christmas with the rat pack

*Six days...November 1...until I will allow Christmas music to infiltrate my earbuds during work. Woohoo!! "Christmas with the Rat Pack", here I come! :)

*Last year Chris' parents gave us a "Family Fun Card" (American Express giftcard). We had a little left and decided to do something fun with the kids yesterday. We started out with breakfast at Carolyn's Cafe. The kids adore the coffee cake. :)

We then headed to a Groupon find at Victoria Gardens. It was basically an interactive ride. The kids loved it! 

Here is the photo provided by the ride. Props were available in case you wanted to dress for the adventure. :)

We were then able to snag a couple of good deals at Old Navy in the form of pants for Cameron. These are SOO hard to find because pants are always too short on him.

*A couple weeks ago I came down with a 48-hour bug. Luckily I only had to miss a couple days of work. I also took a break from working out. The problem is that I'm still on a break from working out because my motivation has disappeared. Not sure when it will return... ;)

*Every year I am saddened that we don't have Hallmark and I'm unable to watch all the Christmas movies. Luckily I get a few in when we visit my in-laws since my MIL saves them all for me. Anyway, I saw this on another blog and thought it was so funny, and so true!

happy 40th

*My MIL bought us a super cool bun maker thing (not sure the name) that makes creating buns for Kendall so much easier and she looks so cute (and older😩).

*This past week has been full of celebrating Chris' 40th birthday. We started it out with dinner with some of our best friends. Chris requested a long time favorite restaurant  near where we went to college, Angelo and Vinci's.

His parents drove down to attend a cross country meet which made it so we could go out on his actual birthday.

*Several days later, the four of us celebrated at Gourmet Pizza. Brando. Yum.

Kind of cool to think that we've been together now almost half his life. Happy birthday to my sweet, unselfish, SUPER funny husband!!!

*Yesterday was a Costco trip. Kendall is NOT a fan of Costco. To sweeten the deal, I let her bring the quad girls along. :)

*Chris and I are watching the entire series of The Office for the third time. How timely that this podcast was just released and I LOVE it!!

recycle

*Cameron is deep into his cross country season. I will only be able to make one of his meets due to when they are and how far they are away, but luckily Chris gets to go to all of them and my parents cheered him on last week.

*I love Halloween and taking the kids out trick-or-treating is always such a highlight, but I'm the worst when it comes to creative costumes. Cam has been a hiker the past few years and this year he'll wear his cycling outfit (or "kit" as the pro's call it). Not very creative! A hat and some black/orange tights will complete Kendall's outfit this year. Not too hard;)

*Costco trip last week. The kids waited several minutes for some cinnamon buns. They reported it was well worth the wait. 

*Friday was an especially draining day at work. Fridays are "IEP days" in which we schedule all of our meetings. While they went really well, being "on" for most of the day is mentally draining and I was so ready to just relax and not have to talk. Several times the thought of my relaxing Saturday morning helped get me through. So while Chris took Cam to a practice, I was in heaven with Kendall drinking my coffee and watching our current TV series we are into, When Calls the Heart. 

When Cam got back, my dad arrived and they left for a bike ride. He stayed a little longer afterward and helped them sort their cans. They each made $16!

time share

 *My parents were able to rent one of their friend's time share condos in La Jolla for the week. Since we can't all six fit, the four of us stayed there this weekend and my parents will head down tomorrow. We just got back a couple hours ago and had such a fun stay!

Our complex was right across the street from some tide pools, which we walked to as soon as we got there.

Friday night we walked to a delicious taco place and ate outside.

Saturday morning we headed to the beach. It was a beautiful day!

That night we VERY briefly discussed a few restaurant options, but then obviously ended up at our favorite, The Cheesecake Factory. :)

Not pictured were some fun times down in the Jacuzzi. The kids had it all to themselves every time we went. My favorite was our last night, when we all took down our ice cream bowls and sat and talked. :)

Thanks, mom and dad, for sharing your place with us!!

13

Our boy officially turned 13 this past week. It does feel a bit strange to say we have a teenager in the house. The four of us celebrated one night with a trip to Cabizon to get him some new shoes for cross country. We then headed to Blaze pizza where he opened our gift, a new Snap Circuit set. This kid is SOO into these right now. They have become a permanent fixture on our dining room table since he works on them all the time!

*This past weekend we celebrated up north with Chris' parents and some family. It was such a nice and relaxing weekend.

On Saturday, Cameron asked if he could join Chris for a round of golf. He wanted to see what, "...dad always talks about when he tells us about golf." He lasted 9 holes (just caddying), which was impressive considering it was incredibly hot!

Here he is before his requested birthday lunch of hamburgers.

As usual, there was no shortage of good food. Here is our dessert spread!

Chris' mom always treats me to a massage or pedicure when we go up. This time Kendall was also treated to a manicure. :)

Not pictured was some great Hallmark movie watching I got in!! None of us were ready to come home!

books

*A friend of mine wrote about a book she and her daughter had gone through. I decided to get it for Kendall and I. Kendall LOVES it and I do too. She is daily asking if we can, "Do our book". :) I would highly recommend it.

I had such a hard time finding a good one for Chris and Cam. There are sooo many more books for girls. Chris ended up finding one. He and Cam have read a few chapters and so far, Chris said it's really good.

Another book I highly recommend deals with worry/anxiety for kids. Cam and I started this one over the summer. I was looking for strategies to help him in this area. While it looks like a little kid book, the concepts are awesome and very practical.

I wish I could recommend a book I'm reading...however it has been an embarrassingly long time since I've actually read a book. :(

*One or two times a year Chris' brother has a work conference out in the desert. He'll let Chris know the dates and offers for the kids to use the hotel pool. It has become somewhat of a tradition and the kids always look forward to it. It's usually while I'm still at work, so it turns into a fun outing with dad. 

Chris made it all the more exciting by including a trip to Krispy Kreme. :)

*The kids are back in the swing of things and both kids are really enjoying their teachers, classes, etc. Chris is back in the groove of taxi service to and from, I'm in the making lunch groove, and we are all in sadly the, "no more lazy mornings" groove. :(

*The kids and my new favorite song is Sam Hunt's, "House Party". Even this afternoon, there was a little not so great mood floating around the house. I cranked the song and it immediately disappeared. :)

*Cameron will become an official teenager in a couple of weeks. To celebrate, we invited the boys from his small group at church to a scavenger hunt. I gave them a booklet of clues, which included instructions at each destination (i.e. "Take a picture of a Lego set with more than 1000 pieces" -Target). They ended with a pizza lunch and cupcakes. Cam had a blast and I'm so thankful it turned out so well! 

Kendall was so excited to play her role. The boys went to Chick-fil-A and had to find a unicorn, who then gave them money for a soda. :)

*Yesterday the kids and I finished the second Hunger Games book and just finished the movie this afternoon.