Mom's Night Out

From the left: Me, Nancy, Michelle, Marjorie, Sheryl and Jennifer

My Pal Michelle

We laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.

That would be the big LOOOOOOOSER

For our October MNO we went to Harley's bowl. We had such a great time. We laughed so hard, acted like dorks and some of us drank a bit too much. After bowling we went to dinner at Yolanda's. I love the group of gals that are part of the MNO. I always look forward to the next month's activity.

Our Family Trip to Disneyland

The whole gang...Uncle Robbie, Auntie Sissy, Isabella, Gavin, Ken, Kasey, Kendyll, Kolby and Me.
Our family

Just the girls

The sad thing is that Kolby will be really driving in 12 years. Hold on Auntie Sissy.

We were waiting for the Autotopia ride

Bella loves her big cousin Kasey

We had fun being matchy-matchy!

IS it Chip or Dale?

My little Gavie is such a hunk!

Headed to the 3-D Zone

We met my sister and her family at Disneyland on Oct 2 and 3rd. We went to California Adventure on Thursday and Disneyland on Friday. It was so awesome to see the parks through the eyes of the kids. All of them really enjoyed being together.

Our dad gave us passes for Christmas and it was great to be able to use them together.

Mom's Trip to Washington (Alone)

Darlene took me to see Neil Diamond in concert. He's still got it!

This is the hotel we stayed at in downtown Seattle. We stayed on the top floor in a 2 bedroom suite. The view was spectacular. (see below)


The wonderful view of Seattle.

Thank goodness for timers on cameras. We had just returned from a massage and shopping.

Happy hour in our hotel room.

My visit with Cousin Michele

The last week of September I flew to Seattle for a few "days off". I landed on Monday and Dar met me at the airport. We ran a few errands and went home to see her family. She has a Kendyll too. That's where our sweetie got her name. That night we went to a great Washington restaurant, The Keg. We always try to eat there when we visit. The following day I got to ride along as she did the school drop off and went to lunch. That afternoon I drove to Snohomish to visit my cousin. She and her love Don have lived up there for a good while. My aunt Sandy (her Mom) lives there too. Aunt Sandy made me a great bowl of chili and we got to catch up for a few hours. On Wednesday we dropped off the kids and headed into Seattle. We went to a great spa and had massages, then did a bit of shopping. We went back to our hotel for Happy Hour and then rode the monorail to the Key Arena to see "the one and only" Neil Diamond. We had a blast...danced, sung off key and shed a few tears remembering my beautiful Mom. (she loved Neil). I flew home rejuvenated on Thursday and was so happy to see my kids and Ken.

The Day Before School

Kasey, Kendyll and Emily riding on California Screaming
The gang!

We were in line to ride on the new Toy Story Ride. It is so fun. Obviously, it is 3-D.

Caryn and I decided to take the kids on a surprise trip to Disneyland on the day before school started. We loaded up the car and headed to McDonald's to get a healthy breakfast for the ride to Anaheim. While we were in the drive thru Will threw up. (YUCK). So we took him and Caryn back home and the rest (Emily, Kate, Kasey, Kendyll, Kolby and I) continued to Disneyland. We actually went to California Adventure. Boy, did we have a great time. It was a nice way to end a fantastic summer.

Soccer Kids

Kendyll and Kolby are playing soccer this season. Kendyll is on the Dalmations. She is doing a great job. I love to see the improvement that she has made from last year. She has gotten more aggressive. She occationally plays goalie (not her favorite spot). Kolby is on the Sharks. It is darling to see him play. There are many smiles watching 8 4-year-olds run around the field chasing a soccer ball. There have been several goals made into the wrong goal. Kolby has made a few goals (into the right one)and I love seeing him raise his arms high to celebrate his score.

HUT, HUT, HIKE!

Kasey is playing football for the Camarillo Cougars. He is doing a great job. It is hard work both physically and emotionally. He has "manned-up" and is improving every day. He plays on the offensive line and is the team's punter. They are down to 3 practices a week (from 4). We love watching him play. Lately Ken has been watching from the annoncer's box as he had been the offical time/score keeper. Ken takes Kasey to most of the games as Kendyll and Kolby have soccer games.

Our Photo shoot at the beach

Last Sunday we met Veronika Duty at Leo Carillo Beach to have some family pictures taken. We had such a fun evening playing on the beach as the sun set. I anxiously awaited the slide show of the pictures to be posted. The following Sunday I got word the slide show was ready. OH MY GOSH! I am thrilled at the final product. She did such a wonderful job capturing our family. I now have the tough job of deciding which pictures to choose. The above pictures are a small sampling of what she took. She has a web site where there are many beautiful pictures she has taken, http://www.veronikadutyphotography.com/ . If you are interested in booking a shoot you can reach her on this web site or her # is 805-410-0631. Let her know you saw her info on my blog please.

Home Girls

This is Kendyll and her homey Drew dressed up like boys. They had so many giggles and had a hard time keeping a straight face.

Our Award Winning Photographers

Kendyll won a 1st place ribbon for this shot of Kolby.
Kasey won 2nd place for this one of Elway hugging his ball.

He got 2nd for this one also.

Kasey and Kendyll took a few photographs around the house and entered them into the Kids Expo at the Ventura County Fair. They were so proud seeing them displayed on the wall of the exibition hall. We are so proud of them.

Lake Shasta Vacation

This was our beautiful cove on Lake Shasta. We spent a week with The Becker 5 and the Stephenson 5. There were 6 adults and 9 kids.
The Shasta Dam was so cool. We took a walking tour on our last day. We weren't allowed to bring a camera so this is all you get. It was amazing to see the dam from the other side. We saw the energy turbines and walked inside the walls.

An action shot of Kasey jumping from the roof of the houseboat.

We went on a day cruise to discover what the lake had to offer. We packed a lunch and headed out for a few hours. It was beautiful.

Enjoying Happy Hour on the roof.

Our houseboat had a jacuzzi on the roof. Here is Ken, Butch, Cassie, Natalie and Kate having a little soak.

Due to the huge fires in Northern California, the fire service parked the planes at the marina. This plane flew over our houseboat, very low, many times. It was unbelievable how low and slow it could fly. Kind of bitter sweet to enjoy the plane knowing it was there to fight terrible fires.

While on the trip we celebrated Russ' 40th birthday. We had a luau spaghetti dinner and sang to him. This is our group shot (thanks Michelle). We are holding a local newspaper so we can send it in as a vacation shot.

Here is the giant taking off after scooping up more water.

The not so happy ending to our story. On our way home, thankfully the last 7 miles (thanks God) our trailer springs broke. We had to have the boat towed to a trailer shop to be fixed. It couldn't have been a better place. We had just finished a 350 miles drive that included a trip up and down the Grapevine. We are so glad it didn't happen in the middle of nowhere or on the Grapevine amoungst the big semis. All is well and we had a Great trip.