Monday, August 26, 2013

A dairy fun day

We have some friends who own a dairy and they invited us over for lunch after church. The kids were so excited, we were too, but not for the same reasons! :) We enjoyed a great lunch, the kids played inside and explored the dairy, we got to witness the circle of life and see north and death first hand, we watched the cows get milked and all loaded up into 1 truck to go shooting. All the kids lined up and got to shoot at the targets, we have a few who have a great shot! :)

When you live on a dairy, hills of hay, milking cows, tractors, etc... it's just normal everyday life. However, when you live in a tract house in town, it's all quite new and exciting! We had a great day, great food, great friends, great fun!!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Regional Park fun

Every summer our homeschool group goes to the regional park for a day of fun! Our kids look forward to playing in the cool water and the slides are always a hit! I didn't take my camera, but did snap a few on my phone. I love that we can enjoy "the beach" without the drive.

$2 Tuesday fun

Summer is nearly over, but we're still working on checking off items on our bucket list. The 66ers have a $2 special on Tuesday nights, so we took advantage of it. The little boys had never been to a professional baseball (I know the 66ers aren't the Padres, Angels or Dodgers, but they're closer and way cheaper) game before, so it was fun for them! The game was a little boring, but we lasted thru the 5th inning and everyone had fun!

Summer favorite

Everyone in our family loves music!! Growing up, my parents took me to live concerts all the time, the symphony, opera, gospel, organ concerts, college choirs, folk music, you name it, we went, listened and enjoyed. My parents still love concerts and go weekly to hear something. I think their love off music inspired my love of music. James' family also loves music and their history in band runs deep. So, it only makes sense that all off our kids love music too! We all absolutely love the Redlands Bowl! Since there are 2 weekly performances, we try to make it to at least one of them. We pack dinner, games, blankets and chairs and head down to Redlands for a good 3-4 hours of fun!! Our summer is made complete with the music we hear and the fun we have!

The summer season finished with the symphony and a piano soloist followed by the 1812 overture and fireworks! It was such a fun part of our summer and I'm sad it's over! Until next year!

Vacation

Summer it's filled with favorites! We love camping at Cachuma Lake, north of Santa Barbara and we love Spirit West Coast, so this vacation was great because we got to do both! We spent 3 days at Cachuma and 5 days in Monterey at SWC.

Given the busyness of our every day life, I love a vacation where we can relax and do fun things! We rode bikes, relaxed in the hammock, visited Solvang, rode Surry bikes, had a picnic, hiked around the lake, visited our favorite thrift store, played games, and roasted s'mores!! I was sad to leave Cachuma, but I'm looking forward to going back there next summer!! From Cachuma, to Monterey the drive is filled with wineries and vineyards cover the hills, it's so pretty. We stopped by the Madonna Inn, which was a first for the kids, on the way and had a yummy lunch.

We have been going to SWC since I was pregnant with Grace and for the last 6 years we've volunteered. The kids live for SWC and we haven't missed one in 12 years! This year, James headed up the transportation department, so it was essentially a working vacation for him, but he loved it. The kids and I had the best of both worlds, we enjoyed spending time with SWC friends, the concerts, Veggie Land and got to do fun things in Monterey! We went to the wharf, ate yummy chowder, visited a cool candy store, visited Cannary Row, played at fbcvccthe beach, Dennis the Mennis park,  We had such a great time!!

Zach, eye love you

Zach has had lazy eye lids since he was born. Over the years, we've seen the ophthalmologist on a regular basis, but now that he's older the Dr decided to do surgery to repair both lids.  We saw a Children's specialist and we really liked him. In the middle of my working the week of SERVE at church, Zach's surgery was scheduled. Other than the waiting time to get into surgery, the day went really smooth. His eyes will take weeks to heal and the bruising, months. We are hoping once the swelling goes down his eyes will look great! 

SERVE Redlands 2013

This past week our church hosted SERVE. I was blessed to serve by doing the food for the week. It's so cool to see how God works!! The week was long, required LOTS of planning, many hours of work, trips to the store and mornings starting at 3:30 am, but at the end of it all, it was more than worth it! In the middle of the week, I was able to share my cancer story, pray with and encourage 2 boys at SERVE that had just gotten word their sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. There have been many times I've wondered what I was supposed to learn from having cancer and I've been praying that my story could help others, this was how! In addition to that awesome opportunity, I got to work with 2 other great ladies every morning! It was so cool to see people of the River come together and give of their time and resources to serve others and be the hands of Christ.

16 years

16 years ago, we were just kids. I was 19, James had just turned 21, but we thought we were so mature and ready to face the world together. Thankfully, by the Grace of God, we have survived, not only do we love each other, but we still like each other too ;)
We've been through a lot, in these years together, but I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else.
This week and the coming weeks are a little chaotic, but we got to go out for the night and had dinner, drinks, dessert and went to the Redlands Bowl for some music under the stars.
Happy Anniversary Oates, I love you to the moon and back!! I thank God for you!