We had a great weekend at Silver Strand State Beach. We reserved a camping spot Jan. 2 2008, and we still didn't get right on the sand! But we were one spot away! It was such a fun relaxing weekend. We spent our time playing on the beach, walking along the Bay, hunting for sand dollars and floating our flip flops. We never saw the sun, but it was warm and the water was great! We ate in Coronado at Miguel's Cocina, which is so yummy! This is my kind of camping!

Campaigning

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Movie night

We went to Temecula's Surf's Up Night on Friday. The city put on a big outdoor party in the park. There was a live band, lots of vendors, activities to do and when it got dark, they lit up three hot air balloons and showed the movie Surf's Up. It was a really fun night. It's cool to get so close to the huge hot air balloons. I took some video and I'll add that to this post when I figure out how. We had a great night, but left about half way through the movie cause the kids were too tired and cold!

Matthew had just been to an army birthday party, which is why he has army written on his face! He had so much fun and got to ride home in a Limo from the party! We've been hearing of little else since then!

Happy 4th!

We had a really nice 4th of July week this year. Our friends come from AZ and stay at the North Coast Village condos in Oceanside every year. So we just hang out with them! It' s so nice to head to the beach for the day, then go swim in their pool and then shower and clean up! Plus we get a nice free parking spot too! Thanks so much guys!

Also this last week we were able to help move Gary's brother here to San Elijo Hills. My cousin Stephanie lives there too, so she helped me by watching my kids while I could get dinner for the guys who were doing the heavy moving! Thanks Steph! We had a fun day swimming with you.

On the 4th of July, we headed down to Oceanside. This year they blocked off all the traffic, except for those who were actually staying at a condo or hotel. We had our "golden ticket", a parking pass to park at North Coast Village, so we sailed right in! We spent a great day on the beach. The weather was weird though. It was sunny, then the clouds rolled in so thick we couldn't see the pier or the jetty, then it cleared up again, then as it started to get dark, the clouds rolled back in and we couldn't see the fireworks at all! We could hear them though! Thanks to some illegal firework action from friends and neighbors, we did get to see some! When it was time to leave, we headed out and there was NO traffic! ZERO! Thanks city of Oceanside for blocking off that whole area! Last year it took us TWO hours to get from their condo to the 76 freeway. That's about 1 mile away. So it was a GREAT 4th, even though we couldn't see the fireworks!

See how cloudy it got?

When we got in from the beach, this pelican was sitting on the wall right outside the Barretts condo! We think it was posing to be a Bald Eagle for the 4th!

The end of a nice sunny ( ?) day at the beach.

After showering, changing and a great dinner the kids got to do some legal poppers. . .

And some illegal sparklers (the rest got confiscated by the security guards)

Happy 4th of July!

Here come the pictures!

Our last two weeks in pictures.

The celebrations all started Friday June 6th. I got to spend my birthday at the pool with the entire 5th grade! It was a really fun day and I'm so glad I got to be there and help out.

I will try and track down some digital copies of Lauren's 5th grade pool party.

Tuesday June 10th 9:30 am 5th Grade Vs. Staff softball game.

Tuesday June 10th 6:30 pm Kaycee's kindergarten promotion

Kaycee received her diploma!

Wednesday June 11th 1:30 pm Wacky Olympics. All kids are put into teams and they had a really fun field day.

I was going to go and cheer Lauren and Sydney on, but we got a surprise that day! Josh (Gary's brother) visited us that afternoon and evening! The great news is that he and his wife and two daughters will be moving to So Cal in just a few weeks! Yeah we are so excited to have them here!

We had to celebrate with some Rock Band!

Thursday June 12th 9:30 am Lauren's 5th Grade promotion. Mrs. Lawrence's class of 2008

Lauren and her sweet teacher Mrs. Lawrence. We were blessed to have her two years in a row.

Friday June 13th 9:30 am. Lauren receives her award for making Honor Roll. Sydney's class ran the most miles of any class in the morning running program. If I remember right, it was 875 miles!!At the very end of Friday Flag Salute, Mr. McTasney promoted all the students. 5th graders got to run through a tunnel of all the teachers.

Lauren High- 5 ing kids as she ran past. Farewell Elementary School!

After a surprisingly emotional day, we headed to Knotts. It was lots of fun. Kaycee and Matthew both have grown over an inch since March, and Kaycee (with the help of her Heely's) can go on the "big" rides since she makes the 48" mark. Matthew is now 42" and can ride the Camp Snoopy rides all by himself! We saw Kung Fu Panda, which was surprisingly hilarious, and swam at the hotel.

Sunday June 15th

Happy Father's day to our great Dad's out there. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. Thanks to Gary for being such a great Dad to our kids. We love you so much!

Now, here's to summer!

Life Remote Control

I wish that we had a remote control for life sometimes. Pause some moments, skip others, rewind and see that again. Today is one of those times. I wish I could rewind this whole year and do it again. Today is the last day of school for us. Usually I am whooping it up, ready for a fun filled summer! But today is different. Today feels like the end of a very special era. All three of the girls at elementary school. Lauren graduated from 5th grade, and is on to middle school next year. Kaycee graduated from kindergarten and is now a 1st grader. Sydney is now an upper grader. We had an absolute perfect year at school. All the kids' teachers were amazing and seemed hand picked for our childrens' needs. I have never once cried over my kids at school, not when they went off to kindergarten, or sang those cute Mothers Day songs. But today I have been bawling all day! I had to say goodbye to Lauren's teacher of two years, goodbye to Sydney's teacher who due to budget cuts has been let go, goodbye to Kaycee's teacher and the end of the special kindergarten year, goodbye to our PE teacher who due to budget cuts has been let go as well. It's been too much today!

So, I need to pull myself together and look forward to our fun summer, and learn how to be a parent to (gulp) pre-teens! We are moving forward!

A huge thank you to all our teachers and staff this year. It has truly been a perfect school year.

We are off to Knotts Berry Farm this weekend, for a end of school year/Fathers Day celebration! When we get back, I'll bombard our blog with pictures from the last two weeks!

Mexico

We got to spend Memorial Day weekend in Rosarito Beach in Mexico. Josh and Mimi bought a condo there, well a villa actually. It's beautiful! It's right on the beach in a gated community. We had a great great weekend! It rained the first night and the next morning, but after that it was gorgeous and sunny. A little cool, but gorgeous! Our kids aren't stopped much by weather, so we still swam, and a few of them even wandered down to the beach Saturday afternoon! It was a great trip. Thanks so much Josh and Mimi!!!

The view from the pool. Josh went out surfing and Gary took the kids that wanted to go down to the beach.

We took a walk along the beach early Saturday morning. We climbed the rocks and enjoyed the nice misty morning.