California Trip Day 3

Our last day with Steve and Melissa. We had such a great time together. The girls played and played and played. Shane got to have guy time with Steve, I got to have girl time with Melissa...it was great. For breakfast we got Rolling Pin Donuts. The best donuts in the WHOLE world. I feel like our trips to CA are surrounded by food! :)

 We left their house at lunch time and stopped at In N Out...again. :) So yummy. The girls love those cheese sandwiches.

 Thankfully the girls slept on the way to Eva and Reubens. They got a nice good nap in. So cute!

 We ended the night by getting Thrifty Ice Cream. Chocolate Malted Crunch...heaven!

California Trip Day 2

Who would have thought 11 years later. On our first date, Shane and I went to Universal City Walk and then afterwords stopped at Point Magu Rock to talk.  We also came here a bunch while we were dating. Memories. :) Now 11 years later we are back with our two kids...pretty crazy!!  We had so much fun at the beach.  The girls had never been to the beach but they have seen it on Curious George and Blue's Clues. They were so excited to go.  It was a little colder than we were expecting. Nothing like the Georgia weather we are used to! As soon as they warmed their feet in the sand they were good to go. Playing in the sand and covering their feet with sand were the favorites. Natalie wouldn't go near the ocean. Heidi didn't want to touch it but she wanted Shane to carry her so that she could dip her bucket in the water. We only stayed for about an hour but it was perfect with the little ones!

Shane and Steve went golfing together in the morning so they let Melissa and I go shopping at the outlets after the beach. Yay!! I'm such a mom...I didn't even go shopping at any normal stores. I saw the Osh Gosh outlet and made a beeline. :) I got the girls the CUTEST outfits. I think Osh Gosh is my favorite! We didn't stay long after that. We went back and had dinner with the guys and then went out again for Starbucks. Then to top it all off...we all had big bowls of Chocolate Malted Crunch!  What a perfect day!!

 Trying to keep her head from falling into her lap

 Heidi, Natalie and Madison

 The beautiful California coast

 Heidi loved playing in the sand

 Daddy and Heidi

 Heidi didn't want to get in the water but she wanted to dip her bucket

 Playing with Heidi in the sand

 A cute shot of Melissa

 Melissa and Steve

 Love this shot of Heidi

 Shane covered all the girls hands and feet with sand...they thought it was pretty cool

California Trip Day 1

It is 6:30 am and my kids are up and wide awake. Now i realize that I am lucky that they slept in that long with the time change but still...it's 6:30! Everyone else is asleep, Shane and Steve are golfing. So I figured I'd update you all on our trip. The girls were really great. We got them up at 5 am and told them that they were going on an airplane! They were so excited. We got to the airport an hour early and didn't board till our plane was supposed to be leaving. While we waited the girls ran around in circles, did yoga poses and made everyone smile. The first flight was on a tiny plane. One seat, aisle, two seats. They wouldn't let me hold Heidi on my lap cause the one seat didn't have enough oxygen masks. Shane had to sit by Nat and have Heidi on his lap. He's such a good Dad! I brought little things of Play Dough and that was a hit! They played with that almost the whole time!

We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Dallas but it was nice. We walked, had lunch and even found a kids play area. The kids had a blast but Natalie kept asking when we could get back on the airplane. On the second flight, while we were waiting to get to our seat, the pilot door was open. We told the girls to say hello and the pilot invited her in! How cool is that?? Natalie got to sit in the copilot seat, wear a pilot hat and touch all the buttons. Such a treat...for me too! Wish I would have had a real camera instead of my iPhone! That flight was much nicer too. We all got to sit together. Shane pulled out his laptop and we let the girls watch a movie. Natalie fell asleep about an hour from LA and Heidi fell asleep a little after. Shane and I got super mini naps while they were sleeping. They were not happy to be woken up after such a short nap! Once we got our luggage and got to go on a BUS...they were happy again. We rented our car and realized we had forgotten the girls car seats in our car. Too many things to remember!! We rented them from the car place thank goodness! From there we headed to In N Out. Always our first stop! The line was  wrapped around the building and out into the street! So worth it! After lunch we drove down to Camarillo. We didn't hit any traffic and made great time! We got to Steve and Melissa and for the rest of the day, Natalie, Heidi and their little girl Madison played together. It was so nice! The girls were so happy and they didn't go to bed till late...for their normal time zone. :) Heidi went down in Maddie's crib and she was out right away. Nat went to bed with us at 9 and did great till about 3. Then she started coughing like crazy and woke up Heidi. Let's just say the rest of the night was REALLy long!! Hopefully we'll do better the rest of the trip. :)

Date Night...or should I say morning??

Shane planned a surprise date for us yesterday. He has really been getting into golfing lately so he took me to the golf course and I got a golfing lesson. It was so much fun! I wasn't so sure about it at first.  I couldn't even hit the ball! But he wanted me to learn so that we could golf together. The trainer was really nice. He watched me hit or try to hit the ball a few times and then he started giving me tips. Golfing is nothing like baseball! I'm so used to that type of swing that it takes a lot of concentration to golf the right way. These are my main points to remember...

Keep both feet flat on the ground and your weight balanced.

Keep your left arm straight and your right arm tucked in. 

Don't choke up too much on the club.

Keep your wrists straight.

Keep your eye on the ball until AFTER you hit it. 

Twist your shoulders and stomach, not your hips and legs.

Follow through with the golf club and twist your hips to follow the ball.

And you have to remember all this stuff every time you hit it!! By the end I was doing pretty well. I'm excited to go again. I honestly didn't realize how much went into golfing. And it's a great workout. You wouldn't think standing still and swinging would do much but this morning when I woke up I could barely move!! My arms, shoulders, back and stomach are all killing me today!! 

After my lesson, we went shopping together and then had lunch at the Carolina Ale House. It was the first time we'd been there and we ended up liking it. It was a nice sports bar, which I didn't know before hand but the food was really good. Especially the french fries. :)  It was such a nice morning! A great surprise and a perfect date. :)

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

 We celebrated Sabrina's birthday today. It was so much fun! We had everyone over to our house and Shane grilled ribs and corn.  Everyone brought food....7 layer dip, chips, salad, and baked beans. I made a cake...chocolate with chocolate peanut butter frosting. Everything was really yummy! Sabrina opened presents first, cause the food was taking longer than expected. Then we had dinner and dessert. After we put the kids down we decided to play Trivial Pursuit on the Wii. So much fun!!! We split into two teams...Shane, Rose Marie, and Bronwyn against Me, Sabrina and Jim. We killed them! They got one wedge of their pie and got every wedge. Woo Hoo!! It was a great. :)

 Grandma and Heidi

 

Natalie helping Sabrina feed Kingston

 Opening presents...this was from Jim and Rose Marie

 

 Ava's gift to Sabrina

 Kingston hanging out under the chair while Sabrina opened her gifts  

 Jayden blew out Sabrina's candles before she had a chance so Shane lit them again

 Shane held Jayden back so Sabrina could blow out her candles

 Thinking of a good wish

 Happy 24th Birthday Sabrina!!

 

Hope you get your wish!

 The girls did not want to take a nap today. Usually Heidi will nap and Natalie will just play in her room but today Heidi was not having it. She did not want to take a nap! She was yelling at me from her room. Not crying just yelling. "Mama! Mama!" Then she would shake her crib a bit. Finally I just got the girls and we went for a drive. Such a waste of gas...but it worked! I had two sleeping girls after driving for about 20 minutes. Then I just parked the car and read a book. So nice! Peace and quiet.

Sick as a Dog!

This has been such a long week! I had bronchitis and didn't gotten off the couch for a week! I still feel week and get tired really easily. I've taken at least one nap every day and I've been loading up on medication and cough drops. Mom took the kids for me two of the days and that was a HUGE help! Thankfully Shane has been off work the last couple days too so he's been taking on all my normal jobs. I am so thankful for my family. I don't know how I would have gotten through this week if I hadn't had the help! They are all amazing!
Now that I am feeling better and finally able to get out of the house...the first place I went was Target! Yay!! Just walking in Target made me feel better. :) Didn't really need anything but definitely found stuff to buy. This afternoon Shane and I took the girls to McDonalds to play. Poor things have been couped up in the house all week watching tv. Not fun for two active little girls! So we let them run and play and they were soo happy!