Water Balloons

Grandma Pankratz spent a night with us last week and bought the kids some water balloons. It was rainy the next night and nothing else to do so we filled some of the balloons and let the fun begin. The kids had a ball once they found out how it all worked!

Filling them up!

Emily gets ready to slam it on the driveway!

Daddy even got into the fun!

Thanks for a night of fun Grandma!

Relaxation in Carlsbad

Welcome to Carlsbad! We were able to stay in a condo that belongs to one of my dad's cousins. You could see the ocean from the deck and we drove between 1-2 miles to get to the beach. It was a perfect 2 bedroom-2 bath place. Our family stayed with Brian's family and we all fit perfectly - it was just what we needed.

This was the usual scene....lots of beach time. Several blankets, chairs, umbrella and we were ready to go! My aunt Karen and aunt Arlene came down our first day to beach with us. They also stayed for dinner out at a Mexican restaurant. It was so nice to have that time with them. On Thursday, my cousin John and his family came to beach with us again and the kids had a blast playing together in the sand. Cousin time was at the top of the FUN list!

My ocean babies!

Chase enjoyed paddle ball even if he hit after it bounced off the sand....

Emily really enjoyed jumping the waves.......

Daddy even took each of the kids "boogie boarding"......

Chase tried to stand up......

Then the big boys enjoyed some time in the waves......they did so well!

We did lots of digging....really deep holes and then putting sandcastles together.....

Here was the best one...but we never got water to stay in the moat!

Grandpa had fun burying all of the kids in the sand.....Emily got it good!

We spent a beautiful evening at Seaport Village in San Diego!

Brian, Kim, Chad and I were able to go out for an adults night while grandpa and grandma took over with the kiddos! It was a beautiful night to sit outside and we were extremely gracious for the time out together!

This was one of the sunsets we saw over the ocean. What a sight! It was so beautiful and calming. We LOVED our time at the ocean and can't wait to go back!! Thanks to everyone who made our trip so much fun. We love you all!

An Ingram Family Day

On Sunday morning, we were all able to sleep in a little and then had a great breakfast with John and family. We then got packed up and drove to Hollywood to see Chad's cousin Jeremy. We were so excited that he lives in the same area we were visiting and it worked out to visit together. We went to Universal Citywalk and ate lunch and played some arcade games. Jeremy is helping Chase drive his car as Chad watches.

Emily was playing air hockey with Jeremy's friend Brandon and was so excited as she scored a point! What a happy look on her face!!

Chase also tries his hand at air hockey. He also loved playing!!

Our family with Jeremy on the Universal Citywalk!

After we had experienced enough of the Citywalk, we drove to the Santa Monica pier. WOW! We were quite impressed. The beach was full and there are actually rides on the pier! Here is a picture getting on the ferris wheel that goes over the water. Pictured are Emily, Jeremy, Brandon, Chase and Chad.

I was quite scared at first and wouldn't let anyone rock the car. It was a very different feeling knowing you are over the water. As we started it was a lot of stop and start for people to get on. I had a hard time with that, especially when Chad said, "Hey Michelle....do you see those yellow buoys out in the water? That's where they have estimated the ferris wheel would fall in the water so they don't want anyone swimming there!!" What a tease. Once we started going around and there was no more stop and start, I loved it. Emily wanted to lay down on my lap and Chase was so relaxed. The view was gorgeous! I got some beautiful pictures of the beach and the sun setting over the water. Here is a view of the end of the pier.

What a beautiful picture of the sun on the vast and enormous ocean!

The beach and waves from up above!

Here is a picture of the ferris wheel we had ridden on.

We had eaten a late lunch so weren't overly hungry but visited the Mexican restaurant on the end of the pier for some appetizers and drinks.

We were even serenaded by a mariachi band!

On the way back to the car, we visited an ice cream shop. We had a great day with Jeremy and Brandon. We only get to see him every few years so we cherished the time together. Thanks for the time together Jeremy! We put pj's on the kiddos and began the short drive to Carlsbad for the rest of our vacation.

Disneyland - The Happiest Place on Earth!

What a perfect day! We're finally here and the weather is gorgeous. It was overcast in the morning with no rain so the temps were down a little. In the afternoon, it was in the low 80s with a little breeze. Couldn't have asked for anything better. We had been talking about going to Disney for quite some time and we entered the park (and it looked just like I had remembered from many years ago) and started with a picture of the kids with Downtown Disney and the princess castle in the background. Brian and family were already here and my cousin John and his girls came with us. We jumped on the horse drawn trolley and rode downtown.
We found Brian and Kim by some of the smaller rides, including the carousel, Dumbo and Fantasyland rides. We did some of the smaller rides in the morning and then it was off to see the Princesses. There was a special show at 10am and the kids got to have a special photo shoot with three of the princesses. Here is Aubrey, Emily and Chase with Belle from Beauty and the Beast.



After the Princess show, we moved on to Mickey's Toontown. We were able to see Mickey, Minny and Goofy. The kids even got to sit on Goofy's firetruck. There was a small rollercoaster that the kids decided to go on 2 times. It was pretty fast and they absolutely loved it. I think it might have been because there wasn't a long line. After this, we rode the bobsleds through the Matterhorn mountain. This was Emily's favorite ride of the morning. She actually rode it twice in a row!!

Just before lunch, we were able to meet Mary Poppins and Bert. They were very kind and Mary Poppins spent time prepping the kids for pictures and making sure their clothes looked perfect, just like she did for the kiddos in her movie!

My aunt Karen was so kind to pack us a fabulous picnic lunch for the day. My dad and Jan came and met us right outside the main gate and we found a shady picnic area. We enjoyed lunch together as a group and then dad and Jan took Abigail (who is 15 months) for the rest of the day. That gave Brian & Kim a little more freedom in riding!! After lunch we decided to get down to business. We rode a spaceship ride and also a Star Wars flight simulator. After that we went on to Space Mountain. I think this is the biggest roller coaster at Disneyland. It is inside, completely dark, and VERY VERY fast! Chad is not a roller coaster rider, but he was talked into trying it. I can't say he came out loving it, but he was a sport in trying it and didn't get sick (I'm pretty sure the people behind him were glad of that!!).

Throughout the afternoon, we rode the Monorail, the train, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, drove Autopia cars and had a few snacks. Here are Chad, Chase, Emily and cousin Sonya on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Another favorite ride of the afternoon was Pirates of the Caribbean, which we rode 2 times. The kids were a little scared the first time with so many skeleton bones and Pirates that looked so real, but they loved sitting in the front row of the boat!! Here is Aubrey, cousin Ana, Emily and cousin Sonya together - basically 4 girls scrunched in one side of the boat.

Our family with the Matterhorn mountain in the background.

We decided to eat supper a little on the early side, by 5pm, and found a nice Mexican restaurant to partake in. It was fabulous. You got a lot of food for the money and our family actually ended up eating for $40! I was surprised and the food was delicious.

At 6:30 pm, there was a parade down Mainstreet Disney. Here Princess Ariel and Sebastian above their sea kingdom. All of the floats were beautifully decorated and the kids had fun seeing all the characters that they so often read about and see in their home videos. There was one instance where a rhino from the Lion King came right up to us and I think Aubrey jumped 10 feet in the air, but the rest of it was not scary at all.

After the parade, we thought we better organize which rides we wanted to go on. We visited Space Mountain again, but Chad decided to sit out this time. And then went on to Splash Mountain. This is water ride in which you ride in a log, that has seats, and at the end you go down a pretty steep drop into the water. I was in front, followed by Chase, Aubrey, Kim and Brian. I got pretty wet through the ride, but I think Chase got the bulk of the water on the drop! We got off the ride and he said (with a few tears), "I got wet - SOAKIN' WET!" He was a big sport and dried off rather quickly. They have a camera that takes your picture on the drop, so here we are going down!!!!!

We went on Pirates of the Caribbean one more time, and Chase fell asleep during the ride. He had a good time during the day and was ready for some zzzzz's.

Chase fell asleep around 9:15 pm so we walked around just a little more and by 9:50 pm, Emily was asleep too. I think we wore them out so we stopped at the gift shop for a souvenier, and headed to the car. We were home shortly after 11pm. This was a dream come true for me to take the kids to a place that I got to go as a child. I think they had as much fun as I did, and for that, I'm grateful. It was a fun day with all of us together!!!! Thanks everyone for making it awesome!

Family Time

On Thursday afternoon, we drove from San Luis Obispo to Upland. It was about 4 hours and the kids did wonderfully. We didn't have that much traffic and we were able to stop about half way and run on the beach - the beach was name Santa Claus Lane! But we didn't find any Santa's there!! On Thursday night, Brian, Chad, my dad and Jan joined us in CA. They all stayed with my Aunt Karen while the kids and I stayed with my cousin John and his family.

On Friday, John hosted a wonderful pool party with BBQ lunch for all of the family. There was any and all kinds of food and lots of sun for pool fun. The cousins had a blast together. One of their favorite activites of the day was sitting in the top of the swing set and picking apricots and eating away. It was so cute.

Another fun activity was ping pong!

There are 6 cousins in our family and my cousin Jen was the only one missing. Matt was passing through and we got to see him for only an hour, but managed to get a cousin picture in. Jen....I missed ya! I was the only girl!!!!!

It was a great day and so nice to get some visiting in and catch up with all of my CA family. Cousin Chris and family came down from Hume Lake to see us too. How lucky we are to have such a loving family. In the evening, there were several that headed to the Dodger game and some that stayed home with kids to prepare for Disneyland the next day!!!!

California...Here we come!

It's vacation time! On Tuesday, June 24, my sister-in-law Kim, her children, Emily, Chase and myself loaded up and flew to San Luis Obispo, California. We flew out of KC at 7:00 AM - so we got up at 3:30 that morning to get 4 kids, 2 adults, 4 carseats, 5 suitcases and 6 carry-ons ready to go! The kids did great. They were super excited to get on the airplane.


We had a layover in Salt Lake City so we spent a little bit of time riding on the super escalator walkers. The kids had a ball and burned off a little energy. We bought lunch and got back on the plane. We figured this would take up some time on the second flight. Emily and Aubrey got to sit together by themselves and thought that was pretty neat. Chase finally gave up toward the end of the flight and fell asleep on my lap.

My mom flew out from KS on Monday so she was at the airport with my aunt Barbara and my grandma to greet us. It was so nice to see everyone. Kim and I went to the rental counter to get our minivan that we had reserved 3 months earlier.....but much to my dismay.....it was not available. They didn't have one and there were no other ones with any other company either. I tried and tried every avenue to get something different, but for some reason, we were stuck with a 12 passenger van. It was huge! I tried to find humor in the situation, but it was almost impossible. The kids nicknamed our means of transportation as "the ugly bus!" Here is our crew:

After we had gotten loaded up, we went back to Barbara's house for a beautiful afternoon in her backyard in the sun. There were tables set up with an awesome picnic for lunch. It was so nice to visit and relax together. Grandma was a HUGE help with the children. She was so good at playing with them and just enjoying time having all 4 of them together.

The biggest hit for the children at Barbara's house was the tree house. It needed a little cleaning out (THANKS mom and Barb!) but the kids were up and down and playing all sorts of things. Reminds me of childhood days in the treehouse I played in!

On Wednesday, we went to Avila beach. It was a chilly morning and the water off the ocean was definitely cold. But you couldn't tell with the kids. They went right in the water to jump the waves and throw sand. They LOVED it! Gigi (Great Grandma) stayed in the car but was able to watch the children play. We had a great picnic lunch packed by Barbara that proved interesting since the bees around there were also hungry....the kids ended up walking around the blanket as to keep the bees away.

Emily and Aubrey cuddle on the couch with Aunt Barbara!

Three generations.....see any similarities?

On Thursday, before we started for LA, we went to Avila Pier. This is a fishing pier so there was lots to see. It was again, quite chilly, but so much fun. There was a fishing boat that had come in so the kids were able to see the guys lift up the big tubs of fish and sort into buckets, weigh and go into another container to be sold.

We ate lunch at Olde Port Inn at the end of the pier. The shrimp tacos were delicious and the kids enjoyed looking through the middle of the table since they could see through to the water!

We had a great time these first 3 days of vacation. Thanks to you who worked hard to make our stay enjoyable. It was awesome with lots of memories. We left shortly before 3 pm to drive to LA....in our big bus!!