A Day with Thomas

Thomas the Train came to the Santa Cruz mountains this summer so we took Caedmon to spend "A Day With Thomas". His friend, Nico, and Nico's mom (my friend), Lina went with us. They got their pictures made with Thomas, got to go on a real train ride through a beautiful Redwood Forest in the mountains, and then do all sorts of train activities. It was a super fun day!

Family Vacation

We took a quick trip down to Palm Springs, CA for family vacation this year. I would say that it was fantastic, but that wouldn't be completely honest. Am I glad we did it? Yes. Do I think we'll do it again? No.

Reasons why this was not the best vacation site for our famly:
1- It was an 8 hour drive, which we did with a two year old on a Sunday afternoon after church. We did not arrive until after 10 PM.
2- It was 115 degrees every day that we were there. And don't even try to say, "It's dry heat, so it's not so bad." No. 115 degrees is HOT, any way you look at it.
3- The "resort" where we stayed left a lot to be desired. A few examples here:

• When we pulled up at 10:15 after driving all day, the first words out of my mouth were, "You've got to be kidding me. Are these our barracks?"
• The occupants before us were smokers. Andy hates smoke with a vengence.
• I've seen better pools at the Holiday Inn.
• Several of the guests were just not "our kind of people". One man continually talked with me about medicinal marijuana and showed me his bottle of "Dr. Puffer". True story. I'm just thankful that's all he showed me.
• This same man couldn't stand one of the other guests at the resort and she couldn't stand him. But for whatever reason they both felt comfortable confiding in me about their messed up lives and disdain for the other person. Quite relaxing.
• We had flies in our suite. Flies. The kind that buzz all around your head and land on your face when you're almost asleep but are too fast to kill.

4. It was another 8 hour drive home with a (grumpy) two year. He decided to use this opportunity with us all locked in a car to take tantrums to a whole new level.

I think it took us all a week to unwind and recover from that "vacation".

But, with all that said, we still had some fun times. Ice cream at Cold Stone, splashing in the pool, pedicure, and the highlight of the week: a day at a water park. Andy and I would take turns playing with Caedmon in the kiddie area and going on all the rides. It felt a little strange, though, standing in line by myself surrounded by a bunch of high schoolers. Similar to attending the movies by yourself. I felt the need to explain to everyone that I had a husband and small child who were waiting for me in the wave pool, but I refrained.

Hope you enjoy the pics! (They are all out of order b/c I couldn't figure out how to format them on the blog.)

And, I'm back!

Well, looks like I took a sabatical from blogging. Not due to a lack of content, that's for sure. No, we've had no shortage of activities, pictures, funny comments from Caedmon, discipline issues, or horrendous messes to clean...the normal topics of my blog. But for whatever reason, I just COULD NOT find the time to sit down and right them all up. I so admire people who are able to keep their blog updated regularly.

I have a friend who is a mother of two and wife to the pastor of a very large and rapidly growing church. I know that her life is no less chaotic than mine, but somehow she manages to do an awesome job keeping up with her blog. Maybe one day I'll get there, but for now, well, I'll just "do my best (and forget the rest)." (In the words of Tony Horton, P90X trainer.)

I'm going to do a series of blogs to catch up on a little of what we've been up to this summer. Andy took Caedmon out for "Boys' Club" this morning so I have a couple hours of peaceful bliss to myself. I'll try to post one a day until I get caught up. So, be prepared to be bombarded with pictures over the next week or two!

First flash back: July 4th

We celebrated the 4th of July by helping the city of Santa Clara with their annual Independence Day Celebration. We had some mission teams come in town to help and were able to provide over 50 volunteers for this fun event. We had games for the kids, prizes, give aways, and told a lot of people about South Bay Church. While it wasn't a pool party or cook out at the lake, it was still a really fun and stategic way to spend the holiday.