Arizona Thanksgiving Fun!

On Wednesday morning we left Disneyland and headed to Arizona to spend time with my brother and his family for Thanksgiving. As you pull into their driveway they have a sign that says "Romer Ranch." That was a good way to describe it!Maddie, Nathan, Kaylie, Calissa and Parker are giving water to the horses.

Calissa and Aunt Chrystal on Daisy.


Conner and Aunt Chrystal.

Hold on Conner!

Parker having his turn.

Me too.

Even Travis got a ride.

Parker, Conner and Maddie doing a funny dance.

Not sure why, but they look cute!

We got there on Wednesday afternoon and looked around at all the animals. They have horses, chickens, rabbits, a peacock named Kevin, dogs, cats, goats, baby chicks in the house that the kids loved holding until the cat came in and eggs incubating in the bathroom that were just starting to hatch as we were leaving. Wednesday night we went out to pizza and then went back to our hotel to sleep. Calissa got to spend the night with Uncle BJ and Aunt Chrystal. Thursday morning we got over to their house bright and early for homemade donuts. Then we helped with Thanksgiving dinner. We watched and played some football, chatted and the kids played with the animals outside. They loved it. We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner! (Thanks Chrystal and BJ!) We also went on a walk and got scared by a HUGE dog!
Here is Trouble. He decided that he liked the boys' hats so he curled up inside of them.

Conner and Trouble.

What a great name for a cat!

Calissa with the goats.

BJ and Kevin (the peacock).

He was really pretty.

Friday morning we picked up breakfast on our way over and then the kids wanted to ride the horses one more time. As Calissa was on the horse, I look over and there is Conner driving the bobcat all by himself. I was nervous that he was going to crash into something, but he did great and had fun!

Parker got his turn next and did a good job as well.

He's not quite a careful as Conner.

Then Calissa got her turn with Trav.

We washed up, got in the car and headed out to Mesa to see the Castleton family. They shared their Thanksgiving leftovers with us and we had a great four-hour chat! We sure miss their family! We got on the road about 5 PM AZ time and decided to see how the drive went and just stop somewhere along the way for the night. Well, we weren't too tired and decided to go all the way home. We got home about 3 AM CA time (4 AZ time) and gladly climbed into our beds. Conner zonked out about 11:30 CA time while Parker and Calissa stayed up until about 1 AM!

Saturday we went out to breakfast at Diggers, got out our Christmas things, went to see Tangled and did a little grocery shopping. It was a great way to end our vacation. We had dad (and not the Bishop) for a week and a half. What a great time!

A Little Vacation

We took advantage of a four day weekend and headed off to Pismo Beach for some fun in the sun! Temperatures were in the 70's with no fog. November is a great time to go!The boys got boogie boards so they took to the FREEZING waves!
It was too cold to even get my feet wet, but the kids had fun!

Exploring on the rocks.

Once they are done freezing in the ocean, they head up the 100 stairs (yes, Calissa counted them) to warm up in the pool and hot tub. There were hardly any people there especially Wednesday night and Thursday day.

Pismo Beach is one area on the coast where the Monarch Butterflies winter over. They come to this grove of trees every year.

They counted 14,000 butterflies in the grove that morning. (Yes, students from Cal Poly-SLO counted them).

They were very cool to see. Once the temperature goes below 55 degrees they cannot fly. They stay in Pismo from November to February.

Once through the butterfly grove we hiked to the beach. The kids had fun on the small sand dunes. I even got them to smile and pose for a few pictures.

Jumping!

Beautiful sunset from our balcony.

Yes, we know we are spoiled!

Thursday night we went to the Melodrama and saw "Trudy and the Beast." It was a musical take off of "Beauty and the Beast." Super funny. One of the best we've seen!

Friday morning before heading back to Concord we had one more trip to the beach.

Parker tried to show Calissa how to boogie board. She got cold too quickly and came back in after a couple of tries. Hawaii is the place to boogie board! Maybe next summer? (Trav?)

Soccer is Over! (Almost)

Soccer is over ... OK, well almost over!

It started in August and we have one more weekend left for Conner's team.

Calissa and Parker's last games were on Saturday.Here is Calissa (in the back of the picture). She played U10's this year and was the smallest on the team. She did much better than we thought she would and didn't complain about the bigger field. She played forward most of the season and while she didn't score a goal, she did get her foot on the ball a bit.
Here is Calissa and her coach Amanda. Her team won all three games of their tournament a week ago and ended up placing 3rd overall.

Way to go Blue Devils!
(Awful name, I know! I voted for the turquoise tiara's)

Conner played U12's this year and did a great job. He scored a couple of goals and did a great job wherever he played! Conner is #5 in the picture and the beautiful leg and flag you see is Parker who was reffing his game.

Conner was on the Gladiators this year and had a great team.

They finished off the season in 2nd place and go onto the area tournament this coming Saturday.

Here is Parker (looking back for the ball). He played U14's this year. He had a great team this season and they only lost 2 games during the regular season. Parker mostly played forward this year and only sat out one quarter all season. Good for him, bad for the other players.

Most of Parker's games were blow-outs and once they got up by five goals would play keep away the rest of the game. It made it boring to watch and boring for the kids after awhile too. His team was just really good and the other teams were not. They ended up placing 2nd behind another Concord team that was just a little better over all.

At Parker's team party with their trophy's and 2nd place medals.

Calissa with her 3rd place medal.

Conner with his 2nd place medal.

Parker with his 2nd place medal.

Happy kids and great soccer players!

(Grateful parents to have our Saturdays back again ... almost!)

Los Vaqueros Field Trip

On Monday, Calissa and I went on a field trip with her 3rd grade class to Los Vaqueros reservoir and dam. It was a beautiful day and a nice bus ride with only one class on the bus! Once we were there we drove up the side of the dam to the top of the reservoir to view it. We got a few instructions for the day and then after the bus making a 12 point turn went back down to the main area.Calissa's group got to go on a nature "hike" for their first station. We learned some new things about nature. They got to scoop up water from a pond and look through these nifty microscope viewing things to see what they caught. (I could have been OK not seeing the things swimming in the water with me!)
We also learned about camouflage.
Can you see the frog? (It is endangered by the way ...)

On our way back from the hike.

These cute frogs kept popping their heads out of the holes in the concrete on our walk.

Our next station was the habitat room. The kids got to touch everything! How exciting for the kids to hear "touch everything!" They also got to meet this frog (who was playing dead while she held him!)

Then, they got to meet and pet this snake. Calissa wasn't so sure she wanted to, but ended up petting it.

After the habitat room, we had lunch outside (until the wasps invaded). After the wasps came they let us eat inside. After lunch we went to the heritage room where we learned about the history of the land, how to make acorn flour, and play some games. All in all it was a great field trip and we all learned a little!

Trunk or Treat

Well, I wasn't such a great parent since I forgot to bring my camera to Trunk or Treat this year. This wouldn't be such a big deal, but since they didn't trick or treat on Sunday this year they didn't dress up again. I did talk Calissa into putting on her costume for a quick picture in the back yard one day after school.

Calissa dressed up as a Candy Corn Witch. So cute!

Parker went as a soccer ref and Conner as a ninja.

Here is Calissa at our ward Trunk or Treat. It was a long day that day with 8 soccer games, 8 reffed soccer games (hence the ref uniform for Parker) and two Halloween parties. We were partied out by the time we got home!


Our family was in charge of one of the carnival games before the actual Trunk or Treating. We were in charge of pumpkin bowling for 1/2 hour. The boys, Travis and I helped out while Calissa played the games. It was fun to do until the pumpkins started to break apart and seeds started spitting out! We found some duck tape and taped them back together! Duck tape fixes everything!



The kids had fun on Halloween opening the door for the trick-or-treaters at home. They are usually on the other side, but didn't seem to mind not going out themselves this year.

Sub at the Zoo!

I got to go to the SF Zoo on Thursday as a substitute teacher for a 1st grade class. It was a pretty easy day and a gorgeous day in the city!

Our bus driver missed the exit to the zoo so the other bus made it about 15 minutes before us. Unfortunately for the other bus, the teacher on our bus had all the paperwork to get into the zoo! Then, our driver decided to drive down to turn the bus around so the kids could see the ocean (maybe that's where they are supposed to turn the bus around) and got stuck behind a MUNI bus parked at the curb. After sitting in the bus with all those anxious 1st graders for 2-3 minutes, I asked the bus driver if she wanted me to go ask the MUNI driver to move her bus forward a little so we could get past. She said sure and I popped off the bus to ask the driver if she could please pull forward. My goodness, you would have thought that I asked her to do something really hard. (You want me to move MY bus?) I got an earful and came back on the bus to admit my defeat. So ... we went four-wheeling over the curb to the delight of the kids and to my nervous worry! Once we made it to the zoo, the zoo staff had a hard time locating our PO. Finally the kids and chaperones made it into the zoo and they were off for a quick 2 hour look at the animals. I looked around and realized that I had no responsibilities for the next two hours!

I sat on a nice bench and watched the giraffes for a while.

I walked around the zoo without having to focus on anyone but myself. I didn't quite know what to do with myself!
I thought this was pretty funny in the monkey's enclosure.

It was such a beautiful day there. The weather was perfect and I enjoyed a quiet day (at least until the bus ride home)!