Vacation at Home

So.... I was feeling like the kids and I needed alittle R&R. Where we live kids are on a modified track program so summer is about 7 weeks long. All these means for us is that everyone has been taking vacations, except us that is, because we are going to San Diego and Utah next month for our summer vacation. Well, Scott had a training in Pleasanton, about an hour from our house and lucky for him we decided to crash his hotel room and take a little time off from normal life. We spent a lot of time in the hotel pool, visited the bounce house, Oakland Zoo, Antioch Water Park (ok, 5 slides was all but perfect if you have a 4 year old and 1 year old) and made a nice liesurely trip to Chuck E. Cheese. We ate out, had our beds made by others and enjoyed time off from "normal" life! I only wished we did this more often!
Some highlights:
Lauren going down the waterlide a hundred times by herself
Micah riding all the slides, even the partner slide with Dad
Mom almost winning the Ski Ball Jackpot like 20 times (we had a hundred tokens, I figured I could use a few for myself!)
Watching the alligators get fed giant rats at the zoo(someone from Animal Planet was there filming it for a show)
Shopping at the Pleasanton Mall
Residence Inn waffles, YUM!
Lauren and Micah both riding the giant inflatable slide together
Did I mention, no housework or cooking for 4 whole days?

You're a grand old flag!

Happy Fourth of July, like 100 days late... that shows you how behind I am on blogging! Here are some pictures from our celebration. We had Manda, which was so fun. The kids are still missing her. A couple of days later Miriam and Chase joined the party too. We started out the morning with a pancake breakfast, spent some time relaxing, enjoyed the Round Table Pizza buffet for lunch (Micah's favorite restaurant, he likes the food and the boat racing game) had a swimming outing, had friends over for a barbeque and then headed to the park for games, dessert and fireworks. We also had glowing jewelry... we were approached by people to buy them. As our friend said, I should have thought ahead and I'd of made a nice little chunk of change that night!

Sunday Afternoons

Sunday afternoons are the best time of the week. After an ultra- hectic morning and sometimes a bonus meeting, we all end up at home for macaroni and cheese, a Sunday lunch tradition, and fantastic Sunday afternoon nap. When it finally cools down at night after dinner we take a family bike ride to the park. Micah is an expert rider and rule follower and Lauren likes to take a toy or book for the ride in the bike trailer. Here are a few pictures so you can feel like you're right there with us...

Pool play

A swim a day keeps the Doctor away!!!

Push ups from friends (The Harlows) help too!!!
What better place for a popsicle than the bathtub (as long as it doesn't get dropped that is)...

Things I'm making...

So, I aspire to be creative. I am however short on free brain cells and spare time! I saw these cute crayon rolls in a boutique, (they were selling them for almost $20!!!) and found instructions to make them online. They are VERY simple to make. If you'd like instructions I can send them to you. I think you could even adapt them for markers or colored pencils, so cute! I'm obsessed with them. I think I like the little bit of order (all the crayons perfectly sharp in perfect color order)in an otherwise chaotic life! Stay tuned for the really cute and simple tutu I made for Lauren... I'll take a picture of it when I can get her in it!

Lauren's "fashion" sense

We have baby girl who already has developed a love of clothes (I didn't say she had good judgement, she just likes to pick out her own outfits), make up, nail polish, purses and shoes. She is all girl! Here are a few snapshots of her modeling her new Elmo shoes (thanks Auntie Marcia) and her very favorite thing to wear, her princess (one of her first words, she's never seen a princess movie but she knows the word) nightgown (which has matching high heels which she also loves but are not in this picture). When we got them at the Disney store she insisted on wearing the shoes and the nightgown out over her clothes for the rest of the afternoon in the mall. Quite a sight. Where she gets this from, we are not sure. Must be from one of her aunts. Yes, she's clutching a bag of marshmallows and won't give them back. Little stinker!!!

Lazy weekend days

We thought it might be fun to set up the aerobed for movie night. It was such a hit that we didn't take it down for days. We all wondered why we didn't have a permanent queen bed in the family room... maybe we'd be so lazy we'd stop doing anything productive! It was fun while it lasted.

Motorcycle madness...

Lauren didn't even make it on a ride, Micah, however, loved a small "ride" around the block!

Summer fun...

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago, I've had a hard time getting my pictures off the camera! It was an extra hot day, we had already been to the pool once, so we decided to cool off in the back yard. We made our own snowcones (notice Lauren begging for more, I think she had like 17 of them) , played on the slip and slide and I laughed a lot observing three people (one very tall) in a very small pool. The funniest happening of the day, Scott doing tricks on a slip in slide (which carried a caution for anyone over five feet tall). The video is hysterical but I love Scott enough to not post it here!