Legoland

Legoland was the highlight of the vacation. We have been telling Thomas for months about Legoland and letting him get on the website to check it out. By the time the day came he was very very excited. Kelly and I had talked about several options of amusement parks to go to while in San Diego and I am glad that we chose Legoland. The park is designed for kids and Thomas was able to just about everything there. I think there were only 3 rides that he couldn't get on because he wasn't tall enough. Noelle was able to get on a few of the rides also. The first day Kelly, Noelle, Thomas and I all went and the second day Noelle went to day care with Tyler.

I was amazed to see all of the things that they were able to do with Lego's. There were all kinds of things made with Lego's. I have attached some of my favorites.

At one point Kelly and I took Thomas on roller coaster that we didn't realize at the time but you have to peddle yourself around.

They also had a whole land focused on cities in the United States all done in Lego's. That was really neat also.

Thomas got his first drivers license. Watch out now!!! He even had a girl cut him off.

Thomas liked the water park they had. It was huge. You could spend all day there if you wanted. In the picture look at the huge bucket at the top. That fills up and then dumps the water on everyone at the park. I was taking Thomas to the top to go on the waterslide and thought I could beat it but two girls cut in line and I got hit. I didn't have my swimsuit on and the rest of the day I had to wear wet clothes!!! It's a good thing Thomas enjoyed the slide.

Qualcomm knows how to throw a party!

Julie works for Qualcomm and the weekend we were there just so happened to be the weekend they have their annual summer picnic for their employees. This was the most amazing company picnic I have ever been to. There were thousands of people and a ton of things to do. They had bounce houses, face painting, mini car races, slides, a Frisbee dog show, 2 bands, and several other things to do. They had every kind of carnival goodies you could think of (including my favorite cotton candy), BBQ ribs and chicken, hotdog's, hamburgers, and soda's. To top it all off everything was FREE. Employee's paid $5.00 for each adult to get in and paid nothing for their children.

Everyone was happy and it was a very positive atmosphere. Coming from a company where I don't even get a Christmas card, I was amazed to see how well this company treats their employees. It was a nice thing to see.

A day at the beach.

Thursday morning we decided to take the kids to the beach and have a picnic. The weather was perfect. We went to the grocery store and got our lunch and headed to the beach. Thomas hadn't been to the beach since he was about 1 1/2 years old and Noelle went in April when we were in San Diego the last time but we didn't have her bathing suit with us.

Thomas loved playing in the ocean and having the waves crash at his feet. Noelle wasn't to sure of sitting in the water but she liked her feet to be in it. Thomas and I played football on the beach and Noelle and Kelly played in the sand.

I'm back from vacation and bummed I have to go back to work tomorrow!!!

As most of you know, I drove to San Diego with Kelly, Thomas and Noelle on the 13th. We went to visit my brother and his wife, Julie and their new son, Tyler. Kelly and I have been looking forward to this vacation for some time. This was a great opportunity to spend time with my brother because we don't see him often. Troy was only there for a couple of days before he left to go camping with my Dad. The next week we spent with Julie and Tyler. We haven't had many opportunities to spend time with Julie and this also was giving a chance for the kids to see their cousin. This was the perfect vacation!!!

We had a lot of things planned for our vacation. Thursday we went to the beach while Troy and Julie worked. We picked up Tyler at the sitter early so we could spend some time with him. Friday we went and did some shopping with Julie to get the kids clothes for their pictures on Sunday. That afternoon we played in the backyard with the squirt guns and the kids did some swimming in the pool. Saturday we went the amazing summer picnic that Julie's work puts on. Sunday we went relaxed before getting the kids pictures taken at JcPenny's. Monday Kelly and I took the kids to the Scripp's Aquarium and to the San Diego Temple. Tuesday we took the kids to Lego Land. Wednesday Noelle went to daycare with Tyler and we took Thomas to Lego Land. And Finally on Thursday we came home.

We had such a wonderful time with Troy and Julie and of course baby Tyler. I wish they lived closer!!! I miss them already.

I think I spend to much time with my camera....

We were pretty busy last weekend which meant that I was able to get a lot of cute pictures. Saturday morning Thomas and I made breakfast for Kelly and Noelle. I had bought Thomas what I thought was a totally cute apron and hat. Everyone made fun of it but Thomas loved it and I thought he was cute in it. Kelly was worried that if Julie hated the chicken costume she was really going to hate the apron and hat!

That afternoon we went to Gary and Sandy's 25th Wedding Anniversary party. It was a Hawaiian Luau and everyone came dressed in their Hawaiian gear.

Grandpa and Noelle

We had a great time at the party. Noelle did what she does best... ate everything in sight. She loved everything on Kelly and Grandpa's plates. She always makes us laugh because she will eat as long as you let her but you would never know it because she is so tiny. She has a great metabolism. She can thank her dad for that!!

Neither Kelly or I felt like cooking dinner that night and it was getting late so we decided to go to Carl's Jr. and pick something up. We got there and went to order and we couldn't think of anything we wanted to eat. We thought about leaving before ordering but we didn't. We should have! We decided to have a picnic on the front yard except no one wanted to eat. I think we threw away almost everything we bought!!! What a waste. After our failed dinner we decided to play a game of croquet. That was a lot of fun. Noelle didn't participate instead she entertained herself with the Carl's Jr. cup (all it had was ice in it). Noelle doesn't appreciate it when you take her food or drink away from her. She will throw a huge fit and even though she can't walk she can "run" on her knees!! It really is about the cutest thing ever. Her knees have huge calluses on them. She doesn't like the grass so she "runs" on the cement.

So when we decided to clean up and get the kids in the bath. Thomas helped us clean up and I think that is when the camera got lost. Tuesday evening I was going to post these pictures but I couldn't find the camera. The rest of the week I turned the house upside down trying to find the camera. I can't tell you the emptiness I felt not having it. As you can tell with all of my pictures, I have my camera with me all the time. My Mom came over on Thursday evening and had dinner with me and helped me go through the entire house and garage looking for it but no such luck. By Friday I was in panic mode because I'm leaving for San Diego in a few days and I can't go without a camera!!!! I knew if I went and bought a new one I would find the old one and then I'd be mad. But something told me to look in a bin where I keep my gift wrapping stuff in the garage and at the bottom of the bin was my camera!!! Thomas must of helped put things away, just in the wrong spot. The relief I felt was amazing! As I write this I'm thinking that I may need to spend less time with the camera....

Anyone need a bus pass??

My life has been pretty boring this week. I haven't been feeling very well and I haven't had the kids with me so I have spent most of my time laying on the couch and being lazy. I got to thinking about what I could write about this week. I have been trying to update my blog weekly so it would become a habit. My life isn't all that interesting so I can tell that some weeks I'm going to have to really think about my entry.

Something happened last week at work that I thought some of you would think was quite funny. So I think everyone knows that I am a social worker and I work with developmentally disabled adults. I think I have one of the best jobs anyone could ask for. I love my clients and I love that I am able to help them reach their goals. They also make me laugh.

So, last week I went to see one of my clients to do his yearly meeting where we go over all of his goals for the year and see what services he is in need of this coming year. I will call him Jeff. Our appointment was in the afternoon that day. I got there a few minutes earlier so the staff that works with him hadn't gotten there yet. When I walk in Jeff has 4 brand new tires that would fit a truck with nice chrome rims. placed next to his couch. You could tell that he had polished them and had taken really good care of them. I asked him where he got them and what he was going to to do with him. He informed me that he went down to Pep Boys and bought them and then carried them home one by one. I don't know how far that would be but I do know that it's a long way from his apartment and he lives in an upstairs apartment. He also told me that he was going to put them on his classic truck downstairs. I don't think there's a truck down stairs. So by the time that story was over his staff had gotten there. We started talking about what he had been up to the last few months. Jeff told me that he had went to Reno to go gambling with some friends and he won $12,000. I asked him what he had done with the money (maybe that is how he bought the tires) worried that his social security benefits would be effected. He told me that the man took his name down and was going to mail him the money. I don't think there's any money coming. I then asked Jeff how he was doing on the bus. We discussed at our meeting last year that he wanted to take the bus by himself. Jeff said he takes the bus all the time. He schedules his own ride and takes the bus a few times a week. As I do with all my clients I asked if he had any extra bus passes. He started to look over his shoulder as if someone was spying on him. He got up and went in the kitchen and again started looking around like someone was watching him. He came back and gave me about 15 bus passes. I could tell when he was getting me them that he was going through something. So I asked him if he was sure that was all of them. Jeff then said "oh no, I plenty of passes." I asked him to bring me all of his passes. I nearly had a heart attack when he brought me a stack about 5 1/2 inches tall of passes. Now, we only send him one pass per month. In order for him to have all of these passes he couldn't have taken the bus in YEARSSSSSS!!!!! At first I was thinking what an idiot I was. I should have been asking about his passes every time I saw him. Then I remembered that I have only had Jeff on my caseload for a year, so I have only met with him few times. At that point I knew my co-workers were going to have a field day with that. Bus passes are a hot commodity. Without a doubt there is a service coordinator asking their co-workers for a bus pass everyday. They are very very hard to come by. Clients can make money buy selling them and most clients that don't use their pass each month sell them to people on the streets. Not Jeff!!! I asked him what he had been doing for transportation and he said that he does a lot of walking. He decided earlier this month he didn't want to take the bus anymore. Finally.... he said that he had been saving the bus passes for me. Another reason why I love my clients!!! They are funny, resourceful and always thinking of me!!! I didn't think that anyone would believe me so I decided to take a picture.

Now just to share with you how much money this is the golden ones at the top of the stack were worth more than $3000.00. I was honest though and took them into our Transportation Manager and gave her the passes. Together we had a good laugh. Next time I need a bus pass for a client that lost his or hers I know where to go.

Hope this gives you a laugh for the week!!! Hopefully next week I will have something more interesting to share.

Six Flags

After a long week of remodeling Kelly and I decided that it would be fun to take the kids to Six Flags Discoverey Kingdom (the old Marine World). In August we are going to Lego Land and Sea World while we are in San Diego so we thought this would be a good opportunity to see how the kids do. Thomas had a wonderful time. In the end I think he had to much sugar but he slept from the time we left the parking lot till the next morning, so that was a plus. Noelle also enjoyed it. She didn't even cry when the charcters came to visit with her. Kelly really wanted her to go on some rides so we took her to the Choo Choo Train. The man there asked if she could walk. With a quick ahhh yes Dave stood her up. Of course she didn't walk. Dave just told the man she didn't feel like walking right now. The man didn't say that she had to walk on her feet. Noelle walks great (and she is very quick) walking on her knees!!! So it wasn't a complete lie. That worked on three of the rides. The mean lady in Thomas Town said if she could walk she needed to walk over to the ride. Kelly told the lady that Noelle was scared and didn't feel like walking right then. The lady didn't let her get on the ride. The people standing in line behind Kelly started booing at the lady. Kelly started a riot at Six Flags..... Oh well. It was all pretty funny. It's an ongoing joke at our house that Noelle just doesn't feel like walking hopefully she will feel like it before we go to San Diego!!!

There was one other cute moment. There was a few of the Looney Tune characters in a major walkway with a bunch of people standing in a line. I wasn't paying attention and just walked infront of them the rest of the group followed. Then the music started. They were having a dance contest. Now anyone who knows me, knows I would never participate in a dance contest. Thomas really wanted to watch it. He saw Tweety Bird and wanted to go and dance with Tweety. He kept saying come on Auntie dance with Tweety. I told him "no" but if he wanted to he could. So, he did. He ran across to the other side of the "stage" and just stood next to Tweety. He didn't dance he just stood there next to him. I love that kid!!!!

Here are some pictures from the day.

"While You Were Out"

OK so most of you know that I was on vacation last week and I was going to redo my Dad's house a little. Many of you thought I was crazy and at times while we were doing it, I thought I was to. Everyone wanted before and after pictures so here is the story and the pictures. Sorry the story is so long but to really understand how it went down I had to tell the whole thing..... Enjoy.

A few months ago Kelly and I decided to play "While You Were Out" at my Dad's house. My Dad does so much for the both of us and he hasn't redecorated his house in a very long time so we thought we would do it for him. First we came up with a plan. The plan was to use the week that we usually go camping with him to do the work. We would be giving up our yearly camping trip with him but thought he would understand once he got home. So, when he gave us his camping schedule for the year (he goes several times for a week at a time during the summer) we both told him that there would be no way we could get the time off this year. Sorry Gary, Sandy and Shauna. So, for the past few months Kelly and I have been shopping trying to find the perfect "theme" that he would love. We found a wallpaper border for the kitchen that was a "fishing" theme. PERFECT!!! The colors were right and it fit him just right.

A couple of weeks ago Kelly and I went to Lowes and got the paint and all of the other things we needed. We had purchased the wallpaper boarder months ago but when we went to Lowes we couldn't find a color that matched the boarder. We asked the guys working there and they said the color swatch on the paper was to small. So, we went and found another boarder that we thought he would like with a "coffee" them. The hardest part of the whole project was going to be taking the wallpaper down that my Mom put up back in 1991! Kelly and I have never taken wallpaper down so we really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.

The only thing that could go wrong now, is Dad not going camping. Well.... last week we had a slight scare. Dad has a friend that is very ill that he has been friends with for years and years. His friend needed to go into the hospital to have a procedure done that was very risky so he decided that he wasn't going camping. OH NO!! Kelly and I tried to figure out what to do now. Then he called a couple days later and said that the procedure wasn't going to be done until the middle of week and he would go camping and call home to see how his friend was doing. Camping trip back on! Then Monday afternoon Kelly got a call from him saying Perla (one of his employees) had just quit and he wasn't sure that the camping trip would work after all (thanks a lot Perla!). Then I got a phone call from him saying he had worked out the schedule but he would have to come home early on Saturday instead of Sunday evening. Project While You Were Out is back on but we would have to be quick. So here is how it went down....

Tuesday: Dad goes to work and leaves to go camping at noon. Kelly and I move in once he leaves, well that was the plan. Kelly has had an eye infection for a couple of weeks now and Tuesday morning when she woke up her eye was pretty bad. She didn't know if she would be able to drive safely from Escalon. I got my stuff together and went to Dad's to get started. Kelly took a shower and rinsed her eye really good and got on the road. Kelly got there around 11:30am. We fed the kids lunch and start to tear down the wallpaper. Thomas didn't think that tearing the wallpaper down was such a great idea and was sure that Grandpa was going to be mad there was a mess in his kitchen. His plan was to hide in the closet when Grandpa got home from camping. I never knew that taking wallpaper down was so difficult. Kelly and I couldn't get the wallpaper down for anything!! The first layer came off but the glue portion would not come off. So we got the wallpaper remover tool out and went to town.


Here's Kelly hard at work!


And then we ran into a slight problem. We took a portion of the wallpaper off and the wall was missing. There was this "white grainy" stuff on the floor and didn't know where it came from but we found out. There must have been some water damage done at some time and all of the drywall was missing.

So... that's a problem. Kelly and I have no idea how to fix a wall and have no idea what to do from here. So we keep taking the wallpaper off and wait for Dave to come to see what to do about the wall. At this point we are thinking project While You Were Out wasn't such a good idea.

When Dave arrived I went to sand down the pink hutch and Kelly and Dave finished with the wallpaper.

I went ahead and put the first coat of navy blue paint on the hutch. Once that was done Kelly and I went in and redid the bathrooms. I forgot to take the before picture in the first bathroom but here is the finished project.

Kelly was very excited about the mural. This was her favorite part of the whole project.

The second bathroom was Kelly's bathroom when she lived there and was never changed. So, we changed it to be a little more "manly".

Finished project... we didn't do a whole lot. Just changed the towels and shower curtain and took down the "girly" things.

That night Kelly and I were still feeling pretty overwhelmed with the problem with the wall and we still didn't have a plan. So we decided to take the kids swimming and have a picnic dinner. We picked up some Subway sandwiches and went to the community pool. We checked into the pool at 6:30. We started playing with Thomas in the pool and started looking around and everyone was getting out. We thought the pool closed at 8:00 but it closed at 6:45. So that wasn't such a good idea. Thomas couldn't understand why we couldn't go swimming and eat our dinner on the grass. So we went back to the house at dinner, gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. Then Kelly and I got this grand idea to start painting the kitchen and living room. Our thought was it would be easier to paint while the kids were sleeping and the paint needed to be dry in order to get the wallpaper up. Also, if we needed to fix the wall that was going to take time. So we turned on "Flipping Out" and started painting. We got the kitchen painted and started the family room. I went in the kitchen to get a drink and noticed that the paint was splotchy and was streaked. Another bad thing goes wrong. Kelly and I just looked at each other and decided to go to bed and hopefully tomorrow would be a better day.

Day 2: Wednesday--Kelly and I didn't get much sleep that night. Sleeping wasn't on Indy and Putter's agenda. They were playing, barking at each other and chasing each other around the house. Then early in the morning Kelly heard something and went downstairs. Putter had tore open all of the garbage bags with the torn down wallpaper in them and the wallpaper was everywhere. Kelly cleaned it all up and went back to bed. The kids got up at 8:00 and so did we. Kelly's eye was worse than it had been and she was in a lot of pain. So, she decided to call and make a doctors appointment. Her appointment was at 11:00. We didn't get anything accomplished before the doctors appointment. I dropped her off at the doctors office and took the kids to Lowes to see what to do about the paint. The guys at Lowes weren't so helpful. I picked Kelly up at the doctor's office. Turns out she doesn't have pink eye but a bad situation going on with her eye. She had an appointment with the specialist in Lodi at 1:30 that afternoon. I'm starting to stress because we hadn't done any work yet and Kelly being gone wasn't going to help. Dave came and picked her up to take her to Lodi and stayed at home with the kids. I got them down for naps and finished painting the hutch. It actually turned out very nice and I was pretty proud of myself.

Kelly was told at the doctor that she has 2 ulcers on her cornea. She was given drops to put in her eye every hour and needed to go back on Friday morning.

When Kelly and Dave got home Dave started to put a second coat of paint on. It was starting to look really nice. Thomas even started to paint at some point.

So, by that evening we had the family room and kitchen painted and the furniture all put back. We were finally on a role and project "While You Were Out" was starting to be fun. We all relaxed that evening and went to bed feeling pretty good. All we would need to do on Thursday is put the wallpaper up, rearrange the furniture, and put all of the new stuff out.

Day 3- Thursday Kelly's eye was still hurting pretty bad. We were all tired and starting to bug each other. We decided that we weren't going to fix the wall but paint over it and let Dad know when he got home about the situation. So, we started to hang the wallpaper. That was a challenge. Kelly and I had never done that before and I am pretty short so reaching the ceiling was kind of difficult but we did it.

We finished rearranging the furniture and put all of the stuff in its place. We were very happy with the way things turned out and we finished a day early. Everything was done by Thursday night. It was really amazing to us all the work that got done and how good it looked. Now we just worried how Dad was going to react when he got home.

Kelly went to the doctor Friday morning and was told that her eye wasn 't getting any better and had actually got a little worse. She was given new drops and was told to come back on Monday afternoon. So, we went home relaxed for awhile and then went to Dads and did all of the finishing touches.

Here are the before......

And after.....

These pictures don't show all the work very well. In the end my Dad was very happy and really liked what we had accomplished!!! I'm glad that we did it and end in the end we really had fun and will always have stories to tell about the project.

Kelly and I were laughing the other day because Noelle loves electronics. Kelly was said that Noelle is going to be just like her Auntie. She screams for ice cream, the majority of the time she is a great sleeper, she talks all the time, she loves the remote, telephone, camera, video game controller and I could go on. Well, tonight I was cleaning the kitchen and she was playing in the living room. When I went to check on her she had gathered all of the electronics and they were sitting with her. My cell phone, home phone, remote control, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo Wii controller. I had to laugh and of course take a picture of her!

I'm a great babysitter....

Blazin' Hot

We are in the middle of a heat wave! Today on my way home the temperature in the car read 109 degrees!!!! When I got home from work my house thermostat read 93 degrees. The only place I was cool today was at work and I think I would rather be hot at this point then to have to go back there!!! I had a long day and nothing went my way. Noelle is with me and she hates to be hot and her attitude sure does show it. She may be in a bad mood but she sure is cute... Hope you guys had a better day then I did. Good thing there is always tomorrow. Next week I'm on vacation and I can't wait!!!

Noelle loves peek a boo

Noelle didn't think I was cooling her off fast enough so she found a way to do it herself. The container of baby wipes was just in her reach and she thought she was pretty smart wiping her forehead with them. Boy she is smart....