Last of Summer 2010

My Brother and his family were here for 10 amazing days we had such an incredible time that I didn't take any pictures. We went to the Lake, we went to Castle Park, played lots of games, and spent most nights staying up late talking. It was so fun having them here and so hard to say goodbye. The last week of summer the kids and I decided to take it pretty easy and rest to get ready for school, but we did manage to go to the beach. Surprisingly enough it was our only trip to the beach all summer. I was really worried about taking the kids alone to the beach but we went with two other families and they really helped me feel comfortable being their by myself. Unfortunately, we did lose Ryan for about 3 minutes and it was the scariest time of my life. He had followed a lady that had on the same cover up as me to another side of the beach. Other than that it was the perfect day and the kids loved the beach.

Pole Position

My Brother John and I took the four older kids to pole position. Pole position is indoor go-kart racing. We had to watch an instructional video and then we got fitted for helmets. The kids were really nervous but we all had such a great time!

Orange County Fair

My Sister and I took the kids to the fair a couple of weeks ago. The kids earned their own money to spend at the fair by washing cars, doing extra chores, recycling cans and babysitting. A great part of the day for me was when Christian, Brittanie and Brittany did Karaoke. Ryan's favorite part was seeing all the animals and Christian loved the rides. All 8 kids came home with a toy they had won in the carnival games and it was just a wonderful day.

Zoo

When we went to the Celebration Day at the Great Park of OC a couple of weeks ago, the kids all got free tickets to the Orange County Zoo, so my Sister and I took all the kids. It was a beautiful day and the kids loved seeing all the animals. They also have a petting zoo area that they loved! Sara and Ryan didn't like the smell in one area.Brittanie was feeding the goats and it sneezed on her, her reaction was priceless!

Air Museum

Riverside Library had a summer reading program that for every 5 hours or 5 books read, the kids earned a prize and if you read for 25 hours you earned a day at Castle Park (which is an amusement park in Riverside). For those who don't read yet, a parent has to read four books a week to get the prize. So I signed all three kids up for the program and the first prize we got was free admission to the March Air Force Air Museum, so we used the passes on Dan's Day off. We made a trade with my Sister she took Megan and we took 3 of her 4 kids. It is an amazing museum, we all had a great time and loved seeing all the planes.My Dad was in the Air Force and had a dog so Brittanie thought it would be cool to take a picture near this statue.This was Dan and Christian's favorite plane.