Visit from the Wade's and Thanksgiving!

Wow what a flash and what a great time we had with my family. For the first time, both Dustin and Anthony came down with my Mom to visit us. And what better time than Thanksgiving. The trip started with me picking them up at the airport Wednesday night at midnight (who in the world booked that flight – oh wait it was me – Shoot)! It was great to see them. After hugs and a quick update we all hit the sack only to wake up early Thursday morning to put on the coffee and prep the bird for the oven. The kids we’re so excited to see Grandma and their Uncles. Although Ainsley was a little hesitant, she tends to get that way when new faces come around that she hasn’t seen in a while. She loved all the attention and finally came around and warmed up. Anyway, we got everything lined up and before I knew it Grandma Peggy had already given out gifts to the children that she had brought with her. Good thing is that they were books.
After getting organized in the kitchen, we moved onto the next project, THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! It has become a tradition (starting last year) to have my brothers come down during Thanksgiving and during their visit hang my Christmas lights. I get the lights out and act as a general contractor showing them where to hang them. All kidding aside it’s a big help to me and they do a great job! Thanks to my Bros… After we finished hanging the Xmas lights (only one trip to Wal-Mart as we had some burn outs) we headed into the house to get warm and to prime the stomach pump to prepare ourselves for a great meal.

Trina, Ainsley, and my Mom decided to make their own run to Wal-Mart to pick up some loose ends while we patiently waited by the turkey basting it every 45 minutes. Well of course they ran long and I was scrambling in the kitchen trying to get everything else ready like the mash potatoes, and vegetables. Thank God for Dustin. My man helped me pull the bird out of the oven drain the juices into the pot for the gravy, and started to carve that bad boy while I whipped up the potatoes, got the green beans ready and put the croissants in the oven along with the apple crisp. Of course, Trina and mom walk in just as everything is ready to go other than the gravy (mom whipped that up in minutes) and we sat down and KILLED IT!!! We all got our fill, hung out and watched some football. Later that night, Trina, Anthony and mom went to Black Friday at Walmart. They left at 9 and came home at 10:30 with nothing. A few years ago Trina went at 4 in the morning and didn’t get anything on the list, so I wasn’t too surprised. They were telling us all about how crazy it was with wall to wall people and finally spilled the beans that they got everything on the list! Losers!
Friday came fast and we planned a trip to Six Flags. What a beautiful setting and the weather although a little chilly was great. They had the park all decked out in Xmas stuff and they were singing Christmas carols when we arrived. At Six Flags we (Trina and I), along with my brothers, went on the Medusa (crazy ass rollercoaster with serious GForce and cork screws upside down turns). Needless to say my stomach was doing hoolahoops around my ass for a while there after, but I came around. We saw the Bengal tiger show along with the dolphin show, and last but surely not least, the sea lion show (which was very fun and festive). We ended up staying until 7PM which was pushing the kids’ bed time, so we had to scram as we had an hour drive ahead of us to get back home. One of the funniest moments as we were leaving the park was when we tried to get a family picture taken of all of us from a local worker. Trina kept asking the guy to take different angles, close shots to get the perfect picture and you could tell the guy was starting to get a little irritated. My brother flew off the handle and ran away with Ainsley as he couldn’t take it anymore. We all thought it was kind of funny. The kids had a ball riding on one ride with my brothers and it was just great to hang out with them.

We started out Saturday by celebrating Reggie’s early birthday and let him open his gifts so that he would be able to play with them throughout the day. The erector set was a hit as was the Ninjago, and Bionicles.

After that, I had planned a golf day with my brothers, so we headed to Dublin Ranch. But, before we could go we had to stop by my friend Eric’s house to borrow his clubs for Dustin to use. Well, after getting there, we decided to hit some balls prior to tee off. It only took 3 swings for Dustin to turn to me a say the driver that we borrowed was toast. Big man blew up my friends stick and he felt terrible. Needless to say, we still had a great time and golfed with a stranger named Chuck (old guy from Long Island). It was the first time that I can remember having an outing with just with my bros all alone and it was great! I enjoyed hanging out with them and heckling them on the course. The great thing was that I tied my brother Anthony with an 84 which is a big deal as Anthony is close to being a golf pro. Dustin wasn’t too far behind with an 89. Everyone shot the ball pretty well, but the greens we’re enormous and hilly. Trina, my mom and the kids hit a movie (Muppets) while we were gone and enjoyed their popcorn. After we got back we went to Sweet Tomatoes to celebrate Reggie’s birthday and my mom made him one of his favorite deserts (Lemon Lush). We closed the night watching my Cougs get killed by those bastard huskies (we fired our coach today so I’m happy) and called it a night. I had to drive my family to the airport Sunday morning to catch a 6:30AM flight. It was all good until I dropped them with 1 and a half hours until their flight and saw the security line out the door and down the side of the building. I didn’t think they were going to make it but they did just in the nick of time as they were boarding the plane when they got to the gate. All in all it was a fun action pack time that went fast. Funny story…. when my mom got back to SEATAC she forgot my advice that I gave her in writing down the parking location of her car, so they had to search from floors 4-8 before finally finding it and had some laughs during that time as mom almost peed her pants.
Word of the week “HE MURDERED THAT” (this references someone that has a black car that puts black rims on it which is called murdered).

This and That

Feller’s Cake Bake
Cub scouts does a cake bake every year to raise a little money and get the guys cookin’. Mom’s are not allowed to help (although I think there were a few rule breakers!). Ryan and I were brainstorming different ideas and landed on a cake egg. As he was making the cake I was trying to figure out what to put it on and saw the griddle. He was going to do one big egg, but decided to do 2 smaller ones. I think it turned out pretty good! They won the prize for funniest cake:

Shortly after my parents left, we had K over for a visit and that was lots of fun. The kids had a blast and he got to play with his buddy Fia (Sophia). He has adjusted to life with his Aunt and is doing really well. After we dropped him off, I surprised the kids and took them to the pet store. They have been working hard to earn a Hamster and although they weren’t quite there, I decided it was time. When we got there, I stuck my finger up to the cage and the Hamster bit me and drew blood. The kids were a little freaked out, but I told them we weren’t going to get that one! Ainsley had the most points, so she got to pick out the Hamster and name him. Panda has been a great Hamster, hasn’t bitten anyone yet. He escaped the second day because Ainsley forgot to lock the cage. Thankfully, Ryan rounded the corner as he was making his escape. He’s managed to get out of the ball a few times, but doesn’t run away, so we’ve been lucky and now are very careful about locking the ball. He is very low maintenance and I actually enjoy the little guy :o).

We’ve all been battling a cold the last week and a half. Ainsley woke up with it the morning of her princess tea with Kayla, Dani and Sophia. She crashed that afternoon and we were stuck home the next few days which was good because we didn’t have school anyway. Ryan has a hard time with that, so he pulled out the Christmas tree on Sunday and the kids went to town. She was feeling better by Tues. and since we didn’t have school, we went to the Jelly Belly Factory on Wed. That place was crazy busy, but fun as usual.

Halloween and Grandma and Grandpa visit!

We had no school on Halloween, which worked out so well, since we could all go to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa. The kids were counting down the days!
Ryan’s new job invited family to trick or treat, so we took the opportunity to visit him at his new office after the airport pick-up. We even scored some pizza :o). Later that day, we headed over to the Williams for a Halloween party. We had a nice time visiting, watching some football and drinking a little wine (that made trick-or-treating a little more fun!). The kids got way too much candy, so I kept some for chocolate emergencies and gave the rest to my mom.

Max

They were in school the rest of the week, so it wasn’t all that exciting. It was conference week, so our schedule was out of sorts, but they got to spend a little more time with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a nice treat for me to be able to go to the conferences without worrying about what to do with the kids! Both of them are right where they should be. Still have to work on Reggie’s speed when reading and doing timed math. He does nothing in life fast, so I think this might be a long term challenge. Ainsley has really picked up reading and loves “playing” school, so I think things will come easy for her. She has the same magic as Reggie, having her friends fighting over sitting by her.

The weather was decent during mom and dad’s visit, so they had their usual Vitamin D load in the afternoon, lounging in the lawn chairs. The kids had lots of playtime, wrestling with Grandpa and doing homework with Grandma (thank you Mom!!!). We didn’t have a single visit to the doctor, so that alone made the visit perfect!

We finally had a little fun on Friday when we got a babysitter and headed to Napa. None of us had been there and Liha kept urging us to go to a castle there. After just visiting Germany and seeing their castles, Ryan and I were not that impressed, except when it came to the torture room….all kinds of fun things in there. Mom and dad thought it was great and I knew nothing about wine, and much of the tour talked about that process, so we all thought it was great! We hit a roadside burger joint for dinner and then we were ready to go wine tasting. We pulled into the first winery and the sign said it was closed. Hmm, I was going to get some wine for my friend, Laura, who watched the kids, so mom and I snuck in the exit. We got a very dirty look, but I explained what we were looking for and we were out of there before the rest of the people in the wine shop. Since everything closed at 6, we headed back to Livermore and I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies, so we stopped at the Nestle Tollhouse Café. It happened to be their 2^nd birthday, so it was 2 cookies for $2 and 2 scoops of ice cream for $2. Let’s just say we all felt sick when we left, but not as sick as the new friend we met who was doing a man vs. food challenge and was eating 2, 9 inch cookies with ½ gallon of ice cream in the middle! That was something to see.

Ainsley had her last soccer game on Sat. She came a long way, standing and biting her nails the first game to scoring goals in almost every game! Later that morning, we went to see Puss In Boots which everyone enjoyed. On the way home from the movie, we finally went to see the oldest working light bulb. Mom has been wanting to do this for awhile and we had a bit of time, so we headed to the fire station in Livermore to see the light bulb that has been working since 1901. It didn’t appear anyone was at the fire station, but I peeked through the window and caught someone in their boxers! He finally saw us and went and got someone to open the door. We got a little history lesson about the light bulb and then got to see some cool equipment and listen to dad BS with the fireman. It is always interesting to see how people respond to my dad…he is a character! The last fun thing we did was visit the Chabot Space Center. There was too much to see and there were a lot of interactive things which required reading, so I think might be for kids a little older. I’m glad it was Bank of America day because all of us adults got in free, just for having a credit card!! We did enjoy the IMAX movies and came away with a little more knowledge about space. It is so hard for me to comprehend the size of space…God has quite the imagination!

Thanks for a great visit!!!

Busy Month

It has been too long since I updated this....I'll try to be short and sweet.

In early Oct., we went to Ardenwood to pick our yearly supply of popcorn. It was so much better this year! Last year the ears were full of bugs, worms and mold and this year almost everyone was good. It made for a much quicker outing, especially since Ryan was with us this year. We ended up going in the afternoon which was a mistake because by the time we finished picking, all the festivities were over (and the homemade ice cream was all gone-I thought Ryan and Reggie were going to cry!). Next year, we'll have to go a little earlier, so we can enjoy all of the activities.

The next day, we did the cub scout Rocket Launch. Ryan spent many evenings gluing the little rocket together and every morning Reggie would wake up to see the progress. He wanted to play with it so bad. The big blue one was Ainsley's and much, much easier to assemble.

Here Reggie is getting the rocket ready to launch:

Watching it go!

Disappointed with the orange rocket. Something went wrong during construction and it spiraled out of control on both launches, not even getting high enough to open the chute. We found it nose down stuck in dirt, but amazingly in one piece (I guess something went right during construction). Thank goodness we had the big, blue rocket! It did exactly what it was supposed to do. The kids and us had a blast (no pun intended!). Definitely something to do again next year.

The following weekend was the Rancho walk-a-thon and carnival. I decided to get my work-out over early that day and ran with the kids...sort of....Reggie had a side ache that kept coming back and Ainsley's hip was bothering her. She had a soccer game that morning and then ran 2 1/2 miles and I think she overdid it. When she runs, she sprints and then walks, so it was a little much, but she was much better the next day. The hip problem returned the following week after a visit to pump it up and it took several days to go away (I would watch her walk and of course my concern was that it may be early signs of my fun Arthritis). For now, we are going to assume not!

Face painting fun:

Number of laps they ran: Ainsley 10, Reggie 16, Mom 20

The following week Ryan was at his men's retreat and the kids and I had a lot of fun. Usually, I am the boring parent, making the kids do homework and eat their veggies, but I wanted to be the fun parent for once. So, we skipped school Friday morning and went to Pump It Up, we ate out a few times and went to the movies. We saw Dolphin Tale and it was amazing...the kids were glued to the screen.

Ryan had his own fun at the men's retreat, joining a mountain biking group for a 3 hour ride. These guys were real mountain bikers, with thousand dollar bikes. Ryan borrowed all the gear and thankfully, the average age of the group was 55, so he could easily keep up. He really enjoyed it and is thinking of doing it more. He has a little more time on his hands, so we shall see.

That brings us to the Friday before Halloween. Both kids had their class parties and got to dress up. Rancho teachers and staff dress up and do a dance every year and then they have a parade, followed by an assembly. The kids love it! Reggie is absolutely in heaven this time of year.
Princess Jasmine:

Pilot Luke Skywalker (he was the only one with that costume and I found it at the thrift store, score!):

The next day, we had a soccer game at 8 a.m. and decided to do a garage sale after that. It was a last minute thing....was totally irritated by all the mess and things we needed to get rid of. I have never done a garage sale before, but I think it went pretty well. We had it at a neighbor's house because they have more traffic and they got rid of a lot of big stuff and I unloaded most everything I really wanted to get out of our garage. The rest we took to the goodwill and it felt so good and we made over $100! The kids went through their stuff, so it was good for them to participate. Reggie sold some stuff, but surprise, surprise, he bought a sparkly Christmas tree from the Williams. We ended up trading some stuff, which wasn't really the plan, but oh well :o). That afternoon, Reggie decided he wanted to start sleeping in his room, so we put his bed back together and it has been great. Ryan found a Black Widow in his window, so I wasn't so sure we should put him in there, but we think he got in through the hole in the screen and was in between the window and the screen, so wasn't actually in his room. We also took down the crib in preparation for Grandma and Grandpa's visit. We went to church that night and were pooped by bedtime.

We should have rested the next day, but we hadn't seen K in awhile, so we visited him at his Aunt's house and took him to the park. Since we were half way to Six Flags, we spent the afternoon there, watching a few shows and going on a few rides.

Man, I am tired after just writing all that!