family camping adventure @ Cattail Cove

At the beginning of November, we took our first family camping trip. We camped at Cattail Cove in Arizona. It was about a five hour drive from our home to Cattail Cove, which wasn't to bad even with two kiddos and one dog stuffed in the back seat. From the beach at the rive, we could look across and see California. 

Growing up, my family rarely went camping. I think we went once with our church. We lived in a rural community, and worked at a summer camp. If any of us girls wanted to go camping all we had to do was step outside. My parents would often threaten us that if we didn't quiet down and go to sleep that my Dad would set up our tent and send outside for a night under the stars. 

Arizona is a great place for winter camping. The weather was beautiful! Warm during the day, cool (not cold) at night. And no bears! I'm terrified of camping in bear territory. The idea of using a bear box scares me...bears are destructive.   

The kiddos did well sleeping in a tent for the first time. Both were exhausted by the end of the day and fell asleep without much trouble. However, none of us slept well through the night. 

We spent our days by the beach, hiking and swimming. It was a quiet weekend. We made friends with our German neighbors and took Denny on lots of walks. 

I would highly recommend camping at Cattail Cove and could definitely see our family returning next season. 

Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween...

This year the kiddos and I actually went trick-or-treating. We kept close to home and stayed in familiar territory. The kiddos had fun collecting candy and walking around in their costumes.  I hope everyone had a fun and safe night.

till next time.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend, in an attempt to continue the fall spirit, we took the kiddos to the pumpkin patch. My parents and sister, along with their families joined as as well. Overall, the kiddos had fun. Alara was definitely more into the pumpkin patch than Lucas...but in his defense he had already been to a pumpkin patch this year with his kindergarten class and he was hungry. 

The kiddos played on a tractor in the pumpkin patch, panned for "gold" and enjoyed riding on the train around the corn field. My Dad was such a  great sport riding the train with all five kiddos.

We did get some good family pictures.

I'm surprised because by then everyone was hungry and getting cranky.

The hype of the pumpkin patche is wearing off. Might skip it next year...or maybe just take Alara.

Apple Picking Time

I love fall activities! 

This weekend, our family took a short trip to Oak Glen for apple picking and pie eating. It felt good to get outside and spend time together. Octobers in Southern California are warm. I didn't even bother dressing the kiddos in their cute fall clothes because I knew that it would be too warm. We did see some families all dressed up in boots, flannel and scarves, and they did look cute...and hot...especially after hiking around an apple orchard. 

For apple picking, we choose to go to Riley's Farm for their delicious Winesap apples. The kiddos enjoyed wandering around the apple orchard looking for the perfect apples. Most of the good apples were too high to reach. However, my husband found a way around that. 

Doing fall activities makes me excited for the cooler weather. Next weekend we are heading out to Temecula's wine country for a pumpkin patch and hopefully the weather will be cooler. 

Happy Fall Y'all

Happy Fall Y'all 

While everyone is posting pictures of pumpkin arrangements, here I am proudly showing off my succulents. I dug this planter box out of the clearance bin at Michael's a couple of months ago. I didn't know what I wanted to do with the box at the time, but it was only $5. After Lucas painted it, I decided to use this box for succulents. I've never grown succulents and I really hope they live.

It's spirit week at school. Monday was sports and today was 80's, tomorrow is career day, then tacky tourist and lastly on Friday its twin day.  I nailed sports day, however 80's not so much. I proudly don't own any 80's clothing. In fact...I really think that 80's fashion should be buried and forgotten! However, my little 80's inspired model did look adorable for picture. Tomorrow he asked to wear his fireman costume for career day. More pictures to follow.

*EDIT* 

Pictures of Career Day and Tacky Tourist Day. 

This little girl and I are enjoying our mornings together. At 27 months, Alara has become a little independent lady. She wants to do everything that her older brother does. She does not want a sippy cup, does not want to use her high chair tray and she insists on dressing herself. Her vocabulary is growing and she often uses it to her advantage by expressing herself loudly!!

Till Next Week.

Swift Arrow by Josephine Edwards

I want to share a book that the kiddos and I have been reading. At the beginning of the year I promised myself to read more. I've been slowly, but steadily building up steam and tacking my never ending book pile. And with Lucas's reading log for kindergarten it has been a great motivation for us to read more. I'll be back to my usual posts tomorrow, but hang in there with me...this might get interesting.

Swift Arrow by Josephine Edwards 

Swift Arrow was one of my favorites growing up. I loved listening to my Mom read the book aloud. I read the book on my own several times after that and now I'm reading it to my kiddos. The circle has come full.

George Boylan a young pioneer boy is captured by Indians and raised as the son of the mighty Chief Big Wolf. He lives with the Indians for about twelve years learning their ways and living as a member of the tribe. However, never looses the desire to escape and return to his family.

When Big Wolf announces his plan to name Swift Arrow as the next village Chief, and to betroth him to Ewanah, the Chief's daughter, Swift Arrow knows that his escape is now or never.  George is successful is escaping and returns to his family to live a long and happy life.

Although George does not want to be an Indian, or be the Chief, he appreciates the kindness that village show him and learns to love and respect Big Wolf as as his Chief and Father figure.

During a particularly difficult time in the Indian village, George recalls what his father said about God and suffering. "God does cause the suffering. But when things do go wrong, God helps us endure. And God has promised a great reward if we lived right and keep our faith." Great words to live by.

Baby Quinn's Quilt

My best friend from college is having her first baby! Baby boy Quinn is due around the end of the year and we are all excited to meet him. The Mama-to-be requested navy blue, gray and white with a chevron print. I'm happy with how this blanket turned out and I'm excited to hand this baby over.

a day away

With the hustle and bustle of the daily grind, our family needed to get away for the afternoon.  I couldn't think of a better place than the San Deigo Safari Park. It's far enough away to be out of town,  but close enough for a day trip. It is familiar, the weather is cooler and its outdoors. Turned out that it was a good day to go, not too crowded and the animals were active. 

Our day didn't start out well. In fact, we almost turned around and stayed home. The kiddos were fussy, I didn't pack ahead of time so we were all running behind and on top of it Lucas had a long week at school. Nevertheless, we pushed forward and went to the park. And although it was a good day, I was exhausted by the end of it. 

One of the highlights of our day was watching the elephants. Two elephant brothers were splashing and swimming in their pool. The kiddos were enthralled. It was cute watching the two brothers roughhouse in the water clearly enjoying themselves. 

We stayed until the late afternoon before heading home. Glad we went and oh so thankful or a full rest on Sunday before Monday morning. 

Mr. Lucas Goes to Kindergarten

Ready or not, Kindergarten here we come!

After much prayer and consideration, we decided to enroll our oldest in our local church school. He has been in school for almost a week and loves it. We love his teacher and I think it's going to be a good year for him.

I'm so proud of myself. I made it through the classroom and campus tour without any tears. The teacher wisely ended the tour at the playground. This gave parents the opportunity to slip away unnoticed by their kiddos. As I said good-bye to the teacher, she did the unthinkable....she wrapped me in the biggest hug and I lost it and cried.

I should probably mention that I know the teacher. I've substituted for her, I did service learning in her classroom and she was one of my Master Teachers in college. And worked with her daughter at Pine Springs Ranch for several summers.

Having a teacher I love and respect has made this transition easier for me. I'm excited to see what this year holds for us and I'm looking forward to seeing my son learn and grow.

6th wedding anniversary

PC: Hollie Macomber 

Six years ago I said "I do" to this man.

It's been a busy 6 years, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Happy Anniversary to us and cheers to many more happy gold years ahead of us.

half way point

Summer is flying by! We have about two weeks of summer left, and are determined to take advantage of these last few days to spend time together. Sabbath afternoon, we took a spur-of-the-minute trip up to Pine Springs Ranch. Anyone who knows our family understands the significance of Pine Springs Ranch in our lives.  I grew up there, I met my husband there and I love being able to take my kiddos to experience camp. 

Our kids loved exploring the camp Fort. The original Fort burned down in the summer of 2013, so this one is fairly new. Lucas enjoyed climbing the ladder to the Fort's main tower. The first time he tried it I was nervous and wanted him to wait for me. However, he apparently didn't "hear" me say wait and by the time I met him at the bottom of the ladder he was already standing on top of the tower's platform making ninja poses. 

It was crazy seeing old campers as staff. I had several young ladies say hi and share with me that I was their counselor/riding instructor at camp. I love seeing old campers become staff. 

With summer winding down I wanted to revisit my original "Summer Adventure" to do list.

Revisiting my to do list:

• Take the train to the beach 
• Family trip to the San Diego Safari Park/Zoo 
• Day trip to the mountains for fresh air and hiking
• Try something new and unique to our local area 
• Go to a baseball game
• Go to a movie (this one is for Lucas since he has never been to a movie theater)
• Make ice cream 
• Go horseback riding at Grandma's house 

Not bad for one summer. We still have two more weeks before school starts to cross off a few more things from our list.

summer zoo trip

Family Zoo Day! 

One of the things on my summer to-do list was to take a family trip to the San Diego Zoo. Our Baba's annual membership pass was expiring at the end of July so we needed to act fast if we were to have more more trip together. Plus, I really wanted to see the Zoo's new Africa Rocks exhibit. Although not all of the Africa Rock's exhibits were open, we enjoyed what we could see and I'm looking forward to coming back to see more of what the exhibit offers. In addition, apparently the Zoo opened their new foot bridge the morning of our trip. Walking over the bridge, which connects the front of the Zoo with the back of the Zoo was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.  I'm not if watching men working on the bridge helped with that feeling. 

Funny story. On our way back to the car, we passed a young lady sitting on a bench. She suddenly called out "Excuse me, your daughter's nose is bleeding."  We stop and I check her nose. A large dark blob was oozing slowly down from her nose. The dark color looked off to me. But I grabbed a shirt to stop the bleeding. However, as I got closer I quickly realized that it wasn't blood but a melting chocolate chip. Ew. After thanking the girl, I cleaned my daughter up and we went on our merry way.  

Overall, it was a fun day. The kiddos had a blast and I'm ready for bed.