the proof!