Canada, Eh?

The kids and I spent 10 days in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We stayed with my best friend, Amanda and her family. We had such a fun time!!

It was the first flight for Kai and Zeke and my first flight alone with three children. It was tough but went as smoothly as possible. Kai and Eden loved flying. Kai especially liked taking off and landing.

While in Canada we visited a Saskatoon berry farm and picked Saskatoons. Canadian bears love to eat this type of berry. They are similar to blueberries. We also went to the Calgary Zoo.

We spent two days on a ranch where we rode a horse and a quad, lit fireworks and smores, jumped on a trampoline, and the kids slept in a tent. It was so peaceful out there--rolling hills and no one around for miles. The kids just ran free and loved every minute of it.

We also spent about four days in a cabin in the mountains of Waterton. It was breathtakingly beautiful there. We hiked to the lake and took quick dips in the water (the water is fed by a glacier and needless to say it is absolutely freezing cold). And the highlight for me was hiking through the water at Red Rock to slide down natural rock water slides and seeing a wild grizzly bear close enough that we could hear it eating the saskatoon berries (luckily we were in our car). The kids again ran free, jumped on the trampoline and fed wild deer. We also got an ice cream cone from the ice cream shop each night.

Thank you to Amanda and Jared for their hospitality! We had such a great time!

Breaking Dawn

Those of you who have read Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series of books will understand why Emily and I went to Barnes & Noble at midnight to buy a copy of the fourth and final book in the series, Breaking Dawn. Friday night was the book release party and minus feeling like we were some of the oldest people there we had a lot of fun. We even got bit (notice really bad red paint job on necks). If only the bite was from Edward himself--hehehe, but then again I'm kinda partial to Jacob Black. Who would you choose if you were Bella? Well...I gotta go read!

Kai's 5th Birthday

Kai is officially 5 years old. He is so happy to be five! He has been counting down since he turned four. On the morning of his fifth birthday he woke up a changed man--he wouldn't let me help him with anything and would say, "I can do it myself, mom because I'm five now" and he started running through the house saying, "Look, mom! I can run faster now because I'm five. Yesterday I ran a little bit slower because I was four."

Kai wanted an Indiana Jones party and that's what he got. A huge thank you to Jenn whose son, Noah had an Indiana Jones party recently for his birthday. Jenn loaned me tons of stuff and gave me great ideas--love you, Jenn! Kai's party started with a note from Indiana Jones himself sending the boys on an adventure complete with snakes, a crystal skull, mummies, whips, a rolling boulder, spiders and treasure. They finished the adventure with cake and "chilled monkey brains". Watching Kai have so much fun made all the work I did worthwhile. I sure love that blond-haired boy!

Little Surfer, Little Girl

Aaaahhhh...summer evenings at the beach. We met up with family at Torrey Pines State Beach for BBQ burgers and smores. Eden and Kai went out surfing with their daddy. Eden actually stood up! My little surfer girl.

Fourth of July

Okay, so life has been pretty crazy for me lately and blogging has not been top priority. I figured it was time to catch up on my postings.

We spent our Fourth of July at Emily and JD's pool at their new place in RB. We had such a fun day. That night we went to Poway High School for their fireworks show. We sat on a blanket on the football field and the fireworks were directly overhead. It was a great show! There was a DJ playing dance music before and after the show and we had a great time running around the field with the kids. We are looking forward to going again next year.

I am so thankful to be an American! I love this country! God bless America!!!