Summer Side of Life.....

My mom is staying with us for a few more weeks before she returns home.  At 87 she is a dynamo and loves to be on the go and doing things.....we have an extra furry visitor too, her dog Mitzi.  Since our house is CrazyTown Central this only adds to the Chaos, however there are moments that also make it all worth it.....

Steve and Dylan have been teaming up on the dog walking duty!

We went to the thrift store and I found this adorable old world globe for my family room.....I thought it was perfect (until) I removed the price tag and noticed this spot....The paint removed was not on the back of the sticker so I think someone pulled a fast one on me!  I should have checked it as that happened to me once before but that is another story for another day....

 I drug out my little tub of craft paints and mixed up a blend.....

 ...and think I matched it up pretty well....at least if you don't look too close!

 While I had the paint out two little visitors came by and decided that painting was a good idea!

 But not as good idea as Mommy reading you the latest Spider-man Book!

When my mom is here I set up my family room dining table as Craft Central as we always have projects going on....this time we have a quilt, some mending, photo albums, teacher gifts, back to school ideas and some craft touchups to do....Mom loves to sit there and work away.....

 Steve made us this great soup for dinner one night - yummy!  Soup in the Summer - Yes!

 Kristen did a Teacher Tower craft of all things a teacher needs during the school year....

 She shapes it like a cake, kleenex, glue sticks, crayons, markers, rulers, pens, handsanitizer, notecards, pens and pencils....

 What lucky teacher to recieve this!

 One night we grilled veggies of all kinds, portabello mushrooms, onions, zuchinni, asparagus, peppers, eggplant and pork cutlets....it has been so nice we have been eating outside every night.....

 Brody is always willing to help do dishes - he is really good at it....

 One afternoon we had a burst of wind so we got out the kite we bought in China and flew it over the Canyon....

 It was so pretty....fluttering like butterflies all in a row....

 One day after work we went to Harbor Island and let the boys ride scooters and picnic...I love the picture of the SD skyline in the background....it was such a nice afternoon....

 We found a shady place and put up our chairs and watched the fishermen while the boys scooted away....

 Hard to see, however, they found this giant jellyfish right by the rocks!

 This weekend it was Family Camp @ Lake Poway....since Kristen and Brian live in Poway they signed up and invited us....it was incredibly nice....Steve and Kristen went early and got a nice spot by the shade trees and overlooking the lake.....

 The boys kept Gramps busy untangling the fishing poles....they fished for 4 hours straight, then took a break for dinner and back at it for 3 more hours......I can't believe their stamina....

 Brody chillakin at the lake....

 Dylan was a natural....he had casting down like a champ.....

 We enjoyed watching them and had a nice BBQ too....

 This little fisherman got up early Sunday morning to catch the big ones!

 ....and since Dylan is in modified year round school he goes back to school Wednesday :(
Summer fun is cut a bit short, however, knowing this family it will not slow down too much....I made a little montage for back to school month for him.....he painted the apple on the right on one of our craft days....

Hope your summer is going strong!!!!

Hotel California.....

One thing about living in Southern Cal is the perk of having lots of family and friends come visit.....this past week my sister drove my mom down to stay with us a few weeks and my brother surprised them by flying over and we spent the entire weekend having fun and doing things together.....I had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures a lot of the time but captured a few......In this one Adam has his building plans up on the mac tv showing his floor plan to everyone....I love how Rocky is truly focused and Kristen is distracted on the phone.....truth be told she has seen them before but apparently Rocky had not.....

 Since it was warm we did lots of BBQ dinners and yummy salads and grilled veggies for the masses as all the kids and grand kids came for every meal they could fit into their schedules....I loved that....the more the merrier and people sleeping on every open space in the house....

 Steve was uber busy on the grill, chicken, teriyaki beef, fish, eggplant, portabellos, red peppers....yum....

 My sister was only able to stay a couple nights which made me sad however she can make more happen in a couple nights than I can in a week....She commented to me how my cabinets did not show my things very well since they were so dark....she had an idea....

 We ran to JoAnns and got some muted sage green fabric with a small print and some foam board....

 She enlisted Shannie and they measured, cut and wrapped the foam boards to the size of the inside of my cabinets....

 Then they pressed it into place....

 and arranged my things back in and they show up so much better!!!!!  She did both but it was so sunny only the pictures of the one turned out.....she is so crafty!

 I bought her fave Costco Lemon Cake as a reward....they don't have them at her Costco and she and Dylan love these cakes....along with Adam and several others!!!

 Dylan goes to work on a slice.....

 Several of her friends, my friends and my moms friends are going through some rough spots....I suggested we make them all a 'Pocket Full of Sunshine' so we ran to the Dollar Store.  We had 15 minutes before our nail appointments so we split up and each looked for anything yellow....we found great stuff!  Lemonheads, lemon drink sleeves, mary jane candy, yellow balloons, butterscotch candy, big bird juice boxes, yellow highlighters and pencils, yellow hostess napkins, chiclets, candies with smiley faces on them and yellow post it notes.  Also found a roll of yellow duct tape and yellow shredding - score on the yellow loot!!!

 We took a ziploc bag and filled them with the goodies and I wrote 'Pocket Full of Sunshine' on the post-it notes and then sealed them with the yellow duct tape...now our friends in California, Arizona, Washington and Idaho will be receiving a 'Pocket of Sunshine'....fun project to do together!  I love random acts of kindness....

 We were able to get a Family Game Night in....we played Yahtzee Tournament - Steve and my brother Bo are fierce competitors and this go we had some high scoring games....they each one a pot so that added to the competition!!!!  Deb and I were $$ contributors.  Then we played Left, Right, Center.  The boys came down to see what all the noise was about....so we let them help roll....it came down to two of us, Kristen (Dylan rolling) and me (Brody rolling).....it was a roll off and the dice went back and forth several times with both brothers rolling safe....finally Dylan rolled a center and I technically won, however, declared that both boys were winners and they split the pot....$15.00 each - they were happy boys!

 The next day we went to see Adam and Shannies downtown Loft and then walked to Little Italy Farmers Market....

 I loved taking my handsome brother into all the little delis and Italian restaurants....

 On the street people were shopping and eating....this guy is enjoying fresh sea urchin....probably an acquired taste?

 Saw these and loved these Red Walnuts....wouldn't they be beautiful in a salad or on a cheese tray?

 From there we went to the Tin Fish and had the best seafood lunch!  It was beautiful outside.....

 Came on home and mom fixed her famous fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans with bacon.....

 however I had a prescheduled appointment and had to fast and drink a jug of yuk in preparation....cruel, cruel summer.....

So as my sister drove off to Vegas to meet a friend for a few days and my brother flew off back to Scottsdale I had to'soldier up' as they say and head to a medical procedure, after recovery everything turned out ok.....Thankful for that and my precious family.

We Love LA........We Love It!

The Addie and Shannon will be relocating soon and the calendar for the next few months is jammed up....we decided to make plans for a quick turn around trip to LA so we could revisit some of our fave places together....we rented a 15 passenger van and hit the road!  We really wanted to focus on Adam's memories and ours came flooding back as well....

 First we started with Steve and I in front, then Addie and Shannie, then the boys and then Kristen and Brian in the back.....we changed that configuration around many times!

 GiGi got us bags of toys and little doggies to keep us busy on the drive!

 We drove by the old Firestone Building....this was the main tire manufacturing plant for years, then abandoned and now refurbished into a great mall....

 We stopped at Griffith Park - Adam always loved the Carousel, the Train and the Observatory so we fit them all in!

 It is an amazing Carousel - the same for 100+ years, all wooden horses and beautiful facades....

 Brody takes a spin on a pony.....

 Dylan rides in the horse cart.....

 Adam and Shannie pose in front of the crazy clown that used to spit out tickets when we would buy them, now they are sold at the side....it was kinda freaky to have a clown spit out your ticket....sometimes change is good  :)

 We drove up to the Observatory for a view of the Hollywood Sign.....

 It was warm and sunny and we stayed and checked everything out...Addie loved this place.  We took him to see Haley's Comet there back in the day....

 While they all finished up Steve and I went to the van and fixed appetizers and since I forgot the plates we served them on the lid of the ice chest....ya, I am classy like that....

 We rode the train and of course had to get a pressed penny at the arcade!!!  Crank Crank Crank

 ....and here it is.....

  ....and then it was on to our favorite dive for Chinese Food  - Dragon Wok!

 We all ordered our favorites.....huge servings!

 ....and Brian finished them all for us!  Figures - the skinnest one in our family eats the most!

 We drove over to Simi Valley and drove around to some of our haunts...where I used to work after the studio is now a huge prop shop and we drove up in the hills and then stopped where the kids went to school....Adam said it was erie, like the leaves were the same, the buildings were the same and it was like time stood still.....

 ...then on the the house where we used to live....it looks good, even tho after we moved out it was red tagged in the big earthquake nearby in Northridge.....

 Our little community park where he played tennis and hung with his buddies.....

 Off to Thrifty where we would get ice cream.....

 yummy!

 Let's drive by Grandma Prisbey's where we used to take all our old bottles and toys and she would build them in something in cement.....

 It was closed but we could see the doll heads, the bottles, the toys and the headlights.....she was always nice and fun to talk to.....it is now a Historical Landmark!

 Over the hill and heading to the valley to spend the night.....while the adults went to dinner and the mall, Steve, the boys and I hung at the hotel.....

 Next day - a big day at the ballpark for Dodger and Padre Fans - we had both covered!

 We presented Adam with a Tervis  Tumbler with a Dodger Logo in it for a little souvenir of the trip....

We drove all up and down Ventura Blvd to our favorite stops at Art's Deli, Jerrys, Nate & Als, and we stopped by McDonalds for eeeeeeg McMuffins (what Steve called them once when he was mad) and had to laugh at the way we parked....

 We drove by Stanleys where we used to have yummy salads and Adam was hoping for a Kardashian siting; however instead it was on fire so Adam tweeted Kim a heads up.....

We took Laurel Canyon up and over Mullholand and down into Hollywood and went over the CBS where I used to work and stopped at Farmers Market to look around and let the boys run off some energy....

 Then....on to Chavez Ravine for the best ballpark experience every....nothing like Dodger Stadium and we have been to many many stadiums....this place is *special*

 Dodger Dogs!!!!

 Gotta have the chocolate malts!!!!

 Then after the game the last stop on the way back to SD....Randy's!

 LA - Thanks for being such a sweet time.....it was a great family bonding, laughing, remembering and enjoying trip!