Easter - 2009 So, here we are on Easter. It was very relaxing actually. We went to church, Sunday school and then to Grandma's house for lunch. Since we all mostly go to Oak Glen before Easter, Carl's mom makes easy lunch like take-out fried chicken and salad, with fruit and rolls and stuff like that. We all just show up, the kids play a bit, we eat, then the Easter Bunny (namely Carl and I this year) hides the eggs and we have dessert, then comes the hunt. This year there were about 106 eggs for 3 kids, two of them mine. Cole and Kaleigh found just as many as their cousin Tyler who is 16. Kaleigh even found the golden egg that was hidden in the house that had $5.00 in it! Tyler was bummed : )

Here Kaleigh found 2 eggs in the same place! Good for you! Grandma's garden is beautiful but pretty small so the eggs are pretty close together! We try hard to hide them well, but usually all are found except maybe 3 eggs and Grandma finds those later as she gardens.

So, it was a nice easy going Easter! The kids are growing fast and it shows in the pictures! Kaleigh is getting quite a bit taller and so is Cole. Kaleigh will most likely pass me up in a few years! Yikes! Cole is going a little slower, like most boys do. But he will pass me up someday too! We are blessed with family and friends around us and we are thankful to be living in a free country, even though it is rapidly getting a little less "free"! Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Oak Glen 2009 Well, for the first time since we have taken our trip to Oak Glen, it snowed while we were there! It was over night but still....pretty cool! It was the first real natural snow the kids had seen. There were a couple times where there were a few patches left on the ground, but this was fresh new snow! Kaleigh also had snow days (where they bring in snow to play in) when she was in preschool but that is different!

Once again they had a ladies craft, this one was a planter that we could paint and I gave this one to my mom-in-law for Easter because she loves sunflowers.

Kaleigh took this photo.

Ok, this one is the real us...hehe. This was actually the second shot. Notice the great difference between this photo and the next? Let's see who can spot the huge similarity!

We had a great time, even though the weather was foggy and misty. We just dressed warmly and enjoyed the cold weather that we don't get too often at home! Good times!

Sacramento - Going Home - The End What? Are we happy to go home? Just look at the faces! Wow, I am just happy to be sitting!

Gee, you think they would have been tired! I had to bribe them to PRETEND to sleep! They were wired the whole way home! I would have liked to have napped but no way. All the kids were wide awake for the trip home! It was an uneventful flight and we were happy about that!

All in all it was a full and fantastic trip!

Sacramento - Miscellaneous - Part 10 This is Judy our tour guide for the whole trip. She was a very nice lady. Friendly and full of energy! I don't know how she did it! She was extremely nice to Kaleigh, when Kaleigh lost her buckskin pouch that she bought at Sutter's Fort, she offered so send her another one! I gave her our address and some money and she promised to send it the next tour she did. I am thankful to her for that because otherwise the drama would have lasted a lot longer!

Ok, the kids weren't the only ones who got a little goofy! We had fun too! I really didn't think she had it in her!

And lastly, this is Alfred the bus driver, who was kind enough to make a couple of extra stops. The governer's mansion wasn't on the itinerary but he drove by anyway, and he also took us over the Sacramento Golden gate bridge! What a guy. The girls gave him hugs goodbye and he was so sweet! He said our group was so well behaved and he enjoyed listening to them talk about what they learned. Kaleigh wanted me to add that he was the best bus driver they have ever had. Of course he probably gets paid better then regular school bus drivers, but she doesn't need to know that!

Sacramento - Sutter's Fort - Part 9 So this was at Sutter's Fort. This is the kids getting a little loopy. The boys were extremely reluctant to get in a photo with the girls so they were a little goofy. Which is fine. It makes for an interesting photo.

Working hard! This is a mill where they apparently ground meal into flour. The kids all thought this was soooo cool. I wonder if they would have thought so if they had to do it for 8 hours a day?

Ok, this one should have been first, but I don't know how to do that so, this is when we first arrived and they kids all gathered around for a photo. This one was the best of the bunch but it is missing one boy and the teacher. Oh well. You wouldn't know to look anyway!

Sacramento - Train Museum - Part 8 Ok, so these are all out of order, but it doesn't really matter. This first photo is of the "golden spike" or "the last spike". This was presented at the ceremony of the railroad completion. There is a lot more to the story but I don't have the time or energy to tell it. If you want to know more post a comment and I will post a photo of the story, 'cause I got a photo of the plaque that tells the story, yay me!

This photo is taken from the second story. It is just a tiny part of the museum. The museum itself consists of 3 acres!!

This is taken in the Pullman car, one of the things the tour guide told the kids to find. The golden spike was one of the things too. This train actually swayed and they turned the lights low to demonstrate what it felt like in those days to travel by train. I would have slept really well!

This is after they found the golden spike. The girls were getting a little tired by now, but they were still all smiles!

Kaleigh in front of a train.

Sacramento - Old Town - School and Covered Wagon Ride - Part 7? Kaleigh and her friend Grace bought rag dolls and bonnets from the School Marm (sp?) and wore them for the rest of the day! Cute huh? This is when we went on the Covered Wagon ride.

Kaleigh and Grace in school. What? I thought this trip meant no school! Wow, the rules here are a lot more strict too! 7 lashes if you play with boys? Wow, that IS harsh!

Kaleigh and Grace with Miss Gadd, their teacher. This is in front of the Pony Express statue.

Sacramento - Old Town - Part 6...I think After our cruise, we had about an hour to ourselves, so the girls wanted to do some shopping. I wanted to get Cole something too so we started looking around. It was a nice time, just a little short, but we did ok.

For some reason there were a lot of sweets shops! Candy Land, Munchies, Candy Heaven, Candy Barrel, and so on. We had a lot of fun deciding what candy to buy! Kaleigh didn't really like salt water taffy, but we were just trying to find a good place for a photo!

We ended up here where they had a bigger selection of other types of candy, like peachy-o's and pop rocks! It was fun! And yummy too!

Sacramento - Old Town - Part 5 We took a river cruise to see the two bridges that cross the Sacramento River, the kids really loved it. It was a bit chilly though!

Grace's Mom and I enjoyed the cruise too, although we were not allowed to take advantage of the full bar! Heehee.

This is the pivoting bridge. We got to see it in action too! I don't think I have ever seen one like it. Pretty cool!

Sacramento - State Capitol - Part 4 Ok, this photo should have been last, but hey, you can tell from the photo that the moms were done for the day! We were pooped! It was a very long day and we were just waiting for the tour guide to finish talking about the seal in the floor. Yawwwwn.

This next photo has a good story! We were supposed to see the Assembly floor from the balcony, but since our district representative was in his office and two of our dads knew him he allowed us to go on the floor and talk about how laws are made! None of the other classes were able to do that and it was a real treat! He was pretty funny too!

This is the dome. Beautiful, isn't it?

Kaleigh's class in front of the capital building.

Sacramento - Downtown - Part 3 This is at the Wells Fargo Museum. The only glitch is that our tour guide for the museum didn't show! Our tour guide was a bit perturbed. It wasn't that big a deal, we all looked around and since hey, we can all read, we were able to make it worth the trip. This photo is the original Stagecoach used by Wells Fargo!

A Wells Fargo Safe! Shhhhh, Kaleigh is trying to crack it!

Sacramento- Coloma - part 2 So our first stop was Coloma, sight of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill! The kids got to check out some historical stuff like Bark Teepees that the native americans in the area used.

They got to pan for gold in the American River.... like they expected to find anything? Some thought they did, but it was mainly wet rocks. Kaleigh was excited about the tiny vial that they used to put their "gold" in. She found a few little shiny rocks that were pretty so she put them in the vial.

One of the highlights in Coloma was learning about glass bead necklaces that the natives made out of the "Padre" beads which they earned when they learned Bible verses. Everyone who wanted to was able to make one! So Kaleigh made one and I did too! The kids had to give or do something to "barter" for some extra beads by telling a story, giving them some chocolate or singing a song. It was a lot of fun!

The girls with their "pans". You can tell some of them are holding their vials with rocks in them. The other girl in the photo is another friend, Amanda.

Sacramento! 4th Grade Field Trip - Part 1 Here is Kaleigh's class of 4th graders at the Sacramento Airport! We left at 7:10am, so we had to be there at around 6am. Kaleigh loved it! She enjoys getting up really early! Me, not so much anymore, but that is where she gets it from! Carl and Cole dropped us curbside and we met up with all the other kids in Kaleigh's class. We checked in, went through security and made it to the plane in plenty of time!

This is the baggage claim area in the Sacramento Airport. Funny huh? We liked it so much we had the girls pose in front of it!

Here are Kaleigh, Grace (Kaleigh's best friend) and Emma (her other friend), sitting in the airplane. We had pretty much the whole back of the plane. There were two out of four classes (about 27 kids and 27 adults each) so about 54 x 2 on each flight. One went a little earlier and we went a little later (if you call 7am early).

This is Kaleigh and Grace with their principal, (name witheld), before we left for Sacramento. He was a lot of fun and we had him on our bus too!

The flight was fine and it didn't hurt that one of the dads is a Pastor for the church that sponsors the school! Way to go Matthew!

New Favorite Show - "Castle"
Ok, so the story premise is an author who kills off his main book character and falls into a slump, until he helps the cops (including a lady detective) solve a copy cat crime where someone is using his mystery books to murder people. They get through that crime, but the lady detective gives him an idea for a new character series and he comes back to do "research" and tags along to crime scenes. I don't know how long this will last, but the chemistry between the two is great and the guy who plays castle, (can't remember his name) was on Two guys a girl and a pizza place" and I think (lee help me out) Serenity, some sci fi show that is no longer. Or was it firefly, or something, anyway, he does a good job of being a bit self centered, charming and loveable. I watched the first episode and will tape the series, and watch it when I have time.
Anyway, try it out and see for yourself!

Cole's Very First Baseball Game! Here he is at bat. He didn't hit anything, but the pitcher was a kid on the other team and most of the time it bounced in front of him. He still really doesn't know what a good pitch looks like. So he swung at just about everything.

In the 3rd inning he got to play first base which at first freaked me out a little. I thought to myself, "are you coaches sure you want to do that?" But he made a good play! He actually stopped the ball! Usually during practice the ball would roll right between his legs! So he did good!

He definitely pays more attention to what is going on during then game rather than at practice!

Here he is peeking out of the dugout, waiting his turn to bat!

This was at the beginning of the game, where they all line up to say the "Little League Pledge".

Cole is number 11.

The game was pretty funny, we enjoyed it with Carl's parents and Kaleigh spent some time at the playground with her friend Jared. His brother was playing against Cole. Cole is on the Red Sox team and his friend Jack is on the Angels. The score was pretty much 0 to 0 for most of the game, then one of the Angels came in and the game ended 1 to 0 in favor of the Angels. Not that we keep score or anything. : )

Opening Day! Whoo..hoo. As you can see, Opening day for Little League was ever so exciting! Kaleigh was bored out of her mind! We had to be there at 8:45am to wait....then at 9:15am all the teams ran out on the field to wait... Announcements were made, people were thanked, a baseball player (used to be in the big leagues from our city) made a speech, awards for the volunteers were given out, the Mayor made a speech, sponsors were thanked, blah blah blah...anyway, then we had to have our team and individual pictures taken. That was to take place at 11:40am. Well, by this time it is about 10am and Kaleigh has had enough (and so have I!) I decide to take a little break and bring Kaleigh with me, we go home for an hour or so, then we come back...to wait some more! Apparently the T-ball league took a long time to get photos taken (gee they are 4-5 year olds go figure!) So we didn't get to have Cole's team photo done until about noon! We finally got out of there at about 12:45pm! Whew what a long morning. But we did order a few photos and they did allow parents to stand behind the photographer to take a few photos ourselves!

So this photo is of Cole for his individual picture (I believe they take it from the waist up), I wanted a full shot so everyone can see how sharp he looks in his uniform!

This last one is of the team. They are the Red Sox and every division has one! Even T-ballers.

The two team moms are in the photo and are pretty nice. The coaches are in the back holding the banner. There are 12 kids on Cole's team but one was on a fishing trip, and they have one girl, back row far right. They all seem pretty nice but I am a little sad Cole did not get on his friend Jack's team. There are a few of my old Moms Club kids on that team and it would have been fun to hang with those moms! Oh well, I hope Cole can make new friends with these boys!

First game is Saturday. With not one practice actually playing the game, they will need a lot of prayer to get through the game! We kept having our practices rained out! They went to the batting cages but they haven't really played through a real game type practice. Well, it isn't like they keep score anyway! Go Red Sox, Go Cole!