"Bye Bye Speech" - Owen woud say

Today was Owen's last day at his speech class. He has been going since just before Brock was born and he has improved SOOOO much! We have been really happy with his progress so it's a little bitter-sweet that he is leaving. His therapist (Russ) and the Assistants (Carly and Kathleen) have been so loving and kind to him. I think Carly was his favorite. He would run to her and give her a hug every time class was about to start. I was a little teary when we left because I thought about how much they did for my little boy and how much they loved and took care of him for those 2 hours 3 times a week. I'm sure Owen didn't even notice that it was his last day, but I'm also sure he'll ask about it when he doesn't go back for a while. I think they all got attached to him and will miss him.
Here is Owen with his therapist Russ. (I KNOW! Yes, he is a great therapist)
This is Kathleen - she worked with Owen a lot but was in and out like Russ. I like to think of the therapists like doctors, the nurses (assistants) do most of the work and the doctors (therapists) come in for what is really important.
Here is his favorite Carly. He would yell her name and run to her when class began.
They gave Owen a good-bye card signed by everyone who worked with him. I don't think he cared much, but I sure liked it.

Choo! Choo!

Well, we took our first official train ride with friends down to Oceanside the other day. We rode with 17 kids and 6 moms! Whew! It was a lot of fun and I think the kiddies had a blast with their friends. We got off and walked 5 blocks to the pier where we ate at Ruby's. After shovelling the food down we walked to a nearby park and the kids played for a while. It was HOT! HOT! HOT! We didn't get back home till after 5 p.m. so it was a successful trip that took up almost the whole day! Fun Times Guys
Here is the line of kids and moms walking to the pier. People must have thought we were crazy.
I don't think I have ever eaten this fast in my life... I was terrified one of the kids would melt down or need help.
Everyone did their best to stay in the shade. It felt like we were walking on the Sun at times, but they all still enjoyed themselves.

GO DIEGO GO!!!

Today we took the kids and went to see GO DIEGO GO! LIVE! It was so much fun. We went with the Lowrys, the Deckers and the Zimmermans (Jim & Adrienne). The kids really enjoyed seeing Diego and Baby Jaguar on their adventure to retrieve Baby Jaguar's lost growl! Wow! Here are a few snap shots we took (there was no flash photography allowed during the show).

Is that Baby Jaguar? Or is that Paige and her daddy?

The Family during intermission.

All My Free Time...

... is spent reading this book. I'm officially hooked. I've heard so much since the third book (Eclipse) in the series was released so I decided to start with the first of 3. I spend my days thinking of when I can read it next. I even dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 6:30 this morning and went to the gym so I could read on the bike. Yes, that is pitiful - why don't I get to the gym for the sheer reason of loosing some extra pounds? Anyway this is where I am and this is where I'll be till the series is done.

Our Trip to San Diego

What a trip! We just got back from our 4 day family vacation down to beautiful San Diego. Even growing up in Southern California we don't have many opportunities to go down south. We thought it would fun to take the kids down there and enjoy the sun, the Zoo and Shamu! We stayed at the beautiful Marriott hotel & marina (thank you Jake for the hook-up) and spent our first full day there at the Zoo. There we saw everything from Elephants and Hippos to monkeys and alligators. It was BLAZING hot though so we tried our best to keep cool. Afterwards we would go back to the hotel for an late afternoon swim then eat dinner and then John would take the kids back again for a night time swim while I got Brock to sleep and read. Friday we met up with Wendy, Jake and the kids at Sea World. We were geared up for another Hot day. We started with the Shamu show. Nice! Those whales are amazing! Owen would say "BIG FISH!" There we enjoyed the sea otters the sharks and a Sea Lion show. The park was so big it was hard to get it all done in just one day. So back to the hotel for swimming and food and then more swimming. Saturday we flip-flopped and did all our swimming first and then the second half of Sea World in the afternoon. Man it was HOT, but the kids enjoyed themselves and kept wanting more. After returning back we put the kids down early and John and I enjoyed some nice room service and peace and quiet all by ourselves. Ahhh.... 3 kids can be a challenge. We wanted to add the Natural History Museum (& The Dead Sea Scrolls) to our agenda - but we didn't dare with these rug rats - that's for another trip (w/o kids). All in all it was four fun days with the family!

Owen's Latest Obsession

For what seems like forever now Owen has LOVED balls. I can't tell you how many times I've caught myself saying, "Paige don't touch Owen's balls!" or "Owen, go upstairs and play with your balls." or even "Owen... where are you balls?" The list goes on and on. Well lately it is hard to Owen without his Marbles. He is absolutely obsessed. He sleeps with his marbles, wakes up and asks for his marbles. He puts them in his backpack when he goes to class then immediately gets them out when he is in the car. I have to admit the size of them makes me a bit nervous.
As you can see there they are quite small and easily choke-able. I took them away before I went to Utah and when I came home GUESS WHO GAVE THEM BACK - thanks John. I know that I should probably just take them away again - but he absolutely loves them and I just don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Oh my NERDS!

So Paige found my old (I'm talking 1984 second grade old) glasses and wanted to have them. She put them on and immediately Owen wanted to wear them too. Oh my NERDS! I thought they looked hilarious in them and to think I thought they were pretty cool glasses over20 years ago.

The Melting Pot

Last night we went to the Melting Pot for John's brother Jim's birthday. Happy Birthday Jim! We had a great time there. The whole menu is fondue and it is a whole experience of cooking your own meat to dipping your own dessert. It was a lot of fun and even more laughs. We decided to play the "Name Game" while we were eating and I think there were even tears of laughter. Our poor waiter Dave had to put up with us choking on our diet coke and trying to keep down our beef and lobster fondue over belly laughs. Here are a few photos with some steam boiling up from the fondue pots.

Mike and Tiffany

Jacqui and Vicki

Jim and Adrienne

Me and John

I'm Seeing Stars

Movie Stars that is! Here is Brock and me playing around with some sunglasses.