Family Vacation

Just got home a couple of days ago from our little vacation. We had such a good time (well except the day of the funeral anyways).
We actually ended up leaving Tuesday night after my husband got off work and we drove the 8 hours to my moms house, slept for about 3 hours and then was up again to head to California. VERY VERY SLEEPY.
We stopped at this little place basically so my nephew could see the dinosaurs because my girls have all been there before called Prehistoric Gardens

It was such a beautiful day to drive down the coast too, here it was 75 degrees and there was not a cloud in sight.

We made our usual stop at Mattie's Pancake House. My oldest Madyson we call her Mattie said maybe we should tell them I am the owner so I can get my meal free. Silly girl she is.

We made a million stops on the way down there is seemed for bathroom breaks, which really boggles me because my kids can usually go most of the 8 hour drive without having to stop and yet here we are on a 6 hour drive and 2 hours into it we have already made 3 stops.

Next was the Trees of Mystery again we have been here a million times but I had my nephew with me and he has never seen it before and it always make for a nice break from the car. And who doesn't want to hear Paul Bunyon talking to you lol.

Sorry couldn't get all of him in the picture

Now to get to our destination. 3 hours later we finally made it. Enjoyed visiting and introducing Jaedyn to our relatives we hadn't seen in 2 years.
Friday we decided to go to the River and enjoy the trees at Avenue of the Giants. If you ever go to California you have got to drive this road, the trees are massive in size.

We swam in the river for quite awhile and then little Miss Jaedyn decided she was ready to get out of there, so since she is in charge that's what we did.

We also got to enjoy family night at the local rodeo, it was filled with different things to watch. Madyson and Lyndze both participated in the Animal Scramble,

My little Lyndze is the one in the back in a blue t-shirt

which basically they round up all the kids take them out to the arena area and let loose a bunch of animals ranging from chickens all the way to calves, and if a kids catches one they get to take it home. Now at first I was like if either one of them get one they are going to have to give it away but then I decided if they got one I would have to purchase an animal carrier to bring it home because that would be a huge disappointment to them but LUCKILY neither one caught anything. Next they did ATV barrel races,

we only got to see one good wreck on that, and then there was calve dressing and then there was Quadiators

which is 2 people on one quad one with a bat and a balloon tied on the top of their helmet and them driving trying to break the other peoples balloons I believe there was 30 teams and this was a big deal because the winner won $600 so there was a ton of cops in case there were fights and of course there were.

Saturday we had to say goodbye and stuff our kids back into the car and head back to Oregon. So we decided we would take a different way home and take the kids to the Wildlife Safari which I was super excited about because I wanted to get my car washed by elephants. This place is so cool, you drive through it and they have tons of different animals. One spot there was a buffalo in the road and he was trying to scrap your car with his horn,

we got to see bears fighting in the water, a giraffe close enough to touch

oh I could go on and on about all of the animals there and of course the one thing I wanted to do was already shut down for the day. The drive through the safari lasted about an hour so the drive on Saturday was 9 hours. I am so glad my kids do really good in the car even the baby.
That night we enjoyed hanging out with our friends
Sunday my husband turned 32 and boy was he in a bad mood. We also had to go to a birthday party for my friends son who turned 3. Man my husband was in a bad mood this day lol.
Monday errands in town and off to see my husbands grandma, the last time she had seen the kids was in December so she was shocked at how big Jaedyn already was.
Tuesday HOME HOME HOME.
You know my vacations never actually seem like a vacation, I mean not 1 day did we do nothing and just relax we are like the energizer bunny when we go down there. I guess that is what happens when you move away from everyone, when you visit you have to try and visit everyone.
So I am at home now until Wednesday and then I head back to Oregon again.
I feel like I just wrote a book, sorry it was so long.

Weekend Wind Down - "13 Weekends of Summer" Weekend #5

Unfortunately I missed last weekend but it was for a good reason, I was on a family vacation. Post about that coming as soon as my husband gets all the pictures downloaded off his iPhone. So anyways this is week # 5 and I really hope I win one of the prizes.



Week #5 Question:

What's your favorite clothing combo during the Summer??...Skirts & Heels, Shorts & Tennis Shoes, or a Sundress and Flip Flops?

MY ANSWER:

I wear flip flops everyday or I go barefoot around my house, and for some reason this year I am really into wearing shorts which is very unusual for me I usually wear capris.

Winner 7/21

The Winner of the Ribbons of Faith Giveaway is.....

Comment #44

Jamee said...

i liked Ribbons of Faith on Facebook

July 13, 2010 3:44 PM

  Congratulations Jamee, you have 48 hours to claim your prize if I don't hear from you within those 48 hours I will have to pick a new WINNER.Sorry. I have also sent her an email. 

Thank you everyone for entering and also I would like to thank Ribbons of Faith for sponsoring this giveaway. 

I WON a Sun Skinz Rash Guard

I just opened my email a much to my surprise I won a rash guard from Sun Skinz over at Familylicious Reviews. And with it being so hot out lately I can't wait to put it on Jaedyn so she doesn't burn this summer.  Thanks so much Debra.

On the Road Again

My clothes, the kids clothes all of our blankets and toiletries are packed and we are ready to go. Yes we have a 8 1/2 hour drive ahead of us tonight and then another 6 hour drive tomorrow down to California. We were going to drive the whole way in one day but I convinced my husband differently.
We have to go to California for my great grandma's funeral service. This is really a bittersweet trip because not only do we have the funeral to attend I also get to see my family that I haven't seen in almost a year and some I haven't seen in almost 6 years none of which have gotten to meet Jaedyn my 9 month old.
So I am super excited about everyone getting to meet her for the first time but I am also very sad, I have gotten my feelings under control about my grandma dying and now they are just all going to resurface again on Thursday. I still can't believe she is gone.
And since my husband took 5 days off work so we could go down there we are also going to try and make it our family vacation for the year. We will leave Oregon early Wednesday morning and head down the coast, seeing the beach, stopping at an amazing little restaurant my kids love because of its name Mattie's Pancake House in Brookings Oregon. Mattie is my oldest so we always stop there when we go to California down the coast. And of course we have to stop at Tree's Of Mystery which has the Giant Paul Bunyon and Big Blue Ox

and the gift shop has tons of things made out of Redwood and they also have some amazing fudge. Then we won't be far from our destination.
We are heading back to Oregon on Friday and then we get to hang out with some friends that we haven't seen in awhile. Saturday my husband and dad will be redoing the roof on our rental down there and then Saturday night we get to hang out with some more friends. Sunday is my husbands birthday so we have a birthday party to go to for our friends son and then hopefully we will get to spend time with Wesley's family and have a BBQ with them as well. Monday we are off to see some more family and then Tuesday we get to do the 8 1/2 hour drive all over again.
I am very fortunate to have kids that don't mind riding in the car it also helps that I have a DVD player that keeps them busy along with their DS and books.
So I be away from the blogging world until July 20th I hope everyone has a good week.

Rearranged Bedrooms

Yesterday I got and up and started tackling a huge job moving the girls into their own rooms. I put my husband to work moving 2 beds, a crib, 3 dressers and 2 bookshelves and I started moving ALL the other STUFF. Once we got the big stuff moved and in their spots it was time to organize and put away everything.
This was such a huge job I didn't stop until 9:30 last night.
On top of moving their bedrooms around I also put together the art area, gaming area, and the toy area.
Next on my list is getting the guest room set up in another room and then get my sewing and scrap booking room set up.Now I have been waiting years to have a room I could just leave all of my scrap booking stuff and sewing stuff up and not have to do a project for an hour and then put it away so nothing gets messed with. I have only started my oldest daughters scrap book and she is almost 10 so Ya I have a ton of scrap booking to do.
I have also decided to make my oldest a quilt for her birthday this year and that too is going to be a huge project. Hopefully she will love it.

Weekend Wind Down - "13 Weekends of Summer" Weekend #3

During a heat wave (like this past week), how are you keeping COOL?? 

My Answer:
I try to get all the windows opened when we get up in the morning to get some cool air in the house, then I close everything up and we play in the pool and try and stay cool in the house. And we go through lots of Popsicles.

Have a great weekend everyone. 


Check out my giveaway too.

Friday Blog Hops

It's time for Friday Blog Hops again. Here are the ones that I am linked up with












I also have a giveaway that you are going to want to check out: HERE

And be sure to check out this BLOG it's all about being healthy.

As always if you follow me I will follow you back.

Ribbons of Faith *Review/Giveaway*

I came across the most amazing Etsy Shop ever called Ribbons of Faith. Laura makes clippies, beautiful bows and even hair bow holders. 

I have 4 girls so how could I resist all these beautiful clippies and bows. My youngest who is 9 months old just started getting hair long enough to put up and I have been clipping her hair but just in these plain colored clippies I found at Wal-Mart, now I have beautiful clippies to put in her hair and my other 3 girls too.

The clippie set I received was perfect. They are handmade and put onto a metal alligator clip and they look great with any of her little outfits. And they even stay in place in her baby fine hair.

Now Laura has generously offered one of my readers a clippie set of your choice from her Etsy shop.Thank you so much.

Mandatory Entry: Go to Ribbons of Faith and tell me what your favorite item is.

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TO BUY: Go to RIBBONS OF FAITH (10 Entries)

One Entry for doing any of the following:


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Good Luck to Everyone!!!

Contest open to US ONLY!!!

Contest will end July 21, 2010 @ 11:59pm PST

Disclaimer:

I did not receive any money for this post. I did receive a clippie set to review, all opinions are 100% MINE 

Busy Days

I have been so busy the last couple of days I haven't had time to post anything I feel like I have been neglecting you guys.
4th of July- I woke up realizing this is the first 4th of July I have ever had without my family around so it was kinda of a depressing morning. So I did what I do best when in a bummer mood I started cleaning, I rearranged my dining room, and then we headed up to Coeur d' Alene and had dinner at Texas Roadhouse which is a really fun place. They have peanut shells all over the ground (you just throw yours down) I really didn't feel right doing that but I did, they provide fresh bread baskets with this awesome cinnamon butter so so good. Every 45 minutes they do a line dance that you can participate in, and they play country music. After dinner we headed to the lake to get a spot for fireworks.

Now this is where the FUN CRAZINESS begins, we headed downtown which is where we were told to go and it was packed with people, my husband started getting all grumpy because there were so many people around and he didn't know where to go....we head back out of town to go around the lake and he finds a spot alongside the road and parks I was like what are you doing, he says you can see the fireworks from here. I was of course thinking a few choice words in my head that I kept to myself (we had our kids and sister in law with us so I had to be nice). Long story short we sat there for awhile in silence and then I was like we are not sitting here we can't see the lake drive on the other side and so we did we found a nice little spot and had about an hour wait. We enjoyed the fireworks that were going off all along the lake and then we enjoyed the actual show from a little bit of a distance but we still got to see them and see the lake. So I was HAPPY.

Monday-I went to town with my sister in law so she could rent a U-haul trailer so she could move back to Oregon this was a big bummer but she hasn't been able to find a job here so she has to move back home and hopefully she can better her LIFE there. I tried to help loading the U-haul while holding Jaedyn because she wanted nothing to do with being put down, my husband and her finished loading the U-haul and then it was time to take Kyndal to her first Level 2 Gymnastics class. This means that instead of 1 hour classes she now has 1 1/2 hour classes and the skills are harder. I was quite surprised you couldn't even tell she just moved up in a level she is right there with the rest of the girls in her class or let me brag a little maybe even better lol.

Tuesday-Had a sad morning goodbye to my sister in law, I think it was more sad because Jaedyn is really fond of her and she has really been the only family around her consistently for the last couple of months. After we waved her off we had to get ready to go to the movies. Kyndal invited a friend Charlie and we drove Jaedyn to the babysitters and then went and watched the movie Furry Vengence. (Review Later) headed back home and the girls played in the pool and I cleaned the house.

Today- Cleaned the house, scrubbed my dining room walls and floor. I can't believe how much more you see on the floor when you are scrubbing on your hands in knees then when you just mop with a mop. Its actually very disgusting now that I think about it. Next I am going to reorganize the movie shelfs and the computer desk. I know this sounds like so much fun to you all and then we are off to Kyndal's gymnastics practice.

Weekend Wind Down - "13 Weekends of Summer" Weekend #2

This 4th of July, will you be watching fireworks out somewhere or doing your own fireworks at home??

My Answer:

We are actually going to be doing our own fireworks tonight and then tomorrow on the 4th we are going to watch fireworks over the Coeur D' Alene Lake. I have heard that it is a really awesome show, so we will see.

Have a fun and safe weekend everyone. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

Blog Award

I just received a Blog Award today. I am so excited about this, it means people actually read my blog lol. I have received one before and it was shortly after I started blogging so I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do so this time lets see if I can do it right.

Thank you Danielle from We don't have it all together for passing this award along to me.

My blogging philosophy, motivation, & experience in 5 words is: CRAZY, kids, LIFE, my timeout

And the 10 blogs that I'm passing this award along to are:

Living Vital Youthful Lives, All Our Lives

Susie B. Homemaker 

Halleelujah Mommy

Crouching Mother, Hidden Toddler 

The Mom Road 

Twenty Little Toes

Pebbles in My Pocket 

Beachbird2Blogger 

Heck Of A Bunch 

See what we did today 

The Rules:

•Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.
•Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five (5) words.
•Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.

 

Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Eclipse opened June 30th with showings at most theaters at 12:00am. Last night my friend Leslie and my sister in law Lacey and I went and stood in line so that we could watch this 3rd movie of the Twilight Saga.

Synopsis:
Isabella Swan was a normal teenage girl, in a normal world. Until she met Edward Cullen and Jacob Black. Since then she has been up against a Sadistic Vampire, The Volturi and an angry werewolf, Paul. But what lies ahead is something only Edward's 'brother', Jasper Hale, can help the Cullens with. A Newborn Vampire Army created by a Revenge ridden Victoria for what Edward did to her mate, James. 'Mate for Mate' as Victoria sees it. But what she doesn't know is the Cullens have a secret on their side. With Graduation coming fast, Bella gets more and more worried about becoming immortal and the fight. But the real question is: Who will she choose? Written by Jemma From England 




My Thoughts:
First of all let me just start by saying I LOVE the Twilight books and the movies. We decided we would get to the movie at 8:45 and wait until it started at 9:15 and luckily Leslie got there earlier because when she got there the line was out the door and she was at the corner of the movie theater. We go in finally and get our seats, go out for popcorn and wait in anticipation for the movie to start. And it starts......At first I was confused if it was the start of the movie or not but then finally realized it was. The performances in this movie by Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewar, and Taylor Lautner are outstanding along with the rest of the cast, transforming themselves into vampires and werewolves they are CRAZY good. 

I of course LOVE Taylor Lautner the best, who could resist a ripped werewolf right??? It just really amazes me how they can do the graphics for the werewolves, they look so real. All I could think about through the whole movie was how Bella could chose Edward over Jacob makes no since. 

I also don't understand how anyone could think Edward is at all hot in these movies, you can see all the gross hair on his chest he is just such a hairy guy YUCK. They really should have waxed his chest at least. Hair or no Hair he is still a really awesome actor and I can't wait to watch him in the final two movies.

Unfortunately we were sitting behind two very immature high school boys who were doing obnoxious things to impress the girls they were with, I just wanted to say grow up you MORONS. So I was a little distracted by them but still managed to enjoy the movie. I don't think this movie was the best one yet, the fight scene with the newborn vampires and the werewolves was really exciting and actually made me jump a few times but I think I wanted more actually I know I wanted more. Now we have the long agonizing wait until November 2011 which is forever away How can I make it the at long??? So overall this is an AWESOME movie. GO SEE IT.


Did you see the movie??

Are you Team Jacob or Team Edward???