Bike Riding 101

The kids have been asking...or shall we say begging for a chance to take their bikes out again after we bought them ummm....yeah about a year ago. Okay so we suck as parents sometimes but time just got away from us and I wasn't able to take them out myself and watch Max so we just kept putting it off and putting it off.

Well...we decided that we would take them out on Sunday to a local park and let them ride and crash a lot. The park was packed so we went to a parking lot a short ways away and let them have at it. They did amazingly well :) Emily caught on before Hudson which surprised both Jase and I since he is usually more athletic than Emm but I guess her dance is paying off. She was off riding around on her own a while before he got the hang of it and i'm sure it was ticking him off that she was doing it and he wasn't. Tori meanwhile was speeding past both of them on her bike with training wheels on, jumping off curbs and being her usual wild child self. All in all it was a great afternoon and it finished with everyone feeling pretty happy with themselves about their bike riding skills.

Yes yes yes, we know...Emily is almost 9 and is now just learning how to ride a bike. Our street just isn't set up for riding bikes like mine or Jason's were when we were kids and there is no way I will let them ride over to their friends like I used to do when I was younger. The world unfortunately just isn't the same as it was back then...man i'm dating myself aren't I? haha

One nice thing about living in Arizona is that its almost December and we are out in t-shirts, shorts and flip flops! Gotta love it :)

Hudson and Max...Max wanted to wear Tori's old helmet. Yep those are princesses on that helmet, it made Jase cringe a little when he put it on!! haha

Emily and Tori riding off into the sunset...well i guess it isn't into the sunset, maybe away from it??

Tori and Deb and her "hot mamma bike"


Jase giving Hudson some pointers.

Finally!!! They got it :)

Seaworld :)

On our final day in San Diego we went to Seaworld. We saw all of the shows and the kids thought the animals were pretty cool. Emily was dying to go on the Atlantis ride (the log ride, water fall ride) so we took the kids on it and it was extremely tough to get them to want to do anything else after going on it a few times. Once again there weren't any line ups at all and we were able to go on back to back rides. We even convinced Jason to go on it. He refuses to go on rollercoasters but he sucked it up and went on this one. On the back part of the ride, after you come down the big waterfall, you go up inside the ride and it becomes a regular rollercoaster. As we came out of the elevator part at the top I heard Jason mutter behind me when he saw the roller coaster, "Oh sh*t". hahaha. I couldn't help not laughing. It couldn't have been that bad, he went on it one more time after that! We were all pretty wet when we left that ride and were lucky that it wasn't too cold and we were able to dry off fairly quickly. My dad got pretty wet on one of the rides right at the end of the day and was shivering through the Shamu show. I'm sure on the ride home he had the heater on and the seat heaters on as well :)

Legoland!!

On our first full day in San Diego we took the kids to Legoland. None of us had been there before but many of our friends said that it was a fun place for kids our age. The kids ended up having a blast. I was amazed by the Lego figures/structures etc. Nothing I ever made out of Lego ever turned out that good, haha. It was a nice cool 80 degrees and there weren't any line ups which was very nice!

An Afternoon At The Beach!

Our first afternoon in San Diego we had a chance to head down to the beach which was only about 500yards from our hotel. The tide was out a ways and the kids got to play in the waves and the sand. They collected sea shells and drew pictures in the sand. The water was pretty cool but the soothing sound of the waves made you forget that your feet were a little chilly. At one point Hudson and Tori were running in the water and they lost their balance and they each took a head dive into one of the waves. They thought it was pretty fun and wanted to change into their bathing suits to dive in the waves. We said no for the time being hoping that we would get back to the beach but we ended up running out of time and this ended up being our only time at the beach. Hudson drew a picture of a little man and about five seconds after I took the photo a wave came in and made it disappear. He was kind of heart broken!
We all had an incredible time and can't wait until we can go back and stroll along the beach again, hopefully soon!!!

The airport and the airplane ride to San Diego!!

We took a trip to San Diego with Deb's parents and the kids were so excited about it! Emily and Hudson had been on a plane before but they were young when we did so they weren't able to remember it.

They loved watching the other planes take off as we waited for our plane to start boarding. Luckily for us the flight from Phoenix to San Diego was only an hour, so if things didn't go well it wasn't too long for them.

As it turned out, the kids all did very well and thought that riding on a plane was pretty neat! The flight out was only half full so we could go two to a row and the kids each got a window seat. Max thought that getting his own soda and some peanuts made him a big kid!!

The kids waiting to board our plane!

Tori on the plane. She sat with Nana, Emily sat with Deb, Hudson with Papa and Max with Jason.

Max and Jase!

All of our crew on the plane!

Halloween Fun

The pumpkins!

The kids all decked out in their Halloween costumes. Hudson is an Ice Ninja, Tori a Bratz Cat(she had a cute tail at the back too), Max as a dinosaur (he had wings and a tail at the back) and Emily as a vampire.
Max thought trick or treating was pretty fun. He caught on pretty fast that if you held out your bucket that people put candy in it and all you had to do was say thank you after they did it, haha.
My parents arrived the day before and they went out to escort the kids along with me while Jason stayed at home and watched scary movies and manned the door.
They had a very successful haul and we think they all had a great time!