Father's Day!

We got lucky and Daddy's retirement coincided with Father's Day, so we got to take he and Dan to the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista! We take Daddy out there every year, and I was upset at the thought of not going, so I am so glad we got to go!! Dan always stops and talks for a long time to one of the engine owners when we first get there. Always in the first row of engines, and we are always waiting quite a while, then is it out of his system and we move along nicely! :)
This was Jake's favorite engine, it is big and green!! The engine next to this green one was one of two back up power generators for the Palomar Mt. Observatory until 199?, it was neat to see!
Boys love this place!!
Here is Fern and her Daddy waiting for the train!
Here it comes!!
Dan Fern and Riley had a great ride, Jake got on but started crying before it even left the platform. Oh well!

This is cowgirl Fern enjoying her lunch of corn on the cob!! It was so good we all had 2!
Munch Munch!!
There is always fun for the girls too, this year Mom went out with us, so I had some one who enjoyed the quilts, the farm house, and the craft vendors with me! This is the new dress my mom bought for my Kirsten Doll! Now I need to get her new hair ribbons, the blue just don't go! Thanks Mom!! Riley and I are reading the Kirsten books right now, we read one chapter a night and he always begs for me to read a second! :) Who says I can't share my doll with my son! :) Fern has been eyeing up Kirsten since I pulled her out and put her new dress on, she loves dolls!!

On the house update, we might have real glass by the end of the week, keep the prayers coming!! Riley is slowly becoming unattached to our hips, now for the sleeping part. :)

Party Time!!

While we were in Calif. , Mom and Mary planned a great family retirement party for Daddy! Lots of chill'en!

And goofy boys!
Is that Jake or Steve?
A great cook!

But are adult party's all that fun really?
Mom slaved away, and cracked the whip in the kitchen.
And it payed off, we had a ton of GREAT food!Thanks Mary, Ryan, and Novella for letting us invade!

You all are probably wondering why I am updating so well with all I have to do with our mess. Well I am just here pretending I don't have a house with boarded up windows, or anything else! :) So that's my story!

Fern & Novella!

Fern thought Novella was pretty neat, she often came over and wanted to hug her! Here are some cute pictures of what happens when Mary and Ryan leave Novella alone with Aunt Danna and cousin Fern! Here is our good CHEESY smile! Many times Fern would go over to Novella and get very close to her and just look at her. It was cute, but a little strange. She would hold her head too.
Novella kept looking the other way when Fern was trying to inspect!
Fern liked pretending to be a baby like Novella!
After all the hard work of taking care of her baby Fern needed to put her feet up! Fern is a very good little mommy!

We are still cleaning up glass, will it ever end?? All of our neighbors feel so bad, we even got a new plant from one today! And your prayers are working we have not killed any insurance people... yet...keep praying! :)

More Calif. Fun!

On Friday we all got up to see Grandpa off on his last day of school! After 32 years of teaching he finally had his last day! Her is Grandpa decked out in his retirement outfit, and the kids still in their jammies! After that we got dressed and spent the day at the Wild Animal Park, Grandma J. Aunt Mary, & Baby Novella joined us!
Here are my three in the giant log, how cute it that, small, medium, and large! :)
The WAP has this great new area, covered, fans, and soft chairs! Oh and fun stations for the kids! :) I just love the sign going in! :)
Fern said hello to one of the lionesses at the Lion Camp!

The park just recently retired the monorail ride through the Asia and Africa open areas, but they now have a tram instead, I think we were a bit closer to the animals, but I think we only saw Africa. But we all had fun seeing all the animals! My 3 fit in quite nicely!
Fern was in an Aunt Mary mood, and wanted to hold her hand, it was too cute!
This was Fern's favorite thing all day, helping push baby Novella, Grandma practically had to run to keep up! Novella enjoyed the day sleeping and eating! :)

Don't worry I still have a ton of pictures!! More tomorrow!!

Our "Busyness"!

Please forgive me for not telling, but it was a surprise and I did not want it uncovered!! :) Daddy was to retire on last Friday, and we just felt like we should be there to support him, so... We got crazy and flew to Calif. on Wednesday night, and then just walked right into Daddy's class room on Thursday! He was quite surprised and did not have the slightest clue we were in the state!! Here he is getting the first hugs from the boys!
And here we all are in his class room. We all had a great time, and I have alot of pictures to share, so stay tuned!

But then unfortunately we got a dreaded call late Saturday night from our local police department telling us our house had been broken into. :( It was not good. We flew in late last night, and stayed in a hotel last night near our home. We dropped the kids off at a friends (who thankfully boarded up our house) and then Dan and I came up to survey the damage. There is a long bad story but I do not wish to retell. But the good is it is not as bad as our imaginations had carried us away to. One of our front windows is broken our back slider is broken, a couple chairs, our stereo, picture frames, little stuff. The bad is my poor little Honda, the guy took a skate board to it. So we are neck deep in all that fun, so keep us in our prayers that we do not end up in jail for killing any insurance people! :) We are so very thankful for our neighbor who found the guy and called the police, and for another neighbor who has been very helpful. We have been blessed even in this trial.
Good Night!!

Connecticut History

We passed this on our way to the beach last week, and so on the way back we stopped and read it, yea I know I did not get the "continued on other side". I have no clue why I didn't, Danna brain I guess, oh yea that and Dan was kinda parked in traffic, so I felt I should hurry. Oh well! :)
The other side was about the tribe's demise, it was quite sad and like most indigenous people it was because of the colonizers.

I may not be posting for a couple days, we are quite busy! ;)

Another Adventure!!

BEACH DAY!!!!

We dipped our toes into the Atlantic Ocean for the first time today!!!

Disclaimer: Dan has before, and it was technically Long Island Sound, but hey it IS water from the Atlantic!! :)

It took Fern a while to decide to go to the water's edge. She was happy to play in the sand near our stuff for a while!
Jake was intrigued by the sea weed, it is totally different than in the Pacific Ocean! Weird!!
Fern liked digging!!
Three crazy babies!!
This was after the bucket got a crack, Riley was disappointed to get back with no water! Riley ended up going out to his waist, and he did not want to leave!! :)
Fern was very pleased with putting sand in the buckets!!

The boys started running up and down the beach, then Fern wanted to, and then she biffed it. So she then enlisted Dad's help! :)
On the beach is the old New Haven Light House, and the old carousel, too bad the carousel was closed for repairs. :(
Here's the whole light house. :)

So that was our fun day, that and Mama glued to the computer, typing out book lists and schedules for school next year! :)

Yesterday's Adventure!!

Well mom woke up yesterday and declared, lets go! Where? Everyone asked, to a museum I said!! Needless to say everyone was very excited!! So we got ready and headed to the Hartford's Children's Museum!

So here is our adventure and a whole lot of pictures!! :) Fern had a great time, usually she is just along for the ride, but not this time, she wanted to walk almost the entire time, and she was so "talkative". This is the 4 and under room, Fern and Jake loved it!
They had a sand table in there, filled with a mixture of sand and rice. See there is a good use for cheap white rice!! :) The room was painted like different habitats, ie; desert, mountains, lake, etc.
There was also a little house that Fern and Jake thought was great!
Look what I made you mom! The smiles yesterday were priceless!
They had a wildlife area, lots of reptiles, but a few birds who had been injured that they take care of. Here is a great horned owl, it was so old, and asleep, doing the classic head bobb. It was hysterical! We took this picture for Great-grandma Jenson!

Here is Fern meeting the cute little screech owl! They looked at each other quite intently!
This is one of my favorite pictures, this is this whirly feather machine run bu an upside down bike, Riley was pedaling with his arms!
Riley loved this Lego car race track!

My boys were happy LOTS of LEGO'S!
There is this gigantic concrete sperm whale, which is CT's state animal. It is hollow inside so we got to go inside, and pretend we were Jonah swallowed by the whale!
Fern was ready to go home! Jake wanted to see the animals again! They had a whole room called Turtle World! Riley did give his opinion, and I did not ask! :)

We found a Whole Foods Market across the street, so we went and it was heavenly, they had TONS of yummy produce!!! Corn on the cob, and the most delicious artichokes, we ate them last night and they were heavenly!!!! And I splurged and bought some avocado rolls (veggie sushi) and it was divine!! So now (since we bought a family pass to the museum) we will be going to Whole Foods more often!! :)