It was 8:30pm and still 98 degrees. We were so sweaty and all gross after our walk from the parking lot we just sat and let the kids run around and be silly.
The kids put on glow sticks, played with silly string, and enjoyed goodies. 
Once the fireworks show started, everyone settled down. The show was excellent as usual and lasted around 20min. It is the best show we have ever seen. What a great time we all had together.
They took each others pictures and mine. Aubrey just slept through it all.
Hope it brings a smile to your face and some chuckles too.
She is a Jr. Compani Dancer and does Jazz and Ballet. She is really good and just found out she made Sr. Compani for next year. The girls had a great time watching their cousin on stage. 
It was 3 1/2 hours long and Autumn crashed for the last 30min. At least she was quiet. 
We rode together and until the big kids wanted to ride the bigger rides and then we split up the group. Noah's mom and sister Rachel took the little ones to ride and play on the little kids rides. 
While Noah's sister Rebecca and I took all the older ones to ride those big rides.
We would meet up once and awhile and ride some rides together. We all got together in the afternoon to see the Shouka show. 
It was a break needed from the warm sun. The kids had a great time all hanging out together. We had a great time visiting with each other and having a great time too.
A sketch book for him to draw in. My dad is a great artist and I love all the things he draws. I am hoping this gift will help his talent grow. I even had the girls get him started by drawing a little something for grandpa on the first page. 
We gave him breakfast in bed, some quite time for a nap, great cards and presents, and a dinner fit for a King.
For dessert we made him a chocolate cream pie. We love our dad and we are grateful for his patience and love that he has for us. Happy Father's Day Dad!
Around noon he decided to go to Tilden Park. We rode the miniature steam train first. 
Then we walked over to Tilden Little Farm to see all the different farm animals. 
They were all very active. The cows were mooing, the sheep baaing and the pigs were oinking and playing. 
It was really fun for the girls and Dad.
We then headed to the merry-go-rounds at Tilden. We had a great time, because Aubrey actually rode on it all by herself. 
She wouldn't let Noah or myself stand by her, but her Dad could ride next to her.
She got a little freaked out when it started, but did great for the first time of riding solo.
After our afternoon at Tilden we headed to San Fransisco for dinner and dessert on the wharf. For dinner we ate at Joe's Crab Shack. Yummy! 
We got great seats with a perfect view of the Bushman. 
We also had some entertainment inside when the workers at Joes dance all around us. Autumn enjoyed it so much she jumped up and started danicng to the music too. 
After dinner we walked to Ghiradelli Square for some ice cream sundaes at the Ghriadelli Chocolate Factory. What a great day we had together.
We were able to celebrate this special day with him and his friends. There were lots of pools set up in his backyard where the kids were able to run and have a good time.
The hit of the party was the huge pool with slide. My girls had a blast on it, until it obtained a giant tear in it and was shut down.
All of the cousins were there and having a good time together. 
Preston had a good time trying to throw a cup of water on us too.
I got some cool action shots from of my nephew Davis. He is defiantly not camera shy.
We sang Happy Birthday not only to Preston, but Aunt Rachel too who is going to have a birthday next week.
Preston loved all his birthday gifts and really enjoyed his day. We are grateful to have spent it with him.
He is often called Hawaii’s Reggae Ambassador. Last year we caught a concert at the Hard Rock Cafe in Maui staring Marty Dread. We really enjoyed his performance. So when we heard he was touring on the Mainland this summer we looked up his tour dates. He played in various places, but the concert we could make it to was in Sacramento. So last night we went to the Blue Lamp Lounge to see him perform. Marty Dread is really laid back he never starts his concerts on time, in fact he never even wears shoes just slippers(flip flops). He is mostly barefoot. 
He was supposed to perform at 10pm, but ended up starting at 11pm. Noah and I only made it through half the concert, because they were going to play until 2am. And as Noah says "We have to be responsible adults and go home already". It was an awesome concert. There was only about 40 people in the whole room. He danced through the crowd as he sang and even talked to us for a little bit. Noah bought a t-shirt and he signed it. 
We enjoyed ourselves a lot and will defiantly be going to see him again. We thought we would share one of our favorite songs with you off his greatest hits album called Pray For Them.
I helped Aubrey and her cousin Logan swim and dive for toys.
Rachel tended to baby Kelsie and her needs. 
She loved the water and tried the sand, but decided it was not very good. 
After the fun time at the lake together we grabbed some Chinese take-out and headed back to grandmas for some rest and relaxation.
We packed our lunch and headed over to the beginning of the trail to meet with the rest of our group at 11:30. The kids all hung out and waited for the rest of the group. 
We ended up waiting for 30min or so for the other half of our group to arrive. Then we started the hike. The kids started off running up the hills and enjoying themselves. 
Then one by one the little ones broke down, including Aubrey(I ended up carrying her).
So my friend Kathryn and I tried to play games along the way to keep them busy. The game where we all hold hands to form a train worked well. 
Except for Aubrey she wanted nothing to do with climbing in trees or getting her picture taken. 
We had an opportunity to walk around the cemetery and learn that very little remains of the coal mining communities. This historic cemetery serves as a monument to the lives of the former residents. Buried here are children who died in epidemics, women who died in childbirth, and men who died in mining disasters and of other things. Although over 10 nationalities resided in the mining area, Rose Hill Cemetery was a protestant burial ground, and many of the people buried here were Welsh.
We then headed to Cheesecake Factory for some delicious lunch. 
I ordered the Luau Chicken Salad and loved it. 
We then shared the 30th anniversary cheesecake. And sang Happy Birthday my sister-in-law Rachel. The cheesecake was heavenly. 
We then walked around San Fransisco taking in all the sights and sounds. 
At around 1:30 we started to walk to the Orpheum Theater were Wicked was playing. 
This older theater is pretty cool inside. 
We got settled in our seat with our goodies in our purses ready to watch the show. The show was Amazing! We all really enjoyed it. 
We had a fun filled day out. We can't wait to do something like this agian next year.
The dads and daughters could rotate at their own pace. Everyone had a great time. At the end of the activity Ashlyn and I took a picture together too. She can't wait to do it again next year. We will have to start thinking of what theme to do.
If you guessed a Rodent of Unusual Size or Capybara(Capibara) from South America you were correct. Ashlyn told me all about this baby Capibara. This one weighed 80 pounds and was told in would double in size and weight. This was our first thing we saw when we walked in the park. 
2nd-We saw The Joker, Mr. Six and Bugs Bunny in our short little walk into the park. 
3rd- We have never gotten drenched on our fist ride. 
Noah and Ashlyn chose Monsoon Falls where you crash over a 60-foot waterfall. Swoosh! White Out! 
4th- Autumn had her first ride on Cobra and she has been waiting for several seasons to ride on this ride like the big kids. 
She loved it so much she went again right after she got off. 
But this time with Dad.
5th-This is the first year I have seen bands playing throughout the park. 
Aubrey loves music, but I have never seen her plug her ears like this. That wasn't a good review for the band. 
6th- We have never seen any animal do this and we go to lots of zoos. This camel must have been teething. 
And Last we finally got Ashlyn on the Hammerhead ride. Every time we go by this ride Noah tries to get her to ride it and she always yells "NO!" This time she said "OK!" 
and she loved it.
Here are just a few random pictures of our fun day.
Nail polish on her Barbie car, the carpet, her blankets, and all over her. 
While I was downstairs doing dishes she managed to find my bag of nail polish in my room and paint these various items. Autumn told me she knew, but didn't want to get into trouble so she waited until it got way to "crazy" and then she thought she should tell me. When I asked Aubrey why she got into my nail polish she told me, "I wanted to paint." Can't blame her too much it does look like little bottles of paint. After a time out and a half a big bottle of pure acetone. I was able to get it off of everything. 
Well this afternoon on our way to swimming lessons we saw a 2 story home gutted by a fire on the 2nd floor. When I asked the swim teacher what happened to her neighbors home she told me that lighting had struck the back yard and jumped up to the roof of the home. It then spread through all the electrical wiring and went out the the top of the roof catching it on fire. 
I knew the storm was incredible, but I had no idea it would cause so much damage so close to home. None of the family in this home were hurt. They were shaken up a bit and are now trying to fix their beautiful home.
She was a little mad at me and did not want to be there. I left her anyway and when I got back Miss Laura said she did better than she expected, but she seemed a little sleepy. She remembered a lot form last year. She did alligator walks on the steps, did some retrieval in the shallow end and did a little on the kick board. 
The next day when I took her back to swim lessons she again gave me attitude, but I made her go and when I got back Miss Laura said "You have got to see what Autumn can do." "Watch this."
After that she had to pick an ancestor and make a paper doll depicting that ancestor. She choose to do one from her moms side, a girl from the southwest. 
That project turned out really well. Then this week was bring a family treasure and family food for tasting. She decided to bring in her Grandpa Smith's kilt from Scotland to share with the class. They really liked it. 
Ashlyn's food choice was something from my side of the family, so we made tortillas and sopapillas. Together we made both of these to share with the class. Ashlyn did a great job making the tortilla mix and then rolling out the tortillas into circles. 
She helped cut the sopapillas into triangles and sprinkle the sugar on them when they were done being fried.
Most of people know what tortillas are, but some are not familiar with Sopapillas. We typed up a small paper for her to read and share with the class about her food.Both sopapillas and tortillas are used as “sop” breads, either soaking up the liquids in a dish, or stuffing them with the foods. They are especially yummy with honey or sugar. The recipe for both the tortilla and the sopapilla are the same, the difference is in the cooking method.
Aslyn sure did learn a lot about where her family came from, what they looked like, what they wore, and what they ate. In turn she learned a lot about other cultures too from her classmates. And her class does not have a shortage on diversity, so she was able to experience some neat stuff.
Here are some pictures of Ashlyn and her class on game day. 
All the 2nd grade classes brought out their chairs from their classrooms and had to bring them back to class after wards. 
Along with game day Ashlyn's teacher decided to have the class party today. I came back to school in the afternoon to help with that. Mrs. Allen had 5 stations for the kids to pick from. Their was an Art table, Food table, Drawing Table, Limbo, and Picking up Marbles in water with your toes going on outside. 
I was in charge of the Limbo. Since most of the kids know me from helping out all year we had blast together. Even Ashlyn helped out.
We laughed and had a great time together. The best part of the party was when several boys decided to show me how they can do the "SOULJA BOY". 
They did a pretty good job too. Better than I could ever do.
The kids really loved him and he enjoyed the attention too. Ashlyn loved sharing him and still begged me to leave him their with her.
