Adele!

For my birthday Josh surprised me with tickets to the Adele concert this weekend!  Pretty crazy, amazing gift!  Thanks to grandma Lee Lee and Grandpa Bill for watching the kids.
Adele was a phenomenal performer.  Totally solo, no opening act, no bells and whistles.  She stops in-between each song and talk to the audience.  She talks about her life, asks people on stage, sings happy birthday to people, etc.   She is really funny, and really such an incredible talent!
Thanks again Josh!  That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!!

Camp, Tie-Dye and Nails

Jake just completed his second week of basketball camp.  He had a blast with Legarza, and I've been impressed with the coaches as well as the excitement that Jake came home with every day.  Next week he is off to one more week of basketball camp.

Yesterday we had quite the afternoon.   Tia came over for some tie-dye time (she is a supreme expert at applying the rubber bands in just the right way to get super cool designs)!!    She pulled out the old onesies that we passed along to her that were covered in spit-up, and we grabbed some old baby blankets and made some wonderful creations.

 

  Jake dyed one of his favorite shirts that was covered in paint stains in Warriors colors and now he loves it even more.  He wore it to basketball camp today!

We even pulled out the nail polish and the kids gave Tia and Nana manicures!

 

Pokemon Go

On Monday after camp, I finally gave in and downloaded the much talked about Pokemon Go app to my phone for some fun for Jake and I.  Josh and I don't believe in video games, so you won't find an XBox or a Wii in our house.  But, after seeing and hearing such great reviews by fellow Moms, I decided that a game that literally makes you walk around outside to even work, seemed like something to try.  Well, Jake and I walked around our town for over 2.5 hours!!   It's a pretty fun time I have to say, but letting him do it on his own isn't going to work.  You really don't pay attention to where you're going very well, so it can be a bit dangerous if someone isn't watching out for you.  But, it was a fun game for him and I to try together, and an easy 10,000 steps of exercise.  We'll likely do it again when we've got some time, and it's a beautiful day.   Here is what the screen looks like when you find a Pokemon:  they just appear right on the sidewalk in front of you, or on a person!

Amazing Birthday Weekend!

Way back in January I booked a campsite at my favorite New Brighton Beach campground for my birthday weekend.  Even back in January I couldn't find any summer weekend that had two nights in a row available (crazy popular place!), so I booked the Friday night before my birthday and then hoped to either find another night later or just move to a new spot for Saturday.  Well, the weekend was finally here, and the kids excitement for another camping trip was incredibly high.  The kids and I headed down at lunch time, and met my sister Erica and Hassan down at the site to put up our tents while Josh worked.  It turned out to be a great site, close to the bathrooms and to the beach access trail, and under an enormous beautiful tree.  We did a little afternoon beach fun before starting a yummy chicken taco dinner.  Jake learned a new camping dessert recipe at Mountain camp that he wanted to try for dessert, and of course we had to pull out the s'mores as well.  There was a ranger led campfire after we finished dessert, so we headed over to hear what she had to say.  The weather overall was gorgeous, sleeping was great.  All of the kids pretty much went right to sleep once we got into the tent. 

 

 

 

  The morning brought the coastal fog, so we cooked up warm coffee, chocolate chip pancakes and played some charades, soccer and catch while we waited for the sunshine.  Lunch was on the beach, and my parents joined us for a causal birthday picnic.  The beach was much more crowded than we'd ever experienced, and high tide came on pretty quickly, but the kids still had a blast.

 

 After lunch the kids, Josh and I headed down to Monterey to continue our adventure.  We stayed in Seaside, had a fun hotel night, then playtime at the amazing Dennis the Menace park, lunch with our great friends the Bolgers then back to a beach in Monterey for collecting shells and playtime.  The drive home was horrendously long with all of the vacationers returning home...I even pulled over on the site of the freeway to let the kids do their first potty on the side of the road moment, as we just weren't moving anywhere and there were no gas stations or restaurants for many, many miles!  Anyways, we returned home late only to hear the kids begging to go back.  That's the sign of a fantastic weekend!  Thank you everyone for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!