A Fun Sunday

Colby and I, along with our neighbors Anne and Darrel, all took the kids to Tanaka Farms for their Watermelon Wagon Ride Tour. I had been on the strawberry tour, but we didn't quite make it to the watermelon one last year. This was the next to last weekend, before the close shop on watermelons and start preparing for the pumpkins. We did the 9am tour, since it was already about 90 degrees then! The kids had a great time and we had lunch at Jerry's Famous Deli afterwards.

Bailey with a plate of her favorite, cucumbers!
Thankfully we got to sit in the shade while we tried out some of the delicious fruits.

Colby and his twin

Bailey tried out the yellow watermelon

I'm not sure why the grumpy face, she had such a fun time

Me and my little guy

Bailey got to go over to Annabelle and Vickie's house for a sleepover!

They put on a hula girl show for Anne and Darrel

Don't you just love camera phones! Anne texted me these pictures last night.

LA Natural History Museum

My neighbor, Anne, and I packed up all five of our kids and headed over to the Natural History Museum today. The 3 girls learned about dinosaurs during preschool this year. The director of the preschool loves giving the kids a little lesson so they beg their parents to take them to some of the wonderful museums Los Angeles has to offer. It was fun to take them and hear them talk about some of the things they had learned. The new dinosaur exhibit is really quite special and the kids had a great time there.

Bailey was either grump or scared, I'm not sure which!
Look mom, a dinosaur!

A view of the new exhibit

Bailey-still a bit grumpy. Raif was loving it, though.

Bailey was a bit happier once we moved to the African Mammals exhibit. Maybe she was scared.

Bailey's 1st Soccer Practice

Bailey's BFF played soccer last year for the first time, and her daddy, Aaron decided to be assistant coach this year. So....Bailey decided it was okay to give soccer a try (as long as she could be on Reagan's team)! Well, it all worked out and she had her first soccer practice last night. Our little ballerina, ran around on her tip toes the entire hour. It was actually really cute. We'll see how rough and tough she gets over the course of the season!

All geared up and ready to go.
Ball, cleats, shin guards- Check!

Bailey and Reagan-My how much they've grown

Kicking the ball

Go Bailey!

Taylor Swift Concert

Last Christmas, my dad surprised Bailey with tickets to see Taylor Swift. She is a huge fan of hers, and was so excited. It was really hard to wait 8 months for the actual concert. My dad also got tickets for my, my mom, sister, and two nieces. We had a fun GNO and headed over Phillipe's for some delicious french dip sandwiches. The concert was really quite a production. Even if you aren't a huge Taylor Swift fan, the show she puts on is quite amazing and entertaining. Taylor even walked through the audience and was 5 rows from us. We had great seats for the entire show. The look on Bailey's face when Taylor first came out was priceless!! Thank you to my dad for the tickets. We had a fun, memorable night.

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of Taylor Swift!

My little girl

Lexy and Jaymee's favorite part: Probably when Justin Bieber came out for a song with Taylor Swift.

My mom on the phone to my dad telling him about our awesome seats.
Bring out Taylor!

The sets were beautiful

The video screens in the back were so fun

The tree that she sat on for about 6 songs was only about 50 feet in front of us.

Long Beach Aquarium- Behind the Scenes

Last week, Margaret and Charley scheduled a behind the scenes tour of the Long Beach Aquarium. The aquarium just acquired some new arctic fox kits and some penguins. The fox and penguins are still under quarantine, so we didn't get an up close look, but we did see some interesting animals behind the scenes.

Waiting for our tour to begin
Bailey got to touch the only kind of jelly fish that don't sting- a moon jelly

Grammy's turn

A look at the new kits, so adorable

These are cleaner shrimp-they actually clean off all of the parasites from your hand and other fish

Raif in the BIG elevator they use to transport all animals

After our tour, we fed the lorikeets

Here birdie, birdie!

Catalina with Friends

Two weekends ago, our good friends joined us for a weekend of fun at Catalina. It was the first Tommy and Cameron had ever spent the night on a boat, but not first time boaters. The kids got along so well, and we had such a great time. I'm sure this is the start of many fun trips together to Catalina.

Late night fishing after the kids went to bed, we accidentally caught an eel. Colby and Matt, a few cocktails into the night, were trying to figure out how to get it off the hook!
Very unhappy eel on the gaff.

We did, however, catch a delicious halibut that both families got to bring back home and have for dinner!

Cameron, brave little girl, jumped off the side of the cockpit.

We blew up the rafts, tied them to the boat, for hours of fun for the kids.

Sarah and Tommy out for a paddle board ride.

Matt on that same ride.

Colby was DETERMINED to catch a ray. He hooked a few, but they are so strong they snapped the line.

More fun, tying up the paddle boards and letting the kids play with them on the back of the boat.

Bailey and Cameron on the rafts.

Hawaii 2011

Hawaii is very special to Colby and I, as most of you know. We spent this first few years of our marriage there, and it really did become our home. While I don't miss living there, I do miss it. It had been almost 6 years since we had been there, as I was 5 months pregnant with Bailey when we moved back to California. When my mom and dad asked us where we wanted to go on a family vacation, I immediately said Hawaii!! So, 10 of us planned this trip almost a year ago, and decided to return to our Hawaii home at Turtle Bay, and try a new island for all of us, Molokai. The trip was so special. A rare treat for all of us to spend 8 days together. Here is just a snippet of our trip. I couldn't post all of the pictures, but did manage to create a good snap shot of our trip. I was not ready to come home, and I can tell you it will not be another 6 years until I go again.

The amount of luggage it takes 10 people to travel with
Cocktail hour started on the plane

I don't know how she managed to sleep on the plane

Arrival in Honolulu

Cocktails at the pool bar

Mom and dad

It was so nice to be back at our old spot

More cocktails on the lanai

Hanging out

Cocktail hour turned into a game of "penny can," but since we were in Hawaii it was "Coco-Nut"

A view from the lanai

The condo pool

Bailey in her cool shades

Me and my girl

A dip in the pool

A trip to Waimea Falls

60 % of the crew

Eli and Jaymee

Kelly and Lexy, they were recreating pictures from years ago

The kids

More of the kids

We made it to the falls

Jaymee and Raif in the waterfall pool

Bailey wasn't so sure about being so close to the fall

Yes, everyone, she is in the water

Our family

All 10 0f us at the falls

Feeding the peacocks

Dinner at Lei Lei's

Bailey and Aunt Jennifer

Jaymee, Dad and Eli

Mom, Kelly and Raif

Colby with our friends Cara and Gary

Happy boy

Raif was running around the putting green pretending the balls were his chicken eggs

Shave ice, a must!

Eli and his girls

Mmmmm!

We stopped by the turtle feeding area

Raif loves sea turtles

Play time at the pool

Bailey and grandma

On the slide Colby helped build

So fun!

For everyone.

Lexy's turn

Go Jaymee!

Raif managed to turn around and go head first!

Another family photo opp

The kiddos, again

We made it to Molokai, a view from our house

Lunch on the beach at Halawa

The beach here was beautiful

Jumping off the pool back at the house

Eli chillin'

It was aloha Friday, which only meant we had cocktails earlier, than later

That is a serious spider, right next to our pool

Retired and relaxed, ahhhh!

1, 2, 3, Jump!

Aloha Friday or Saturday, I can't remember

Spectacular sunsets

A view of our Molokai house

View from the rooms

The living room area

Front of the house

Kelly and Eli at Halawa

So fun!

Drive to Halawa

Another family photo

Morning happy face, who wouldn't be happy drinking delicious Kona coffee!

More views of the house

Race time

Dinner at Molokai Hotel

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids

Kelly and her girls

Molokai hot bread, oh my!

In front of the Molokai hot bread place

You have to go down a shadey alley to get the hot bread, SO worth it

Colby and I took an early morning walk down one of the most beautiful beaches

We saw tide pools, rocks, and growing Hawaiian sea salt

Another beautiful Molokai beach

How often do you get to make some of the only footprints in the sand?

One of my favorite pictures

Gorgeous sunsets

It was our last night there, what a way to end a magnificent trip