Trip to Lake Havasu

We've had an adventurous past two weeks, but it was caped off with a great family trip! The first adventure was one of the painting kind. We had the kids bedroom painted, which was a necessity, but a little tricky when it involves and three year old and a one year old! So, the kids and I left the house for a few days to ensure that no dangerous fumes were inhaled and no wet walls were touched! With paint fumes lingering, I caught faith doing this!

Here she is playing "guitar" just like a rock star!

Our second adventure was much more fun! We took a short trip to one of our favorite vacation spots, Lake Havasu! While we didn't have the greatest of weather, it was still great to get away and spend some time together as a family. We even had the chance to visit with Steve's uncle who lives in nearby Parker, AZ.

Shane became a big fan of Faith's sunglasses! We used them often to keep him entertained!

Since the water and the weather were a bit on the chilly side, the kids did most of their swimming in the jacuzzi bath tub in our room! They had a great time!

Again, with the weather not being so "beachy", we decided to visit the nearby, historic town of Oatman. Despite the cold and strong wind, we had fun seeing an old town, looking in the stores, and looking at the wild burros walk the streets.

Faith on an old tractor

Pumpkin Patch...take 2

Yes, we went to the pumpkin patch again!! While once had been enough for me, Faith reminded me daily that we needed to go once again so that she could get a big pumpkin to decorate. Since we had some time this afternoon and have a busy upcoming week, today was the day to visit the patch once again! What made this trip memorable was the temperature...it was close to 90 degrees!! Typically, when I think of picking pumpkins, things like hot chocolate, coats, maybe even gloves are some essential items that coincide with the experience. Today, we needed ice cream or a swimming pool after sweating our way through the rows and rows of pumpkins! I guess that's Southern California for us!! Regardless of the heat, the kids had a blast, and I survived!

Shane picking out his pumpkin

The giant pumpkins...and staying true to himself, Shane is trying to eat a rock covered with mud...

Back home playing in the yard

Last year we decorated with pumpkins with stickers. It was easy, and Faith could do it completely on her own! This year, we stepped it up a bit and bought the Mr. Potato Head pumpkin decorations. Faith picked out a princess set to dress her pumpkin, which she named Cinderella! She loved playing with all the pieces and putting them in crazy spots once the initial holes were put in the pumpkin. At least an hour of entertainment for her!

And here is the finished product! Maybe next year we'll actually carve them...

The Pumpkin Patch

Today we had the chance to go to the pumpkin patch with Faith's preschool. After a minor glitch (why in the world would there be two pumpkin patches with the same name in Ventura?? It doesn't exactly help busy moms who skim the field trip newsletter!), we arrived at the correct patch and had a great time! Because Faith remembers visiting a pumpkin patch last October, she was extremely excited to go again this year.


After learing about pumpkins and squash and going on a hay ride, Faith was finally able to pick out a pumpkin! She picked out a beauty!

Shane was able to enjoy the field trip as well. A great bonus for being the younger brother. Both kids loved playing by the giant prize pumpkins.

Just soaking it all in!!

This was taken yesterday. Faith was very excited about going to our first MOPS meeting of the year. She was even more excited that she put her backpack on all by herself!

The latest...

Once again, it has been quite some time since the last post! And as always, I am going to blame the busyness of life as of late! For myself, things have been extra busy as I prepare for the upcoming MOPS year to begin. MOPS stands for Mothers Of PreSchoolers, and I am serving as the coordinator of our local group this year. While it is lots of fun, and I am enjoying it, all the work to get the year off and running has lead to more meetings and time spent on organizing things like kickoff BBQs! So that is what I have been up to!

Shane continues to work on walking and talking. He walks about as much or as little as he chooses. He can definitely do it, but at times prefers to crawl as he is so quick at crawling! And I think his vocabulary grows by the day. He keeps us on our toes as he is into literally everything! If we can't find something, all we have to do is look in the trash and we find that Shane has thrown it in there! He also has become quite the little dancer, which is very fun to watch. And he has his favorite songs!

Here's the little guy acting like a little character!

As I mentioned being busy with MOPS, one of the very fun things I was able to do for MOPS was travel to Nashville for the annual MOPS convention. About 4000 MOPS moms were renewed and refreshed at the convention. I attended with two of my good friends. It was great fun! And my mom was there as well as she is a mentor mom in the MOPS group at her church!

My friends Julie and Melissa and I at dinner in Nashville

While in Nashville, I was able to meet up with some of my roommates from college! We had not seen each other in over 4 years!! It was so wonderful to spend time with them and catch up with them!!!

Faith continues to love preschool and swimming lessons. We continue to be amazed at the transformation that her swim teacher has done! Faith now retrieves rings from the bottom of the pool, jumps off the edge, and attempts to actually swim! We are so grateful she is doing so well and enjoying it so much.

Those are the things she dives down for!

Here she is floating on her back with the help of her teacher

walking and talking

Many milestones are being reached by our little Shane man! Last weekend he began standing on his own, and then he took two steps. Of course, as soon as we took out the video camera, all he wanted to do was crawl! Today he took five steps to me, so he is making progress. What is really cute is that he is just so proud of himself. After he stands on his own for a bit, he sits down and claps and squeals for himself!

While Shane has been saying a few words for a while now (the standard mama, dada, bye-bye, etc.) Faith has taken it upon herself to really work on talking! She is constantly working with him on saying all the important things in life, such as Buck (as in Buck Owens), trash truck, and Target. It's cute to see her go up to him as she did this afternoon before we headed out to do some shopping at Target and say, "Shane, can you say Target?" Then when he attempts it, she laughs and tells me, "Mommy, Shane said Target!" She takes such joy in teaching him. And she is his official interpreter in case he says something that I'm not quite sure of. What a great big sister.

The pictures below are from this past weekend. My parents and sister were in town for Labor Day weekend. We had a great time with them!

Faith enjoyed a smoothie and PB&J by the pool

We couldn't let a football Saturday go by without watching our favorite team!

First Day of School

This past Thursday was Faith's first day of school! She will be going to school two days a week this year - Tuesdays and Thursdays. She was so excited to go, we had to count down the days before Thursday arrived. And then on the school day morning, she was anxiously waiting at the door for about 30 minutes saying, "We're ready to go!"

I finally gave her a book to read to try and entertain her for a while as Shane and I finished getting ready! She had a great first day; she already really likes her teachers and her new friends! It's going to be a great year!!

Lake Havasu trip

We are back from our week long vacation at Lake Havasu, and we had a great time! It was so wonderful to spend so much time together as a family, and also with our friends, the Nords. I am posting quite a few pictures of our trip to show some of the things we did!

Faith was excited to get into the water from the moment we arrived! We arrived on Friday night, so she had to wait until the morning to go swimming. At about 8am, she was ready to go and started putting on her life jacket!

Thankfully, Steve was willing to indulge Faith's 8am swimming desire! The only bummer was that it was raining! It actually rained all morning on Saturday. While many were bothered by the rainy weather, I actually enjoyed it as rain is so rare where we live. And we actually had a large thunderstorm one evening, which was great! The "Michigan" in me absolutely loves a good thunderstorm, and so I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Because we didn't know how long the rain would last, I had Steve pick up some puzzles for Faith when he went to the store. Faith of course loved them, and she did them over and over again.

Shane spent most of his time in the water in a ladybug floaty thing, but we also tried the life jacket on him. He preferred the lady bug!

He also enjoyed playing in the sand. We had to keep a paci in his mouth most of the time while he did play so that he wouldn't eat the sand!

Here's Faith in the water on a sunny day! One of the highlights of the trip for Steve and I was watching Faith enjoy the water so much. It is amazing that in just three swimming lessons her confidence in the water could improve so drastically! In the past, she wouldn't spend much time in the water, and if she did, she needed to hold onto one of our hands. On this trip, Faith was in the water as much as we would let her be, and she floated on her own, put her face in the water, and even let me throw her up in the air and into the water!

She also loved riding on the jet ski. Steve and I both took her for rides - apparently Steve was more fun as he would drive faster!

Daddy and his little girl!

On our last full day there, we rented a pontoon boat. Faith enjoyed helping steer the boat!

One of our destinations on the boat was a restaurant across the lake.

Shane had a great time!

Again, it was a great trip! We look forward to making many more memories there!

This past weekend, we spent a day at one of the Disneyland hotels. This is probably the one and only time we can get away with staying at a Disney hotel and not also go to Disneyland! Instead of going to the Magic Kingdom, we spent the day at the pool. It was very fun, especially for the kids! Now that Faith is in swimming lessons and her confidence in the water has dramatically increased, she is enjoying pools so much more! It's exciting to see her become more brave all the time! Her highlight was going down the water slide all by herself! And Shane loved walking around in the kiddie pool while inside the lady bug! Here are some pictures highlighting our stay at Disney...

Shane enjoying the water

Naturally, seeing Shane in the lady bug caused Faith to have a desire to be in there too!

First (of many!!) trips down the water slide

Steve and Faith in the big pool

By the end of the day, Faith was comfortable enough to be floating on her own! For her, this was a huge step! We were very excited for her and proud!

Trips!

Once again, we've been quite busy! Last week, Steve and I had a short getaway with his siblings to see a San Diego Padres game! We had a great time, and it was fun to visit San Diego. It wasn't much of a ball game, but we just enjoyed getting out, staying in a great hotel, and exploring a new area!

This past weekend, Steve and I took Faith back to Bakersfield. We had such a great time earlier this summer, we just had to go back. And we wanted to go on a weekend so that we could see Buck Owens' band, The Buckeroos, perform at the Crystal Palace. Again, we had a great time going twice to the Crystal Palace and Dewars (the amazing, old-fashioned ice cream parlor!), and even visited the Kern County Museum. Faith loved every minute! She is quite a little dancer, and was especially excited that Buck's son, Buddy Alan, also performed with the Buckeroos.

Faith on the dance floor!

We've never seen her dance with more excitement!

Doesn't this just say it all?

After getting back from our Bakersfield weekend, our next fun activity was to take the kids to the Ventura County Fair. Faith has been excited about going for over a week as we have seen all the rides set up while we take our morning walks at the beach. She was particularly eyeing the Ferris wheel. Faith loved the fair, especially all the rides, but wisely decided that the giant Ferris wheel was "too big!" for her to go on!

Our final activity was with our MOPS group. We went to the Padaro Beach grill on Wednesday, which was lots of fun. This is a great place for kids as it is an outdoor restaurant by the beach with picnic tables, umbrellas, and a giant sandbox with toys in the middle. The kids get to play while the moms can sit and talk! I had a great time watching the kids play, especially Shane as he was so excited to be in the sand! He was covered in sand by the time we left, but he enjoyed every minute of it!