Boomers and Dinner

Our last day in Santa Maria we went to Boomers with Dad and Cat, basically it's like anyother miniature golf/go-cart place. We had a great time in the arcade, Dad and Cat played air hockey and skeetball while we took Rachel to do some of the "kiddy" games. Then we tricked Dad and Cat to go out on the water bumper cars. They had a great time getting eachother soaked and Rachel loved it!! Afterwards, we went to dinner at Cool Hand Luke's with Dad, Cat, Brad and Jessica. We had a great time!! Thanks Dad and Cat!!

Beach Day

After the 4th we decided to spend the day at Avila Beach!! Rachel LOVES the beach!! She had a great time playing in the sand and burying Mark and being buried herself!! She loved playing in the water! I wish my video would download of her playing in the waves!! Also, on this fine occasion, Mark thought that it would be a good idea to swim alllllllllllllllllllll the way out to the bouy and back!! Seriously!?! And I was stupid enough to go along with him!! It took us what felt like 20 years to get there and on the way back I was sooooo tired!! My Dad thought he was funny and gave us a whole $1 for doing it, worth at least $20 next time!! We had an awesome time!!

4th of July 2011

We had an awesome 4th of July at Pismo Beach this year. Thanks to my brother's wonderful girlfriend Jessica and her family!! We had a BBQ and did fireworks with the kids. Rachel had a great time playing with Jessica's nephews, especially Jamison. It was great to watch 4th of July fireworks from the pier! We love the 4th of July and we LOVE the USA!!!

Good Times

While in Santa Maria we spent some good times with some great friends! Carolyn, Rick and the boys!! Always a blast!! Thanks for everything guys!! And thank you for spoiling Rachel with a ridiculous amount of everything she could possibly be spoiled with!! We love you guys!!

California Family

We went back to Santa Maria after our awesome time at Disneyland/California Adventure (thank you Dad and Cat). We were able to hang out with Mom and Frank and take Rachel to Waller Park. That's always fun because it's the park that I grew up playing at! We also went with Dad and Cat to another park in Orcutt where we had taken Rachel last year. It's fun to see how much she has grown, she did the monkey bars for the first time all by herself! We also made it up to Aunt Su's in AG for a family BBQ and of course poker! It was really cute when we saw CeCe reading to Rachel, just like how Amy use to read to me when we were little. And I had to add the little picture of Rachel with "Silly Goofy" (which is what she calls my Dad) coloring one morning.

We took Rachel to Disneyland for the first time with my Dad and Cat, who Rachel calls "Silly Goofy and Grandma Cat". We had an amazing time! We went on every ride she wanted to go on. She was great about being patient and waiting her turn in line. She loved the fireworks and the rides. She loved the tea cups, the rides and the shows. This is just one of at least 3 total posts from Disneyland. I am so excited she was able to enjoy this so much. She yelled out at the end of the day her favorite quote from the movie Tangled, " BEST DAY EVER!!!" We are so lucky to have such an amazing little girl!!

California Adventure

We were so excited to take Rachel to Disneyland for the first time. We started by taking her to California Adventure and she had a wonderful time! I couldn't believe how happy she was to wait in line and be patient to ride the rides. We went on everything!! She loved it and it was amazing!! She was picked to go up and help with the "Superheros of Tomorrow" and the Incredibles. She had fun and she loved waving to us, but she was really nervous and she got really shy, it was cute. She was able to meet Mickey and Minnie, Sully, Mr. Incredible and Frozone, Lightning McQueen and Mater and Hopper from Bugs Life. We went to the Aladdin show, a mini broadway play and watched the 3D interactive movie in Bugs Life, she loved it! She was wonderful all day and she didn't even have a nap. On the way back to the hotel she crashed!! The best part is that her little umbrella stroller that we got specifically for this trip was a little short for her so her head hung out the top!! Dad and Cat met us that night for dinner at the ESPN in Disneyland before we headed back to the World of Color at California Adventure. It was amazing and Rachel had a wonderful time, so did we!!

Phoenix, AZ

Driving to Arizona we stopped at the Continental Divide, which was really not that exciting, but memorable. We were in Phoenix, AZ for 5 days and 4 nights. Mark had meetings for work and Rachel and I spent time with my grandparents. Rachel and I drove over to Nana and Granddaddy's house and went swimming and to Peter Piper's Pizza. It was basically like a Chuck E. Cheese, but with great pizza! Rachel played all the games and won more than 730 tickets. She won the jackpot at every game she played! I have never seen anyone win so many tickets in such a short period of time. She insisted on playing the Terminator game and shooting the bad guys with the giant machine gun and going on the carousel (5 times). Rachel and I were able to spend a lot of time at the pool while Mark was in meetings. They had 3 pools and a lazy river and a water slide and we took complete advantage of it!! I took her to the Phoenix Science Museum and we spent all day there. It was a lot of fun and she was even chosen to help at one of the shows! On Saturday we were able to go to dinner wtih my grandparents in Mesa, AZ called Organ Pizza. It is an amazing place where they have the largest organ in the United States. I will try to post a video of it soon. It was pretty amazing all of the different instruments that the organ controlled! We had a great time with my grandparents. The vacation has been great so far!

WCWS 2011

From June 2-June 8 we were lucky enough to have family come to OKC for a week for the Women's College World Series. Grandma, Aunt Su and Aunt Tommi came to OKC and we had a BLAST! We watched the WCWS from behind the home plate and it was awesome! We shopped and played and goofed around and laughed and ate, it was wonderful! Aunt Su and Aunt Tommi were even able to come see Rachel at her gymnastics class! We played "dress up" at Bass Pro Shop and enjoyed goofing around while managing to not get kicked out! We made sure to go to Cheesecake Factory and get the best cheesecakes! We had so much fun just having girl time! I am so glad I was able to be a part of everything this year and that Rachel and Mark were able to come to a couple of games too!!

Rachel's 3rd Birthday

This year for Rachel's 3rd Birthday, we had a backyard BBQ at the Walker's house. (We don't have a backyard and it poured the night before. So, the family that I nanny for let us use thier backyard. THANK YOU WALKERS)!! I made Rachel's cake, which until April was suppose to be a Hello Kitty cake until she decided that she NEEDED a Rapunzel cake, AWESOME!! I was going to do one of those barbie cakes where you just stick a barbie in the cake and then decorate it, but I thought with all the little kids a cupcake cake would be much easier! I got the idea from another blog I saw online while Mark and I were trying to plan her party. And thanks to our friend Becky for the idea of the Pascal cupcakes!! We spent too much time and effort on this 3 year old party for sure! We made Pascal party blowers and Mark made a "Pin the nose on Flynn Ryder" poster and then little ovals for all the kids to make thier own noses and paste them on. Then Mark thought of putting all of the beads for the Rapunzel necklaces into frying pans, pretty cleaver! All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and the families too! I hope they really did. I know Rachel loved having all of her friends at her party, so did we.

We also went as a family for her birthday to a place called Dynamo Gymnastics. They have this really fun little obstacle course for the kids and it's only $5/2 hours and adults are free! We ran and jumped and played for about 90 minutes and then we were exhausted! Rachel really had a great time and it is a place we will go back to for sure! After she wanted to go to "Cheesecake", which is the Cheesecake Factory, obviously we said yes! We had a great time there and she loved that they all came and sang to her.

I can hardly believe she is 3 years old! What a beautiful little girl she has become. We are so lucky to have her. She brings so much joy and laughter into our lives. Lately, when she has been a little too crazy and she can see that she's about to get into trouble for something, she will stop and come up to one of us and snuggle and then say "I love you soooooooooooooo much!" Oh yeah, she works it. We are suckers and she knows it! I am so excited to see what we are in for in this next year with her.

Pops

Here are some pictures from one of our favorite places in Oklahoma. It's called Pops and it has more than 500 flavors of bottled soda. Everything you can think of, they have it. From all over the world. From floor to ceiling and in 8 coolers Pops is covered in different flavors and colors of soda bottles. (Brilliantly the ones on the windows are glued down and not for sale, because my child, like many others I'm sure would break many of those glasses). We have been here for both breakfast and dinner, the food is great and reasonably priced. It is also a working gas station, which is great for the buses carrying loads of people who come in and buy tons of bottled soda! If you are ever in OKC we will be happy to take you!

8 years

Gymnastics 2011

Prague Kolache Festival

We were able to go to a parade and festival about an hour away from our house in Prague, OK in April. We had fun and enjoyed our extra long corndogs and the Polish Dancing. Rachel insisted on taking a picture with this year's queen. She also had fun playing on the one playground in the whole town. We had a great time and after, of course, we went to the zoo.

Most Days....

I know that this is way behind, but I really wanted to post Easter pictures. Rachel had a really GREAT time this year coloring eggs and going on the Easter Egg hunt. Unfortunately, Mark was not home for Easter because the hockey team played in Hamilton, Ontario for a playoff game. Yes, that's right, on Easter Sunday. (Also annoying, they lost that game and that ended their playoff run for the year). But he was home to color Easter Eggs and Rachel had a great time doing that with him, so life is good.

Day One Cadillac Ranch TX

On our first day of the road trip we stopped in Texas at the "Cadillac Ranch". It is 10 cars buried 1/2 way in the ground to show the different fins on the Cadillac car. We found some spray paint and went to town. We got in the cars and had a great break after driving for 5 hours. Rachel loved that she got paint on her hand just like Mark and I. It was so fun to watch her light up as we spray painted her name on the cars. These are the moments that I hope she will always remember. And it is just the beginning of the trip!!

I loved this picture and thought I should share it with all of you!

Day 1- OK to TX and NM