Wild Animal Park

We went to the Wild Animal Park on Friday. It was warm, but bearable, thank God because I just don't handle the heat all that well. When we first arrived we took our homemade lunch to the picnic area to eat, since we had been in the van for over two hours already. Then we went inside and decided to head on over to the Safari Jungle Ride, which was on the opposite side of the park! Luckily the ride is free with our annual pass, otherwise you have to pay an additional $10 on top of your admission fee. Crazy I know!
Wayne and Elsie on the Safari Jungle tram. I think I was trying to get their picture with the cheetah's in the background, but I obviously missed the cheetah's. Elsie decided to be a 'big' girl and walk most of the day, which is why she has on her backpack leash. I was very impressed at how well she did, considering it was hot and there are A LOT of hills.

Kya got kind of shadowed out in this picture of her on the tram with the giraffes in the background.

This is a very cool picture. (Click on it to make it bigger) Right in the middle of the picture where the grass slopes down into a valley, you can see a giraffe and an antelope having a "stare down" fighting for territory rights. Our driver/tour guide said they are two females and this how they protect their territory in the wild as well.

Wayne and Seth as we pull back into the loading dock. We had just passed the lion camp, but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the lions in the background.

Right next to the Lion Camp, was a mini water park for kids to play in. The kids got SOAKED and loved every minute of it. Had I remembered this was here, I would have brought a towel and bathing suits. It was probably a good thing I didn't remember, as it would have been one more thing to carry and besides it helped the kids stay cool and they dried off pretty quickly in the sun.

After playing in the water, we headed over to the Bubble Show. It was just a small show, showing us all the things one can do with soap and water. Seth said it his favorite part of the day! Go figure, we come to see the animals and he enjoys the bubble show.

Up on a hill next to the bubble show were a herd of elephants. Many of them had babies and one even looked to be less than a month old. He was super cute!

On our way out we were fortunate enough to see these one month old cheetah's in the nursery. We even got to see them being bottle fed, which amazed the kids.

One last photo op on this rhinoceros before heading home. All three kids were sound asleep before we were out of the parking lot. Perfect little nap before hitting up On The Boarder for dinner.

Long Beach Nature Center

Today my sister-n-law and I took our kids to the Nature Center in Long Beach. I remember going there as a kid, but I didn't remember just how isolated it really seems, even though it is smack dab in the middle of a big city. There are two trails to choose from, the 1 mile and the 2 mile, being that we had 5 kids ages 4 and under we chose the 1 mile trail. I had originally thought we could get through it in about 45 minutes and finish just in time for lunch. I was wrong! The kids really enjoyed taking their time exploring, watching the turtles, squirrels, ducks, fish, dragonfly's and butterflies.
The only problem was that 1. they are little, so their legs get tired pretty easily and 2. we forgot to bring snacks, so the kids ended up being hungry = fussy. My very laid back little boy, who almost never complains, ended up crying the last half hour or so asking to 'hold me'...meaning he wanted me to carry him. Normally, I wouldn't have minded, but this then meant that Elsie was free to escape and get to close to the water's edge or go adventuring into the tree's leaving her with many scratches. Kya was having quite the time exploring, finding every little acorn, rock, leaf, etc. I would have loved to sit back and let her explore, but like I said earlier, we had tired/hungry kids. Hopefully next time I will be more prepared and then Kya can explore her heart out!


Elsie and Seth checking out the turtles below. Lots of fun for the kids, but a bit scary for mom as the railing bars have large gaps and the kids kept wanting to climb up on them for a better view (i.e. check out where Elsie's feet are!). I could just see one of them sliding between the railings and falling down into the mucky water and I was not in the mood to go diving in after them! lol
A better view of the turtles.

The ducks here are very friendly. There are signs everywhere saying to not feed the ducks, but I am guessing that people do, because they kept coming up out of the water whenever we came near. Of course, as soon as the kids tried to pet them, they would waddle back into the safety of the water.

Even though all I could get were the backsides of Elsie and Caleb, I thought this was a cute picture. The babies of our family walking side by side like old friends. Of course, the reality of it is that if Elsie would even brush up against Caleb, he would start crying and come look for his mom. I think he is afraid of being tackled by my fun loving daughter.

Chasing the ducks in hopes of getting a chance to 'pet' them.

Seth and Elsie ventured of the trail path and into the thickness of these trees, leaving them with some gnarly scratches. They don't seem to bother them though.

My serious hikers.

After the hike, we ventured on over to the museum/store. Here the kids got to feel and pick up all sorts of 'nature' things. Animal pelts, feathers, bones, etc.

Here Seth, Grace and Kya are checking out all the spiders and tarantulas.

Kya getting up and close with a feather and Seth in the back ground looking at the stuffed ducks.

The hit of the museum was checking out all the cool bugs, skeletons and such in this box.

Afterwards, I loaded up the kids into the van and called my mom so that she could get lunch started. By this time it was 20 after 1pm and we were all hungry! She only lives 15 minutes away, yet Elsie was sound asleep when I pulled into her drive. I put her down in the guest crib and the rest of us chowed down. I was hoping to get back on the road for home no later than 2pm to avoid rush hour traffic, but obviously that didn't happen. Instead, we stayed until after dinner and then headed home. All 3 kids were sound asleep and went straight to bed. Loads of fun!

FREE Movies

Yesterday was Kya's official 1st day of Summer break. We decided to take advantage of the FREE movies Regal Theaters offers. The choices were between Charlotte's Web and Kung Fu Panda. We chose Charlotte's Web for a few reasons. 1. I loved this book as a kid. 2. It had nothing to do with fighting. 3. The kids love animals

The kids were so excited to be able to see a movie in a real movie theater. It was the first thing they asked me about when they woke up at 6:30am, so you can imagine how long it was for them to have to wait until 10am to actually see the movie.

I wish I could have gotten their facial expressions on film when we walked into the lobby. Especially Elsie. With all the mirrors, lights and video games it was like Disneyland to them! lol First stop was to play with the video games. Of course, we didn't give them any money to play them for real because 1. we didn't have any on us and 2. I doubt they would know the difference anyways.


At the entrance of our theater. It is hard to see it in this picture, but just above their heads it says "Charlotte's Web 10:00"

Anxiously awaiting the movie to start and enjoying the previews first.

Within 5 minutes of the movie starting, Elsie snuggled up with mommy and fell asleep. Perfect, as we thought for sure one of us would end up walking the isles or chasing her in the lobby.

Kya and Seth did really well too. We are so proud of them and how they behaved. It was only the last 20 minutes of the movie that they started to get squirmy and played musical chairs. Since the theater is filled with small kids, it is obviously understandable that it is not going to be 'quiet' in there and that kids will be walking up and down their rows or you will hear the occasional baby cry, but at the same time we really want to make sure our kids understand how to behave when out in public and I am again proud at how well they usually do this.

Wordless Wednesday

Kya's Last Day of Preschool for 2009

Today was the last day of preschool for this year. Kya had to be at school by 8am, which is very early for us. The afternoon class joined the morning class for breakfast, fun games and lunch. Then they invited all the parents to come watch the kids perform some of the songs they have learned throughout the year, followed by an awards ceremony.


Here she is singing and dancing to Monkey Mumbo. This is a favorite song for most of the kids. In fact, Kya has been able to teach it to us so that we can sing it here at home with Seth and Elsie.
Kya received two awards. The one on the left says "Look who went to Preschool!" with her name, school and teacher. The other is a Certificate of Achievement for turning in her Reading Diary 100% of the time.

She has 6 weeks off before the 2009-10 year starts and we plan on using those 6 weeks having lots of fun as a family. From Free Movies, Swimming Lessons, Wild Animal Park, San Diego, Kiddie Concerts, and playing in the splash pad at our local shopping center.

Congratulations Kya on learning so much in your 1st year of preschool!

I can FINALLY style my hair!

Some of you may remember that last month I got my hair cut short and with bangs. Well, I hated the way I looked in bangs so badly, that I would only wear my hair pulled back with a bunch of bobby pins like this:

Well, today I am proud to say that my bangs were finally long enough to style! I put some styling gel in my hair after my shower and used a paddle brush and blow dryer to straighten my hair some and to get my bangs to go over the my right side. I then sprayed some hairspray on them to give it a little lift. What do you think? I myself was feeling pretty sassy and took a few self portraits before Wayne took ones that really showed my 'new look'.

I actually like my self portraits better than the ones of me posing! LOL Plus I like the fact that you can actually see just how green my eyes really are. (Everyone always says I have blue eyes, when that just isn't so)

Erica Graduates!!!!!!!!!

Our niece, Wayne's brothers only daughter, graduated from High School on Saturday with Honors! It was our pleasure and joy to watch her accept her diploma with her class. We are excited to see where the Lord will lead her as she goes off to college this Fall. We are hoping to see her more often, as she will only be 25 minutes away from us now. Way to go Erica!

Perris Auto Speedway

A couple of weeks ago on June 30th, we were invited by some dear friends, to go to Perris Auto Speedway to watch the Torc Series race. We love this family and truly believe that it was the Lord who brought us together less than a year ago at a Cowboy Church service Wayne was preaching at. Andy and Ali love the country life as much as Wayne and I do, if not more! They have two daughters just a bit older than our kids. Kattie is 6 years old and Kassidy is 4 1/2. We also just learned last Sunday that all four of us adults were born in July! In fact, Andy, Ali and I are the exact same age give or take a few days!

Andy sells AMSOil and since his company sponsors this race at PAS, he was able to get our entire family in for FREE! So not only were we able to enjoy an exciting race and hang out with some beloved friends, we also were able to save our family $70.oo. whooo hooo!



Elsie thought the whole thing was pretty exciting, at first, but then she started to get tired and bit squirmy. Seth watched the race pretty intently, but he did complain that it was loud and hurt his ears. Thankfully, Ali had an extra pair of ear plugs and once Seth had those in he was fine. We now know to bring some with us in the future. Kya liked the race, but not nearly as much as she enjoyed hanging out with Kattie and Kassidy.