Melissa’s Blog

Our summer began with our trip to the east coast. Dad had to go to Boston for a Red Hat conference and we decided to tag a long. Here is Justin sitting at the airport. And the other picture was in the Colorado airport. As we were going to the next gate we found this back drop.

For me this vacation was a trip down memory lane. Finally after being with Bret for so long he was able to see where I grew up. The east coast held up to the true weather, rainy, sunny, and humid!! Driving to Framingham was so weird. This sounds a bit weird but so much had changed but so much remained the same. We went to the old house on Pleasantview Terrace. I brought pics of when we used to live there to prove I lived there. It was totally embarassing but I decided to knock on the door. The lady was a little freaked out but decided to let us in. So crazy to be back in the house. Really looked the same except lighter and brighter. I was really glad to show my family the house I grew up in. First stop was Papa Gino’s and it was as good as I remember. We were in Boston for the week. We explored the Esplanade, Boston Public Garden. It was fun the kids and I exploring the city. I was a little worried taking the T and stuff but we did it. Justin really liked figuring out the T. I tried to take lots of pictures.

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t is so funny that I grew up with candlepin  bowling and if you are from CA no one has ever heard of it

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I remember first telling Bret about bowling with small balls and he was like what??? While Bret was at the conference the kids and I went candlepin pin. It was funny to see the kids bowl this way. They had a good time. The bowling ally was only about 20 miles from Boston but it took so long to get there. You just don’t pop on a freeway and go, like here. We made a day out of it.We went bowling then to a kids play place that had a zip line, rope swings, gymnastics mats, every type of ball. I thought the kids would be bored after a short time but they had a great time. We basically had the place to ourselves which made it even better. Then we went to meet some old high school friends for dinner. It has been 25 years and so crazy to catch up with these people. I let the kids have their ipads the entire time so I could chat away. I was a little hesitant at first for some weird reason but I was glad I went.  By our hotel was a huge fountain the kids could play in. One night the kids and I ran through it with our clothes on just to be silly. Just going through it once I was soaked and freezing. Anyway we went over to the fountain another day with bathing suits. The kids had fun but Justin got a little cold. Nikki did not want to get out. Here is a pic from before going in the fountain and after:

We went to Old Sturbridge Village and it was like walking back into the 1800’s. It was so beautiful there, the greenery, etc. They called this a living museum. It was great as the people that worked there made you feel like they were living in this time period, dressed and working as the people in the 1800’s were. If you went into the blacksmith shop there was a worker working and telling us all about it. The kids loved the old fashioned games that the kids used to play with. Nikki loved trying the stilts. We got to see and hear them shoot a rifle. Also the highlight for Justin was catching a fish. The fishing poles were made out of sticks and both kids caught a fish-it was so cool.

We headed to NY. It was a long drive. We did a little too much driving this trip but we wanted to see so much. We stayed in NJ the first night thinking it would be cheaper and easy to get to the subway. The hotel and area was just ok so we ended up in Long Island NY the other nights. We spent lots of time in Times Square. All the amazing and awesome stores. The highlight for Justin was the Nintendo store and for Nikki it was the American Girl store. Nikki finally got an American Girl doll and she was thrilled. She named the doll Isabella. She has been taking such good care of the doll. We ended up buying her doll a leotard and dad and Nikki built a gymnastics bar for her. And of course we had to visit the Statue of Liberty.

We planned 24 hours of kid fun at the Great Wolf Lodge. The is the best kid hotel ever. There was an indoor water park, video game area, balance on ropes/rope obstacle course, etc. The high light for the kiddos was the water park with the slides and wave pool. There was one crazy slide called the tornado. It was kind of like a funnel-I hated it but everyone else loved it

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We ended up meeting up with my long lost cousin. We connected on facebook and I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. It is my mom’s sisters daughter. I was so nervous when she wanted to meet up with us while we were in NH. But I am so glad we did. Our kids got along great, swam at our hotel and then we had lunch with them. The kids all sat together at their own booth. I still haven’t told my mom I met up with her as I think she would disown me. I didn’t even tell the kids that this was my cousin. It was nice talking as she is very similar to me. And I am so glad her and I didn’t let the drama of our mother’s stop us from reconnecting. I am sure there is a lot I don’t know about what happened between her mom and my mom but I was just a kid. It didn’t have anything to do with us. Here is a picture:

We had a great family vacation. So nice to be away from laundry, cooking, etc. Bret collected about 25 t-shirts from his conference and won a drone. It was a great way to start summer.

Goodbye 3rd grade, hello 4th graders. I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. Justin even said how fast it went. 3rd grade was a great year. Both had amazing teachers and did well work wise. Justin found a love for basketball-I think he told me he played everyday at recess. There were some bumps in the road, Nikki is starting to see the pettiness of girls and feeling left out, a few of Justin’s friends are moving away, and they learned some bad words. Both are growing up so fast. The kiddos had a great last day of school. They had school parties that included lots of minute to win it games and they watched movies and played board games the last week. Here are some last day photos:

After school we swam with lots of friends. And they were literally in the pool for about 5  1/2 hours. After eating a fast dinner we headed to a friends for a get together. The kids played with their friends and had smores…..you would think the fun would have ended there but it ended with two girls sleeping over. I am thoroughly exhausted and so are the kids.

This morning we woke up to a rat in the trap finally. Bret has been trying to get the guy who did this to my car:

We set the live trap and the little bugger must have not been heavy enough to set off the door. He stole blueberries and cheese. Bret even set up a web cam and we finally got him!

Spring baseball season was great. Justin was part of the Colorado Rockies Team. Unfortunately they only won one game this season, however, each time they played they got better and better. Justin became quite the pitcher-his favorite position. Not sure how it is but this kid can through further than me. The other position he played was out field. Justin really seemed to like baseball, however, the spring season was a huge commitment. The season even went longer than we expected. At the end of the season the boys had a pizza party. Justin received a certificate that says: Master of the rainbow pitch and baseball excellence. Here are some pics:

We had a 4 day weekend for Memorial Day. We so needed a break of school and baseball. It was nice as we just enjoyed being a family. We played board game, Sorry  and played outside, dodgeball, etc  On Monday we decided to go take Kate on an adventure. We went to Holy Jim Trail. The camera came with us and took lots of photos. I even let Bret take some pics with me in it-I am never in the pics. The kiddos liked doing parkour (from Minecraft) across on the stones of the creek. It was just nice to take it easy and smell the roses.

Life has been busy! I keep thinking I will have time to catch up on everything but then more and more happens. Bret was in San Antonio last week for work. He had to miss open house at school. We tried to find a good time for him to go but a good time really doesn’t exist as we always have something going on. Anyway I took lots of pics so he wouldn’t miss anything.

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It was a really nice night. I feel so fortunate to have such great teachers for my kids. The one thing that was unusual was Justin wrote his favorite subject was reading….I think he should have put computer lab.

Soccer and baseball season has been keeping us really busy. Nikki’s team finally won a game and Justin’s team still hasn’t won one. But Justin’s baseball team has really improved, especially Justin. He is not hitting consistently and pitching consistently. The last game they played they came so close to winning. Here is his baseball pic:

Nikki did a dance in the talent show. It was to the song hot and cold. The girls did great on stage, so fun!

4/14/15 Justin’s teacher sent me this note via email. Made my day! So sweet she took the time to write this 🙂

Hello Mrs. Sanders,   I just wanted to let you know that Justin had an excellent day today! He moved his clip up to “Outstanding” because he participated well throughout the day, and he was also a great model of citizenship.   So wonderful to have students like Justin in the class.

Warm regards,

Catherine Valencia Third Grade Teacher Northwood Elementary 28 Carson Irvine, CA 92620 (949) 936-5983 http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/CValencia/

Justin had a banquet for Boy Scouts. We have been a little disappointed with scouts. It seems as the boys are noisy and do not listen during the meetings. Part of it is the leaders fault, however, Justin does have fun when he goes. Getting him to go is hard as he would prefer playing video games. Anyway I got some cute pics at the banquet. The kids also played at the park, so cute to see them on the see saw together.

Bowling has wrapped up for the season. Both kids had a great time doing bowling together. They loved getting their own balls too.

We celebrated T’s birthday at PCH Grill @ Paradise Pier Hotel (character breakfast dining). The kids had a great time-it was really cute. In between eating and taking pics of characters, the kids also got up and danced. Justin looks so grown up drinking his hot chocolate.

The kids had a fun day planned at school today. Not only was it the Valentine’s partied but also the 100th day of school. In celebration of all these the kids made Valentine boxes for their Valentines and dressed up as old people. It was hard to find the right clothes….Nikki added a cardigan to her outfit and Justin pulled his shorts up as high as was comfortable and wore black socks with his tennis shoes. Making their hair gray was easy with a little baby powder. Justin did his Valentine box like a Minecraft creeper and Nikki did hers like a Rubik’s cube. At their party at school they passed out their Valentines and made ice cream sundaes. Justin won an award for the Best Use of Materials Used!

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and here is the Valentine’s card the kiddos gave out to their friends:

The kids were on each other’s nerves over the holiday break. This is the first break that I actually thought, go back to school time. Nikki has been having fun with her electric scooter. I got a new camera strap  for Xmas so I brought my camera on the Jefferey open space path. I love how Justin is still in his jammies!

The quarter end awards at school were this month. Justin got an award for outstanding achievement in Math. We are proud but it was a little hard on Nikki. She was happy for her brother but a little disappointed she didn’t get anything. That is what is really hard with twins. Nikki will have her day and not everything can be even all the time.

Both kiddos are doing bowling now and are the league together. The first time they weren’t on the same team and it was great they wanted to be together. So the next time they were on the same team.