Turning 4 and Celebrating the 4th

First of all, Blogger is having some issues and I can't seem to get pictures in the correct places. So, I'm going to tell the story and the pictures will be out of order to follow. Bare with me. = )
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This was our second year going up to our friends brother's house in Merced for the 4th of July and Mary's birthday. Mary turned the big 4 on the 2nd. She is a solid 39 pounds and 41 inches tall.
We got up at 5 on Saturday to start our drive up to Merced, AKA: Lake Tittykaka.
Mary had taken 3 swim lessons before we had gone up. We hung out in the pool all day long and Mary was a fish all weekend long. She did not want to get out. No matter how bad her teeth were chattering from being cold, she did NOT want to get out. It was really cute. She started with her floaty ring and her arm rings. Then she moved on to using her life vest. Then she was brave enough to just be with her arm floaties. And she even got good enough to use her kick board. We were so proud of her.
There is a man made lake on their property with ducks and fish. Mary was very excited to go fishing with daddy. We got her a barbie fishing pole for her birthday. She sat there and got bord w/in 5 minutes. It sounded more fun than it was. haha Kevin did catch one catfish. He was pretty proud of himself. I missed the picture of that.
On Sunday for the 4th we had a parade around the lake. It was decided, in April, that Kevin was to be the queen of the parade. So, he brought his wig and dress and was the queen of the parade. It was pretty funny.
We did a little quick celebration for Mary's birthday with cupcakes and singing. She got a Barbie big girl bike, which she loves to ride.
It was a fun fun weekend of friends and family. We had a great time hanging out. The girls were super good and had a great time as well. Can't wait to go back next year!!

Our New Little Swimmer

We have started Mary in swim lessons. She loves it. I think we may have a fish on her hands, a fish that doesn't like to get her face wet. So we are working on that part. The instructor, Amber, has gotten her to blow bubbles in the water and get a little of her face wet. So we are working on it. It's only been one lessons so far, so we have more to go.

She even was brave enough to do some wall walking. So proud of my little girl. I think she had a super death grip on the wall, but she did it.

weekend of cousin love

Since Thursday, 17th, we have had Brianna (14) and Stephanie (13) over at our house. These are Kevin's nieces. Mary and Teresa have loved having them here to play with. It has been a help to have the extra hands around. We mainly stayed home. It is kind of hard to do teen age things with Teresa. On Saturday Kevin took the girls and Mary to the Natural History Museum. Mary got pretty scared at the dinosaurs, but they had a good time overall.

It was very nice to have them come stay and play with us for5 days.

Mary got to help the girls make cup cakes. Yum Yum. I think Brie ate most of them.

We got Mary to takes naps in the middle of the day with the girls on the couch.

A Year and A HALF

HOLLY SMOKES, my baby is already a year and a half. That is crazy. She is growing so quick. She walks, runs, dances, and already has an opinion. She knows her yes and, definitely, her no's. Yes, she has learned to say no, and what it means. Every day she has a new word we hear. She is at a fun age right now, still all cudly and lovey. She gives the best hugs. I just love her so.
That is definitely a mommy smile below!! That's my girl!!

Ojai Wine Festival Fun

Sunday we had a fun day helping out Christian Lazo Winery at the Ojai Wine Festival. Christian Lazo is a winery we are wine club members of in Paso Robles. We found out they were going to be pouring in Ojai, which is an hour from our house. I sent them an email and they got us in free so we could help them out. It was good we good we got in free because we had to bring Teresa, which made it hard to taste wine. Kevin helped out most of the day at the booth while I tried to keep Teresa happy.

She was very happy playing in the box of ice and white wine.

Kevin was quite happy pouring/drinking wine for a few hours.

Teresa had not taken a nap all day. I walked off any wine I drank trying to get her to go to sleep in the stroller. FINALLY at about 3:30 she passed out, hard, as you can see below.

Baja Trip Continuation Story

Well most of you know how our trip began, if you read my previous blog. If you have not read it, please go back and read that one first and then come and read the continuation of our trip to Baja.

So, we make it to the house, finally. The next morning we wake up to a beautiful day. The sun is out, the tide is out, and a breeze is blowing. It’s going to be a much better day. This is the view from the porch of the house. Not bad! Bathing suits go on, sunscreen on, and we are off to play in the sand. Well, the kids did not want to. They are so weird. We were in the wonderful place and all they wanted to do was play in the house. Really put a damper in my relaxing time in the sun. Ok, so I deal with it. I ended up getting an hour or so in the sun a day while Teresa took her nap. It worked out. I am not as tan as I would be normally, but I’m still tan. By the end of the trip I could get Teresa to play on the porch and Kevin got Mary to like swimming in the ocean. She was a fish in the sea. She would bug us each day to go swimming. The tide was really extreme for the week, so we could only go in around 2:00 or so, when the tide was high. Now she likes the water and we will take her to get swim lessons so she can go on the boat with Nana and Papa.
We took rides on the people mover, the VW bus my dad made into a baja bus. It was super fun to ride in. The girls loved to ride in it. As you can see Mary is all ready to go with her bandanna on her head! Kevin and I mainly took the jeep, we brought down. My parents brought down the buggy for them. Lotsa room for everyone to have fun. So, fun rides to other camps and to town for a day. We took the broken hitch to town to get it fixed. We did get it fixed so we could tow the jeep back home.
So things are going good, so we thought. Linda decides she is going to go take a ride on her quad. She goes out with the key to the back of the house and there is NO quad there. HOLLY CRAP! Just the thought I had when I did not see the jeep behind the motorhome. So we are all now trying to figure out the last time we saw it sitting there. All we can figure is that someone took it while we were all in town. So Linda tells the owners of the camp and she files a report with the Mexican police. Hopefully it will be found.
Ok, so hopefully this will be the end of our bad luck. We keep on going with our week. Soaking up all the fun in the sun we can. Saturday rolls around and we need to pack up to leave the next day, such a sad day. We wake up Saturday and finish our packing and roll out about 9 in the morning. My mom drives the jeep the 2 hours, or so, to Mexicali though all the rough detours. We then stop and hook it back onto the motorhome and proceed to cross the border. Thanks to all the new fun roads it took us 5 hours to get to the border, which normally takes about 2 ½. It felt like we had been traveling ALL day. So we get across the border and get to Cocos for lunch/dinner. By then it was almost 3:00. By the time we were done it was almost 5. Now we are off to Morongo for the night. We make it to Morongo. My sister and her husband were going to proceed home so we said our good byes and they were off again. We get settled in the parking lot for the night. Some of us head over to the casino. We have to do something while we are there. Ha Ha! While we are there my sister sends a picture to my mom of a flat tire. Another HOLLY CRAP! So they get a flat tire on the trailer they are pulling the VW bus on. Great, the adventure is not over yet. Luckily Matt is able to figure it all out and they got home safe. Needless to say, we did not feel lucky enough to gamble after that, so back to the motorhome we went to go to bed.
The next morning we are up and heading back home. Thankfully there were no more adventures to report. We all made it safe and sound home. It was an eventful trip. In between it all, it was fun. What’s a vacation without stories???
Below are picture, out of order. Explanations with each of them.

This is the sulfur mines. We take a ride out to them. Nothing to see, only smell. It's an excuse to go for a ride and have a beer stop.
This is some of us sitting at the sulfur mines chillin'
The view from the buggy while taking a ride down the road. SO much fun!

Here are mom and Amy riding in the back of the buggy.

Here is Mary getting her hair braided by one of the vendors on the beach. She was so good to sit and let them do it.

And here is the finished product. It was great that day. Her hair is so fine that it started to come out after sleeping on it one night. But since we were camping, we didn't care. She was a braided ragged mess for a couple days. It kept it out of her eyes at least.

Mary showing off an olive shell she found.

Teresa had fun running along the sand bar.

I was a little happy at the camp fire one night.

A Mexican bath

This is the hole the jeep put in the motorhome when it came off.Mary taking a nap on the beach

This is the view of our house from the beach.

Mary liked to be buried in the sand. She had sand in various places at bath time.

Mary had it down with bargaining with the vendors.