While we Were in North Carolina...

Becky and Arek watched the kids while we were in North Carolina.

On Friday the girls had school and then Anna had her Tae Kwon Do test for her green stripe. She passed!

After that they all went to a Fall Festival at the girls' school. It was supposed to be outside but the high was 40 degrees that day so they moved it all inside. I heard it was fun!



On Saturday Mia had her first sleepover birthday party to attend. The party started at Boondocks Family Fun Center so while Mia was at the party Arek took Maks and Anna to have some fun there
 too!



Mia didn't call Becky to come home so she must have had a good time at the sleepover!

On Sunday, the girls went to Becky's friend Emily's house for another party. We picked them up there and headed home. I'm not sure I have ever seen Mia so tired. I'm not sure she slept at all at the sleepover, plus three parties in three days!

Thanks Becky and Arek for taking such good care of the girls!

North Carolina 2017

We just got back from a very relaxing weekend in North Carolina with our friends we met on a cruise 11 years ago! They get together every year, but with the girls it is hard for us to get away to go see them. It had been five years!

We arrived Saturday around noon and we were going to take the pontoon boat to a restaurant for lunch. However, it wouldn't start. Lucky for us, Ken bought a sail boat this summer so we took that instead!

Dan was thrilled to help with all the sails. He just loves doing that! 

But Rhonda was the first mate and could do it with a glass of wine.

We all gravitated toward one another on the original cruise because we were all much younger than most of the passengers. Nowadays we've caught up! Ken is 74!

The rest of the night we just talked and talked. In the morning we woke to this amazing sunrise.

After a leisurely breakfast, we went for a nice long walk. Then Ken and Dan switched out the battery of the sailboat and put it in the pontoon boat. We spent the afternoon cruising in the pontoon boat.

We capped off the day with a movie and pizza back at the house. Dan and I had to leave the next morning, but not without our own batteries charged.

First Sleepover

Anna and Mia had their first girlfriend sleepover last night. Of course it had to be Rylee. They planned it all week. We did lots of Halloween activities. I did have to tell them we would not be going all out like this every time someone slept over! The girls had so much fun.

They wanted to take a picture outside at the beginning. We have been having some gorgeous days this fall.

Next, they had to prioritize the list they made. What to do first was a major decision!

Making slime won! And I completely forgot I was suppose to taking pictures. 

But I got some of the next activity - ghost lollipops!

The lollipops enjoyed watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Mia is one of those kids that really gets engrossed in her TV shows.

On to the next activity - making mummy hot dogs for dinner. 

Nail polishing!

Making Halloween cookies! We ran out of time to decorate them so they did that in the morning.

Apple bobbing!  I could not do this - I tried! All of them got at least one. They laughed and laughed - it was the most fun activity for them.

Lastly, we made carmel apples!

We were smart and cleaned up after each activity so when the girls sat down to watch a movie Dan and I took a break too!

As we put them to bed they realized they forgot to carve the pumpkins! No, we are not doing it at 9:00 at night! 45 minutes later they were fast asleep. We were quite shocked. And even more shocked when they woke up at 5:00 AM!

Fall Break 2017

This year for Fall Break wen went to, surprise, La Quinta! We went into LAX because they canceled all the nonstops on Southwest from Denver to Ontario on Saturdays. It was a very long drive and we will probably either not come on Saturdays or take connecting flights next time.

On the way there, we stopped at a park I went to as a child and that I also took went with the older kids. We called it Dinosaur Park and I remembered it as having dinosaurs. But when I read the sign this year, Laguna de San Gabriel, I realized there are no dinosaurs! It's all sea creatures!

This slide was really steep!

I had to go down this slide first before the girls would go down it.

On Sunday we went to our usual sake park in La Quinta to ride scooters only to find out the skate park was removed and new tennis courts had been installed. So, they climbed trees and played instead and later we went and bought some tennis rackets which we have said we would do for the last two years.

On Monday I met Dar, Dani and Denise (not there yet in the pic) in Redlands. Dar and I always try to celebrate our birthday together. I also got to go see Dani's new house and the remodeling they have done. It looks great.

On Tuesday we just relaxed. Wednesday morning we drove to South Orange County and looked at some areas we might move to next year. We topped off the day with dinner at Medieval Times. They LOVED it!

We all loved this beautiful white horse that comes out at the beginning.

Thursday morning we went to Knott's Berry Farm! There was no one there and we never waited in a single line. As usual, they are opposites and Mia loves amusement parks whereas Anna asks to leave most of the day!

I think you are supposed to sit next to them, not on them, girls.

There you go.

Friday we went to Long Beach and met with our oldest couple friends (they got married two years after us) who have lived in Long Beach for almost their entire marriage. Long Beach is another area we are considering moving to next year. Becky and Arek will probably move here. I forgot to take any pictures, but they drove around and showed us different areas and then had lunch with us.

That afternoon we went to Torrance where Dan's brother, Greg, was receiving a Hall of Fame athletic award from their high school. 

Saturday morning we went to breakfast with Maureen and Paul who stayed at the same hotel as us and then we headed to the airport. It was a very fun week!