California Adventures- Wrapping it Up!!!

I think this is it, people! I finally may reach the end of our CA Adventures tonight! So without further adieu.... So I last left you with our S.F. trip, and Kami doing a too cute version of Taylor Swift's, "Picture to Burn".

On Friday morning, Mom insisted that Tyler and I take off for the day and go do something. Being so far away from family, and being too cheap (or maybe is it poor, or maybe a little of both...) to pay for a babysitter, Tyler and I sadly never do anything by ourselves. It's quite pathetic really, but alas, it's the sad, sad truth. So it didn't take much arm-twisting at all for Tyler and I to go on a "date". We decided to head down to Old Sac and walked around for an hour or so. We ended up stumbling upon this miltary museum down there, and being military, we got in free. That was pretty cool... seeing all that old military artifacts and memorabilia. After that we headed down to this awesome restaurant that I think they only have out West... Chevy's. We ate outside by the river and had an awesome lunch, and equally awesome Margarita's! After that we headed home on a hot afternoon in a van without A/C. Talk about romantic! haha We headed straight home and jumped in the pool to cool off!

Later that evening we very hesitantly decided to head downtown (again) for Part 1 of our three-part 10 year High School Reunion. We had been going back and forth for months as to weather or not we really wanted to go, and actually extended our CA trip just in case we decided last minute to go. So off we went to this bar downtown, not really knowing what to expect at all. Talk about a time warp! It was truly one of the weirdest experiences.... seeing so many familiar faces, but at the same time faces that I hadn't seen in 10 years!! After telling each other that we'd go for just a little bit and then leave, we ended up staying out until 1am!!! The next morning it was time for Part 2 of the reunion... a picnic at a local park where families were invited. The kids were very excited to go with us and see some of the people we went to school with. It was another warm afternoon, and it was fun to see everyone again, and to see some new faces that hadn't attended the night before. It's crazy how even though 10 years have passed, some people seemed exactly the same. And even though we may not see or talk to these people for another 10 years, I think everyone had a really good time and were glad they went... I know Tyler and I were.

Saturday night brought a backyard campfire, and S'mores! Mmmm!!!
On Sunday, we were finally able to get together with our longtime family friends... the Olsen's! All nine of us loaded up (again) and headed to their house for an afternoon of swimming, and a super yummy dinner!!!! The kids had a blast swimming in Kevin and Julie's pool, complete with a diving board! I even managed to convince Caiden to take his life jacket off and jump! He had fun jumping off the diving board before, but once the took the vest off... he got crazy!!!! I tried to upload a video... in fact I've spent the last hour trying multiple times to get it to upload, and it didn't work. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow. For now enjoy the pics of the kids jumping off the diving board!
Water fight with Julie!
Rub-a-dub-dub-Kayleb, Anthony and Kami in the tub!

Monday morning brought a final fishing outing for the boys.

Caiden actually looks happy to be up this early, which is a surprise. He is so not a morning person!
And Tuesday we packed up, and headed back to good ole N.C. I will never forget what Caiden said upon arriving at the airport and stepping outside (at 2 in the morning), "Man it's stinking HOT here!" And I said, "Caiden, welcome to North Carolina." Caiden decided that he wanted to go back to CA and the beautiful (not humid) weather. Hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later. We had an amazing vacation, better than Tyler and I had hoped for, truthfully. You know you had a good vacation when almost three months later the kids (and the parents) are STILL talking about it! Thanks Mom & Dad for letting the Eddy clan invade your house for three weeks... can't wait until we can do it again! :-)

California Adventures- Week 3, Part 1

Okay, so 2 1/2 months after our return home, I think it's finally time I wrap up our California Adventures posts! I think I ended last time with our Tuesday day-trip to Lake Tahoe. Wednesday was a stay-at-home lazy day. Tyler actually got up early and drove by himself back up to the mountains to meet his Dad and brother for a day of fishing. I think I spent most of the day reading a book based upon a blog recommendation from my good friend Mary. Some of you just might have heard of it... Twilight, anyone? When Tyler got home from fishing that night, I made him go with me to Wal-Mart so I could get the second book in the series, New Moon. These books are highly addicting, and because I refuse to pay more than $10 for a book, I have yet to read books 3 & 4 in the series, as they aren't out in paperback yet. Anyways... back to CA Adventures. So Thursday morning, we all woke up early again and got ready for yet another day trip. This time, though, we headed South... to San Francisco! Our first stop in S.F. was the Exploratorium. This place was SOOOOOOOO cool! I cannot recommend this place highly enough. It's like a big Science, Physics, Math, the way the world works museum, and just about everything in it is hands-ON, which makes it so much fun for everyone! Since we were only in S.F. for the day, although we very easily could have spent all day there, we spent about half a day there, and weren't able to see everything. Here are a few pictures of stuff we did see, though.

Madi, Caiden, and Tyler stacking wood bricks and learning some of the laws of Physics.

Having so much fun and not even realizing they were "learning"!! This thing was pretty cool... it was one of those giant pin-cushion thingys. You know.. the kind that has all those nails poking through one side and you press your hands into it to see the "reverse" indentation? They had a blast with this, and all I could of think of was germs, germs, and MORE germs. Kami and Kayleb playing with "blocks". Caiden & Kami thought this chair was the coolest! I love how little Caiden looks!

Snack time!

Nothing goes better with snacks than a little toilet water! :-) They had this really cool exhibit on Superstitions, and Perceptions, and they had this Toilet Drinking Fountain. The sign next to it says something along the lines that even though it is a perfectly sanitary drinking fountain, just the fact that it is a "toilet" will keep many people from drinking from it. I was one of those "many" people. Apparently Caiden was not. Caiden and Grandpa checking out their endless refelctions in the Human Kaleidascope

Family Photo Time After the Exploratorium we headed to the world famous Pier 39! It ended up being a little colder and windier than we had planned, and everyone quickly grew tired, hungry, and grumpy. So after doing a little browsing and window shopping we faced the daunting task of trying to find someplace where 9 people all wanted to eat. We ended up at an outdoor Boudin's bakery, or something like that where we paid WAY too much to eat, for not very much food. Oh well... we were in a tourist town! Tyler and the Girls... Alcatraz in the (way) background. My Mom & Dad! My sis, Mom, & Me Climbing on the Sea Lions! My Dad (who's name is Zoltan) had to have his picture taken in front of Zoltar! Family Photo in front of Alcatraz and the Bay Madi and the World Famous Pier 39 Sea Lions!

After Pier 39 and some food, we headed home... but not without one last stop to get some great pictures of another world famous landmark... the Golden Gate Bridge! What's a trip to San Francisco without Golden Gate pictures?!?!

Getting ready to drive across!

Cousins!

Family Photo!

This picture is one of my favorites of Kami! Okay, since this has turned into such a mega-long post, I think I'll have to make another 2-parter. But before I sign off for now, I'll leave you with a video clip I took of Kami on the way home from S.F. She LOVES music, so before we headed to CA I loaded my iPod with all kinds of music as a way of helping to keep her entertained for the plane ride, and our many car rides. Here she is singing one of her all-time favorite songs! Look out Taylor Swift!

Kami's Parent Watch Week @ Dance

So, last Saturday was "Parent Watch Week" at Kamrynn's dance class. Normally for class, parents aren't allowed in the class. They have a "waiting area" for us to sit in. I was really looking forward to seeing everything Kami has learned so far in dance, and although Kami (and the rest of the girls) were too cute for words, I have to admit I was highly disappointed. First of all, class is supposed to begin at 9 am. Well the studio doors were locked when we arrived, and her teacher didn't even arrive until about 9:05. But here was the most annoying part- for whatever reason, the teacher couldn't get the CD player/sound system to work... AT ALL!!! So the poor girls had to do their entire class without music! And because of the teacher being late and the music not working, class really didn't even start until about 9:15 or so. So the 45 min. class turned into a 25-30 min. class. Bummer! I did manage to get a couple cute pictures, though, and let me just say that I am REALLY looking forward to the next parent watch week, when hopefully things will run a little more smoothly.

Kylie & Kamrynn... the Terrific Twosome!!


Jenny-Ann, Kylie & Kamrynn. Jenny-Ann is the daughter of Jennifer, one of my Bunco friends! Can anyone find Madi in this picture?


Tumbling portion of class....

Autograph Book

For about a month or so now, I've gotten to listen to, and live vicariously through, my good friend Paulette's upcoming family vacation plans. They were heading to Disney World at the end of September! So after deluging her with many tips, ideas, words of wisdom, "If I were you..." 's, etc., it dawned on me.... Kylie needed an Autograph book! You know... those things that almost every kid carries around Disney, searching for every costumed character, just to get their autograph!?!? I mentioned this to her, all the while thinking how expensive (read... overpriced) those things must be to purchase, and realizing that I could probably make a pretty cute one myself! So, that's exactly what I told her I'd do! And of course, leave it to me, to procrastinate and leave it until the last possible minute. Last minute or not, I'm pretty proud of it, and think it came out pretty darn cute... don't you?!?!

Front...


Inside...


Back Cover...


Spine view...


And I was told, that Kylie got many a-compliment on her Autograph book, and Paulette said that hers was WAY cuter than any of the other ones she saw there! I can't wait until we take our Disney trip (keeping fingers and toes crossed for 2009!!!) to make one for each of my kids!

Yertle, the Turtle

We almost added another member to our family this weekend. On Saturday, while Kamrynn and I were in town at dance class and running errands, I called Tyler to check-in, and was greeted by a very excited Madi.


Madi: Mommy, I found a turtle!
Me: A what?!? Where?!?
Madi: A turtle! In the garage, under the tarp! We're keeping it until you get home.
Me: Huh? Okay, cool. Can I talk to your dad?
Madi: Okay.

So I told Kami about our new "pet", and she was very excited. And let me tell you... this ended up being GREAT bribery. As she was in rare form Saturday morning, and did NOT want to run errands after dance. All I had to do was mention the turtle back at home, and how we had to hurry before Daddy let it go, and we were back in business!

Upon arriving home, I see a big plastic tote on our walkway. And "playing" in the tote (more like trying to escape), was the turtle whom I will call Yertle (I can't remember what the kids named it). Apparently Tyler got online, did some research and discovered a few things:

1) Yertle was more than likely a female.
2) Yertle was a box turtle.
3) Box turtles do NOT make good pets. (Can we say... SALMONELLA?!?!)
4) Box turtles are a "threatened" species.
5) Turtles need to be released very near to where they were found, otherwise they might not survive. I guess this is a big mistake people make... trying to "help" them by taking the turtles someplace us humans deem "more worthy".

So after a few hours, and much hand washing, we released Yertle in the little (dried up) ditch/creek-bed on the side of our house.
It was fun while it lasted, and provided a few hours of entertainment, on an otherwise lazy Saturday!