Smashing Summer: Week ONE

I failed in the nanny department this last week by getting very few pictures of our first few days of summer vacation together... but last night I cleared the pictures off my camera, charged up it's little battery, and am well prepared for this week! Here is week one of our smashing summer vacation!

I arrived in California last sunday just in time for Father's Day. We had a nice day together and we love our dad (grandpa) so very much and are so grateful for all he does for our family! We are so lucky to have him. :)


Last summer with the kids went so well, but this year I wanted it to be even better. So I have been planning out our weekly schedules, trying to think of new things to do this year that will keep us busy. So far we have a nice little schedule going that may just need a little tweaking here and there. We start our week with "Legoland Monday" and both Tuesday and Wednesday are "Free Movie day Tuesday (or Wednesday)." We wanted to squeeze free bowling into Wednesdays to have "Free bowling and Movie Wednesday" but that is one activity still in the "tweaking" stages. Mom has the day off on Thursdays so we decided to do "Beach Thursdays" and on Fridays we will have "Free Day Fridays." That's where we can squeeze in any fun extra activity. Bonnie also wants us throwing in an hour of reading, a page from the kids workbooks, and the learning of five new states and capitals a day! And dad bought us a kit to start learning Spanish! We have soccer games and practices to get to and piano lessons starting up soon! No wonder I need to make a calendar just to keep everything straight!

This week did not go exactly according to plan however, we hit some of our intended destinations, but I am just going to give the excuse that this was the first week. so we are still trying to get into the swing of things. You should be happy to hear that I have much higher hopes for "Smashing Summer Week TWO!"

Free movies this week consisted of "Evan Almighty" and "Madagascar 2." We have gotten good at sneaking in treats, but I have already broken and sprang for popcorn. . . I love movie theatre popcorn!


After Cayden's soccer game on Thursday, we hit the Mall. Cayden finally got the opportunity to ride around on the little train they have chugging around the bottom floor.

K. . . that's all the pictures I have gotten. . no joke!

Along with our first week of babysitting. . . Me and Bonnie also started our first week of waking up at 5:30 am to go running. It never gets easier waking up at that time, and I get really sleepy by the end of the day, but once I finish each morning, it is a nice relief to know that my run is done for the day!

On early morning Sunday (early meaning 3 am early) I got a text from a friend of mine from Las Vegas telling me he had been in a motorcycle crash (yes the same motorcycle I was on just a few weeks ago-- eeek!) and was in a hospital that happens to be only about 70 miles north of Escondido. A brother of his drove down from Vegas, but having no other family or friends in the near vicinity, I packed up a little "hospital fun bag" and headed up there for the day. We chatted, and played some games, and had a fun little visit. He is pretty scratched up, very sore, and has a few broken ribs here and there, but seemed to be doing pretty good. :)


Now it is Monday morning, and I am once again packing up for "Legoland Monday." No worries. . . I have my camera!!

Adventures in Indiana

I was in Indiana for not quite two weeks so I have a lot to catch up on. . . let's get started!

During the weekdays, Molly has a unique job where instead of having to take time off for her visitors, she can just bring them along instead. So that is what we did Monday through Friday from (too) early, until around five at night. We hung out with three super cute little one year old boys. I am sure normally it is quite the day for her. .. but I think she got a little spoiled having me and Bryan as her helpers for so many days in a row. . . it was a lot of fun though and I can't imagine anyone ever minding having to go to work with her.

With three boys to take care of. . Molly still manages to entertain the dog as well!

Shawna and Cooper

Molly and Cale

Bryan and Colter

Shawna and the three boys


Here are a few random pictures from a few places we ate at over the week. The first one was just a silly picture that Molly and I decided to take, then after she made her silly face. . . I gave her no redos and promised that it would end up posted on here.

Molly and Bryan are quite the bargain finders. They found this random little Chinese Buffet that included lots of yummy chinese food, drinks, and ice cream at the end. . . after using the coupon they gave me. . . my whole meal costed only $2.80!! Can't beat that!


The next few photos will just show some random shots of what we did on the weekends, as well as the evenings. .

We LOVE the train game!!

When I first arrived at Molly and Bryan's house, this puzzle was in its box on the table in the living room so I thought that over the next few weeks while I was there we could put it together while watching tv and movies. But everytime we sat down to do just that, neither Bryan or Molly would ever help me with the puzzle. When there were maybe THREE pieces in the whole thing left Molly tried to grab a piece to put in just so that she could say she helped! I told her absolutely not!! So this is a picture of a puzzle I did all by myself!

Our "No Bryan nights" consisted of lifetime movies and our family tree craft projects.

The night before I was leaving, the three of us went to the movies to see "The Proposal" (which we loved-even Bryan!!) We came outside afterwards to a rainy, stormy night which honestly didnt seem new because the weather there all WEEK was rainy and cloudy!! Anywho. . . on the news there was an announcement for a tornado warning. On just the 15 minute drive home the weather got crazy scary. We had rain, and lots of wind, and lots and lots of lightening. Not just flashes of light, but lightening where you can actually see the zig zags across the whole sky for like seconds at a time. I have never witnessed such a storm! The car ride home was scary, but once getting inside the house, it wasnt so scary. We planned our safe spot in the house if a tornado were to actually present itself, then we laid down to watch! I couldnt get any good shots of the storm, sad- but true!


Molly's pot that we had to go find that blew away in the storm

Remember the tree that blew down during Mollys last storm? Well it didnt make it again! So sad. . I am considering moving to Indy and buying this house just so I could take care of this poor tree during a storm.


No tornado ended up striking (thankfully!) and the next morning we woke up to a beautiful day! So we went and played some frisbee golf on a course where you seriously had to like hike through the forest. It was way fun though and we didn't lose any frisbees. . . yay!! The first photo is of an amazing shot I made on like the first hold we played. Molly and Bryan were blown away by my mad skills. . so I guess there is no question on who won this game!




The (almost) two weeks that I was in Indiana seriously like flew by. . . we stayed busy and did all kinds of fun stuff. Molly and Bryan were excellent hosts and I can't wait to go visit again! To top it all off though. . . Bryan was able to use some perks from that job of his and get my ticket home upgraded to first class. It was just like on tv (almost)! They really hand out hot towels, serve your drinks in real glasses, and give you like a full on meal while everyone else is paying there $2 for a bag of m&m's! I couldn't pass it up though, and definitely took a risk of being laughed at, but I just had to take a picture of my meal. . .


I made it home on Saturday evening at about 8. I had to squeeze in visits with two different friends, then was on the road bright and early the next day headed for California. This break has started super busy, but super good. . . and I am excited for what is still yet to come. :)

Happy Holidays!!

This past Saturday, Me, Molly, and Bryan decided to hit "Holiday World," a theme park located about three hours south of their home in a city named Santa Claus, IN. We weren't really sure what to expect of a random theme park situated somewhat in the middle of nowhere, but thought we would give it a whirl anyway!


We left early in the morning, scheduled to arrive right as the park was opening, but came across a few unexpected delays. . .

Molly didn't have time to finish painting her toenails before leaving so she decided to finish them in the car but very quickly learned that it was harder than she thought, therefore, Bryan was instructed to pull over so that she could finish.


Then we had to stop for gas and snacks of course! We also decided that it might be good to have some cash on hand in the park so we had to find a bank. While Bryan was in the bank, Me and Molly had a fireball eating contest, who could keep the fireball in their mouth the longest. I think we tied??


Then, being that we were so close to Indiana University, Bryan wanted to detour a little just to see the stadium (boys and sports- seriously!) While traveling along the campus, We passed this kissing statue that Molly just had to get a picture with!

After all the delays though- we finally made it!


A few random perks of Holiday World included:
All you can drink FREE soda. They just had these cute little soda oasis stands that you just served yourself!
FREE parking!
FREE sunscreen! So it was a pretty sweet deal to begin with!


Basically Holiday World consisted of two parks within one; a water park, and a regular amusement park. We hit the water park first being that it was morning and we thought that people wouldn't want to start the day getting wet. We found out ultimately that this was a fabulous idea because the lines for the rides started pretty dang short! We left a few hours into it as lines were getting longer and after we got on most everything we wanted. The downfalls however? No carrying cameras on water rides therefore no pictures, and then because of the water and being wet, our pictures from the rest of the day are not the cutest because of new wet hair/face issues. . . oh well!

After drying off we were ready for the second half of the day. The park was broken down into different areas according to holidays. There was a Christmas Land, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, and Halloween Land. It was cute, but felt odd at times when you would come across random Christmas music playing in the middle of the summer!




There were a lot of fun, random rides and we ultimately found our favorites! We even got kind of wimpy Molly onto a roller coaster that she ended up LOVING and therefore we repeated and repeated and repeated it! So that was a definite fun surprise.

There was one ride that looked so stinkin scary that Bryan could not get Me or Molly on. It was called The Pilgrim's Plunge and it looks frightening! So Molly and I hung out and waited while Bryan waited in an hour and a half long line to make the dreaded plunge! We rather enjoyed the relaxing break and got some fantastic pictures of Bryan!




About a half an hour before the water park was closing we noticed that the lines were extremely short! Me and Molly LOVE water parks so it was very tempting to strip down to our bathingsuits to jump back in but knew we would be unhappy drippy and wet again for such a short amount of time. So Bryan jumped backed in for the group which made me and Molly happy because now we could get some fun water park pictures! Sorry-- that is why they are all of Bryan!




Oh yes- we also got to eat some yummy snacks too! Deep Fried Oreos-- YUMMY!


Just like any fun filled day- there was so much to do and so much to see, it is so hard to tell about and show everything you can experience in just a one day trip! We had a fantastic time though, and spent the three hour drive home (in hopes of keeping Bryan (our driver) awake) discussing our favorite and least favorite parts of the trip, what we would do different next time, what our biggest regrets, the weirdest people we saw, our favorite rides, the rides we wished we got to go on, etc. etc. etc. It was a pretty silly conversation, but in the end we all agreed that we are fans of Holiday World and we will definitely be back!

My summer job for the day!

Hello from Indiana! I am out here visiting my awesome sister and brother-in-law here in Indy! We have had a smashing few days visit so far and I am here for yet another week! I do, however, have a few photos and a small blogging story to cover that occurred before heading out, and since I hate to go out of order, and I hate mixing blog stories, I have to do this one first. :)

Monday the 8th or so of June was my last official official day of work even though school got out the Thursday before! So, I scheduled my trip to Indy for Tuesday night, that way I would have one day of sleeping in and packing and cleaning before heading out. On Tuesday morning, however, my plans changed. I friend of mine owns a pigeon control place and knowing I had the day off, he called asking if I could be his little helper for the day. . . I thought, why not? So I agreed, quickly changed, and headed out for a long days work.

Upon arrival at his office, my cute summer outfit was quickly changed for a hideous ensemble that made me look like a boy! But I toughed it out and we were off to Ceaser's Palace to do whatever it is we were doing for the day.

If my story had ended there, however, I probably would not be blogging about it, but that is when my story actually begins! After doing a wee bit of set up, I was just taking in a view of the strip, when out of the corner of my eye I saw the sign for "Serendipitys." Serendipitys is a famous place out in NYC that supposidly makes amazing frozen hot chocolates, and being a girl that was truly saddened at the loss of Dairy Queen's frozen hot chocolates, I have been wanting to try theirs which frankly had to be better than good old DQ's! This past Christmas my dad had even looked up the recipe online and our family time consumingly tried to make these frozen hot chocolates that didn't really turn out as we had hoped. :(
Anywhoo. .. I dragged my friend over in that direction to see if this was in fact the same place. And it was! Who knew and what are the odds that I was actually living in the same city as a famous restaurant that I have been wanting to try?!

Being that I have such a great friend, he saw how how excited I was about it, and immediately dragged me in for an early lunch. The food was yummy (somewhat expensive though- yipes!) and though the frozen hot chocolate was definitely a winner, I am not sure it would have been worth a trip out to New York just for that!



So though my pictures of Serendipity's are in a heinous boy's outfit, it was definitely worth my hard day of working-- HA HA!

Good- Bye Second Grade

I had my last day of second grade this past Thursday. It was a sad day, but a very happy one as well. I LOVE summer vacations! I have been asked to teach third grade next year instead of second and with a sad heart I agreed. The more I make plans for next year though, the more I am starting to look forward to the change.
So it might not be a good-bye for too long with my little second graders, because I just might have some of them next year in the third grade!

Happy Summer Everyone!!!

Disneyland!

Friday afternoon I was sitting in my classroom getting ready to tackle those dreaded report cards due Monday, when I got a phone call from Bonnie. After chatting about whatever it is she called about, she mentioned out of the blue that her and the kids were hitting Disneyland the next day. My report card weekend I was so looking forward to (haha) all of a sudden changed into a Disneyland weekend! I stayed up until midnight-ish getting a bit of my work done, woke at 4:30 the next morning to get to Disneyland by 9. We went to California Adventures first. We hit several rides(including the dreaded Tower of Terror), went through the Tortilla Factory(my fav!), saw too many 3-D movies, grabbed some ice cream, and was out of there by 3.









Starting Disneyland at 3 in the afternoon was somewhat of a concern for me. . . so many rides. . . so little time! But after an all day trip through the park. . . we were able to accomplish almost everything. Cayden is kind of a wimp when it comes to rides, so it was a day spent mostly bonding with the kids, while me and Bonnie passed them back and forth between us. I think Aubrey got the sweetest deal of us all because she got to be the partner that always got to go on the good rides! All in all though, we had a fun time! It was a super long day, but the kids and us adults stayed in rather chipper moods for the whole thing. At around 11:30 ish we hit our hotel which was in a prime location right across the street from the park, got a midnight snack at mickey dee's, and were in bed by midnight.






Of course I had to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to get back to town to finish those dang report cards! A tiring weekend. . . but definitely worth it!