San Francisco Anniversary Getaway - Day One

Oakland -Alameda County Coliseum - Oakland, California

Oakland Athletics vs. San Francisco Giants

Former D-Back pitcher Randy Johnson was the starting pitcher for the Giants!

We love Baseball!

Waiting for the train to take us back to San Francisco.

Our train ride home! These girls had a little too much to drink at the game! I provided them with the barf bags, but their aim was a little off. LOL!

We arrived in San Francisco just in time to check into our hotel and catch the BART (high - speed electric train) that took us in an underwater tube over to Oakland! I was scared to get off the train once I realized that the A's ballpark was located in the ghetto (my Dad tried to warn us)! Thank goodness for the hundreds of Police Cops (I've never seen that many at once)! The ballpark is very old, but we didn't care because we normally get to watch our games in the luxury of Chase Field! Mark just couldn't pass on the opportunity to visit and watch a Major League Baseball game in California! I just couldn't pass on the $1 hot dogs and garlic fries! Yummy! The highlight of our trip to Oakland was the train ride home! Nothing more comical than four drunk girls until two of them started puking!

11 Wild Years and Counting...............

It was our 11th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday, August 13, 2009! This picture of Mark and I was taken back in the Summer of 1997! We were dating at the time and Mark had come from Washington to meet my family in Arizona. We took a day trip to Tombstone, AZ.! Aww, to be young and in love!

Mark and I are proud to enter yet another year of marriage! The past 11 years have been wild, to say the least! How time flies! The husband and I took an early anniversary trip back in June to San Francisco (I promise to get those pictures posted soon)! On our actual anniversary Mark took the day off. We went out to lunch at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, Tia Rosa's! After lunch, we went and saw the fabulous new movie "Julie & Julia"! Loved it! Mark had two church softball games in the evening that the kids and I went to watch! Fun!

Later that evening Mark came down with a very bad headache! Mark never gets headaches. As the night went on his headache got worse and none of the pain meds were curing it. About 2 am he called me to the bathroom where he told me he thought he was going to pass out! Sure enough down and out he went (Ouch)! Mark was out for a good 30 seconds and then woke up not knowing what had happened. Blood was coming from his mouth because he had bit his tongue pretty bad when he passed out! He also had a knot on the side of his forehead. Poor guy! He then began to throw up. A million thoughts raced through my head on what could be a matter with him. I immediately got on the phone and called my Dad who is a Doctor. After talking to my Dad, he thought it was in Mark's best interest to go to the Emergency room. So, I woke the kids up and some how got Mark and his barf bag to the van. Off to the E.R. we went at 3 am!

While at the hospital Mark had blood work done, x-rays, EKG, CT Scan and a spinal tap to rule out anything serious. Wow! I can't wait to see the bill on all that (I did pre-pay $100 at the hospital)! All the Doctor could find was a bad sinus infection and thinks the heat of playing softball outside for two hours could of played a roll in the headache and passing out. Mark swears he drank enough water. Thank goodness it was nothing serious! Mark has been very tired and in some pain since that dreadful night. He keeps asking me if I kicked him in the head when he was down! LOL! He must think he deserved to be kicked by me:-)

To make things even worse, my car is now in the shop and will cost me over $2,000 to make it work! Ugh!!! After Mark was discharged from the hospital, I brought him home and then went out to fill 3 prescriptions that the Doctor had prescribed for him. I pulled into the garage and opened the rear sliding door to get Keira out and when I went to close the door.....it wouldn't shut! Dang it. Poor Mark tried to come out and fix it, but nothing was working. We had to have the van towed to the shop with the door still wide open. Basically the motor went out on the sliding door and the other door is on its way to a burn out was well. Total cost for just the two doors is around a whopping $1800. The van needed a few other things done that I had been putting off and were getting worse. Come Monday I will be around $2,500 poorer!!! I'm currently driving a rental car because when they installed the new motor it went out on them and it was going to take a few days to get another one. Go figure.

I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying “When it rains, it pours.” Well, this week you could say we got soaked! Our eleventh anniversary will for sure be one we don't forget:-) I love you, Mark! Happy Anniversary to us!

The Kindergartner!

We had to go to Chase Field Ballpark to get Carson's backpack! This kid loves his D-backs! You would of never known Carson was nervous about his first day of Kindergarten until you look at this picture!! He was biting what's left of those darn nails of his..... again! Bad habit!

Carson "The Kindergartner" entering inside the school gates on his first day of school!

Carson and his neighbor buddy, Bannon (second grade)! They love to play baseball out in the streets of the neighborhood everyday in the 110 degree weather:-)

Carson and his adorable church friend, Isaac, playing on the Kindergartner playground before school!

And here is where I left my little Kindergartner, Carson!

And this is where I was reunited with my little Kindergartner! Pictured with Carson is his best gal pal, Zoe (second grade)! Zoe is our neighbor of many years and Carson loves to play with her. Zoe has taken Carson under her wing and has sat every day on the bus with him! She even comes ringing the doorbell at 7:50 am to take him to the bus stop! I owe Zoe a special treat:-)


It's official!! Carson is now a Kindergartner and loving every minute of it! He's already been to P.E. and Library and is looking forward to Computer lab! It comes as no surprise that Carson is really enjoying the social aspect of school! That kid loves to socialize and play:-) Carson is having fun with all the work they are doing in class, especially when it involves scissors, crayons and glue! So far Kindergarten and Carson are a match made in Heaven!!!

We completed Carson and Cayden's first day of school with a trip to Baskin-Robbins for an after school snack of ice cream! For dinner we had a "Back To School" Celebration with lots of pizza, wings and soda! Hooray for school!

The Fourth Grader!

Cayden on the first day of school!

Cayden enjoyed the new G.I. Joe movie so much with his Dad that he had to get the G.I. Joe light up back pack and lunch box, too!
I love this fourth grader:-)

It's hard to believe that Cayden is officially a fourth grader as of Monday, August 10! One tall fourth grader I might add! He just keeps growing and growing. We had to buy him a size 8 in men's shoes this past week and he is only 9! This kid is going to be tall like his daddy! Now all we need to do is teach him how to shoot some hoop and put that height to good use:-)

Cayden has had an awesome two days in fourth grade! He has come home super excited and eager to share with me everything that went on at school! At meet the teacher night Cayden's teacher gave each student an assignment for the first day. They had to fill a lunch bag full of 10 things about them. On the first day of school each student had to get up in front of the class and use those ten items to tell about themselves. Cayden and I had so much fun gathering things around the house for his presentation. It is very hard for Cayden to get up and speak in front of others, but I knew he was very excited to share with his class what he had come up with! Sure enough he got up in front of the class and pulled it off! He came home so excited and even told me some of the questions he got from his class during his presentation! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Cayden will have a great learning experience this year!

Meet the Teacher Night

Carson and his Kindergarten teacher, Miss B.!

Cayden and his Fourth Grade Teacher, Miss S.

Cayden and his SCILLS Teacher, Miss A.!

It's hard to believe that the 2009-10 school year is already here! This past week we have been super busy trying to get ready for the upcoming school year. The week started off with Carson getting his 5 year well check and four shots for Kindergarten. As the nurse was poking Carson he kept on repeating,"I don't want to go to Kindergarten, I don't want to go to Kindergarten"! Poor kid, but on the bright side he doesn't need another shot until he is 11 years old!

Next up was a trip to each of the kids schools front office, front office window that is. Their schools posted the class lists for the school year on Wednesday afternoon and the kids couldn't wait to get over there and check it out. We spent a good twenty minutes there reading over all the lists and seeing who they and all their friends got for teachers! Cayden and Carson both got placed with great teachers!

Thursday night was "Meet the Teacher Night"! Carson's school was first on our list! Carson had a blast checking out his classroom, seeing friends, meeting some of his new classmates and teacher! We are just thrilled with his teacher! We know many people that have had her as a teacher and everyone just loves her! Carson is super excited for school! He can't wait to get on that bus Monday morning:-) Cayden went to preschool for two years at Carson's school and went and visited two of his old teachers that night! After leaving Carson's school we went to Cayden's school for an Ice Cream Social and got to meet his two awesome teachers! Cayden's teachers are going to be wonderful for him! Cayden had fun going around the school to all his old teachers and visiting with them! He is very excited as well to start school! What a fun night we had!

Our week ended with a back to school shopping day on Saturday! Can you believe that I spent just about $90 on school supplies for two kids?! That does not even include their backpacks or lunch bags that were another $60! And I still have four more items I need to buy for Carson! Crazy! The kids had fun picking out their new shoes and clothes at Sports Authority, the mall and Target! Papa Bear had given them each a generous amount of money to buy some new clothes and they were so excited to spend their very own money (thanks Dad)! It actually taught them much about budgeting and staying within their limit!

Even though we are sad to see the fun days of summer come to an end, both kids are looking forward to another exciting school year! Carson already has his outfit set out and ready to go for tomorrow! Cayden is trying to teach himself how to set an alarm clock to get up on his own! Wow! It's going to be hard to get them to go to bed tonight because they are both wound up and ready for their big day tomorrow! I've got lunches to make, backpacks to pack and paper work to fill out!

Colossal Cave!

Vail, Arizona
July 2009


Colossal Cave Mountain Park


The kids and I before our cave tour!

Cousin Taylor, cousin Hallie and Carson getting ready to tour the cave!

Cousin Jaycie, cousin Taylor, Grandma Cindy, cousin Karlie, Cayden, cousin Hallie, Carson and Keira! The entrance to the cave is right behind them.

Colossal Cave is a dry cave as their is no water for formations to grow anymore!

Hallie and Carson! The cave is around 70 degrees and felt great in the heat of the summer.

Grandma Cindy!

Check out the beautiful stalactites!

Karlie, Carson, Hallie and our tour guide!

Keira and Karlie!

Taylor and Cayden exploring the cave!

Guess who?

The kids heading back up to get out of the cave!

We all did the Discovery Tour after exploring the cave! We had to go around the whole park with our maps getting a punch on our map from each of the 18 stations! At the end we all got a treasure from the gift shop! One of the stations was at the ranch by the horses! Keira sure loves to be silly!

One of the stations on the Discovery Tour the kids had to dress up! LOL!

The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz

My Mom, three sisters and I at Intermission!

Even my Dad went with us to WICKED!
This past month I saw WICKED for the second time and loved it even more than the first time! The first time I saw it in New York City and I just didn't get it, but still thought it was great! I'm so glad that I was able to see it a second time to completely understand it and enjoy it without falling asleep! This musical is absolutely fantastic, from the cast, to the costumes, sets, lighting and music! It also has such a great message! A must see for sure! Dad, thanks for the wonderful ticket (row 7 was the best)!