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!!

Game Ball

Emily had a make-up t-ball game this morning and was pretty jazzed up when she found out she would get to play both catcher and pitcher in one game! She did a great job paying attention to where the ball was and even made an out at first base with one of her throws! She did an excellent job!

Catching a hit on the pitcher's mound.....

Since she did so well today, she got one of the team's "game balls." Her coach likes to reward the girls for trying their best and doing a great job. He noticed that Emily had improved today and was giving all she had so she got the reward. She was pumped up and the ball is now displayed in our living room. We wanted to give you a sneak peek at it!

Good job Emily!

Happy Father's Day!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! What a great day! What could be better than a smiling dad with his 2 cute kids? We had a great day celebrating our dads and the people that they are! We started by going to church at Cheney Lake with Chad's parents. We then went back to their house and had a fabulous lunch and the clouds cleared off just in time to go swimming! It was HOT! Our nephew Braden spent the whole day at grandma's too so Emily and Chase had fun playing with him in and out of the pool. They swam for 3 hours! Needless to say, after a light supper, our kids were very tired and fell asleep on the way back to Wichita.

A kiss for daddy!

Chad and his dad...

The kids enjoyed laying on the mats, playing basketball, jumping, jumping, jumping and much more!

What a fun day! Happy Father's Day to all of you dads out there!

Baseball Game with Dad

On Saturday evening, dad and Jan came over to our home for an early Father's Day dinner with us. Then, we, as a family, were asked by dad to attend the Wichita Wingnuts baseball game for the evening! First, the girls went to the play Annie, Jr. sponsored by our church. Emily had a ball. She loves watching stage productions. After it was over, we joined the guys at the baseball game. Chase had a great time being with the big guys and watching the game, but I hear that cracking sunflower seeds was a real highlight! He also had fun watching a former Wichita State Shocker player....and always remembered him when he came up to bat.

Emily has fun sitting with grandpa eating her ice cream cone......





...and Chase was dripping blue and red all over from his cone!

Me and my daddy!! :)

We stayed until the end of the game, but didn't get to see many of the fireworks in the air! But did see some on the field during the last inning! With 2 outs and the game almost over, the pitcher threw a ball behind the batter. This turned into a huge brawl between the two teams which resulted in 8 team members combined, being thrown out! I had never seen anything like this and the kids were pretty awed by the whole thing, but I took the opportunity to teach them about not fighting with other teams because now some of the players would be sitting in timeout, aka thrown out of the game! Anyway, we had a great time at the game. Thanks for the tickets dad! Hope you had fun too! Happy Father's Day.

Bible School Fun

Emily and Chase attend our church Bible School program last week. The theme was Friendship Trek and they learned about a new animal friend and how to be nice to others each day. They came home with some great craft ideas and had a great time. Emily was explaining one of the stories from her day and she said, "Mom, Jesus actually spit on the dirt to make it mud and put it on the man's eyes!" I guess she was surprised that JESUS would do something like that. It was so cute. On Friday, they had a short program and shared a few songs they had learned, complete with actions and all. They both did a great job. We enjoyed a hot dog picnic afterwards and then went on our way!

A full weekend

We had a very full, fun weekend! We had family around the entire time. Many of them were able to watch Chase play T-ball on Friday night and then on to Emily's game at 8 am on Saturday morning. We then had practices of various sorts during the day and Saturday night we hosted a Mexican Fiesta to celebrate our birthdays, complete with homemade ice cream and then drinks on the patio after the kiddos were in bed. What a fun time. Thanks to all who helped in preparations and then helped us celebrate. We appreciate you so much!

Chase and Emily were so excited to have their cousins around all weekend to play with. They were all pretty attached and Chase and the Sommer girls had fun watching Emily during her dance recital.

Good memories of good times.....!!!!!!