3 Mile Hike.....am I crazy?

Nathan needed to go on a 3 mile hike to complete his requirements for his Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts. So today, New Years Eve was the day to do the hike. Nathan's den leader is my best friend Trudy. She took her two sons and I took both of mine. Kayla was the lucky one and got to spend 4 hours at a friends house instead. It's a good think too....it was more of a hike than I think she could've done. It was fine at the beginning, but the quicly got very rocky and steep.

It was a great day for a hike thank heavens.

So here we were....two women hiking with these four boys. They did such a great job. Of course they were far ahead of Trudy and I and wondered why it always took us so long to catch up. They'll understand in about another 30+ years. They think it's funny now, but I'll guarantee it will eventually catch up with them.

Here's the gang. Dallin, Kyle, Ryland and Nathan. Such great boys.

They climbed over these rocks like a bunch of mountain goats. They made it look so easy.

Can you spot all 3 boys?

Me & My boys. Love you guys !!

The two most oustanding moms!!

Jumpin' Jelly Beans

This is for you Granny. We all went to Jumpstreet today. The kids couldn't wait to use their gifts from you. I couldn't get pictures of the boys because they played dodge ball the whole time and you can't get in the enclosure to take any picutres. So all the pictures have major reflections off the glass enclosure. But not to worry, the boys had a blast. They invited Kyle's fried Lucas to go with them. So much fun. They all came out after an hour of jumping all sweaty. They get a really good workout playing dodge ball. Kayla has a lot of fun too in her area. She practiced her gymnastic moves. She loves Jumpstreet.












Thanks again for the wonderful Christmas present. The kids really enjoyed themselves. What a great way to wear them out.

What do you get when you......

1. Have a sister who gives your boys a harmless yet explosive gift for christmas?

OR

2. Combine 1 liter diet coke with one package mentos......you guessed it...they both lead to the same results.

LOTS AND LOTS OF FUN

How many people does it take to rig a bottle of diet coke to explode?




Never the less the boys have always wanted to do this and just haven't had the opportunity to do so. Well their loving aunt Jeri made all their dreams come true this christmas. They were so excited to get this present. They just couldn't wait to give it a try.










The first try was trial and error and so the next day I went out and bought them both another bottle of Diet Coke so they could use the second package of mentos my sister had given them. This time the results were much, much better.

Thanks again Jeri for the boys wonderful memories. They can't wait to have friends come over and try it out.

I'm on the ball

Yes, I'm on the ball this year with my Christmas decorating. In fact yesterday we got the tree down and it is now in the house and decorated I might add. Seeing there is only 26 more days until the actual "event" I thought i'd better get started. So today I officially changed my blog as well to signal my holiday cheer.


YIPEE!!!!

Daisy

Yes it's official. We've named the cat so I guess we're keeping it. She comes and goes and she pleases, but she's hanging around more and more. Everytime we open the back door she comes running from the neighbors tree. She likes to hang out up in his tree. Daisy is a really good cat with the kids. She very gentle and loving. The kids are in heaven with a pet. I would've never picked this cat out of a million cats, but I'm glad she's come to spend some time with us.

Welcome home DAISY!

Wheels Off......

Yes it's official. Our little girl has gone training wheel free. Saturday evening she was riding her bike with her training wheels on and they were so bent and wobbly that she was completely frustrated with them. Maybe that was a good thing after all. She was complaining to me about the training wheels so I casually said...well maybe we should just take them off. That was all she needed to hear. She said yeah...let's take them off. So Sunday afternoon without my knowledge, Kayla convinced Nathan to take the training wheels off. I was in the house and the next thing I knew Nathan was handing me the training wheels. So outside we went to begin the process.

Nathan was such a great big brother. He really helped Kayla with learning how to ride her bike. After about 4 or 5 attempts on my part to be "helpful", Kayla made it known that she prefered Nathan to help her. So the two of them spent about 40 minutes practicing and practicing. I couldn't believe how fast Kayla got the hang of it. I'm so proud of them both. Nathan is such a sweet kid. He gave her so much encouragement and cheered for her every time she did well. It was a really neat opportunity to see them two of them work so great together. She still prefers Nathan to help her get started. She says that I don't do it right. I can handle that.

San Diego Maritime Museum

We took another day and went to the San Diego Maritime Museum. We actually an advertisement on the TV on day talking about the US Dolphin Submarine. I've always wanted to see a sub, so we thought this was our chance. It was really neat. A lot, lot smaller than I expected. Of course the US Dolphin was a research sub, so maybe that has something to do with it.




This sub is the Russian Foxtrot B-39. It was a lot longer and quite a bit bigger than the Dolphin.


This is Robert inside the US Dolphin. This really is what it looks like. There is nothing on either side of the picture that you're missing, well except the hull. It's only wide enough for one person to walk at a time.

The boys at the periscope inside the Dolphin. I'm not sure what I expected, but it was nice to actually see for ourselves what it's like. It was really interesting. Even the kids thought so.

Kayla's driving this sub....we're all in a lot of trouble. Can you imagine? There was only room enough for one person to squeen themselves into this hole where they steer the sub. Talk about being claustraphobic. Not for me. No thanks....I like land.

Then of course there were lots and lots of other ships to tour. There was the Star on India, Berkeley, Medea, Californian, HMS Surprise, Pilot and the then 2 subs.

Of course we went to Sea World :)

Just when we thought we had all had enough of walking and walking then we headed off to Sea World. We hadn't been there since Kayla was just about 3. She didn't remember it at all, so this trip was really for her. The crowds at Sea World were so much better. We all enjoyed the shows and had a great time. It was a lot of fun trying to get SHAMU to take a picture with the kids. I don't even know how many times we snapped the camera trying to get it just right.

Kyle and Nathan are in the front with Robert and Kayla in the next seat. You can just barely make out Kayla's head in the pink rain poncho.

I don't know if you can see Kyle's face, but it's priceless. Kayla is by far our Roller Coast QUEEN. She loves them all.

Taking advantage of every moment

Yes....we took advantage of every possible moment of Fall Break. The kids got out of school at 12:30 on Friday and we were out of here by 1:30 on our way to Disneyland. We decided to start this time at Disneyland and work our way down to San Diego. We arrived at Disneyland on Friday evening and got a good night sleep so we could hit Disneyland first thing Saturday morning. It was a bit crowded though...we weren't thinking of it being the weekend and then a holiday weekend on top of it. Oh well....we just joined in with everyone else. It really helped that we had been there 2 years ago and learned how the "fast pass" system worked. So this time we were really on top of things. In fact the 2nd day we hit the jackpot. For some reason when we went through the gates at California Adventure the computer system didn't scan our tickets correctly. We didn't know that though until we went to get out first set of fast passes. The dispenser gave us voided tickets and said that our park tickets hadn't been scanned into the system. So we went up to customer service and explained the problem. They were puzzeled why the tickets hadn't scanned, but gave us an all day fast pass card for each of us. So that was 5 all day fast passes. At lunch we left the park and went to get something to eat. When we returned to the park we scanned our park tickets again. Then when we went to get fast passes, we could actually get 10 at a time. JACKPOT. That made it so much fun for the older boys and Robert to ride California Screamin' over and over and over and over again. They rode that thing like 10 times between the 2 days we spent in California Adventure. So Kayla and I spent a lot of time on the Merry go round. That's all I can handle, I'm a wimp. Oh well....



















On Monday we left Disneyland around 3:00 in the afternoon and went to get something to eat and then we headed to Oceanside where our condo was. About 1/2 way to Oceanside I turned around to check on the kidos and this is what I found. Robert and I laughed and laughed. The boys were zonked out and Kayla was just bright eyed watching Little Mermaid. She didn't sleep at all. I guess we can see who is the strongest in our family.

I couldn't resist. I had to take pictures of them.

Anyone got a name?

This cute little kitty mysteriously showed up on our back patio doorstep Wednesday morning. It was a really nice morning so we decided to open the patio door and go outside for a little bit just before school. We had Grandma & Grandpa Branch visiting us and they called me from inside to show me this little cat that was in our yard. It's a sweet cat and very calm. It's apparently been somebody's pet because it's very comfortable around people and likes to be petted.



So we didn't think much of it. We all came back inside and got ready for school and when the day wore on, the cat was gone. Okay, no problem, just a little visit from a cute cat.



Well then Thursday morning the same thing happened. Kind of weird I thought, just about the same time Wednesday morning that this cat showed up, it showed up again on Thursday morning. I thought....okay, cute, what a coincidence? Right? Yeah so I thought.

The cat is very thin and we all felt really bad for the cat. I really thought though that the cat would just disappear and we'd never see it again. But to my surprise it just kept showing up every morning like clockwork. Right around 7:30 a.m. Okay, so we tried to call Animal Control to see if we could get someone to come get it, but of course it's closed until Tuesday for some reason. Do I consider this a sign...I mean really....closed until Tuesday....what happened to Monday?

Oh well....so off to Walmart we went to get the cheapest cat food possible. We fed it yesterday....I know...I know....if you want the cat to stick around, just feed it. Well it was starving. It ate like it hadn't been feed in a month. Poor thing. Anyway so we fed it and sure enough it hung around all day yesterday. Now the kids are getting attached to it and Robert and I aren't sure what we're going to do. It really is starting to grow on all of us. It's just so sweet and mellow. I mean we've lived here 16 years and never, ever had something like this happen before. I think the kids are possibly heading for a pet. What do you think? I'm just not sure we want to take on the possiblity of this being a girl cat and having to have it fixed to keep from having more kitties. I'm fine with it just being a stray and it and come and go when it pleases and when it disappers again we'll just deal with the loss, but the vet bills.....I'm just not sure we want that. Any suggestions?

Take me out to the BALLGAME

Several weeks ago our good friends the Quiorz's invited us to go to a Diamondback Game at Chase Field. We've never actually gone to a game before so we thought it would be a lot of fun to go with friends. The Quiroz's have a son who is just one year younger than Kyle and then a girl who is the same age as Nathan. They are in our ward as well. Anyway, we knew the kids would have so much fun at the game just hanging out. Well, the night before the game Stephanie Quiroz called me and told me that her husband wasn't sure he was going to make it back in town from a business trip in time to go to the game. Then her oldest son (Nick who is 19) found out that he had a last minute baseball game for college that he had to play for. So Stephanie had 3 extra tickets for the game. So she decided to invited our other good friends the Curtis family to go. So Phillip took his two boys and went to the game with us. We were quite a group.

It was so much fun for everyone. No foul balls were caught, but a lot of great memories were made with really good friends. The boys went to the batting cage and had lots of fun practice hitting. At the end of the ballgame there was also a fireworks show that was really neat. The kids just loved it. All in all everyone had a wonderful time. We've got to go back and do it again real soon.

THE GANG: Phillip C. , Dallin C, Nathan, Kayla, Sis. Q., Sarah Q., Robert, Jill, Ryland C., Kyle and Christian Q.

Kyle & Christian Quiroz

Nathan & Ryland Curtis