Family time

It was such a nice day today, in the 80's with a light breeze, and next week it's going to soar into the 90's so we decided to take advantage of the last few days before the hot summer. We grabbed a bucket of chicken and headed to the park. It was nice to sit and relax for a short time while watching the kids play around. But you'll notice that even though we were having fun hanging out as a family, thoughts of the bar are still present (daddy is still always studying). Only 8 more weeks to go!

Chelsea piano recital

Today we had the pleasure of watching Chelsea preform in her piano recital today. She preformed "Fur Elise" and "Moonlight Sonata". She worked really hard on these pieces and it showed. She did a fabulous job and we are really proud of her!

Hubby's handwork

He's finally finished with the bookends he is making for his teachers. They are so cool. All the black parts were things he had to carve out. Some are really detailed. I'm sure his teachers will love them.

Girls Night Out

I've been looking forward to this night for awhile. Brenda and Megan came down to join us for a girls night out. We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. The only word to describe this is....YUMMY! It was almost painful to choose a cheesecake for dessert though; there were two pages of options. After dinner we wandered around "The District" where the girls found some cute clothes to try on. Then we headed to the Orleans for the Carrie Underwood concert. I was so excited that I left my camera in Brenda's car. Chelsea got some good pictures and videos until her camera died. There were a couple of opening acts before Carrie. The first was Son's of Sylvia. Chelsea really enjoyed them but the rest of us didn't. Then came Craig Morgan. I hadn't heard his name before, but was surprised that I recognized many of his songs from the radio. He had an amazing voice. Then came Carrie Underwood. She did not disappoint! We loved seeing her in Boston and loved her even more in Vegas. So many different things going on. My favorite was when she got on her blue truck which took off flying across the arena. I also enjoyed her virtual duet with Randy Travis. All of us girls had a good time singing and claping to the music. We may have even gotten a little crazy, just a little. OK, we did stand up for the last couple of songs but someone else had stolen our idea of yelling "WE LOVE YOU CARRIE", after EVERY song so how can you compete with that? Brenda and Megan spent the night and then drove home early this morning. We loved having them here with us!





She seemed to be in the air alot during the concert. From the center stage moving up and down, to this swing, and the flying truck. Hopefully she doesn't have a fear of heights. I was impressed she could keep her balance even in high heels.

Carrie Underwood Concert

I forgot my camera, but was able to find some cool picture (better than what I would have been able to take) on-line that other people posted. I wanted to remember the cool things she did and that's the reason for this post.

First act of the night "Sons of Sylvia". They were a little wierd for all of us except Chelsea who really liked them.


Second act - Craig Morgan. I had never heard his name, but was surprised that I recognized almost of all his songs. Great preformer!


And then the real show begins. Complete with a lot of costume and scenery changes.








A couple highlights of the night (besides the flying blue truck) were when she sang the song dedicated to her mom with a slide show of pics of her growing up, and the virtual duet with Randy Travis. I could have sworn he was there, but it was just his image on the screen.




Another very cool part of the evening is when she had on this dress and the images spread from her to the screens behind her growing bigger and bigger. I'd never seen anything like it!



The End! I hated for the night to end!

Field trip to Seaworld

I had the pleasure of accompanying the 5th grade field trip down to Seaworld. There were 200 of us including all the chaperones. We loaded up the travel busses at 10 am yesterday and drove straight through to San Diego. We got lucky to be on the one bus where the DVD didn't work. The kids did pretty good but did get restless at times. Luckily there was a potty on the bus although using it was a little tricky. After we got to San Diego we had a little time before we were supposed to be at Seaworld so we let the kids out at Mission Bay Park to run around and get some energy out. After we got to Seaworld, we got these super cool neon green shirts that we were supposed to wear for 2 days, we stored our bags, and headed to dinner. It was fun to be at the park after it was closed. Our first activity was feeding the manta rays some fish. It was a little freaky because they float over your hand and then suck it up like a vacuum. Then there were 3 workshops that we went to. We learned about shark teeth and made a necklace, we learned about penguins and had a penguin relay passing the baby eye, then we learned about polar bears while dressing up one lucky volunteer. The staff did a great job with all the kids. While we were walking everywhere they were teaching the kids fun songs or cheers about sea life.










Our large group was divided up into 3 habitats to sleep in. Our group was assigned to sleep in the "Wild Artic", you know, the exhibit with the polar bears, beluga whale, walrus, and other cold creatures. I figured it would be on the cool side so we grabbed sweatshirts at the last minute to sleep in. I severely underestimated how cold it was. We all spread out our sleeping gear in front of the glass that was home to the beluga whale. It was dark inside and then all of a sudden you would see this while whale swim by. So Cool!. The boys made it through the night without turning into popsicles and had a great time the next morning just watching the 2 whales swimming around. It was warmer outside at 6 am than it was inside the habitat.








My camera died early the next morning so i didn't get anymore pictures, but that's OK because we had an action packed day. After breakfast they lead us around to feed animals such as the sea lions and the flamingos and then we got to see some of the exhibits before the park opened. We had 4 hours of "free time" before we had to get back on the bus. We did some souvenir shopping, watched the sea lion show, and focused on the fun rides. Mason loved the motion ride at the wild artic the best. The kids were having so much fun that the principle extended our time for one more hour. I figured that with all the walking around we did, the kids would fall asleep on the bus ride home; no luck. We got back to the school around 10:00 pm where we handed the kids back to their parents. The kids are required to attend school tomorrow. I feel for those teachers! :) It was a fun trip and I was glad that I could share that time with Mason. It was good to get to know some of his school friends. I did learn a couple things about 5th grade boys though 1) some of them are really crazy about girls (thank my lucky stars Mason isn't one of them), 2) Boys are gross and love to pass gas, and 3) Boys can scream like little girls!