Matte California Adventure-day one

We had a big first day of fun on Monday. We spent Sunday night at the Kings Inn on Hotel Circle in San Diego. I found it on the Internet and it got good reviews plus had a fun sounding breakfast place in it so I booked it. 

 The sign reminded me of those tacky places at the beach when I saw it and I was a little concerned but the place was couldn't find a parking spot packed when we arrived at nearly 1 am from the airport so it had to be good enough for one night. And it was fine. 

Here's our rental for the time we're here til we get to San Fran. It's a little Jeep Patriot. 

Paul has a first cousin who lives here so she and her husband met us for breakfast at The Waffle Spot at the hotel. Her dad was stationed here while in the Navy and retired out here. He and Paul's dad were brothers. Paul said they would visit Louisiana every summer. It was great to meet Lee Ann and her husband John. 

John and Michael hit it off and had a fun time joking around. John plays the harmonica among other instruments and is known as Harmonica John Frazer. He brought us a couple of CDs of his music  and we've enjoyed listening to them in the car on the road. Michael is interested in the harmonica and drums which John also plays so we teased about sending his out to CA for the summer to learn from him. 

The food was really good by the way. Mallory and I split the apple cinnamon waffle which I just knew would have a big ol blob of Apple compote plopped in the middle. But the batter was actually a nice apple cinnamon flavor and it was delicious. 

Lee Ann brought us some passes to the zoo and some coupons for Legoland which was really awesome (ha ha) and we said our goodbyes and were off. 

We enjoyed the zoo. Started off doing the guided bus tour. Nice overview of the layout. It's a big zoo which covers a lot of area as you can see from this map. 

Then we set off on foot to explore some more. Saw some interesting things like this snake necked turtle...strange. 

We also did the aerial tram which provided a great view. 

When we left the zoo we stopped by La Jolla on our way north. It's a neat little area of San Diego and the La Jolla Cove is especially cool. We introduced the kids to gelato and then headed down to the water. 

The Pacific Ocean is gorgeous. The beaches are rocky and different from the gulf coast white sand beaches where I grew up going. But it's stunning in its own right. 

We left La Jolla and drove up to Carlsbad and checked in to the Legoland Hotel. It deserves its own write it. It was FABULOUS! More next time. 

Going Back to Cali

Our family left today for a  trip up the California coast. We'll be spending nearly two weeks staying in six locations and seeing all we can see while out West. I'm going to try and do a blog post recap of the day to just have for our personal memories from the trip. 

Today after a wonderful Mother's Day morning worship service at church we piled in our van  with the Kenedy family and headed north to St Louis. We stopped at McDonalds to hit the drive thru which was pretty comical with 7 people relaying their orders to Paul. Believe it or not the whole order was right with the exception of their leaving out Mallory's sweet and sour sauce and the straws for the drinks!

We got to the airport at 3:30 for our  6:10

flight, went thru security without a hitch and settled in in the gate area. We all got a treat: Mallory and Dad got shakes at Baskin Robbins, Michael got an Auntie Anne's pretzel and I got a frappucino at Starbucks. 

The kids flew when they were little but don't remember it so this is really their first flight. They had fun exploring the airport and looking out the windows at the planes. Michael brought some binocs and is so cute looking thru those things. 

The flight was delayed but we finally took off around 8. 

Both kids wanted to sit by a window so we're on the plane now with Mallory and I on one row and Michael and Paul directly behind us. 

We're going thru Vegas and then on to San Diego tonight. They layover will be short because we left later just hoping to make our connection and get to San Diego to get our car and find our hotel. We have reservations at the King's Inn and plans to meet Paul's first cousin and her husband in the morning for breakfast at 9. 

Mallory is reading The Boxcar Children next to me. I have always loved that book!

We landed in Vegas and were informed our flight was delayed to San Diego too. No biggie. I enjoy people watching. The San Diego State baseball team is apparently on our flight out. They've been in Col Spgs playing the Air Force Academy. Won both games:)

One last note. Airport food is so outrageous. We got one sandwich, a little protein snack with a couple of boiled eggs, some cheese and nuts and a bottle of water and it was 25 smacks! Crazy. 

Michael's New Bunks

When Michael came along we knew we'd still need a place for guests to sleep so we kept our old queen bed in his room. We put a crib in there too and I bought a denim comforter for the big bed to go with his sports themed nursery. When I was feeding him in the middle of the night when he was an infant I'd hang out on the bed, watch TV and nurse away. Some of our sweetest bonding was during those times. 

We eventually got rid of the crib. He never really slept in it anyway. And when we moved to Missouri the queen bed moved to Michael's room too. Again, he never really slept in it here either but it has always been where Oma and Opa and other guests have stayed. My sweet Daddy stayed in there on his last visit here over two years ago. I would bring him coffee in the mornings and check on him before we headed off to school. It was November of 2012. I remember going in to see him on the last morning of his stay. Paul was to take him to the airport that day and I teared up saying goodbye that morning. He said, "thank you for taking such good care of me Princess."  It was very sweet. I tear up now thinking about it. I would see my dad again before he passed away in March of 2013 but that was the last time I saw him in our home. 

Michael had expressed interest in bunk beds for a few years and we had been looking for a good long time but hadn't found anything. A couple of months ago I was talking to a friend who happen to mention that our neighbor across the street made furniture. We know the Ferrells and have been blessed by them in many ways since we moved to East Prairie. They will keep an eye on our house when we're away, they brought us some really nice goodies and a ham at Christmas and this past summer they let us enjoy the use of their in ground swimming pool at any time. Such an awesome thing for two little kids who love to swim and a momma who appreciated being able to just walk across the street and not even have to get in the car to take the kids swimming! However I never knew that Randy made furniture. What an art and skill. 

I sent Connie a text and asked her if he might be willing to make Michael a set of bunk beds. We wanted the kind with the stairs built in and drawers in the stairs. (Along with not having much of a bed Michael also didn't have a dresser! We're terrible aren't we?! Ha ha. We've always kept his clothes in his closet in those plastic drawer type bins. It works just fine!)

Connie said she'd talk to him and asked me to send a picture of what we had in mind. 

Later Paul and I walked across the street to see some of the furniture Randy had made and talked about the beds. He graciously agreed to make them and said he'd order the wood that week. He was planning to use pecan which was what he liked to work with. He said it was a very hard wood and would hold up nicely. 

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. Michael's custom made solid as a rock bunk beds made were delivered and set up in his room by Randy and Connie with some help from Paul. Randy said just the stair portion probably weighs 300 lbs!

They are absolutely gorgeous and will last many lifetimes. We joked with Michael saying he'd be able to give them to his son and grandson. Randy did such a beautiful job and just made them from the picture we had sent. What a gift. We are so thankful to the Ferrells and to the Lord for blessing us through them. 

Michael and Mallory slept in there last night, Michael on top, Mal on bottom. Reports are they are very comfy:)

They went in Michaels room right when we got home from school and have been in there ever since. 

It's become their new hangout. I love hearing them chatting with each other and can imagine many a late night talk in the years to come. Sweet sounds to a mother's ear and it all started with a little boy's dream of a bunk bed and the man sent from God to fulfill that dream. 

Hard Workin' Hubby

Paul is in the Dominican Republic on a missions trip. Nine from the church here joined several others for a week there to work on a Christian school building. The school is an outreach ministry of the Church of God in La Romana. Paul was there about a year ago working on the church building itself. A few of the team members have been sending me pictures. Apparently Paul is on concrete mixing duty. 

Paul has a real heart for missions. We hope our kids can start going on mission trips when they hit about 12. So good for them to see what's happening in God's church in countries other than our own. Mal said this morning she wanted to go. I'm hoping maybe Paul will drop the age 12 thing down a little and let her go next year:)

Snowed In

A week ago today we had a big snow. Some measured 7-9 inches. That day was President's Day and we were already scheduled to be out of school. Mallory had had a friend spend the night that Sunday night so the kids and Maranda went out to play in the snow and it was all fun and games. 

We got the call that afternoon that there would be no school Tuesday. Christopher from next door came over that next day and the kids and Chris went out to build a snowman. 

Another call came that morning from the district superintendent saying no school Wednesday. Some friends of ours had taken a cruise last week and we were set to keep their son on Wed and Thurs nights after school. Evan went ahead and came over Wednesday morning. Mallory had had Tanner over Tuesday night. The kids basically stayed in Wednesday and played on iPads, the wii, etc

Thursday was cancelled also and was another day around the house. The boys got back in it outside for a while in the afternoon. 

Sure enough we got the call there would be no school Friday. The roads to town were ok so I took the kids up to the church to play in the family life center. Reagan and Will came to play and spend Friday night and Matthew came over from the parsonage to hang out a while also. 

 

When we got home Mallory wanted me to take her picture outside in the snow. 

Paul left Friday afternoon for the Dominican Republic with eight others from the church. They went to work on a Chrisitian school building next to the church where they have done work in the past. 

Evan's mom  and dad made it back from their cruise and picked him up that night. 

Saturday morning I made the kids pancakes then the Jarvis kids headed home around noon. 

The kids and I were going to head over to Sikeston to see the SpongeBob movie but heard the roads were bad. A lot of freezing rain had come in Friday night. We decided to not risk it so I made popcorn and we watched National Velvet starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney at home. It's a great old movie and the kids really enjoyed it. 

After hearing from a friend the road to Sikeston was fine we went on over to Wal Mart and Aldi and stocked up for the week and decided to see the movie Sunday. 

Sunday morning we had Sunday school and worship then went on up to Cape. We ate lunch at Steak n Shake. 

We made the 1:20 movie and all liked it a lot. I don't watch the tv show but still enjoyed the movie. After that I got a coffee at Starbucks and we picked up a couple more movies at a redbox. The kids picked Gods Not Dead and Heaven is for Real which really blessed this momma. We headed back to EP thinking we'd have to get to bed early for school the next day. 

Around 6:00 the call came..."due to road conditions there will be no school Monday". So here we are...home again. 

It's not that I mind being home. It's the make up days that are gonna be tough. We already bought our plane tickets for our west coast trip and are set to leave the Sunday after we get out of school in May. I'm sure that date will change but we can't change our trip so I'll have to miss work and the kids miss the last days of school. We're on our 5th day today and it's currently 16 outside so I don't see the snow melting and the roads getting better today. 

I'm working on the yearbook from home and trying to make the best of it. I started back up on my low carb diet yesterday. I'd been eating pretty bad while home for a week so I need to get back to my routine. I'm kind of used to the low carb thing and would like to lose about 5 more pounds. 

Happy snow week number two:)

Michael's Ninjago Valentine Box

Michael asked for a special valentine box this year. He has only had simple paper covered ones in the past and I know that when he gets to the 3-6 grades school they won't get to do as many fun kiddie things so of course I wanted to make him something a bit fancier than usual. 

At first he wanted a gum ball machine one. We looked but couldn't find the clear bowl for the top. He saw a pic on line of a box designed to look like Loyd the green ninja from Ninjago. He liked it and wanted to go with that one. We got the stuff at Wal Mart and I made it for him when we got home. It turned out really cute I thought. 

 

Mallory's class doesn't get to bring boxes in. They will be decorating paper bags. She really wanted to make one bless her heart. We might whip something up just to have a little fun:)