For Ben...

Mason loved getting a ride with Daddy!

playing in the spider web

Air born!

Look how tall Harmony is! She is going to be taller than her Grandma (and her Mom) soon!

(It was Boo at the zoo while we were there!)

Ben keeps asking me if I am going to update this blog more once he is gone. Apparently he isn't interested in the the things on my other blog...recipes, kid tips etc (:

So I am going to try RRRRREALLY hard to keep this updated, ecspecially for him!

This past week, we were happy to have Ben's parents come and visit. Can I even tell you how nice it is to not have to wait years between visits, like we did on Guam?

We took them to the Santa Barbara zoo on Saturday. We really like the SB zoo, because it isn't the biggest in the world but not the smallest either.

After a week of rain and chilly weather, it was nice to have a warm day to spend walking around.

We have a membership, so if you come and visit, we'll take you too! (:

We LOVE the zoo

(fish pond)


(poor Mason with sun in his eyes)


(the smelly goats)

(fountatin at the top of the picnic area)

(zoo poo)

Although the Santa Barbara zoo is not very big, there are a lot of fun things to do & see. When we need a break from the house, it is a short drive up to Santa Barbara.

A few days ago, we packed up a picnic lunch and headed up. We sat at a table near the "sliding hill". The kids were prepared with boxes to slide down.

They spent forever looking at and feeding the fish. We also spent a lot of time in the petting zoo area. Stinky.

We have yet to take a train ride but have decided that on our next trip we will.

I brought the wagon and a stroller so I ended up hauling Connor and Ivan around!

We ended our trip with a visit to the gift shop. Ethan was a little worried about the bag of "zoo poo".

Mason grabbed a stuffed monkey and hasn't put it down since! (:

Oxymoron

(Ivan loved this and didn't want to leave!)

(All pictures were taken on our first trip)

While on Facebook one day, I laughed as a friend wrote, "The term summer break was not named by a Mom. It is one of the biggest oxymorons ever!"

And this morning as the kids uttered those dreadful words, "I'm BORED" 2 minutes after breakfast was over, I found myself anxiously awaiting for school to start! Unfortunatley, CA schools have only been out for a week!

The kids asked if we could please go back up to the zoo. It is not far and we purchased a membership...but I wasn't too interested. I mean we had just seen all the animals the other day.

However, they didn't want to go see the animals. Not really. In the lunch/picnic area, there is a little green hill. If you have a piece of cardboard, you can use it to slide down the hill. They had their boxes all ready to go.

When I realized that was the only reason they wanted to go, we nixed it. But I am sure we will do it sometime soon!