We love the beach

What's a trip to the beach without burying someone....Nathan is always a willing subject.


Good Friends

Kayla's Sandcastle

Kyle after riding the waves

More great friends

You have to fly a kite while at the beach

Whose Tired?

This picture says it all. After two full days of pounding the Disneyland pavement "Roller Coaster Queen" Kayla ran out of steam. This is all that was left of her as we loaded up the car and headed back to the condo. It was only a 50 minute drive back to the condo from Anaheim. That part was really nice also. Didn't take long to get back.

DISNEYLAND....Need I Say More?

Well Wednesday and Thursday were our days at Disneyland and California Adventure. Robert and I haven't been there for 14 years, so much of it has changed. Like the addition of California Adventure. It took us the most part of the 1st day to get the system figured out with the fast passes and line standing. We all had a lot of fun and the kids were in heaven. The roller coaster queen (Kayla) was in her element. She road all the coasters in Disneyland and all in California Adventure except "California Screamin'". She was too short for that one. Oh well....that will give us something to hopefully go back for in a few years (or maybe 10 or 20). We will have to see how long it takes us to get our feet back to normal. The weather was great and cool and everyone enjoyed our vacation.

How do I spell Fun....L E G O L A N D

I don't know why....I guess it's just more my speed. I'm not all for standing around in lines forever (like Disneyland). We have always managed to hit Legoland on the off peak season and hardly ever stand in a line to get on a ride. I guess maybe we're just spoiled. But in my opinion, standing in lines is for the birds!!!! Kayla loves the rollercoasters. She is roller queen. She went on this one at legoland about 5 or 6 times. She just can't get enough.

There's no place like home !

Well....the saying says it all. There's no place like home. Our San Diego Vacation was so mucn fun. We started out last Saturday and drove to Oceanside, California. We stayed there at a wonderful condo that we have rented for the past 8 or 9 years. It is perfect for our family. Our good friends the Curtis's went with us and were close by in another condo in the same complex. The boys loved having friends with them. It was a great source of entertainment for all involved. Anyway here is a picture of the condo.

Anyone see a Leopard?

I forgot to post these the other day. Robert and I were out on a "date" the other night and ran across this Halloween Costume for Kayla. We both thought it was "purr-fect" for her since she's obsessed with her little Leopard. She was thrilled with it. She's worn it several times since we brought it home. She will have lots of fun for Halloween.

We're Off !

This is the view from the balcony. I can't wait till I'm standing there tomorrow evening.

Well Fall Break has finally arrived and the Branch Family is off to our very favorite vacation location, Oceanside, California. It's absolutely wonderful and we are all so excited to be going. We will hit the ever famous....Legoland on Monday and then on Wednesday we will drive up to Anaheim....you guessed it....to go to Disneyland for two fun filled days. The kids can hardly wait. This will be their first time to go to Disneyland. We should have lots and lots of pictures to share when we get back next Saturday. However don't expect anything Saturday night...I'm sure nothing will happen until Monday when everyone is back to school....or maybe even tuesday. Take care and I will check in next week.

Not much new

Not much new here in the world of the Branch Family. The past couple of weeks have been uneventful yet busy in their own way. I've been trying out a new digital camera to see if I like it. Kayla is always such a willing subject of my photo taking. Here are some shots.

What's your color?

Well....there's my color. What do you think? Does it say who I am? Maybe I don't want to know....HA HA

Give it a try....see what your color is.....it only takes a minute.

You are most like: You are Blue
You are cool and soothing, with a hidden spontanious side. You are deeper than most people percieve, and you care a lot for those whom you surround yourself with.
Take this quiz: Which Crayola Box of 8 Color Are You?
Visit Toys For Your Blog.com for more blog quizzes

My Parents

I spent this weekend looking through family photos. Found this one of my parents. Love it. Kayla thinks Granny looks funny with that hair and glasses. I'm trying to pull a bunch of family photos together to make a slide show CD with. It's really turning out to be a lot of fun. It's nice looking back of photos of my parents.

I feel the need for SPEED !

Hey Katee......I finally found the pictures of Kyle on the battery operated 4 wheeler he got for his birthday one year. He loved that thing. I always said that Kyle was born with wheels for feet. He loved anything that moved. Our neighbors the Petersons had the race car. It was a pedal car. Kyle had to pedal it like a bike to make it go. He spent hours in that thing. He drove it like a race car. He would pedal as fast out of the garage and down the driveway as he could, then hit the brakes and skid and do a spin out. He laughed and laughed doing that. He was always really good at that kind of things. He still talks about becoming a race car driver. When school gets hard and he doesn't want to do something he always ask "Why does a race car driver need to know how to do this?" He thinks all you have to do it just drive the car.

Sunday Fun

My brother comes over most sunday's for dinner with us. He has a lot of fun playing with the kids. They really love playing card games with him. I think Kayla is probably the only one in her kindergarten class who knows the exact names of every card in the deck and knows how to deal. This time though they played with the bean bags. It's amazing how many games they can come up with just using some bean bags. Their favorite game of the evening was seeing who could sit back at the couch and slide the bean bag across the kitchen floor and under the pantry door. Kayla thought that was hysterical.

Cake or frosting ?

My kids always like to make cake but for some reason, I really think they just like the frosting on the top. They prefer a graham craker with frosting on it to a piece of cake any day. So....the question goes out....are you a frosting person or a cake person or both. I personally have always liked cake by itself. How about you?

Rob & Shelly's Wedding

My neice, Shelly, was sealed on Thursday to her fiance', Rob Cook, and then the reception was on Saturday in Tucson. Kayla had her very own special "Wedding Dress" as she called it. She has looked forward to wearing this dress for months.

We traveled to Tucson on Friday to help my sister set up for the reception. We were about 35 or 40 minutes into our journey and the car began to overheat. So we had to stop, turn around, drive with the heater on all the way back home to keep the car from overheating. That was one hot ride. It was all worth it though. It was a beautiful reception and we had a lot of fun being there and helping my sister set up.

We haven't had much luck with air conditioning this summer. Our air conditioner on our home went out about 3 weeks ago. We had to spend the night with my brother out in east mesa one evening while we waited for it to be fixed. Before we could leave home though we had to pack and get things ready. During this time Kyle comes out of his room from playing a game and said "It's so hot in here my Butt's sweating". I thought that was very observant of him. Ha! Ha!

Family Outing

Just the week before school started we went on a Family Reunion to Springerville, Arizona. It was a lot of fun. We spent three days and two nights in Pinetop/Lakeside with my sister's family. We always have so much fun spending time with family. These pictures are when we went fishing on the North Fork of the White River. This is where I spent all my youth during the summer months. We always went camping here ever summer with my grandparents and aunt and uncle. We ended up just being able to spend two evenings there this time doing some fishing. The first evening we were there it just steadily rained on us. Not a hard rain, just enough to get you wet over about an hour or so. The second evening we went the weather was perfect. We had a campfire and really enjoyed the time with family. All the kids were able to catch fish, so that made them really happy.

This one's for the Boys

The boys think they're being left out. Of course their reaction to the 1st day of school isn't quite what Kayla's was. They'll get over it I'm sure. Once they hit the playground and classrooms with their friends.

I think the backpack is bigger than her

It took us a long time to find a backpack that Kayla loved. We finally just ran into this one at Costco two days before school began. She loves it. It's just so hard to find something that isn't bigger than she is. When it was packed with all the school supplies for the 1st day, I think it weighed close to what she weighs.

We are also very luck to have one of our really great friends teaching for her 1st year and she is Kayla's teacher. It has made leaving my little girl at school so much easier. Thank you Mrs. Shafer, you're wonderful.

1st Day of School

Well They're off and I'm alone. The first time I've been alone all day from 8:30 to 3:30 in 11 years. It's a funny feeling. It really is. I'm not sure what to get done first. I mean whatever I do first will for the 1st time stay done until 3:30 when they come home to undo what I've done.

Every Princess Needs a Crown?

Kayla got this crown for her 5th birthday in April. Since then she has decided to wear it everywhere we go. She knows how to draw attention to herself. The crown and the leopard are her new favortie things. I hope it lets up a little with her starting school this week. The leopard has a favorite game at night called "Let's find Leopard". Ultimatly the leopard has been left somewhere during the day and at bedtime we get to find it before Kayla will go to sleep. She never was attached to anything until she found this leopard in her toy box about 3 months ago. It's already undergone two "surgeries" to fix it's arms. Hopefully it will last until she decides it has served her purpose.

Pool Time

This is one of the kids most favorite things to do. Luckily we have a really great neighbor who lets us have use of their pool anytime we like. It really saves us in the summer. I much prefer a private pool to a public one.

Jumping in with both feet

Okay, here goes nothing. I've finally decided to join the blogging world. I've had a lot of fun keeping up on my friends blogs, so maybe they'll enjoy mine as well. Can't promise I'll be as up to speed as the rest of you, but I'll give it a shot. Maybe now I'll try harder to remember to take more digital photos.