Spring Break 2015

Brett & I took Spring Break off. It was my first vacation in a year. I took last Spring Break off too. We went camping in Joshua Tree National Park with family. This year we were going camping in Yosemite National Park with Maryam's American Heritage Girls troop. 

We took off for Visalia that Tuesday to see Auntie Karen, Auntie Kathy, & Brian & his family. We figured it was a good half way point.

We woke up Thursday morning to leave and some jerk stole our camping stuff out of the back of our rented pickup truck. Vacation ruined. Months of planning out the window. Hundreds of dollars down the drain. They took nearly all of our camping items. Personal stuff too! The kids' board games, football, my favorite Thirty-One bag, the kids' brand new snow globes. The list goes on and on. I'm still angry about it. Very angry about it. 

Brett & I tried to recover what was left of the vacation. It was already Thursday and the kids had to go back to school Monday. We headed home to regroup.  We had some friends over Thursday night. Friday morning we got up early & headed to Disneyland. We stayed at Disneyland all day. We left the park after midnight and drove to San Diego. Saturday morning we headed to the San Diego Zoo. We stayed there for quite a while! We got rained on both days but nobody complained. We live in the desert, we enjoy the rain when we get it!

Sunday we slept in, went to lunch, then spent nearly 3 hours in Barnes & Nobles I think Maryam found her new favorite place in the world! 

We recovered our Spring Break. The kids had fun with Plan B. Maryam was feeling well. 

Cousins

Jungle Cruise

Jax & Mommy on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 

Maryam & Daddy on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 

On top of Mickey's Wheel

Photo bomb!

Zoo entrance

Elephants!

Family picture with a camel

Cutie pies

Seaport Village

Easter 2014

We had a very nice Easter! 

We dyed some Easter eggs. Lots and lots of Easter eggs. Two days of dying Easter eggs. 

Both kids love dying Easter eggs!

They were very proud of their creations! 

They also enjoyed the egg hunt! Maryam would have been fine sitting and reading a new book she found in her basket, but we convinced her that the book would still be there after the hung. :)

Ready? Set? Goooo!

Found one! Now can I read? Ha! No. 

Jax kept looking and looking! 70 Easter eggs total. 

Commence reading!

Then we had brunch with the rest of the family! Brett's sister and her family came down. We had fun!

Maryam with her cousin, Patrick. 

All five cousins!

Jax with broccoli and Cool Whip all over his face. 

Maryam shopping after brunch. :)

We're heading out camping today. We'll be gone all week. It's our first family camping trip! It should be fun! Wish me luck, I hate camping. 

Last weekend

Last weekend we spent most of our time with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, & nephews over at my in-laws' house. They were in town for work & because my nephew won an art contest. He won for the whole Marine Corps! Go Paddy! So on Sunday we went up to the General's house for a reception & to see Paddy get his award. 

Saturday evening we had dinner over there. We watched a fun movie & the kids watched another movie in another room. My two little kids stayed awake longer than the big kids! Needless to say, they were tired on Sunday! ;)

Family Fun Night

Wilson Bank & Trust puts together a family fun night for everyone to enjoy. They had the fire department there hosing everyone down, had Chick-Fil-A there feeding everyone, had a water slide, and had music for dancing. After all that was over, they showed Hotel Transylvania. It was a super fun night. 

In line for the water slide

M going up!

M coming down

Jax coming down 

Waiting for the movie

Doing the locomotive 

Watching the movie

Pinterest Boards to curb being bored

The big girls had Junior Ranger Camp and Auntie Jennifer/Mommy had only 2 kids for four hours in the morning! I got creative and hit up my Pinterist boards! 

On Monday I made Cloud Dough which is 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil and INFINITE fun!!! I highly recommend this activity. The 3 year olds enjoyed it immensely then when the 6 year olds got home, they enjoyed it too! 

Addison holding up her "snow ball".

Jax holding up his.

Check out the mess! I HIGHLY recommend doing this outside. 

My Jax. 

Shaving cream on the kid table. This wasn't a Pinterest idea, it came straight from the mind of the kids. $.97 for an hour or so of entertainment! 

It was a bit messy, but it cleaned up quick & easy. 

Look how much fun they had!

Hair chalk on the babies! Yaya sent us some hair chalk so I put it on the little ones one day while the big girls were at Ranger Camp. 

Addison got pink & Jax got orange

Summer snow, at least that's what Pinterest claimed. 

Apparently all you're supposed to do is freeze some shaving cream and voila, fun. Not. So. Much. The kids hated it. So, we moved on. 

Kool Aid paint. I froze some Kool Aid, bought a huge pad of paper, took them outside, and boom! Fun. 

I'm not going to lie, it was messy & sticky. And who can resist the yummy smell? Not Jax or Addison, they ultimately ended up eating theirs. ;)