Well, we finally left the house. My niece Lauren came to visit. It is a quick visit, simply because she didn't get out of school until 6/16 and our kids start on 7/8. Next year when Jessica starts Jr High and is on a traditional schedule, we hope she can come and stay a little longer! Anyway, we haven't had a lot of time to pack in all the activities we want to do, hence...our lightning fast summer o' fun.
After we picked Lauren up in Sacramento, we thought, Heck, why just go home when we can drive an extra 3 hours (round trip) and load up on the best jelly beans known to man? So off we went to Fairfield, CA for a quick tour of the factory that dumps you right into the gift shop. Many jellybeans/giant gummy rats/flavored lip gloss later, we headed back to good ol' Turlock.
The rule of the tour is "If you have a head, you must wear a hat." Doesn't he wear it well?
Thursday we went to Monterey, our favorite place in CA so far, to see the new Splash Zone at the aquarium. We were lucky enough to see the cute penguins being fed. Lots of fun things to see and do, we are glad to be members of the Aquarium so we can buzz in and out without feeling like we have to see EVERYTHING to get our money's worth.
After the Aquarium we were off to the beach. It was a little tricky changing everyone in the car into their swimsuits, I'm sure someone in the parking lot may have seen a little more skin than they bargained for, but hey, what are you going to do? We had a GREAT time. The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL, we were priviledged to see dolphins jumping a little way out...Amazing(!!!)... AND as Ben pointed out, I took 7 children to the Aquarium AND the Beach,all by myself, and came home with all 7 of them, without even a sunburn, I might add!
We heard about an exhibit at the Fresno Zoo where you can pet docile sharks and rays. As you can imagine, that was appealing to us, so our activity for Saturday when Ben was home was to go pet some sharks. We looked up the zoo online to make sure everything was a go/get directions etc., filled the gas tank in the Suburban and the truck (we are maxed out seatbelt wise with our own family, when we have guests, we have to take two cars) loaded up on water bottles and ice, and drove an hour and a half down to Fresno. We pulled into the Zoo parking lot at 12:59 pm and as we were about to pay for parking, the attendant informed us that the zoo was closing from 1-7pm for a "special event". DANG IT!!! I am going to go ahead and go out on a limb and assume that Saturday is probably their busiest day of the week, why the heck are you going to close the zoo, and if you are, WHY NOT POST IT ON THE WEBSITE SO THAT PEOPLE WHO MIGHT WANT TO DRIVE ALL THE WAY DON'T WASTE THIER TIME AND GAS!!! That being said, we thought we would get some lunch and decide on a Plan B. We punch Restaurants into the GPS and decide that a little Carls Jr might do the trick and followed the directions given. We were led into what we thought was the Ghetto, but it turns out from all of our driving, that pretty much ALL of Fresno is the Ghetto. My goodness, I was A LOT out of my element. The Carls JR was WAYYYYY too scary, so we decided on Denny's instead. We found out that there was a Metropolitan Museum downtown, so we checked it out, by checking out, I mean driving by and LEAVING. Basically, our big shark petting plans were a bust, but to keep things positive, we did get to see a sweet, pimped out caravan...
and were able to bring home a souvenier from our trip to exotic Fresno...a rocket sippy cup, filled with a beverage of our choice.
Other newsworthy items...
1. After approximately 6 reschedulings, I was finally able to enjoy my Mother's Day afternoon at the spa. It was fabulous.
2. We were having spider issues, common around here, so we called pest control. They came out and did their thing, and later that night, our house was crawling with earwigs and...I saw a mouse!!! YUCK!!! So I called pest control again to come get the little critters and bought some traps. A few nights of watching that stupid mouse come a sample the peanut butter with no positive results for me, I adjusted the traps and I caught it. I was a brave girl, and through the shrieks of my girls and to the delight of my boy, I even picked up the trap/dead mouse and disposed of it. Sometimes I really hate having to be independent.
15 comments:
Sorry Fresno was such a bust! But yeah there are some funky areas down there.
Sounds like fun - you guys are totally getting out and it sounds as if your baby is pretty good in the car? Good for you!
Well that is a whirlwind of a summer. I am impressed with all of your independent galavanting - way to go!
You are amazing! That looks like so much fun, can't wait to see you guys!
Holy Moly Emily! You made it to Monterey!!!! I'm so glad! I am aslo so glad you get to get out of town for a while and have a husband! You amaze me daily! Will miss you while you are gone and so will our East Indian friends as you are the only constant one! Travel safe!
I've been there....Jelly Belly factory....fun huh. My uncle and aunt just moved from Fairfield to Logan, so many a summer was spent there, one summer included the infamous factory. Tell me you got samples a plenty?! I too am very impressed on the events schedule at the Kern home. I hope all public parenting was done "quietly!" :) What's your family plans?
You are a brave woman. Other than the Fresno thing, it seems like you guys had a lot of fun with your other activities! I bet Lauren had a blast!
No sunburns?? Wow, that's impressive. Sounds like you had a good time.
I can't believe you take on so much when Ben is gone! That is amazing!!! I won't even go to the grocery store with two kids. You have serious skills.
You are such a great mom! Your family is the cutest. Now were those pimped out rims i saw on that van?
you certainly are brave. i want to puke at the thought of even taking three kids to the store. remind me when i come see you sometime to steer clear of Fresno. that whole anxiety thing i have going on would definitely kick in. it would get ugly.
Emily, your family is darling. I found your blog from Molly's, hope you don't mind. It is so fun to see what your up to. I'm sure Lauren is having a great time. I love the family picture of you all, your kids are adorable.
-Amber Gale Harris
Looks like you and the kids had lots of fun and you sure are brave
You are stinkin hilarious...and also my hero. I don't know how you can handle all the kids and actually do stuff. I am about ready to die from my too. PS I don't know why but everytime I try to look at your page from my page it sends me to a blogger help page. It is drivin me nuts!
Hi Emily,
I found your blog through a series of links...most recently your sister Libbie's...hope that's Ok?!
You have beautiful family, and I just love your sense of humor - very fun to read your blog!
~Heather (Morris) Long
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