Stroller Strides

I joined a meetup group that is not related to the military so I can start to meet people that live in Chula Vista. Many of the military wives I know live in base housing, which isn't too close to me. If we do end up staying in CA, it will be nice to know people who won't be leaving within a few years. Today's event for the new meetup group was Stroller Strides. I had heard of Stroller Strides before, but never really looked into it. I thought it couldn't hurt to check it out for free today, so Zachary and I went. Stroller strides is a workout that you do with your child in a stroller. Since we don't have a double stroller anymore, Kailani stayed home with Jason. The workout was good. We met at a local park and walked and did some exercises along the way. I've been having a hard time getting into an exercise routine, so I joined for the month of July. There are classes between two parks in Chula Vista, one of them is Heritage Park, right up the street. When I head back to work, I'll just do it on Saturdays. For now, Kailani can stay at home with Jason, but I'll have to figure something else out when he starts going away with the ship. I am glad we went this morning. My legs are sore from the workout though!
This afternoon we went to the Otay Ranch Mall. They were having a celebration because toll rates were just lowered on the 125 (Yay!). There was a police car for kids to explore and Kailani and Zachary enjoyed sitting in it.

Two is Enough

Today Becky and Makenzi went on a family day cruise with George's ship, so I watched Jaylynn and Payton. The kids played really nicely together and they were really good, but I am sure that two is our limit! Becky dropped the girls off around 5:45 am and they just left about an hour ago. I loved spending time with the girls and having a baby around, but man...it's a lot of work. I take for granted how independent the kids get as they grow older. Even Zachary, although he needs help with a lot, can keep himself occupied. Kailani wanted to hold and feed Payton a lot. I was able to take a picture during a feeding session.

 Jason and I walked the kids to the park this afternoon and it was difficult keeping track of four kids under age 6. I kept thinking that people driving by must think we're crazy having four children:) Two is definitely enough!

Salt Creek

Tonight we checked out Salt Creek Park:)

More Summer Fun

We are really enjoying our summer days! You can do so much when you don't have to worry about work and school:)
This morning we headed to Santee Lakes to the slash pad. We'd never been before, so we were excited. The kids loved playing in the water. We hung out for a while with a friend and her kids. After lunch we decided to head out. I guess I was too busy to snap some pictures:) I did get a picture of Zachary's HUGE Logo tower later on at home. He loves to build Legos!

This afternoon we headed to the library to turn in the kids' reading logs. They earn a prize for every 6 hours of reading. They love reading books! The library hosted an animal show by Wild Wonders and the kids got to see and learn about several different animals. Afterwards, we headed to Chick-fil-A for our normal Tuesday night dinner. We ran into another friend and her kids. Kailani and Madison got to see each other for the first time in 2 years! They were buddies before their family moved to Monterey. Now they're back and we're looking forward to spending some time with them again. After dinner we stopped at Montevalle Park. So far, besides Heritage Park, this one tops the list. We have a map of 32 parks in Chula Vista with walking trails. We've been to 11 out of the 32 that we can remember. We're going to try and check them all off the list this summer.

Parks, Parks, and more Parks

After dinner, we usually go for a short walk. There are several parks within walking distance of our house, so sometimes we walk to the park. We've decided that we're going to try out parks we haven't been to before. We always go to Heritage Park, which is our favorite. Last night we went to Harvest Park, and tonight we went to Cottonwood Park. All three of these parks are on the same street (East Palomar), and there are even more on this street too that we've been to (Horizon Park and Veteran's Park). Kailani enjoyed the new play structure. Zachary enjoyed picking up trash with Daddy's grabber that we found when we cleaned the garage this weekend. We'll see which park we end up at tomorrow night!

Hitting up the Zoo

Today was our first official day of vacation. It was nice not to have to rush around Sunday night getting things ready for the week. We hung out at the park until dark and the kids stayed up until almost 10pm. Kailani played her first game of Monopoly with Jason. She was upset that she didn't get to purchase Boardwalk and Park Place!
Since it was our first day off, we wanted to start off with something fun. We hadn't been to the zoo for a while, so we decided to head there. We went to the Children's zoo, had a picnic lunch, saw the giraffes...and then Kailani was ready to go home! The nice thing about having passes is that it doesn't matter that we only spent 2 hours there:)

Pool Fun

Kailani has been bugging us to take her to the pool for a while. I don't like the pool and I can't just lay on a chair while the kids are in the pool alone, so I try to avoid the pool if I can. She was able to talk us into it today:) We walked up to the pool and the kids played in the baby pool for about an hour. They both got out when they were ready and said they wanted to go home.

ABKDC

This week Kailani spent her time at the YMCA's America's Best Kids Dance Crew (ABKDC). She learned a choreographed dance and performed it in front of all of the campers and the parents today. She did an awesome job!

We've got an Itinerary!

Unfortunately, we won't be able to make it to the East Coast this summer, but we will be able to take our very first family VACATION! We finally sat down this week to create an itinerary, book hotels, but tickets, etc. Here's what it looks like:
Monday, July 2: Drive to Monterey, stopping along the way in Santa Barbara and/or San Luis Obispo
Tuesday, July 3: Monterey Bay Aquarium, drive to San Francisco
Wednesday, July 4: Golden Gate Park and Fisherman's Wharf
Thursday, July 5: Alcatraz and Angel Island Tours
Friday, July 6: Jelly Belly Factory, drive to Yosemite National Park
Saturday, July 7: Yosemite National Park
Sunday, July 8: drive to Sequoia National Park
Monday, July 9: Sequoia National Park
Tuesday, July 10: Kings Canyon National Park
Wednesday, July 11: Insectolore Bug Museum, drive to Anahiem
Thursday, July 12: Disney CA Adventure, drive to San Diego
We are very excited!

San Diego County Fair

Today we went to the San Diego County Fair. Jaylynn was performing with her dance class, so we took advantage and spent the whole day there. Kailani won another goldfish. The one she got 2 years ago is still alive and about 100 times the size it was when she got it. She also got a tadpole. We'll see if it lasts until it turns into a frog.

The kids loved the rides and the games. They got to ride an elephant!

Bowling Birthday

We've gone bowling a few times and both Kailani and Zachary love it. Of course they were excited to go to Jaylynn's birthday party today at the bowling alley. The bowled for a little while, ate pizza, had rainbow pirate cupcakes, and watched Jaylynn open her presents. She will officially turn 5 on Monday.

GSDA Girls

This week was the last for all of the staff at my school. Unfortunately, I still have one more week:( Some of the girls from work got together after work on Thursday to celebrate.

Summer School

We picked up a few materials today to work on with Kailani during the summer. I'm afraid that Kailani will lose some of the Spanish she's learned this year if she doesn't continue to use it. The book we bought has English and Spanish versions of stories and then activities to go along with the stories. It was Kailani's idea to have Zachary do the English activities while she did the Spanish activities.

Cold Beach Day

This morning we headed to Lowe's for our regular Build and Grow activity. The kids made a Madagascar 3 airplane. I have to say, it was the hardest project yet.
Since we didn't have much planned for the weekend we decided to head out to the beach. The kids have been begging to go and I thought it was a good day. It turned out to be a really cold day at the beach. The sun went in and out and it was really breezy. Kailani and Jaylynn didn't mind the cold; they ran in and out of the water. Zachary stayed in the sand and played. We only stayed for a little while before heading to Lakeshore to do the craft and enjoy self-serve frozen yogurt and Yogurtland. We'll have to head out to the beach again on a warmer day.

Class of 2012

Tonight was my school's high school graduation. We had 47 students graduate this year, including five 11th graders. Every year I plan the event, and every year it turns out fine. This year I was nervous because the class was so much larger than any we've had in the past. We had over 500 guests and the venue was full. I was able to get through all of the graduates' names and say their future plans without butchering anything. A few years ago, I would never have thought I'd be able to stand in front of a huge crowd and feel comfortable speaking. Boy have things changed! I'm glad the night is over and that everything went well. Only 10 more working days for me and then it's off for the summer.