Random.......

Hockey practice is officially underway which puts a kink into our summer fun! Between my 2 boys and my friends son Wednesday was our only option to hit the beach and we had to be home by 5:30 to get Kyle to his on time. We went anyways. We left earlier then we normally do and enjoyed the 5 hours we were there. It was a short day for us since we normally stay until 6:30, but we had fun!

Hockey try outs were the end of June. Kyle made the Pee Wee A team and Luke made the Mite A team. Well 2 weeks ago we found out that there wasn't enough players for Mite A, so the team dissolved. Some kids moved up to the next level and some moved down to Mite B. Since this is Luke's first year he obviously moved down. The coach that was going to coach the Mite A team was bummed his team didn't workout, he was so excited to coach Luke. Luke's a fast little skater and very coach able! We were bummed when this happened.

Then yesterday Kyle's coach who we were all very excited to have called G (G is the team manager) and told him he was offered a coach job up in Virgina and it was such a rare opportunity so he was going to take it and he would not be coaching our team! Which now leaves Kyle's team coach less!! We told Kyle last night and he cried! It was very sad! So now we wait to see who will be his coach!

Over the last few weeks Blake has really starting talking! He uses more then one word now and tries to say pretty much anything you ask him too.
Today I was buttering toast and he said "toast mom". I didn't even know he knew the word toast. It is so cute to hear him saying different things.

Britt went this weekend to Lake Havasu with her best friend Brianna. She had a ton of fun! But she learned that her friend was hurt at work, he was on a roof and fell off (2 story) and is now in a medical induced coma with bleeding on the brain). We are praying he is ok! Very sad. Life is so precious and short! She goes tomorrow to register for her senior year! YIKES! SENIOR? Where has the time gone? Makes me sad yet excited for her!

3 weeks ago our dryer was getting black stuff on all of our clothes then started putting holes in them. G figured out that the drum liner had disintegrated and was causing the black markings and the drum to have a gap which the clothes were getting caught in and that's where the holes were coming from. He ordered a new liner and after one week of no dryer it was fixed. The first load I dried i had noticed the dryer had been on for about 3 hours, went and checked and everything was dry but it was still on the same time I had set it too, great now the timer is out! Well I have just been drying like normal but stopping it myself when everything is dry. Friday I put a load of towels in to dry and after about an hour came in to check on them, they were still as wet as they were when I put them in! Are you kidding me, the dryer isn't heating now! G came home and ripped into it and then Saturday morning called a place and talked with them and they all thought it was the coils. So I went and got new ones and Sunday G installed them and nope, nothing, still no heat! So now they are coming out on Wednesday for a service call!! UGH! Good news is that I can use it but it takes about 8 hours to dry a load since it just air! I am so backed up on my laundry.

I have this past weekend post to do with pictures, maybe I will get to it later tonight. Today we are going to a hotel here in CH to hang out by the pool with our friends who moved to WA a year ago, they are here for 2 weeks visiting!

Visit to Granny's

Last Sunday we went out to see G's mom, this is the first visit (besides when we went out to talk about funeral arrangements with the priest) that we have had since Pete died.
She was happy to have us. Reality has set in and she is lonely. She says she has days were she cries and cries and knows she needs to morn but also knows she has to go on. We figured it was going to be hard for her being out there alone. We have mentioned a few times to her moving closer to us. Maybe in time she will. Its hard for us to get out there, especially now that hockey is starting for both boys, our weekends are booked up.
It was 115 at his mom's, so the boys and I went swimming, the pool was probably 90, not to refreshing, but it helped.

                            

                                 After we went swimming Myrna and the boys played domino's.

Blake played Luke's I Pod touch

Blake loves this dog at her house, it is one of those that walks and barks. He always goes and gets it!

                                              Luke took the pictures of Blake with the dog.

We went to Outback Steak house for a yummy dinner! Then we went back to her house and left to head home shortly after. When we left at 7:30 it was 106!
We had a good day with her. She spoils the boys and they love it!

Circus is in town!

Last weekend we took the kids to the circus! Kyle has been when he was around 3 and probably doesn't remember it. It was in Ontario at Citizens Business Arena. There were so many protesters out front saying things like " This is no place for kids, they abuse the animals etc" and it did make me stop to think "do they abuse them?". Kind of sad if you think about it. We were already there and had our tickets, so I put that in the back of my mind and enjoyed our night.
Luke wanted shaved ice so bad and we were going to get them all a treat until we saw the prices, 12.00 for a snow cone and cotton candy! OUCH! We told the kids we would get something when we left.
Kyle really enjoyed the show with all the acrobatics, juggling, prankster clowns etc. Luke did too but was getting a little fidgety and Blake, well Blake had more fun playing with the chair outing it up and down. You think circus and you think kids, just not little kids.
Luke loved when the elephants came out and the one pooped (that's Luke for ya).

Them cleaning up the poo

I didn't bring my camera cause I didn't want to tote it around, so I just used my cell phone for pictures.
                                                          It was a fun little family night! 

BEACH (our home away from home, at least we try to make be)

We LOVE the beach, so we try to go once a week every summer and this summer we have minus 2 weeks while we were on vacation! It seems I always go with my same girlfriend, we just go good together! We have our routine down, she drives to our house, we load the car, hit subway to grab lunch, she pays for parking, we sunscreen the kiddos at the tailgate, her son Ian and Kyle make a trip with their arms full of stuff to find our spot, we grab the rest of the stuff and go check out the spot they have chosen, sometimes we move sometimes we don't (sometimes they put us to close to the volleyball nets). We set up our chairs, I dump out the sand toys and we enjoy our day! We stay until about 6:30, then grab dinner (usually at Taco Bell/Pizza hut) and then drive home! We always have such a good day!
 On our beach days when Blake wakes up and I go into get him I always say "do you want to go to the beach" and he always says "no, pool". He wants to go swimming and not the beach! But he always has fun once were there!
At 4:00 o'clock every single day, no matter if it is June or Dec these two guys walk past. Years ago (5 or more) a friend of mine and I nick named the one guy Mr Pecks, he had very nice pecks! Every time we are at the beach we know its 4o'clock when we see them! One day I was by the water and actually asked them how they manage to be so accurate on their walk, they said they start at 3:30 everyday even in the rain! I do wish I would have asked if they were just friends or father and son or what! Mr. Pecks is the one in the blue trunks not the elderly man with him!

The boys dig for hours! The last 2 times we have gone Blake has jumped in with digging with them!

Brittney and her friends- All B's

Brooke, Brianna, Brittney & Brittany

Sad that we only have one more week left of summer before the kiddos start back to school! Hockey is starting so the beach will be a memory until spring!!

JUMP JUMP JUMP~

My girlfriend Janice and I took the boys to a place in Coasta Mesa called "SKY HIGH JUMP" its a big place full of different trampolines! What a great idea, just wish it was my idea! I only brought Kyle and Luke, Brittney was sweet enough to watch Blake for me. He would have been trampled on if he would have come!

FUN TIMES!!

My mom's side of the family does a family reunion every other year, it was suppose to happen last summer (2010) but with a few health issues with my Grandpa and Aunt we moved it until this summer and instead of camping we made it to where everyone just went up to Utah and stayed with relatives that live there (too hard for my grandparents to camp).
I wasn't going to go, G didn't want to take time off work, Brittney had summer school, so I wasn't going to just take myself and the boys. I didn't want to go on vacation without G.
Reunion was the week of July 24th. My sisters, brother and mom were all going. My brothers wife couldn't get off work so she wasn't going, my dad wasn't going and my sisters husband wasn't going. They were all caravan-ing up Tuesday early morning. Saturday I was thinking and thought, why am I going to let G slow me down? He never wants to go anywhere unless its for hockey, I need to make memories with my kids. So i text messaged my sister and said "were going".
I got everything ready and off we went Tuesday morning at 5:30! It took us 13 hours to get there with the stops we needed to make, gas, food, potty, diaper changes etc. Traveling with 9 kids isn't always easy!
It started raining before State Line (Nevada) and didn't stop until about an hour to my Grandparents house. We were on the freeway at one point and it was only one lane (rd construction) and it started lighting, thundering and hailing, the hail was so big and strong as soon as we got out of the construction zone everyone pulled over to wait it out, I truly thought the hail was denting the car! It was insane!

Every time when we drive to Utah my sisters and I always freak about the Arizona part, its about 13 miles in a canyon. We all hate it and dread that part of the dry!

My nephew Spencer rode with me most of the drive, so he entertained himself a little taking pictures of our drive through that canyon. Funny thing is, that after we were out, all of us sisters called each other and said "its wasn't bad, why were we so nervous".

Grandparents live in Pleasant Grove about 30 miles before Salt Lake

My sister behind me

Mt sister passing me (I had my cruise control set) she couldn't seem to keep a steady speed

This makes it feel like we are so close- HA my grandparents live about another 6 hours!

We got to my Grandparents house (after 13 hours) around 7:45 p.m.

No one knew I was coming, I had told everyone no that we wouldn't be there, the weekend I decided to go I was getting text and messages on facebook telling me to come! I decided to keep it a secret! We pulled in and everyone was shocked to see me! Grandma had dinner waiting for us (she is so amazing). Uncle Greg and Aunt Mary were all ready there and a few cousins. Later Aunt Terri Ann came over to see us!

Wednesday we went to a children museum. Jason and Kyle weren't exactly loving it when we got there, but after time they started really enjoying themselves.

                  Aunt Mary & Aunt Terri Ann

                           Emmalynn (niece)

                            Kyle & Kammie                               

                         Isabella & Emmalynn (nieces)

 There was this air suction thing, every time Blake opened the door to put the ball in he would open his mouth!

After the museum we let the kids play in the splash pad area, it was so hot and humid!

That night we all did our own thing for dinner and went back to our Grandparents house. It was pedicure night for the girls. Our cousins brought over all their polishes and glitters and did every ones toes!

Thursday- It was our night to make dinner for everyone (about 50 people) so we headed to Costco and Wal-Mart to get stuff to make Chicken fettuccine Alfredo. Then we went and got the kids to take them to float down this river/stream. We dropped them off at one spot and then waited for them a ways down. They loved it, Luke wouldn't do it because it was too cold (I think its a run off from the mountains, so the water is melting snow). Kyle, Jason, Denton, Jace and Kenna did it 3 or 4 times.

It was time to head back and start dinner. After we got it all done we went over to Uncle Davids and Aunt Mary Ann's to eat, do skits, play a few games and make smore's! The skits were hysterical!

                 My Nephew's shirt I thought was cool

                  Us preparing for our skit

         My favorite Uncle- But he is such a turd!

                                Blake enjoying his smore                   

           Blake decided to chase Uncle Brian with his messy chocolate hands

                         All the other little kids joined in

Friday we had lunch at one our cousins work (Philly Steaks), then we went and got our movie tickets for later that night. They have the coolest movie theaters, $3.00 a ticket and you pick and reserve your seat! After we did that we went to JCW's to get yummy milkshakes, Luke didn't want one he wanted a shaved ice so when we were done with our shakes we went and found him a shaved ice stand (they are everywhere during the summer), he was happy! Dinner that night was at Shakey's pizza. The boys had a lot of fun playing all the games, Blake only lasted maybe 10 minutes before he knocked out.

Shakey's it was movie time, Blake went home with Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Karl and their girls, they went and got shaved ice and went to the wood park (everything is wooden). It was so nice of them to watch him while I went to the movies. Some of us went to see Larry Crown, some went to see Kong Fu Panda 2 and some saw Thor. My boys saw Thor with my brother and Uncle. We all went back to my grandparents afterwards and played games!

Saturday morning my Uncle Greg and Aunt Mary came over and made a huge breakfast for everyone. After breakfast it was time for Grandpa's store. Grandpa's store is where adults hide rocks that have been spray painted gold and the kids find them and then turn them in for toys and candy! The little kids went first and each had a older helper. Luke was Emmalynn's helper and Denton was Blake's helper.

                                                     Grandpa supervising "Grandpa's Store"

Blake got a sucker with some of his rocks!

                                                            Sam & Aunt Mary Ann

 Grandma picked this from her garden- She wasn't to happy about having a picture taken with out her make up/lipstick on, but she was a good sport!

                          Kira, Kyle and Alynn were filling up water balloons for later that day          

Mindy, Kaylee and the back of Clayton

After Grandpa's store it was time to head over to Evergreen park for the giant slip n slide!

            Isabella LOVED the slip n slide! She went down in every direction she could think of!

                 There was inter tubes, boggy boards and baby floats to take down the slide

This thing was so fun! We all loved it (minus Blake and Emmalynn) We played on this for 3 or more hours, then moved on to water balloon tosses and fights!

After all of the fun in the sun we headed over to Uncle David and Aunt Mary Ann's for a BBQ and games! Oh fun fun games. My aunt that was in charge of the reunion is amazing at the things she puts together! She got a lot of game ideas from that TV show minute to win it, she made up  teams with about 10 people each and we had to assign each player to a certain game. Kyle (for his team) and I (for my team) did "Match Maker" where there were a bunch of red party cups upside down with one skittle under each one, I had to life one cup at a time and go drop it into the cup with the same color skittle in it! There were 3 colors, we went one at a time and which ever one go the best time won that game. It was a point system, we got a certain amount of points for each game we won. We played probably 10 different games! Luke did the "flaming hot Cheetos" for his team, he had to wear a trash bag and they suran wrapped his head, put shaving cream all over it and then tossed Cheetos onto it, how ever many stuck was the amount of points your team got for that round.

Another few we played we each got a piece of sidewalk caulk and had to use as much as we could in a certain amount of time, the team that had the smallest pieces won that round. There was a round where you had to try to stack as many dice on a Popsicle sticks and for how many you got on it that was the number of points. Grandma was on the same team as I was and she played this and won it for our team!

Sticky To It was another one of the games, you had 2 team member's one to throw the ping pong balls and the other to catch them with lent rollers, how ever many balls you got to stick was your points.

Our very last game was the candy walk! We would walk and then when the music stopped we would wait to get our number called, mine only got called 2 times and Uncle Brian (he was my team leader)only got called once at the very last round he was so proud of his candy he finally got! We had to add all of our pieces together and that was our team total for that round!

                       Kyle and Luke loved all of the cousins up there and bonded very well!

                                                       
                                                    

It stormed almost everyday while we were up there, we had to cut our games short due to the thundering, lighting and heavy rain.

Sundays are always dinner at Grandma's house! Everyone who lives up there goes over for dinner! It is so much fun! This week of course their were us and my Aunt and Uncle from San Diego. This was our last day there in Utah! Very sad! We had a lot of fun just hanging out!

                                                AUNTS- Terri Ann, Jearldene & Mary Ann

I am very blessed to call these sweet people Grandma and Grandpa! I couldn't love them anymore!

                                                                    Cousin Kira!!

                             Blake loved the hose and had so much fun with it (it was even off)

Sunday night we got all packed up and said Good bye to Grandpa (he doesn't get up until about 9) we had aimed to leave at 7:00 a.m. and pulled away at 8:45. Not bad! Hahahahaha For the record I was ready with my car loaded at 7:15! I caravan home with my sister Jennifer, her husband, their 3 little girls and my mom was riding with them.

It only took us 12 hours to get home!

During the drive I let the boys take turns taking pictures, it kind of helped pass the time. The drive up we had one of my nephews with us the entire trip so that was entertaining for my boys, they stayed a week longer then we did so my kids were pretty bored on the drive home!

                                         Isabella had to go potty and there was nothing around!

                                                             Emmalynn (niece)

                                      Luke and Isabella, Luke had been eating powder donuts!

These were just some of the pictures the boys took during our drive home! We got home around 8p.m. It was nice to be home but more sad. We all had such a great time and wished it would have lasted longer! It was nice to see G and Brittney!