A California Adventure

Our long awaited trip back "home" finally arrived very early Tuesday morning. Our flight left at 6:30am so that meant getting out of the house by 4:30am. The kids were great and big helpers at the airport. By the time we got through check-in and security, the plane was boarding and we got right on. The flight to Houston was a quick 1 hour and 51 minutes. After a muffin and juice Nathan fell asleep for about 45 minutes and Andrew used the bathroom...... 4 times...I think he just found it fun to use the tiny bathroom so he kept going which was fine as it kept him busy. Luckily we were right up front and close to it. Once in Houston we had a 3 hour layover. I would not suggest this as optimal with two kids....not only were they tired, they were hungry and bored. We played a card game, called Dad (Brent did not join us on this trip), walked around, played on the moving walkway until a rude, old airport worker told them "Boys, that is not a toy" and watched the airplanes. Finally we boarded and it was a pleasant surprise to find out the flight to San Diego was only 2 1/2 hours. I figured no problemo since I brought my computer and had two new shows for them to watch....ha, little did I know that my battery life has gone down to less than 1 hour, so as soon as they really got into the show, the computer shut off. We were served a personal cheese pizza, side salad and m&m's for lunch so that kept them busy for a while and Nathan even ate his salad. After the computer died they did workbooks and colored then Andrew finally fell asleep about 25 minutes prior to landing.
My best friend picked us up and dropped us at her home for the afternoon to take naps. However, the kids had other ideas and I could not get them to lay down. Needless to say they were quite tired that night but were up early due to the time change. We had a full day at Sea World the next day and left for Lake Arrowhead today where we will spend the majority of the trip. The kids were excited to see the tree house that Papa built for them.
So that is the trip so far, here are some pictures and I will try to keep updating as the trip continues. If there is anyone reading this who is in Southern CA and wonders why I did not call....I apologize but we are only going into Orange County one morning to see the kids school and need to get mom to Fullerton by the afternoon. This really is a trip to visit with my parents and I wish we had more time so I could visit everyone...next time I promise.

Dancing and Diving

For the last two weeks the boys have been taking swim lessons at the Y. Nathan's class has been a bit too easy for him since he has been training at the Southwest Aquatics center since May, but he enjoys being with other kids instead of one-on-one. Andrew's class swims for a full 45 minutes, they start with 4 laps of all the strokes, move onto practice diving and then play games like relay races. Here is a shot of him "diving", he needs more practice as he pretty much lands flat on his stomach , even from the starting block he can not seem to get his head to go in first, but at least he is trying.
















This shot is from a splash park where we met one of his best friends from school, Wesley is the boy in the blue sitting down. We started in the spash part, but as the lightening and thunder rolled in they kicked us out and we went over to the park for awhile and then got kicked out of there. No worries though, we were back the next day for a birthday party for one of Nathan's classmates.