Catch-up

Well, I've been a bit behind on my blogging, but Ryan is in Chicago all week, so hopefully, I'll get caught up (or close!).

Trip to Monterey and Spring Break (April 2nd):
Our trip to Monterey was on Easter weekend. Ryan got good Friday off, so we decided to do something fun. We had heard great things about the aquarium there, so we had to check it out. We were going to stop in Santa Cruz on the way, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we stopped at Chuck E. Cheese instead. We found the mother ship of all the Chuck E. Cheese’s and the kids had a blast. Chuck E. even came for a visit and tossed tickets from the second floor to the first and our table happened to be right underneath, so we got at least a hundred tickets! After lunch, we made the drive to Monterey and we were all excited to go in the pool at the hotel. I think the last time the kids stayed in a hotel was in 2008 in Maui! So, Ryan and Reggie checked out the pool while I stayed in the car with napping Ainsley. Wasn’t quite what we were expecting….turns out they don’t heat the pool :o(. That is a question I will know to ask for next time. We only paid $60/night, so I guess you get what you pay for sometimes. However, the condition of the room was great!

Since the pool was a no go, we decided to go to the aquarium Friday night for a couple hours and then go back Sat. morning, since it is so big. The kids loved it! They have a lot of interactive stations and we got to learn a lot about sea life (and how humans have ruined it-I could have done with a little less of that, but oh well). Ainsley was very excited to head back to her “new home”. Took us a minute to figure out what she was talking about!
After going to the Aquarium the next morning, we headed to Dennis the Menace park and that was amazing. The bottom was all sand and the kids ran all over, exploring play structures, climbing walls and a retired train! It took Reggie a couple minutes to decide to climb up top, but he did it. Most parents try to discourage climbing, but Reggie is so cautious, so whenever he does something beyond his comfort zone, we're cheering him on.

Crazy slide video:

Tired from the long day (don't worry, I leaned Reggie the other way): We headed home that afternoon and went to Easter service. Easter morning, Ryan woke up early and made me some chocolate chip cookies :o). They were delicious, but made me feel really sick. Probably should’ve eaten before starting in with the sugar, but they were soooooo good. I can’t even remember the last time we made cookies…. It is nice to be eating sweets again and I learned that only through God was I successful in not eating sweets for 40 days. Since then, I've tried to go a day or two and have not had luck! Later that morning, we headed over to Libby and Scott’s for an Easter brunch. The kids did a craft and had an egg hunt and we enjoying visiting and eating with great friends :o). Easter was the kick-off to spring break and I got a wild hair and bought Reggie a new bed from Craigslist. He and Ainsley are so into making forts and I thought they would enjoy having a fort under a loft bed. We set that up on Monday night and they were both super excited. It has a slide and I didn’t realize how fun that would be, but it has been quite the entertainment. It was a bonus to get 90% of his toys out of sight :o). They’ve been having sleepovers every weekend because Ainsley can just sleep underneath. She asks most nights if it is a school night, so I know she’d sleep in his room every night if we let her. We had a nice mix of being at home and doing a few activities during the week. We went to Pump It Up, the Zoo and tried out Geo-caching. For those of you that don’t know what Geo-caching is, it is an online group that hides treasure in various places and gives you latitude and longitude, so you can go hunt for it. When you find the treasure, you can take something and then put one of your treasures in. Reggie died and went to heaven. It was so up his alley. It is nice because they say if it is for kids or if a child originally hid the treasure. We had to head home for Ainsley’s nap and Reggie decided to stay with Caleb and his grandparents to search for more :o). He’s asked to go again, but it seems to be a bit of work, joining the group and having a hand held GPS (not sure if a car one would work?), so I don’t know that we’ll be going anytime soon.

Finding the treasure:Picking the treasure:Train ride at the zoo:

Slide video:

We finished the week by doing the Trader Joe’s food pick-up for our church. It is sad to know that all the grocery stores here just throw old food in the dumpsters, except for Trader Joe’s and Costco. Think of all the people that could be fed….. These other stores have been contacted many times, but for whatever reason, won’t jump on board. Maybe if we stop shopping there???? Anyway, we weren’t quite sure how the kids would do, but they did great and had a wonderful time. Once the van was loaded, we took the food to the City Center, where they have a Sunday evening service and hand out the food. We arranged the food on several tables and Ainsley was in heaven!!!! She is such a good helper and organizer. It felt really good to get the kids involved and have a discussion about volunteering and helping those less fortunate :o).