Ray's first fish!!!

So to celebrate the end of summer, or maybe to just hold onto it a little bit longer we rented a boat again this last Tuesday.  It was wonderful, thankfully we live in Arizona, so I could still swim even though fall had officially started, this was a questionable thing, because it was definitely cold a few days before this trip. Happily though the weather heated back up again.  Anyways, not only did we swim, but the boys got to fish as well.  Michael and I do not fish, we do not eat it so we do not catch them, however my Mom and Claudie are avid fishers, and since they were with us the boys got to fish.  Ray was thrilled, he caught his first fish ever, it made the whole trip for everyone, even though we do not fish, there was no way for us to not catch in the excitement, the look on his face, it was a good day.  I thought I would share it with you all, so enjoy, Ray with his first fish!!!

Reeling it in!!!

Trying to pet it!!  =0)

"Dad, look what I got!!!"

Summer 2012

So it has been an eventful summer, we have gone to Holbrook, Raymond has turned three, and we have completely revamped our homeschool curriculum.  We had an awesome Fourth of July, with lots of fireworks, they had to make up for last year so we got double the booms!  My aunt has moved in, which is making the house a little bit small, and we are awaiting a new addition to the family.  So lots going on. 

We will start with Ray's third Birthday and Holbrook.  They are linked since the only reason we went to Holbrooks was Ray's 3rd birthday.  =0)  We had a great party at the park for Ray, he had a lot of,  people show up, we played with water guns, ate pizza and hung out!  We had a great time, and while we have a great group of friends, it is very eclectic.  So it is always interesting to see how everyone interacts with each other. 

The cake!

The Kids

The Birthday Boy!

Now Ray is very into Dinosaurs, so we took him to Holbrook which is like the Dino Capital of AZ, there are dinosaurs everywhere you go in this town.  Since we were in the area, we stopped by a few ghost towns, went to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, and slept in a Wigwam, it was only a three day trip, but it was a blast!

The boys at one of many dino stops along the way!

This was Ray's fave dino because he was hiding next to our hotel room, and he was Ray sized.

Our Hotel room!

The Petrified Forest!

The Painted Desert!

This is the Route 66 Memorial from within the park!

Lil Man checking out an old jail in the Navajo County Courthouse!

Fourth of July was also very fun, we had wanted to go to Benson this year, but we did not make it, again.  But we still had a great amount of fun!

Daddy getting finished with the color guard stuff or the VFW

Ray was ready to celebrate!

Lots of fireworks, we had a very colorful night!

:Lastly, I cannot remember if I already posted about it, but mu Sister Beth is having a baby, she is due in October and we are expecting a beautiful baby girl named Jazzlynn!

Miss Beth earlier this summer when we rented a boat for the day out at Patagonia!

Well that has been our summer in a nut shell, if you want to hear about the ghost towns we visited or about our curriculum choices, then please head on over to the blogs for those subjects.  I hope you had as great a summer as we did, and that your Fall is just as amazing!

San Diego

Wow, what a trip, we had a blast.  It was super busy though, we left early Thursday Morning and I drove the whole way which is never my favorite thing, not to new places, I like to look and see and capture.  But my husband had just gotten off a night shift, so he had to sleep, so I drove and it went fine, no problems.  We got there around 4pm, checked into the hotel unpacked and then went out to eat dinner, we ended up at Chuck E cheeses because the kids needed to be able to unwind after all of that time in the car.  We spent a few hours there playing and then headed back to the hotel for sleep, which I did not do.  Sleep has not been my friend as of late, but that is a different story you know.

Friday we decided to do all of the stuff that was North of San Diego, so we headed out around 8 am, after eating breakfast at our hotel which was surprisingly good.  You always end up with waffles and danishes at these places, and while they had those they also had eggs and meat everyday, so yum, and filling so that we did not have to stop for a big lunch any of the days we were out.  Anyways, we started out at the Birch Aquarium, where we saw tons of fish, an amazing view of the ocean, and a sub that my oldest wanted to take home with him.

The fountain at the Birch Aquarium.

From there we drove up to Carlsbad and went to Legoland, there is a ton to see and do at Legoland, rides, jungle gyms for the kids to climb all over while the parents sit and rest.  Miniland which is millions of legos built into famous cities in the US, and we were lucky enough to even see Star Wars Miniland which was a special exhibit.

The Lego Statue of Liberty.

They even have a waterpark which was too cold to play in and their own Sealife Aquarium, we really enjoy looking at fish, they had a few huge things in it thoughm the crabs and lobsters were insane...

From Legoland we headed to the beach, the water was freezing, but we still spent sometime running from the waves and splashing around, as well as playing in the sand, I love the ocean, it would be fin to live by it...

The last thing we did Friday was go to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, by the time we got there we were pretty exhausted from the rest of the day, our feet hurt, but we wanted to ride the tram, so we did, we learned a lot about there animals and breeding programs, and we got to play around with some other things as well.

Bat Boys

From there we found a restaurant for dinner, headed back to the hotel room and were all pretty well asleep by 930.

Saturday started fresh, but not as early as Friday, we slept in and did not get a start on the day until after 10.  First thing we did was head on over Seaworld, Michael and Daddy had a date with a penguin that we did not want to miss.  We got to watch Shamu do tricks and get a lot of people wet, saw a bunch of different animals and even rode a few rides.  It was a blast, and when we left around 230ish we were thinking that we may have to go back tomorrow...  The only reason we left was because three of the four of us were wet and sticky and needed new clothes, luckily our hotel was just one exit up from Seaworld.

Michael and Daddy in the penguin exhibit.

Shamu showing off his stuff.

After changing we headed over the the USS Midway, we went thinking we would be able to see it and the Maritime Museum before closing, however once we got on the Midway there was just so much to see that we never made it to the Maritime Museum and we ran out of time before we got to see all of the Midway...

After we got kicked off the Midway, we went to Seaport Village where we finished up our shopping for the family we left behind.  =0)  And we ate at a restaurant that was literally right on the water, sadly they served mostly fish, and being desert rats, we do not eat fish, so the food was just not that good in out minds, however the experience was worth the time and money spent there.  We got to see a pelican dive into the ocean, a otter or seal swimming around the base of the pier the place was on and ships coming into the bay, including the huge research vessel with a sub and open area in the back for diving...

After that it was back to the hotel for us and back to bed, the boys were asleep by 930 again though Michael and I stayed up a bit longer reading and talking about the next day, we thought it might be fin to go on a Whale Watching Cruise.

Sunday did not include any of the things we though it would.  We never did make it back to Seaworld or to the Maritime Museum, and while we did go to Balboa Park we ended up only visiting one Museum there and not even thinking about the zoo.  It started at Point Loma, I love Lighthouses, I have since I was a little girl, and anytime we end up by the ocean we always go in search of one and we never seem to find it.  This time however we did, which was great, but let me tell you, if we did not have the guidebook with the directions we would have missed out on this one as well, it was through an old military base and huge veterans cemetery, if we had not known for sure where it was we would have turned around before we found it for sure.  I am glad we found it though, the views were amazing and the lighthouse was beautiful.

After that we went to the Natural History Museum, it had dinos for Ray and an exhibit on the Titanic for Lil Man and gems for me and Michael, it was a good choice, and it was huge, it is in a 4 story building with a basement, and alot of that was closed off to research rooms.  But we all enjoyed our time there.

After that we walked up the central area at Balboa Park, there were street vendors and such hanging around so it had a cool vibe to it.

We decided that it was time for lunch, and that we would have a big lunch and then just grab some tv dinners for dinner because the kids wanted to go swimming back at the hotel, we had gotten back to late the other nights so we did not have the chance to do that yet.  So we ended up having lunch at a oriental place, which happened to be by a place called Boomers, it was like a Golf N stuff.  It was actually my least favorite part of the trip, the place was just trashy, there were beer cans in the ponds and it was not well cared for at all.  So we did a few things, but did not stay very long at all, maybe only an hour of that.

Ray did enjoy playing mini golf...

Monday we left and came home, Michael drive, yay!!!  That allowed me to really see the landscape and sights to see on the way back, which I enjoyed, there were lots of abandoned buildings, though I did not get to stop and explore them, I try not to do that with the kids seeing as how it can be dangerous.  And we stopped in Yuma to eat lunch and gas up, and we got to see the Territorial Prison. 

The prison guard tower.  

Leaving Yuma the winds got really bad, there was one point when there were at least 25 dust devels surrounding us, but it was not horrible, just windy, we still made it home safe and sound, getting back to SV before 6 in the evening, then of course we had to unload etc.

Anyways, it was a really great trip, and I for one cannot wait for the next one, though I bet that I am the only one, I know Michael enjoys the trips, but he also enjoys to be home with nothing to do!!!

Trips

This is my travel year, we do not have a lot of money, but that is ok, we do not need a lot of money.  We were intending to take one huge trip to the east coast this year, lots of stops along the way, it would have been awesome, but things change, so instead we are taking a lot of mini trips.  First a few weeks ago we spent a weekend in Phx, it was great, we went to the zoo and the aquarium we went and played and we had a blast.  Our next trip is to San Diego, we are going to go to Seaworld and Legoland, the ocean, possibly the zoo, definately the maritime museum and the USS Midway, so lots to do, that is at the end of this month, and I cannot wait, I hate being stuck at home, and with this we are so not going to be stuck at home.  *cheers* 

Anyways, I guess i am out, gonna keep watching the tat show, its a competition, and it is awesome, cool show!!!

Hellos

Wow, so I had to go to a funeral today, I try really hard to only go to 1 or 2 funerals a year.  I dislike them, who doesn't.  I guess I have a hard time with them not because they bother me so much as the large group of people there bothers me.  Also I tend to have a bit of a morbid sense of humor which many do not appreciate during such a service. 

Anyways, the funeral  went today was for a lady I had met maybe once or twice, breaking my rule of only going to funerals for people I really, REALLY love.  However this lady has a son and husband and grandson who I am quite well acquainted with, her grandson is in my CubScout den, and her son and husband lead another den in my pack, there was a pack wide email sent out last night asking if possible to attend the funeral, so I did, her grandson is not blood related, he is sort off the outcast of the family because of this.  Her son, while a good man, treats this boy different from the children that are actually his, many men do this, and I find it terribly sad, however, from what I saw of this woman she always treated him just like the rest of the grandkids, that really made me respect her, needless to say, I went for him more than anyone else, I was curious how the rest of the family would deal with it, and I am glad to say that they all treated him well, treated him as he should be treated.  It was nice to see. 

Also it was weird, I figured that I would see a few people for the pack that I knew, and that the rest of the people would be strangers, turns out that this woman was the grandmother to a friends daughter in law, and a neighbors good friend, also the only other people from the pack that showed up were the CubMaster and his wife, so they were glad I was there so that we showed more of a supportive front than they had thought we would do.  It was actually a bit sad that no one else from the pack came, makes me sad that we are not as close as I thought we were.  It is what it is though, and it was short notice, did not know about it until yesterday, so I guess that some people just were not able to get off work. 

Alrighty,  I guess that is all for today, just found stuff interesting and needed some place to order my thoughts...

Hello

So it has been a while, I have updated some of my other blogs but not here.  So lets see what is going on.  I have started going to the gym on a daily basis, well I was going on a daily basis until I got sick, then I only made it a few times a week, and then I did not make it at all this week, but I have not been feeling well for weeks, I keep pushing and pushing and realized that I was not giving myself time to get better, so I kept getting sick again.  So with that new found wisdom I decided to take this week off, next week starting Wednesday, I will start going everyday again.  I want to lose weight, and I want to lose weight in a healthy way, that way it will stay gone, so I am trying to teach myself new habits, first being, daily gym time, next being better eating habits, I do not eat a lot of junk, it is just that I do not eat how I should, nor do I eat enough, I guess my body is in starvation mode most of the time,  so losing weight is difficult. 

Lets see, we are planning a really awesome vacation come September/October.  We were hoping for May, but other stuff came up, and Fall is a good time to travel too.  We are going to visit Michael's Grandmother, I have never met her, nor as she met her great grandsons, so this is an important trip.  We are also going to go see his sister, she has been in Germany for a few years, so we have not seen her or her son in years.  We also have never met our brother in law, her husband, so it ought to be an interesting trip when it come to meeting new people, and while we know that family is important, I really am looking forward more to the rest of the trip.  We are going to take our time getting there with time spent in San Antonio and New Orleans, and then we are going to take our time getting home spending time in Washington DC and St. Louis among others...

I am starting to homeschool my son next week, but that has a blog all for it.  Cubscouts is interesting as ever, but nothing major going on, the Blue and Gold is coming up, that is a big deal, it is going to be in Schefflands Hall this year which is just awesome, it is a great building.  Other than that, nothing going on.  I guess that means I am done for now, I know I always say it, but I will try to update more often, all of my blogs, not just one...  Laters all