Monday, August 16, 2010

Ladies Night

It was time for our annual ladies night in Palm Springs. We leave the kids with their dads and uncles and head out for a some girl time! This year was Cheesecake factory and a trip to Target!

Waiting for our table
Check out the couple sitting behind Laura and I
Love these 2
Athena and her dessert
Laura and the chocolate cake
Mmmm Cheesecake
The whole gang



The fun didnt stop when we got home!


The boys golfing outside

Our first Settler's game of the week!
This was our first full day in Palm Springs. We started out with a home cooked breakfast. One of my favorite parts of the trip. Val makes a big breakfast every morning for everyone. It's wonderful! Then it was off to the pool where we spent most of the day. After swimming we headed back to our rooms for lunch, and to hang out. We played games, watched movies and read books. It's the best way to vacation!

The little guys so happy when they wake up
Breakfast time
Ready to swim
All the cousins
Evan
Julie and I
Ananbelle and Faye
Thaddeus Boy
Water slide

Sawyer and Auntie
Auntie Laura and Auntie Athena playing apples to apples with the boys

This game is far better with little guys who are learning to read and dont know what most of the answers on the cards mean!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Palm Springs Day 1

One of the reasons we went back home when we did was for our annual trip to Palm springs. We have been going for 5 years now. We stay at the Marriott Shadow Ridge resort. They are beautiful time shares and we really have the best time. We can usually request that the time shares all be in the same building on the bottom level. This allows the kids to run back and forth between the units on the back side. It's very convenient and it's fun for the kids. These pictures are of our first day in Palm Springs. We spend the first couple of hours unpacking, and grocery shopping. Then it's dinner with the fam and night swimming. Enjoy the pics!

Evan, relaxing on his vacation
Grammy always has tons of toys for the kids this year the favorite was squirt gun swords.






The girls waiting for dinner
Julie made dinner for us the first night
Watching Americas Funniest Home Videos before dinner
They all wanted to take a bath together after swimming
It might have been more fun then swimming


Time for bed

Our trip to San Diego

Sawyer and I made a last minute trip to San Diego a few week ago, thanks to our wonderful family. They surprised us with tickets! It was a wonderful visit with so many memories made!
I had wanted to do a blog post for each that we were there but sadly I can't make it happen. Some days have way to many pictures for one post, and other days have very few. So these next 8 or so posts will be of our 2 weeks in California. Most of it just runs together. So here we go.

When we arrived in San Diego we went straight for lunch. Normally we would head to Islands, but because last time we went home and went to Islands I ended up with food poisoning. We took that place OFF the list of places to eat when we go back home. This time we went to Pat and Oscars another favorite we can't get in Texas. It was, as always delicious. After lunch we headed over to the Balcombe's to unload our stuff and let the kids play. That night a group of us had dinner at Nana's house. She was so kind to make my favorite baked steak. It was amazing and I wish I would have eaten more. After dinner we played spoons, which I won. Then we headed home for bed. It was a great first day!

The next day Sawyer and I went over to my parents in the morning to spend some time there. It's always wonderful to see them. Sawyer is the only grandchild on my parents side, so he is especially missed. After my parents house we headed up to Escondido to Julie's for some lunch and swimming. Laura brought her kids down so all the cousins were together. It's so fun to see them all together. They really love each other and being together. We swam most of the afternoon. That evening it was back to my parents for dinner, Sawyer spent the night in "his" room. He was so excited to have a sleep over at grandma and grandpa's he asked me if i would leave so it could start. Another fun filled day with our family. We love them so much.


Sawyer playing at Grammy's
Wil playing at Grammy's
Uncle Daniel and Sawyer match. Sawyer had to represent for Paul!
We even found time to get a haircut.
Thaddeus and Wil swimming at Buggy's

Anabelle and Sawyer
Wil, Sloan and Thaddues
All the cousins

Cute boys!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Make your own pizza at CPK

The Shops at Willow Bend have been offering free activities during the week for the Summer. It's something fun for kids to do thats inside to escape the heat. We decided to give one a try and see what it was like. OMG........insane. Apparently everyone in Frisco has kids and they weren't about to pass up an opportunity like this. We waited for what felt like eternity to make our pizza. We when we checked in we were given a wrist band to come back at a certain time. Since we had some time to kill we walked around the mall with the kids and let them play. they really are just happy to be together. Finally when it was our turn we got in the eternal line. If we had thought about it earlier and checked out what the line was like we never would have waited. Since we had already invested so much time we decided to stay. They had the line set up going all the way around one corner of the mall. They had different tables with kid friendly vendors set up through out the path. This was good and bad, it kept the kids semi entertained while waiting but, made the line go even slower as all the kids wanted to stop at EVERY table and participate in EVERY activity. Since we aren't nice parents we told the kids no way on the activities and were able to by pass a huge portion of the line. When we finally got around to the pizza making it was ridiculous. You didnt even get to go inside CPK. They had a table set up like all the vendors. Your child was handed a piece of foil with dough on it a scoop of sauce, scoop of cheese and 4 pepperoni's. They just moved the kids right along the table. They may have spent a minute total at the pizza table. Then they were shipped to another table to decorate a pizza box while there pizza was cooking. Needless to say we were less then impressed. Thankfully we have great full children who had a great time, and didn't seem to be bothered at all by the waiting. We have yet to be back to one of the other Willow Bend activities. It's a shame because they had some others that really sounded fun, if only they were run better. Oh Well, live and learn. Enjoy the pictures.

Macy and Sawyer with their dough
Sauce...

cheese...
and to finish it off pepperoni
Decorating his pizza box
He wrote his own name

So proud!!!!