Gabs and Drake

What can I say... Gabrielle and Drake are the best of friends.

Fun at the beach

Heather's Grandma passed away so she left to go to Idaho to go to the funeral. I was Mr. Mom while she was gone. Drake had been sick so we didn't plan on going to the funeral. Well, after Heather left, he seemed to be doing better a day or two later. On a whim, Heather's brother-in-law told us to come to California and go to the beach and have fun for the day since he was Mr. Mom for their three girls while Heather's Sister was at the funeral with her. Well, we could either hang out in Vegas while Heather was gone or we could hang out at the beach. You guessed it, we went to the beach. It was a whirlwind trip. We hopped on the earliest flight we could and got there in the afternoon. Drake slept the whole way on the plane (going and coming). Everyone had a great time at the beach. We had a picnic, dipped feet in the ocean, built sand castles, and just had fun. After the beach, we went back to their apartment and swam and went in the hot tub. We finished the party by going to In-N-Out burger and watching "Bedtime Story". We had a great time. Drake dipped his feet in the ocean for the first time and also surprised us by climbing up their stairs for the first time as well. He started crawling a few weeks ago as well.

Halloween Party

The girls had a Halloween party the other day at their school. They all wore their Halloween costumes and had a great time going to all the different booths and the haunted house. Here is a preview of their costumes for this year. Madison is a psycho witch. Gabs is an angel, and little Drake is a skeleton. I got a before and after shot of him in the stroller. I wish I could sleep like him!!!

First day of school

Here is a picture of the first day of school for the girls. Madison started Middle School and is in sixth grade this year. Gabrielle is in second grade. I can't believe how fast they are growing up. The girls love their new teachers and seem to be loving school so far. Madison has one science teacher that is old and grouchy, but all of her other teachers are fun. She started band this year and will be playing the flute. She is excited to play with her four aunts.

Fun overnight

Some of the overnights I go on are a lot funner than others. One of my favorites is Philly. I love that city for some reason. The hotel we stay at is right next to so many things to see and do. When you get lucky, you actually have some extra time to take advantage of it. Such was the case on my last trip. I had about four hours of extra time to check things out. I went to the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, went on the tour of the Mint and visited a museum about the history and struggles of America growing into the nation it is today. It is great to appreciate all that was done by the founding fathers. I got the girls a fun map of the US for them to put the quarters in when they collect them all. They have all fifty states finally in circulation. When I gave it to them, they raided our money jar and filled in most of it. There are still about ten or so that we need. It will be fun to find them all.

Slacker!!!

Sorry Folks, I have been a major duty slacker lately. Things are good. Drake keeps on growing like a weed. He is in the top of the charts as far as height is concerned, but the bottom of the charts for weight. He is going to be a string bean like his dad, I think. He is sitting up by himself all the time now and is as mild and happy as ever. He has his own certain set of toys that he likes to play with, but if you introduce anything new to him, he is bound to check it out thoroughly, and then slobber all over it as well.

We had some excitement on the home front. My youngest and last sister got married a week ago. My parents are "empty nesters" now. We had a great time going back to Utah to spend time with family and have a reunion of sorts and then enjoy the wedding as well. Fun stuff. We are actually headed back tomorrow to enjoy another fun day at Lagoon before school starts back up for Madison. It is going to be crazy having the kids in different school schedules (Madison is on the traditional track since she is starting middle school and Gabrielle starts the year-round track since the school is so crowded now). I can't believe my little girl is starting Jr. High. I am getting old!!! Here's a recent picture of Drake to make me feel young, though...

Dad's Birthday

The girls gave me a great birthday. We swam and had fun. For a present, they gave me a little swimmer for baby Drake so he can join in the fun. We have the water nice and warm right now so he likes getting wet for the most part. They went over-the-top with their cake. It was an ice cream sandwich cake. Check out the before and after pictures. We made a delicious mess of the whole thing. YUMMY!!!

Bear Lake

We had a blast going to Bear Lake up in Utah where my parents have a cabin. We were able to hang out there for a few days and have fun. We swam in the lake (brrr), made sand castles (the white you see is snail shells that wash up on the beach), went hot-tubbing, played games and just had a fun time. We can't wait to go up there again.

flying the fam

I had the coolest thing happen the other day. I was able to fly Heather and the family to Utah. I took the girls up in the cockpit with me before the flight and then after we landed in Salt Lake, Heather came up with little Drake. I have a little video here of the event. What a blast. We were able to hang out with family and have a great time at my parents cabin at Bear Lake.

LAGOON!!!

Well, the crazyness continues. My sister grew out of her old car (a 94 Toyota Corolla) with the birth of their latest baby. They decided to take the leap to get a mini-van. I had a hair-brained idea that chain-reacted to the current situation. What if I bought the car and left it in Utah for the times we come down to visit and have fun??? We would easily make up the purchase price of the car in saved rental fees in no time at all. What if we bought season tickets to Lagoon for us to use during the summer??? Hmmm. Well, that's exactly what happened. We gave it a test run for the first time last week. I gave Heather the day off, sorta, and took the girls to Utah. The flight is only an hour, and the shuttle to the hotel where I left the car was there waiting for us. Ten minutes later we were piled in the car and fifteen minutes later (plus a quick stop to grab some rain ponchos for the forecast and sandwiches for lunch) we were at Lagoon. Needless to say, the girls and I all had a blast. It did rain for a bunch of the day (best three bucks I have spent in a while on those ponchos). We stayed reasonably dry and made the most of the rainy day. It really cut down on the lines, though. We just went from ride to ride. What a blast. Our plan worked great in reverse. We dumped the car at the hotel, took the shuttle to the airport and were home that night to excitedly tell Heather and "woogies" all about it. We can't wait to go again.

Rock Patio

Well, this project was actually completed a while ago. I got a bunch of red rock from up the canyon and slowly plugged away at making a stone walkway from the front of the house all the way along the side to the back connecting to the pool patio. There used to be a flagstone walkway there that drove me crazy because all the little rock would get kicked up on the flagstone all the time. I just wanted a continuous pathway. Plus, I think the red rock walkway lookes a lot better. I moved all the flagstone to the other side of the house where I plan on putting in a little patio next to our BBQ grill. Heather thinks I'm half-crazy. It took a lot longer and was a lot more work than I ever imagined it would be, but I am very happy with the results. I had some help from Heather's Mom when she came out to visit a while back as well. When we finished the job, I used some leftover cement for all of our handprints, including baby drakes (he was about a month old at the time I think). Once that job was done, I couldn't stop getting rocks to make a "dry creek bed" going down the right side of the house to add some color to the front landscape. I have meant to put some pictures of the final project up on the blog for a while now but I just have let that one slip through the cracks. Here you finally go. Enjoy, but don't ask for any help putting one in of your own. My back and knees laugh at the very idea...

Gabs looses another tooth!!!

On our way back from Lagoon the other night, Gabrielle wiggled her loose tooth and it started to bleed. She was freaking out and wouldn't touch the thing for an hour, even though it was just holding on by a thread. Finally, she started to get hungry and wanted part of a sandwich I had. That was enough to let her trust her dad to pull it out. With a quick flip of the finger, it was out. Here's the before and after shot of the drama. The kid has no teeth!!!

Drake is my new walpaper

Madison took this picture of Drake when he was in the car seat the other day. I couldn't resist saving it as the walpaper on my phone. I bust out laughing almost every time I look at it. What a funny little guy.

collage time...

Madison and Gabrielle wanted to make a collage out of some recent pictures. Enjoy the latest...

Princess Madison

I bought a pool cover the other day to help heat up the pool using solar energy as well as cut down on water loss and chemicals needed for the pool. There were a bunch of leftovers when it was all done, so Madison asked if she could use them. I said "sure" and a little while later, this was the result.