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!
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!
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!
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 ...
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 ...
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.
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.
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
We had fun today meeting Traci, Katie & Bethany at the "Sprayground" at a Bloomington park! Bethany and Abby are both from Zhuzhou, Hunan and are only 3 days apart in age. Traci traveled with us to meet the girls in January, 2004 ...
TJ had a fun few days celebrating his 9th birthday! On Sunday, he had best-buddy Jared out for a boat ride. We went to dinner Monday night at one of his favorite places, Pizza Ranch. Then we were too full from dinner to eat his birthday treats when we came home, so we held those off until Tuesday night. Not bad, stretching those birthday celebrations out over 3 days!
This year TJ wanted a "big cookie" instead of a cake ... so I made a 9x13 pan of chocolate chip cookie bars. Last night the kids had fun topping the cookie with ice cream, chocolate sauce, carmel sauce, whipped cream, nuts and cherries! Abby treated TJ to a very special and unique rendition of "Happy Birthday" and TJ sat there like a typical 9 yr old big brother, not sure if it was cool to smile or not. HA
The slide show at the top has pics of the boat ride and the cookie feast! The You Tube video below is Abby singing to her big brother!
We usually sit on the dock at the marina and watch the fireworks from there, but last night we ventured to downtown Peoria to take in the riverfront activities. Listened to a favorite band and enjoyed dinner at Old Chicago ... finished up just in time to walk out and see the fireworks. Nice display, very beautiful ... but then it took an hour to get out of traffic! Oh well, it's once a year, right? :-)
Cell phone camera to the rescue again! We were up on a deck outside the restaurant and could look right down on the barge on the river that was launching the fireworks. Great spot! I heard there were 200,000 people on the riverfront last night and I think we were behind them all driving home!
