Happy Birthday Mitch!

It was late in the day, but still his bday ... just had a little cake to celebrate Mitch's special day!

New Jewels for the Princess

Miss Abby got some pretty new jewels in her ears on Saturday ... she has been asking and asking to have her ears pierced and mommy told her we'd do it for her 5th bday in January. Then she was such a good girl in putting up with all the dental work that I thought a special treat was due.

We headed to Claire's at the mall on Sat, where it was recommended to me that they could have 2 people do her ears and do both at the same time, which might be easier for her to take. Made sense to me, so on the count of 3, both ears were done at the same time. The pics show her in the chair ... she requested to sit on the lap of her favorite body guard, Drew ... and she squeezed a fuzzy Claire's teddy bear as it happened. After getting a dot on each ear for mom to approve the location of the earring, it was a done deal. She said she chose the "prettiest earrings in the world" which are pink and white flowers. Very cute, and she has done really well letting me do the 3x a day antiseptic treatment and turning so they will stay clean and heal well.

THS Football!

A nice evening for a home football game tonight ... it was also the dedication ceremonies for our new stadium. I can't believe I'm watching Drew in his last few games with marching band. Rain threatened for awhile, but held off and we enjoyed the game and the chance to explore the new stadium. A few pics of band are above ... Drew is in the pre-game line up on the left. He's on the right in the half time shots at night that are fuzzy! Darn point and shoot cameras don't like the intensity of the lights!

The Circus Came to Tremont!

We took the kids to a fun little circus that came through Tremont ... Abby wanted *nothing* to do with the man on stilts, even when TJ held her hand and promised her he would stay with her while they talked to him. They really enjoyed the acts, especially the tigers ... and had lots of fun watching tightrope, trapeze, clown, tumbling and high wire acts. Big fun under the big top in the small town!

Back to School Time Here!

It's hard to believe summer is over and it's back to school time in Tremont! The boys headed back to school on Wed for a half day ... TJ starting 4th grade and Drew starting his (eek) senior year! TJ was not all that excited about going back to school ... but he has really enjoyed his new teacher and has done a complete turnaround about being in school ... that helps! Drew is looking forward to a fun senior year and has his first band performance for a home football game on Friday. Our new stadium is not quite complete so our "home" game has been moved to the stadium at ISU, about 35 miles away. Should be a fun game for all!

Abby moved from a preschool class to a Pre-K class, and was very excited about doing that. She was thrilled to find a new Dora backpack for school ... and she told me that now that she is going to the "big kids" class she will be learning how to read. Somehow with her spirit and determination, it would not surprise me!

Long Beach Wrap-Up

Our last couple of days in CA were very relaxing and fun ... we spent another day at the beach, some time at the pool, the boys rented a paddle boat at the hotel lagoon and went for a ride, we toured the Queen Mary, and on our last night, took the kids to GameWorks for some game time and bowling. It was a lot of fun ... TJ had a couple of strikes and Abby enjoyed her first time on the lanes. The slide show is a combination of all of these things ... it was a great trip with the kids and lots more memories for the vacation file!

Visit to the Aquarium

We had a fun visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific yesterday afternoon ... some really neat exhibits that the kids loved! One of their favorite things were the "touch ponds" where they got to "pet" some stingrays, nurse sharks and bamboo sharks. We got to see some larger sharks in a big tank that were definitely *not* the petting kind, and many neat fish and marine life displays. You can also see one picture of Abby very happy to be posing by a tank of "Nemo's and Dori's" for all you Finding Nemo fans. A few pics below ...

Long Beach Jazz Festival

We're enjoying another beautiful day in Long Beach. Over the past few days we saw a huge stage being set up around a pond area outside of our hotel window, and last night and today we found out why ...

http://www.longbeachjazzfestival.com

I shot this short video with my digital camera *through the hotel window inside the room* ... so that gives you a quick idea of just how *loud* this thing is. HA



Looks like it goes until about Midnight again tonight ... we drifted off to the sounds of jazz last night (not a bad thing). Hey the tickets are $45 lawn seats a day and we have a great view!

Lisa's conference is over now and we're going to be relaxing the rest of today (Sat) and all of Sun/Mon. We have a Noon flight out on Tues ... hoping to hit another beach one day and finish exploring this pretty area.

Our Seal Encounter

I didn't plan to post again so soon, but last night we walked around the harbor and took some pretty pics to share ... plus while walking through the marina we saw something flipping around in the water and stopped to check it out ... and the kids were fascinated to watch a seal catching fish for dinner. It was neat to watch it, and you can hear TJ's excitement on the video.

We had a nice Mexican dinner and then walked the boardwalk area. Spent some time in an arcade area and then just enjoyed the cool evening. Today Lisa's meetings were over at Noon so we have the afternoon to explore ... think we'll walk over to the aquarium and check out the sea life, and it's near where we saw the seal last night so maybe we can catch his act again.

Here's a You Tube video of the seal ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meUNucocQtU

Hello from Sunny CA!

We are enjoying beautiful days in Long Beach ... high temps of 78-80 and all sunshine since we arrived. Our flights on Tues were good ... but our bags didn't make it on the same flight. We hung around the airport for about an hour and waited for the next flight in, picked them up and headed for the hotel.

There is a beautiful harbor area here with lots of neat shops/restaurants within walking distance. The "Queen Mary" is permanently docked in the harbor as a floating hotel, and there is a neat lighthouse and *huge* marina. So lots to look at and enjoy.

Wed & Thurs Lisa had meetings in the morning and Mitch and the kids have been venturing out for breakfast and hanging at the pool. Wed afternoon we drove about a half hour South of the hotel and spent the afternoon on Huntington Beach. It was a beautiful beach, and not super crowded since it was a weekday. Mitch, TJ and Abby had fun playing in the waves as you can see from the pics and You Tube video. Not long after they were done playing, we saw people pointing and looking out in the water and lifeguard whistles started blowing, and everyone came dashing out of the water ... but luckily, it was a pod of dolphins swimming and playing and rolling in the surf and nothing more threatening. There were probably 8-10 dolphins and they moved up and down the shoreline for us to enjoy for quite awhile. Sometimes they would do some small jumps and rolls and you could just about see their whole body, it was really neat.

Last night we walked up into a neat area of Long Beach for dinner with restaurants, bars and clubs. We ate in an outdoor patio area and TJ got a real kick seeing some fancy cars cruising the strip.

Not lots of pics so far, just of our excursion to Huntington Beach ... but more to follow!

If you can't click on the You Tube window below, you can see the video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bubNDXq33Fk