Project for today: Yarn bowls!!

So I have this week off of work, and decided to spend that time with the kids as they start back to school on the 10th. So far this week we:

~have gone out to dinner
~gone bowling, Nicholas won!
~worked on tons of puzzles
~went to see Hanna Montana the Movie again (was a want on mamas list!)
~Chris and the kids painted items at As You Wish, we will have those back tomorrow
~the boys had eye appts, both boys are getting new glasses
~swimming at the pool
~done all our back to school shopping
~made some beads
~made yarn bowls today! pics below

Been a busy week!! Tomorrow is kinda the best for last, we are going to Big Surf for the day. I will leave you with pics of us making the yarn bowls today, really fun!

Cutting the yarn to get ready

Delaney working on her bowl

Cody working on his

all of us

Me helping the monkey

Finished bowls drying outside

Awesome Sea World Weekend!!!!

CLICK ON THE PICS TO MAKE THEM BIGGER

This past weekend we took a fabulous trip to California! I took Friday off work, and we left Thursday evening. We got a room in El Centro for Thursday night, and got up Friday morning and finished the drive to Sea World. We got to Sea World and it was 77 degrees, unlike the HOT we left at home! We headed straight to Journey to Atlantis, and then were able to do 3 shows right in a row. We had a great afternoon! Saturday morning we were up a little early as we had reservations to have breakfast with Shamu!! It was the trip surprise for the kids. It was so awesome, we got to learn about all the whales and there was one that did some stuff while we were eating. When the whale came up on the slide out, it couldn't have been more than 5 feet from where we were sitting!! After breakfast we were able to go almost right onto the Shipwreck Rapids raft ride, and when we got off the kids and Chris went right back on with little wait. We had a great afternoon, it was a little warm but as long as you stayed wet, it was fine. We stayed to see the Dolphin and Shamu shows at night, and then got to see the fireworks. We left the park Saturday and drove up to Anaheim (I had a free hotel room). The kids didn't realize till Sunday morning when we woke up that we were right across the street from Disneyland. After convincing them we really weren't going to Disney, we headed to breakfast and then the beach. We went to Huntington Beach, it was a great time, but the water was so cold!! The kids had a blast. We all changed clothes and headed back home. Was a fantastic weekend and much needed getaway. And no one broke into our car, although I did dread walking out to the car every morning. The following pics aren't in exact order, but enjoy!!!!

The kids before the dolphin show, we were front row.

All of us after the show, we all got wet!

A Collage of our breakfast with Shamu, you can see how close we were.

One of the ride photos from Atlantis!

Awesome strong men at the Cirque De La Mer show.

The kids after the Cirque show, was an awesome thing to watch.

Waiting for the Shamu show, I got on the Jumbo screen!

Waiting for the Dolphin show, I had some camera fun with the kids.

The kids all got glow swords, and the boys got glow hats!!

The kids sat 2nd row center for the Shamu night show, got to see a close view of the whales, and that wall of water headed straight for them. The last is an after pic.

We went on the Bayside Skyride, but Cody chose not to go, so we all fit in one bucket.

Nicholas' foot after it had been wet in his shoes for at least 8 hours!

Saturday afternoon we saw the Shamu show again, and we got the 2nd row center seats, and thankfully we didnt get soaked being that close, but had a great view of the whales.

Chris and the kids at the beach on Sunday!

Flagstaff, the trip that probably shoudnt have been!

Since Chris and I had Friday off work, we decided to take a trip up to Flagstaff to do some touristy things with the kids. We left Thursday after I got off of work and headed up to Flagstaff. Was a nice drive up, we went through Payson to avoid traffic and the scenery was beautiful. We woke up Friday morning to Delaney finding our car broken into. They stole my Ipod and my very good Canon Digital SLR camera. Heres a pic of the window.

After spending time on the phone with the insurance and then the local police, we headed to a local carwash to vacuum up all the glass. We were the only one at our hotel hit, but another car across the way was also hit. The insurance lady was very nice trying to help us get our window replaced in Flagstaff, but because of the holiday the warehouses were closed, so even though Safelite was open they couldnt get the glass. So we scheduled it to be fixed Saturday morning at our house. We would have to drive the rest of the day with the window broken. Well since we were now a little behind on time, we just decided to head straight to the Grand Canyon. Been years since Chris and I had been there and it was the kids' first time. I was in awe as you walked up to the edge, it looked like a huge painting, like it wasnt real. Was really kinda funny, Cody was scared to death of the edge, Chris had to drag him to get the pic of the kids. He was a little better where there was a fence he could lean on though.

After we left the Canyon we were heading to SnowBowl to do the Scenic ride up the mountain. On our way there we passed this awesome Flintstone camping area and of course had to get out and take some pics!

When we got to Snow Bowl, there was a little delay as there had been a lightening strike and we had to wait about 20 minutes before we could buy our tickets. So we went outside and sat at the picnic tables. Not more than 2 minutes later its starts raining, as we head inside to get a table, it started hailing. Was funny to watch the people coming off the ride soaked. We waited out the hail storm for about an hour, and then around 3 they finally came into the lodge and told all of us they were shutting down the lift for the day. Major bummer. Get in the car, head back down the mountain.

the ride that could have been

We left Snowbowl and thought that since we had gained some time, we would go do Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments. Well since we were coming from north of Flagstaff we decided to follow GPS (my directions were from Flagstaff). It had us turn off on some random road. Let me tell you, this was not a road, turns out it was trails through the cinder trails. I was starting to get a little concerned, I mean this road was a car and a half wide and tons of ruts and puddles. It was sprinkling, and I said to Chris if it really starts raining, we need to turn around and high tail it outta there. Finally after going like 6 or 7 miles, and passing 2 sets of ATVers who looked at us like we were crazy, Cody finally spotted road. We made it onto the road and I was so relieved. We traveled about 15more miles and came across the Wupatki ruins, but since we had bypassed the main entry to the area, we never paid, so we couldnt go out and look, lol!! On our way back out to the highway, we stopped at a couple places so the kids could climb a lava mountain and then again at the Citadel ruins. When we got back to the main highway, turns out if we had gone only a couple more miles we would have found the main entrance to the area.

Kids at a lava mountain

at the Citadel ruins

We stopped and ate in Flagstaff and then headed our way back down. We seemed to be about 10 minutes behind the storms the whole way down, which considering I was missing a window was good. Wasnt till we hit Alma School on the 60 that we really hit the storms and I was getting pelted with rain. All in all a good trip considering. But now we have to go back up to do the lift, and we will do the Sunset crater area the right way.

a rainbow end to end about 60 miles out of Flagstaff

I know the pics may be a bit grainey, they were taken with our cell phones.