Disneyland!!

With Chris off in Rhode Island at his Gordon conference all week, I decided to something special with V & J. We went to Disneyland! The kids were SO well-behaved, the weather was lovely, the lines weren't too awful... we had a wonderful day.

PICTURES 6/21/2010

Random June stuff

These pictures are a few random pictures from June so far, including a bunch from a trip to Leo Carillo State Beach with friends last week.

PICTURES 6/17/10

Acton KOA camping

In late May, we decided to shake down our camping gear and try out a KOA campground in preparation for our big road trip this summer. Overall, we had a fun time and liked our "kamping" experience. We learned a few things about what we did and did not need to bring and about how far we may have to park from our tent site. We were used to state parks where you are basically parking right next to your tent. Not so at the KOA. We had to lug our inflated queen size air mattress quite a long way. So now Chris has built us a little gear wagon. :) We like gear. Even if we need a wagon to haul it! Anyways, it was also a medically interesting trip. Poor John had a fever most of the time and just laid in the tent sleeping or dozing. Virginia was not sick and was DYING to go swimming so the first thing she and Chris do is get into bathing suits. While applying sun lotion however Chris totally threw out his back!! He was in a lot of pain and also spent the rest of the day basically laying and sleeping in the tent! Hopefully none of that will be happening in the middle of New Mexico in a few weeks! Wish us luck as we cross 4 (big) states on our 14 day road trip to Texas!!

PICTURES 5/20/2101

Liz's Trip to KY

At the beginning of May, I made a weekend trip back to Kentucky when my grandparents from Florida were also in town. It was a whirlwind trip... I'm pretty sure I talked for 2 1/2 days straight... and I got to see almost everyone and do almost everything! Since my grandma and I were both in town, we (Emily, Erin and I) gave Ellen a wedding shower on Saturday. I got to meet our new niece Anna on Friday and visit with her mommy, daddy and big brother Ethan too. On Sunday we went to see Rick's house which will shortly be ELLEN and Rick's house. And I got to celebrate Mother's Day with my own mother, and both my grandmas! That hasn't happened in many years! Throw in trips to Skyline and Cracker Barrel and getting to watch a movie straight through on the airplane... it was an excellent weekend.

PICTURES 5/9/10

Grandma & Papa B Visit

At the end of April, Grandma and Papa Borths came to visit us for 10 days! Sadly, they were not able to get to a track meet, but we did plenty of other fun things. Including two very cold trips to the beach. And lots of taking the kids to school and picking them up, track practice, playing handball and soccer and the Wii. Grandma and Papa also headed out on their own for a long hike in Thousand Oaks and a camping trip to Carpenteria and a visit to Hearst Castle.

PICTURES 5/1/10

Virginia's Birthday & Track Meets

Here are some pictures from Virginia's actual birthday. It was a Monday and she was in school, but after school we made cupcake animals for a treat.

PICTURES 4/12/2010

In the next set there are many pictures and videos of Virginia's track meets in April and May. She has now finished her season (more pics of that to come from our new dSLR camera!!). And she finished it with a bang, getting 2 first place ribbons, 1 second and 1 third at the JV finals.

PICTURES 4/17/2010

Easter and Spring Break

For Easter this year, our cousins Dave & Carolyn drove up from San Diego to spend the holiday with us. The Easter bunny came and left baskets for everyone (including Mom & Dad and Dave & Carolyn)... Virginia's and John's were once again hidden somewhere in the house and they followed their clues to find their treats. After church (during which Dave was so awesome as to clean all the Easter grass off the floor!!!) we had a big brunch including a hash brown quiche from Carolyn which I will DEFINITELY be making again very soon.

PICTURES 4/4/2010

The week after Easter was V & J's spring break. We had a really great week... we spent enough time at home for the kids to play and relax. On Tuesday, Chris took a half day and we went to the (totally free!) California Science Center and the Exposition Park rose garden and had dinner at Zankou Chicken (yum-o). Thursday, Chris took the whole day off and we hit the beach. It was a perfectly beautiful day, aside from the globs of tar on the beach which we are still cleaning off our feet. Luckily Chris found that kerosene takes tar off bathing suits and V's brand new suit was not totally ruined (now it just smells weird). Friday we had a day long playdate with friends at home, the park and Taco Bell. We rounded out spring break with another track meet and celebrating Virginia's real 7th birthday by opening gifts and going to Panda Express (where else?) for dinner on Sunday). Her real birthday was on Monday and she brought a treat to school and we decorated special cupcakes after school.

PICTURES 4/6/2010