CALIFORNIA

This a long over due post and will be really long. Back at the end of May we went out to California to celebrate with Rachelle for her great accomplishment! She graduated from Long Beach State with a degree in Elementary Education (I think). Anyways it was so great to be able to share such a big event in her life! She is such a doll and my kids adore her. She is the closet cousin to kyle and kailey in age and so they have always been really close to her. You can tell by the pictures that she is beautiful too! So one of the pictures is of Rob''s sister berta and her family. She has 3 girls and is the mother of Rebecca, Robyn and Rachelle.
Rachelle came back to arizona with us and stayed for a few days. We love having her over. She is so much fun to be around. I also love it because she gives kailey good advice and is a great example to her. You know how sometimes your daughters think you don't know what you are talking about and think they can't talk to you, well I know that kailey feels comfortable talking to rachelle and I am thankful for that!
We also took my nephew Lawson with us to California and I know that Kyle was glad. It is always fun for the kids to have a cousin around. I think that he had a good time too. Some highlights of our trip were great shopping at Fashion Island and a day to myself of shopping at South Coast Plaza and also I found a new yogurt place that I loved. It is called Red Mango. I hear they are coming to arizona and I am really hoping that is the case because I loved it! It was a nice trip for our family. It will probably be the only vacation we really take due to all the things going on during the summer, so we were thankful to have a reason to make time to get away!






We stayed in a VERY nice marriott time share thanks to Josh. He totally hooked us up which we appreciate. The place was a really big 2 bedroom 2 bath, with a full kitchen and family room. It worked out great because we gave Kyle, Kailey and Lawson one of the rooms. It had a bed and a fold out. Rob and I took the Master which was great. In the family room there was a pull out and so we slept the little kids out on it. The views were amazing and so relaxing just sitting out on the patio taking in the beautiful views. Rob took the older kids Deep sea fishing which I think they all really liked a lot, other than kailey and lawson stayed up all night and so when they got up at 4am it was really hard for them. I just love visiting California and family!




After graduation we went back to berta's house to celebrate. We always have a great time with the family. Bill went back to New York and so he isnt in any of the pictures. Now that I think of it I don't have any of Stephanie either. I need to do a better job and making sure to get pictures of everyone.








We took the family to Knotts Berry Farm. We had a great day. The weather was perfect! Rob and the older kids loved the roller coasters. I am not a big fan of all the huge scary roller coasters....I am a big chicken in my old age. There was a ride that I LOVED though...it was called the pony express. It was a complete blast. You straddle these fake horses and a support pushes your back down so it looks like you are leaning forward and it takes off. It isnt too fast or big or scary just a a great fun ride! For some reason we didnt take any pictures of it.












We went to the beach which is always so much fun. I thought the water was freezing, but my little kids got right in. I also thought it was a little cute and funny that the 2 17 year old boys were the ones out making sand castles! Gotta love that!