Summer Friends

There are a few girls that stay next door with their grandmother during the summer months. They're just a few years older than the twins, and they love to come over and play with the them.

The neighbors have a small pool, so the kids have been over there a lot, too. It's been nice because they haven't been into swimming that much. It would be nice to know they can swim since we love being around water as often as we can. It's also been strange having the kids have "friends." They've always had kids they've played with, but now they run out of the house the minute other kids are outside. Please don't grow up too fast!!!

Weekend with the Family

The last weekend in June we had a wonderful visit with Steve's aunt and grandmother who came in from Missouri for a visit. We usually only see them once or twice a year, so it was a great treat.

It was also great to go for a second weekend in a row to Steve's brother's house. Even though they only live about 40 minutes away, for some reason we hardly see them during the year, too. The kids also played with a few of their cousins for a while, too, something that also doesn't happen that much.

The next day we had Steve's aunt, grandmother, parents, and sister-in-law over to hang out and then order some pizza. We put out the pool for the kids.

I kinda felt bad that I didn't cook for everyone, but they don't get to have pizza like we do near Chicago, so it was a treat for them.

My favorite, favorite part of the evening was when the kids ran around the yard collecting fireflies and bringing them back to their granddad. I just can't get over the look of wonder in their faces. May it never disappear.

First Day of Summer!

It's the first day of summer! As a kid summer was always my favorite season, and understandably so. Now, most of the time my life feels like a summer vacation, so spring is now my favorite season, followed closely by fall.

The weather has fluctuated so much this spring that it's often seemed like winter, spring and summer all in the same week! We tried to take advantage of the hot days by getting outside as much as we could. A few weeks ago we met my sister and her son at Phillip's Park in Aurora. There's a free splash park there, but it's small and gets pretty crowded, especially on really hot days. Jared and Alexa liked the spray gun, but they didn't spend too much time running through the water.

On the not so great days, we've been opening up some art kits the kids received for Christmas and still hadn't opened up yet. I bought this clay kit at Michael's.

After not picking up a camera that much, Alexa has gone back to taking pictures again. She only wants to use my new camera, though, which makes me a bit nervous. I love how she likes to be a photographer, but the camera was so expensive! She likes to open pages of her favorite books and take pictures of the pictures.

Jared still loves to line up his figures, something he does for hours every day.One day he brought in a branch from outside, laid it on its side and pretended his soldiers were marching through the jungle.

Some days I wish the kids would go outside more. Sometimes days go by when they aren't interested at all in going outside. They still love to mix up concoctions, which they call their science experiments.

They HAVE liked going outside at night, though, especially since the fireflies have come out.

We've been taking a lot of family bike rides after dinner and then coming home to catch fireflies. The kids see how many they can catch and put in their bug holder, and then release them before we go inside. The past few months have been a bit stressful for me, but lately I've just been amazed at how much better I feel when I just make myself relax,sit and just be with the kids. I've built up so many great memories in the past few weeks from just the simplest times together. I love travelling with the kids, but these memories are just as special.

Welcome Spring!

Ok. So when this post goes up we'll be about a week away from summer, but with the weather we've been having, it did feel like spring again today. I've heard allergy season is even worse this year than most. I personally can tell you it's much, much worse.

I've started getting allergy shots because things have been so bad. Just two weeks ago I had to take a break from the shots because I started to get out of breath and needed a steroid treatment.

Between the shots and the chiropractor, it's been a pain sometime taking the kids to weekly doctor appointments. To make it a little more interesting we try to incorporate a playground visit after the shots.

We've been having weeks starting off in the 90's and ending in the 60's. On one very hot day, we took out the pool for the first time this year.

At age 5, they still love to cover themselves with anything wet and sticky.

It's hard for me to believe summer is just about here. I just hope it doesn't go by that fast. We have so much we want to do and too little time.

San Diego Beach Round-Up

After our four days in Las Vegas, we rented a car and drove down to San Diego for two weeks. Finally, we could relax and enjoy two whole weeks together. It was the longest amount of time we have been together since the kids were born.

We went to five different beaches during our two weeks there. Most of the days were very chilly, usually in the low to mid 60's, although it got into the lower 70's a few days. One of our favorite beaches was La Jolla Cove.  It was surrounded by higher cliffs so it blocked off most of the wind, making it more pleasant.

The kids and Steve went exploring a bit in a cave near the beach while I watched and took pictures. The funnest part of this beach is watching the nearby sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Parking can be difficult to find, though, so get there early.

We drove across the huge bridge off San Diego's mainland, to a jutting peninsula where we hung out at Coronado Beach.  Parking was great, just off the street across from the beach. The beach has a beautiful stretch of sand and is next to Hotel Coronado, a hotel built in the 1800's.

Since it was so windy, the kids spent most of their time running across the sand. Steve sculpted this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for them.

Closer to our rental house, we found the two Carlsbad beaches and spent an afternoon there. It was very, very windy at these beaches, but the kids still wanted to go in the water with Steve. They also loved being buried in sand.

We also checked out the beach in Oceanside. I wish I had pictures of it, but the thing I remember most about this day was climbing the rocks that lead out into the ocean as a natural pier.

I've saved my favorite beach for last. Although it was a 45 minute ride from where we stayed, it was so worth the trek out to Laguna Beach.  It was still pretty windy and cold, but it was really gorgeous and the kids loved, loved, loved climbing on the rocks. We're not a sit on the beach type of family. There always has to be some element of adventure there.

Have you ever been to San Diego?

What We Did Love in Las Vegas

Last post I wrote about what we didn't like about Las Vegas, but to be fair, there were quite a few things we did like. For one, we had a great afternoon at the pool at the hotel. I'm pretty much a baby about cold water, so I didn't go in too far, but the kids loved, loved, loved swimming with Steve. We all went into the hot tub afterwards, which I had no problem with!

I personally loved eating out all the time. Steve's work gave us a very generous stipend for food, so we went to the Rainforest Cafe at MGM grand (where we also were able to see the lions), Outback Steakhouse, ordered pizza with room service, and a few other places.

While Steve was in one of his meetings, the kids and I walked over to the Bellagio to check out the indoor botanic gardens. It was pretty small, and the kids were whiny that day and wanted to be carried most of the time, but we did have fun taking silly pictures together.

I think Jared's highlight of Las Vegas was seeing Batman walking down the street and taking a picture with him. We also thought it was pretty cool to see Spiderman walking down the street, by himself, at 9:00 on a Sunday morning.

But the greatest part of Las Vegas was going to Red Rock Canyon. We LOVE the outdoors and this was a gorgeous place to hike. It's kinda crazy how Jared will whine to be held when we walk down the sidewalk, yet he hiked for three hours straight and didn't complain once.

We found a man made pond and had a relaxing time dipping our feet in the water and just chilling out. We had wanted to spot some animals, so it was a little disappointing to only see a beetle and lizard, but the scenery was breathtaking. I highly, highly recommend visiting this great get-away from it all just twenty minutes away from the Strip.