Nature Hike

We have a riverbed a couple blocks away from our house. I thought it would be fun to go on a "hike" since it was a late start day at Hannah's school. We took our friend, Little Murph, with us. He just became a big brother 3 days ago, so a little adventure would be good for him (and his mom). What a luxury it is to sit and nurse and not have to chase anyone.Ready to take over the river bed... sword, gun, and attitude...Murphy found a tunnel with a bear in it. He had to shoot him with his gun too.
We found an olive tree full of olives. I didn't know if we could eat them though, thought it was better to error on the side of caution.Of course, what is a hike without finding a big huge stick?
Taking a little rest...
Getting a few last wiggles out before we headed home.
Everyone had a great time, even Deiter! I can't wait to go back.

Pumpin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch with our super neighbors (the Konolds) and Little Murphy (his mom went into labor so he got to have a fun day with us until Grandma could get here).
This is how we roll... crazy! From 14 years to 11 months.
Luke loves Brennen. He gets so excited when he sees him. Brennen is probably the only person Luke will let hold him when I'm around. The kids are getting so big! Can't believe in one month they will be 1, 4, and 6!
There is something that is so cute about babies and pumpkins. I could watch him play with the pumpkins all day. Our family...Hannah, Little Murph, and Gavin playing dead in a grave...messy fun...
AND.... the pig races! I always get such a kick out of the pig's names. "Pig Whitmen" Hahahaha... "Brad Pig" hahahaha
We did the corn maze too, but no pictures :(

Monday

Kevin takes great pride in his lawn, he brought it back from the dead when we bought our house. Gavin is following in his Daddy's footsteps, quite literally. I had to grab my camera when I saw this.*Kevin has thrown away his crocs several times and I keep pulling thiem out of the trash...
They are perfectly good for yard work! Sorry Kevn

The forecast predicted rain today so we spent the day preparing for our first rainstorm in our house. We have a lot of wood scraps from various projects and I asked Kevin if we could have a fire. I'm not sure if that was such a good idea. As I was loading the dishwasher I saw huge flames in the reflection of the window in front of me. I turned around and saw him feeding fuel into our first fire. It's been such a warm and cozy day with a fire, I've loved it.
Gavin is pretty good at building guns and airplanes with his legos... here he is showing off a "gund" he made. Poor little guy busted his eye open today in our front yard. I cuddled him, gave him an icepack and told him it was like Daddy's hockey boo boo and he was ok.

Super Daddy???

I've been grocery shopping alone lately. I find that I am much more efficient because I can focus on what I'm doing. I told Kevin I was going shopping today and he wanted to come. So we all loaded up in the car and went family grocery shopping. Kevin took care of the kids the whole time.
Who knew? All I had to do to keep my kids entertained was get one of these...
I love when he does stuff like this. It's so funny.

Hockey Ballet

Hannah has been dying to go ice skating so our family went. Luckily with Kevin's connections at the hockey rink, we got to go for free!
I opted not to get skates. Can you imagine me 8 months pregnant trying to skate? Walking on the ice was enough excitement for me. Hannah did really well. She was able to "walk" around the whole rink on her skates. She "skated" quite a bit on her own.
Gavin just wanted to skate with Daddy and take breaks to watch the hockey game on the other rink. Hannah and Gavin's favorite thing to do was skate with Kevin. He would carry them and skate so fast and then stop and spray me with ice. They got a big kick out of that.

Discovery Cube

After grouting the tile floor I decided that I wanted to take a shower, put make-up on, and wear normal clothes. I needed to get out of the house, the kids needed to get out of the house, and Kevin needed a break from working on the house. I decided to kid nap him and take him to the Discovery Cube Science Center.
They have a "Science of Hockey" exhibit and every time we drive past it we always talk about how we need to go there... we finally made it!
We all had a great time. Gavin was in heaven (and Kevin).

(Gavin's shot is 11 MPH... He's got a lot of work to do)

Kevin wanted a turn too...
Hannah had a good time. It was nice to spend some one on one time with her while Gavin and Daddy explored all the hockey stuff.

(Hannah could climb to the top all by herself... with a spotter)

Kevin was a little worried about me trying the bed of nails, but it looked so cool.
The Dinosaur exhibit was fun. The kids liked putting the dinosaur skeleton puzzle together and riding the "rhino dinosaur." Gavin calls it a triceratops now.
We all had a good time at the museum.

Family Fun Day

We had one of the busiest Saturdays we've had in a long time. I was out the door by 9am with the kids. Kevin got home really late from his hockey game the night before so we let him sleep in.
I trained my client and taught my class. Kevin met us at the gym with the kids bathing suits. We surprised Hannah and Gavin by taking them swimming because it was such a beautiful day.
After swimming we ate lunch and then Hannah and Gavin rode their bike/trike for about an hour. We went to a BBQ and I made these cute cupcakes with my friends. Stacy baked the cupcakes, I decorated them, and Leslie brought the corn on the cob holders. We sprinkled them with black and white sprinkles for the salt and pepper. I loved them, but they were missing the chunk of butter (a yellow starburst).
We met Aaron and Rachel at Glacial Gardens in Anaheim.
This is where Kevin and Aaron learned how to skate... and now Hannah and Gavin.

Their first time on ice (with skates)

I am so happy that Aaron and Rachel were there, because I can not skate at all. I had such a hard time trying to help Hannah. It was like the blind leading the blind. Thanks for helping so much with the kids

My hockey boys...

Gavin just loved every second of it.
Daddy sure liked showing off by spraying us with ice and taking the kids on fast rides around the ice rink. Kevin is such a great ice skater.


Gavin had a lot of help from Aaron too...



Hannah really started to get the hang of it. I was so proud of her!


Since my feet hurt so badly from those nasty rentals I quit skating about half way though. My poor ankles were dying. Kevin and Aaron were the last ones off the ice. I don't know if I'm much of a skater. We'll have to see about next time.

Airport Field Trip

I have the best group of girls in my Microbiology class. We have so much fun playing with bacteria together. One of the girls, Melanie, works at the Long Beach Airport for a private company. She invited me to bring my family down to see the airplanes. It was awesome. Gavin and Kevin were in heaven, they both share the same fascination for airplanes.

My friend arranged for an "escort" since we can't just wander around the airport with out any supervision. He told us about all the planes, but I just call them "baby airplanes."

The helicopter was pretty cool.

Hannah and Gavin loved to fly this baby airplane that smelled like an old Datsun truck.
The jet was pretty cool. Our "tour guide's" friend flies this airplane for some super rich guy. He said it costs $700 just to clean it.
Hannah and Gavin took turns flying this airplane too. I made sure they didn't touch any buttons. Could you imagine the damage they could do? I'm sure it's much worse than your heater on full blast, wind shield wipers going crazy, and the radio turned up all the way.


I wouldn't mind flying around in this plane... must be nice!

We had an awesome field trip. I was happy that I planed something that Kevin actually liked doing! We will definitely have to go back again.

Disneyland Blitz

In the past two weeks we have been to Disneyland 4 times! We are trying to make up for lost time since we couldn't go ALL summer long! Our first trip back was with Aunt Rachel, then with Mamo J. We spent Labor Day there as well with our friends, Steve and Kaitlin. Hannah and I went on the bumper cars. They were soooo slow! We still had a good time. She loved driving the car.Steve and Kaitlin took Hannah and Gavin so Kevin and I could ride the roller coaster. We got a "family pass" so they could go on after us, but they were so nice, they gave us their pass so we got to go on it twice. They had a good time with the kids exploring the caves!After California Adventure we spent the rest of the day at Disneyland. Hannah met the Fairy Godmother!I have to say, the best part of having Disneyland passes, is the ability to just hang out. We aren't ever rushed to get to the next ride, we can just play in the water if we want.We watched the parade, we made friends with an employee and she let us sit in the reserved section!!! Lucky us! It was a little crazy at times!

Hannah could hardly stand it!!! All the princesses right before her eyes. She shouted, I mean, SHOUTED, "HI!!!! HI!!!!" they would wave at her. It made her day. Then Cinderella waved and blew a kiss at her. Pure Disney Magic!
Gavin went on some "beh boy rie" (big boy rides) He loved the kiddie roller coaster. So did I!!!
He also went on the Matterhorn. Such a little stud! Our day was so much fun!
It's nice that they are growing up, life just keeps getting easier!