Monday, June 27, 2011

Take me out to ballgame

For Father's day we decided to take Bryan to KC to see the Cubs play. All the kids were able to go except Miss Brainy who now has a real job. This was the first major league baseball game for all the kids. The weather was beautiful, but the game wasn't quite so great. Cubs ended up losing 3-6, but we had a great time.




Afterwards we stopped to pick up some fireworks and then headed to my mom's to see the flooding. It is unbelievable to see the flooding first hand. To see roads that we normally drive on to get to their house completely under water. So many houses and farms completely under water with the water still rising.

On the way home we ran into a big thunderstorm and had to pull over under a gas station to get away from the hail. Doesn't seem fair that some are dealing with devastating floods while others in the same state are suffering from a drought.


Lots of yardwork to be done

I finally got the truckload of mulch for the flowerbeds and the new playground area. I will take a few days to get all of this spread out but it will be so worth it.


The playground that once sat here...
Is being relocated to the area behind the garage. I spent the day tearing apart the old swingset, which was held together with nails, and moving the sand/mulch to the new area. We will be redoing the swingset, using screws and new braces. I will also be adding a small patio and fire pit to this area.


The gardens and containers are doing wonderful, with all the cool weather and rain I haven't had to do much watering. I'm not very good at remembering to water all of them so they may begin to suffer as the hot months settle in.


I spent an afternoon/evening cleaning out this flower bed, removing the vines that had taken over the wall and trees.



Working in the antique store has allowed me to grab up some pretty cool containers for the garden. One of my favorites is the old chicken water/feeder.

The raised beds look awesome. After coming home from vacation to find them invaded by weeds we have cleaned them out and are finally getting some fruits from our labor. The strawberries are suppose to be the kids' responsibilities (I'm allergic) but it looks like I might need to remind them to pick them.


The tomato plants have really grown, just a couple inches shorter than the sunflowers, they aren't giving any ripe fruit quite yet but they are about 4 feet tall. We have had some onions, jalapenos, and wax peppers on the grill already.


I noticed about 10 cherry tomatoes just turning this morning.


Friday, June 24, 2011

'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!

The Chatterbox has done Children's Theatre the past 3 years and could not wait to try out for this years production of Alice in Wonderland. Imagine our surprise when she was cast as.......

ALICE!!!

I am so proud of her and can't wait to see her on stage again.

Monday, June 20, 2011

The Rest of the story

I have been meaning to post the rest of the vacation pics but blogger has been extremely difficult. So here is the rest of the vacation in one post.


We visited my brother in law's boat (submarine) and got to take a tour. He had been deployed for 7 months and returned home the day we arrived in San Diego. I don't know how they can live in such tight quarters for so long. After that we toured the USS Midway, which is an aircraft carrier turned into a museum.

Next we headed to a small shopping area and ate supper. Then kids had a chance to do a little shopping.





The next day was spent hanging out at Jaci and Jeff's.


We had an amazing bbq, with ribs, shrimp n bacon, pepper poppers and...

Jaci suprised me with an ice cream cake for my birthday.

We spent one day at the pier.




I also went to the Sub Ball to take some pictures of Jeff and Jaci and a couple they were with.

We spent another day at the beach and some of us headed down towards the Mexican border to visit the awesome outlet stores.

We also had a day that we were going to go to Old Towne San Diego, but after driving around for 45 minutes trying to find parking we headed back to the hotel for a nap.


We headed home on day 12. We drove back through Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.


We made one stop at the Meteor Crater outside of Winslow Arizona. I would have loved to have gotten off of the interstate to travel on Route 66, but we were following Bryan's parents and they needed to get home.


Sunday, June 12, 2011

Day 6

On day 6 we headed out to the tide pools. When we arrived we saw that we were a little late, since the tide was headed back in. We were able to find a few sea "creatures" in the pools and the kids had fun climbing on the rocks.


Next we headed to Cabrillo National Monument and The Old Point Loma Lighthouse.




The kids (and big Kid) had the chance to try on the armor and chain mail.





Afterwards we met up with Jeff, Jaci and the girls, headed to the NEX to pick up supper.

Vacation Day 5

We headed to Coronado Island for a little shopping and lunch before heading to the beach.

D wanted this for his souvenir, but it wouldn't fit in the van.

We spent the afternoon on the beach. The older kids braved the cold water and actually swam for about an hour. While the little ones and adults played in the sand.
We had fun burying Badger Boy and Jeff. I also buried the girls and made them into mermaids.







Day 4

After spending a little time driving the strip and getting souvenirs we hit the road for San Diego. I can say that I will never find myself wanting to live in the desert. I longed for green grass and trees. It was depressing driving by houses with no yard to speak of.

We finally arrived at Jeff and Jaci's at about 6pm and enjoyed a little time playing in the park and visiting.