weekend road trip

we have great friends.  great friends that invite us to their cabin for the weekend, that is.

and thankgoodness. it was nice to escape the desert heat and head northeast to vernon, az.

our kids had so much fun playing in the wilderness.

the best part was we got to break out the sweatshirts from hibernation. 

it actually felt like autumn. sigh.

zipping through the trees.

the end.

p.s. thank you adam and carolyn :)

not so handy

last night i was doing a little measuring in the kitchen for my new renovations.

which include painting my cabinets and adding a subway tile backsplash.

amongst other things.

i didn't get very far.

while i was using the measuring tape it somehow got lodged between the plug of my mixer 

and the outlet.

as a result, i got zapped by some major voltage on my arm and then the outlet began to

pop and spark followed by black smoke.

it ended up blowing all the fuses in the kitchen.

wow. i didn't know measuring could be so dangerous.

this morning i had to carry my toaster to another room just so i could have some toast.

after school snack

as soon as jack gets home from school he runs to the pantry to scout out his after school snack.

what's it going to be?

hmmmm..... rice krispie treat, cosmic brownie, graham crackers....

today it was wheat thins in a cup.

cali last day

we spent our last day in california soaking up the warm sunshine rays on the best beach ever.

beautiful newport beach.

i so love this place.

later that night we strolled on over to balboa island where we

hung out and ate balboa bars.

it's our little tradition.

the next day we drove home.

and so our four day journey through southern california was over.

p.s. ava decided she had to go to the bathroom a million times on the way home

and we got sick of stopping so we told her to hold it and with only half hour left she peed

in her car seat at least three times. each time she laughed and announced to everyone what she was doing. 

what a way to end a trip. 

cali day 2 and 3

the "hills"

on thursday jason was away taping the family feud show.

so i packed up the kids and drove to one of the cutest outdoor malls.

it's in beverly hills and its called the grove.

shops line the cobblestone streets and there's

a double decker trolley that transports you from one end to the other.

at one end is a huge farmers market where we stopped to have lunch.

we scarfed down some delicious greasy pizza

and then jack and ava had animal shaped donuts for dessert.

ava devoured a pink frosted kitty cat donut.

and jack ate a green dinosaur.

jack enjoying his trolley ride while still savoring some of his dino donut.

we finished our mall trip at barnes and nobel.

i was reading books to the kids, specifically wacky wednesday,

when i got a text from jason:

"went to sudden death and lost. it was fun though"

 

what! i had a list of wishful things i would have like to spent his winnings on.

i was a little disappointed, sad to say.

i just thought for some reason they would win like 5 times in a row and that we would be

instant thousandaires.

too bad life doesn't end up the way we picture it.

we still had a fabulous day of window shopping at the fancy beverly hills mall.

day 3

i made jason drive all over beverly hills looking for the famous cupcake shop "sprinkles".

after an hour we found it. 

just past rodeo drive on santa monica blvd. on the right hand side.

they have a unique assortment of yummy tasty cupcakes.

they even wrap them up to go in a cute brown box.

i ordered a milk chocolate, black and white, strawberry, and chocolate marshmallow.

i wouldn't let anybody eat them until after our lunch which happened to be

disgusting mcdonalds.

we arrived back at disneyland and i grabbed the box of cupcakes and sat them ont the stroller.

by the time we walked from the parking lot to the park, all that perfect frosting

had melted into a sugary mess.

it was kind of sad but they still tasted like heaven.

cali day 1 and 3

we woke up bright and early, 4:08 am to be exact, loaded sleeping kids into the car 

and headed west.

destination: DISNEYLAND

next up..... studio city, ca.

the storm

last night, we were having family home evening and learning about the brother jared and all of his magical clear stones that christ lit up so jared and his brother could find their way to the promise land, when a big gust of wind pushed our garage door open.

at first we were confused, thinking somebody was walking through our door, until we looked outside and saw the trees blowing. 

and they were blowing.

maybe one last summer monsoon. we have had a pretty lousy season of rainstorms this year and a nice big thunderstorm would sure be nice. so we sat and watched the lightning strike all over the dark sky. it was quite a sight. and then a big a clap of thunder... and some rain. hooray it was finally raining. and then in 5.2 seconds it was over.

at least we get to leave for california in the morning and get the heck out of this heat. we are heading to hollywood where jason and his siblings are going to try to win us some money on the family feud. they will be taping on thursday and friday so wish us luck. 

a trip to hollywood, disneyland, and the beach is just what we need. (and some extra winnings wouldn't hurt.)