Bass Lake Day 2

Bass Lake day 2 consisted of hanging out on the boat, water skiing, wake boarding and doing basically nothing.

There were these cute little ducks that were literally eating out of our hands. Mia just thought it was so cool and so did the rest of the kids. The water was really shallow far out so Mia and the kids were able to play far out in the water but still be able to stand easily.

Owen and Mia had fun playing in the sand and mud.

Yes, even the adults played in on the trampoline thing. Kevin and Brian went at it often-- final score-- tie!!! The kids also thought it was a great time to challenge the dads and the dads would just chuck the kids into the water. Totally funny!!!

Mia and the duck-- she loved them. We had these floaty river things and she loved climbing in them and relaxing. Love Mia's cookie face :)

Ethan and Owen did great at water skiing. They both got up right away and were even jumping outside of the wake. They did a great job!!!

WARNING!!!! WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS NOT PRETTY!!!!

Yes, I wake board and yes it is not a pretty sight but I just had to document it. Anyway, there is some pretty parts to this collage as Kevin and Mia are pretty but if you have a sensitive gag reflex, just skip the first few pictures in the collage-- haha!!!

Jared, Allyssa, Brian and a sleeping Mia on the boat!!

Cute Mia and daddy and Owen!!

Can I just say I absolutely love this picture of Owen. He looks so darn handsome with his blond hair blowing in the wind and his cute little tan-- just to darn handsome!!!!

More pictures to come-- Yosemite is next!!!

Bass Lake California-- Day 1

Bass Lake was a blast!!!! We got home late last night and spent the better part of today unpacking the RV, cleaning the RV and trying to recover from the great week of fun (which included a 2 hour nap for mommy :)! By the way I am posting this at 1:30am so if I don't make a lot of sense-- sorry-- I'm exhausted!!

I have a ton of pictures to sift through so it will take me a few days to get all of them posted, but I did want to post a few. We left So Cal late (I mean really late like 11pm) last Saturday night. We drove about 4 hours and stopped in a Wal Mart parking lot to sleep for a few hours and then finished the 2 remaining hours Sunday morning. We got into camp and began to unpack. All our friends were already there (24 of us all together) and they were also unpacking and getting ready to head down to the lake. Our first day at the lake was just a partial day but it was a lot of fun. Our friends brought their bouncy thing from their pool and anchored it out in the lake and the kids-- and adults played on it all day. It was so much fun!! Our first day was just relaxing and all we did was hang out. We did not rent a boat or anything that day-- it was just relaxing.

I will post a ton more pics probably some tomorrow and some on Sunday but my goal is to get them all posted this weekend. I used both cameras so I have to download both SD cards plus video-- lots of work ahead of me. Anyway, check back soon and I'm sure there will be more pics by then :)

The bouncy thing-- FUN!!!!

Mia did great this trip (besides sleeping-- I'll get into that more later but lets just say-- Mia is not a good sleeper when she is overtired-- uggg!!!). She loves the water and has no fear (which freaks me out) but daddy was always there to float her where she wanted to go.

I just loved these pictures of Mia in her cover up. She loves to zip and unzip clothes and thought this was the perfect clothing item to get practice unzipping. Despite being over tired most of the trip, she did GREAT!!!!

I love these pictures of Owen. He looks so calm (which is so unlike him) and such a deep thinker.

Bass Lake is beautiful!!! It is about 1 hour south of Yosemite (we went there on Tuesday-- pics to come) nestled in the hills. The lake temperature is warm and the days were warm with cool nights. It was perfect.

More pictures to come :)

Random Pics and More Swimming

I tend to forget about my old little point and shoot camera because I try to use my new SLR as much as possible. I know I have taken random pictures here and there so I decided to download them this morning and post some of them. Come to find out there were some old pictures from when we went to Disneyland a few weeks ago as well as some of the boys final awards assembly where they both made Honor Roll. There were also some of Daddy and Mia at lunch. The pictures taken in the pool were taken with my new camera.

Mia loves daddy's sun glasses and looks so cute!!! Mia and i met Kevin for lunch at our church friends new restaurant in down town Claremont (which is the city Kevin works in). It is a Belgium Beer Pub that serves top notch high end food (my brother who is the head chef instructor at the culinary school in Pasadena developed the menu and trained the kitchen staff-- also created the wine list). Anyway, ever since it opened it has done VERY well and has really hit a nitch market. We are very happy for our pals John and Heather!!! It is called The Back Abbey and is in a historic old ice storage building-- very cool!!!

Daddy and Mia love to swim together-- even late at night!!

I found this cool floaty thing that I am using more now so that Mia can wear all her cute bathing suits and have the floaty thing over it. It is really cool and keeps her upright in the water.

These are Disney Pics from a few weeks ago as well as Owen and his teacher at the Honor Roll Awards Assembly.

We are leaving tonight for Bass Lake until next Friday. We will be boating, living it up in the water and heading to Yosemite for a day or two. It is a fun trip we take almost every summer in our RV. We will not have any Internet access while gone but I will for sure take a ton of pictures and will do some big posts when we return. I hope you all have a great week and I will check in on all your blogs when we return. Have a great weekend and week!!!!!

Construction Projects

We are in the middle of tearing out our side yard to extend it out into our front yard a little more so that we can have a big concrete/ basketball court area on the side of our house. That space up until now has just been a dirt area (the only part of our back yard that we never did anything with) where the shed sat. Kevin came up with the idea of a big play area a month or so ago so we are now moving on the project. Since Kevin is doing all the demolition himself (saves a ton of money) we borrowed our friends tractor, trailer and big truck to get the job done. As of now, the wall is down and temporary fencing is up. The next step is grading and moving sprinkler lines and installing drains. Then, the guy comes and they build the wall and pour the concrete. We still have a ways to go, but it is going to be a huge asset once it is done. It will be over 1000 square feet of concrete play area for the kids!!

While Kevin and the boys were tearing down the wall, Mia and I were watching from inside and then moved outside to watch.

While inside I had to take a few cute pictures of Mia

Playing with the dried flowers

Watching daddy through the window

Kaitlyn getting Mia down from the window sill where she was watching daddy

Owen working hard with daddy

Ethan and Kevin driving the tractor

Loving the tractor!!!

While outside I also had to get some cute pics of Mia

So pretty

I love this picture!!

This is Mia's fake smile face

Soooooo pretty!!!!

More Summer Fun!!

*** I guess I neglected to mention where I got Mia's black dress in the fit throwing pics. That too is from Gap. It is such a cute dress-- they also have it in a cream with black accents-- very cute. It is part of the black and white collection. It came out a few weeks ago. I do really love this dress and it looks sooooooo cute on!!!

Summer is on us and we are already really enjoying ourselves. We are into cousins coming over and sleep overs and pizza and movies and of course-- Disneyland (next week). We are really just enjoying the down time and it has only been since Wednesday so I am really looking forward to the next 2 and a half months!!!

Anyway, since I have so much time just hanging out in the back yard I have been taking a lot of pictures. I have picked out some of my favorites but if you want to sit through a slide show I will put a slide show with all the pictures at the end.

Gotta love mamma's drink

Loving her grapes!!

Watching the older kids play

Mia loves her shopping cart-- skateboards and all!!

Watch me do my tricks!!

Love these shoes-- Gap-- tons of colors (they even come in gold-- which I had to locate in Arizona and have them shipped because I cannot live without a cute gold thong- goes with everything)

More slide time

Go Lakers!!!

I think this is a cool picture

OK, before you see the next few pictures I must explain. Mia was in a cute dress and before it got trashed (like all her clothes do after she wears them for 10 minutes) I wanted to take a few cute pictures of it. Mia did not like that idea and started throwing a fit-- a big one. It did not last very long but it was so funny I had to document it. So please do not think I am a sadist-- I'm not. This was just really funny!!

This is how it began!

This is Mia running away from me with her arms in the air flailing them back and forth crying. She ran around the bar area once and then plopped herself on the ground in front of me still throwing a fit.

This is where she plopped down

Then she rolled onto the grass and began crying and rolling around there.

This fit was so totally unprovoked and funny. After I picked her up she was still upset but calmed down pretty fast. When she throws fits I typically just let her and when she appears to be done I then approach her. It seems to work well with her.

We had a birthday party yesterday at Brian and Heathers and Mia wore her cute itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini that she wore for the first time that day!!

Mia loves to float in the water by herself. Look in the background and you will see Kevin is attending to her so she is not really by herself-- just in case some of you were concerned :)

We had fathers day this afternoon at our house and we had both sides of the family over. It was a great time but I was so busy running around making home made ice cream and getting all the food prepared that I totally did not take any pictures-- sorry but I'm sure there will be more to come in the near future.

Hope you all had a great Fathers Day!!