Fun in the Pool!!!

Madeline and her new friends, Lucy and Veronica.

Irvine Regional Park

On Saturday, Hillary and I decided we wanted to take the kids on a little excursion. We decided to head out to Irvine Regional Park for the day. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a blast! This park really is amazing. We started off at the Orange County Zoo (which is actually located inside the park). We saw coyotes, bears, a reindeer, some sort of wild cat, a peacock, two beavers and some snakes. I think there were some other animals as well, but the girls wanted to run through the place as quickly as possible, so we didn’t really have much time to peruse the whole zoo.





By far their favorite zoo attraction was the petting zoo. I’m fairly certain it was my favorite as well. Rather than allowing the kids to feed the goats (which usually just ends in germy hands and a fearful fit when the goats decide to maul the toddler with two handfuls of food), this zoo provides brushes for the kids to “brush” the goats. Our little stylist, Madeline, was oh so excited about this. She had a brush for each hand and one on her elbow at one point and would treat the goats as though they were her “clients.” I’d hear he say, “Hold very, very still please.”

It was too cute!






After the zoo, we headed over for a pony ride. Madeline LOVES ponies and she had a blast riding “Rocky” (she named him). As usual, she jabbered the entire time. I tried to get some video, but I was also leading Rocky so it’s not the best footage!





We then picked up some Icees (hence the blue teeth) and hopped on the train for a ride around the park. All of the kids enjoyed the ride, especially the tunnel!

We will for sure be making a trip back here again this summer.

Happy Father's Day Daddy!!!!

Madeline sure is crazy about her daddy! Chris is such an amazing father. For as long as I have known him (which is a REALLY long time) he has always been that guy who is out running around with the kids. He has never been “too cool” to change a dirty diaper, get up at 2:00 am to rock a fussy baby back to sleep, take a phone call at work from his little girl who just wants to “chat” about her day, or play “Simon Says” and “Duck-Duck-Goose” in the middle of a busy park. He works so hard for our family and although there are times we don’t get to see him as often as we’d like, he always makes sure to give us his undivided attention and love when he is home. We were fortunate enough to have three whole days at home with our daddy this Father’s Day weekend…and he even spent one of those days out shopping for maternity clothes with mommy who is getting bigger and bigger by the second! Our children are so blessed to have a daddy who would do ANYTHING for them…I know there is nothing in this world that would be too difficult for Chris to handle. He is our rock. I couldn’t be more proud to have this man as my husband and the father of my children…and Madeline and Collin have a lifetime of love and support to look forward to from this amazing man. We love you so much Chris!
Here are some pictures of our Father’s Day fun:

Mommy-Maddie Day

Go figure that on our first “free” day in a week, Chris picks up an overtime shift AND Edison decides to cut power at our house from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm!!! Luckily, mommy found some pretty fun things to do in our neighborhood which kept us busy and out of the house all day! We started the morning off up in Oak Glen with a trip through the petting zoo and a pony ride for Mads. We ate lunch at Apple Annie’s and headed to the Village Candy Shoppe for some treats after lunch. When we made it back home and realized the power was still out, we headed out to Beaumont to pick some fresh organic cherries at Wohlgemuth’s Organic Cherry Orchard. It was soooo much fun. We got pretty dirty and ended up leaving covered in dirt and cherry juice, but had a blast scouring the orchard to find the best cherries and filling our buckets to the top with some delicious treats. What a fun Mommy-Maddie Day!

Buddies

These kids are just too cute!!!

Here they are enjoying some popsicles in the back of daddy’s new truck.

Annual RFD Family BBQ

This past weekend, we had a blast at the Annual RFD Family BBQ at Yucaipa Regional Park. I believe this is the fourth year we have had this BBQ and this year was extra special because Redlands PD also joined in on the fun. The kids had a blast jumping in the two awesome bouncy houses, slipping and sliding on the Slip & Slide, and even had an impromptu ice fight at the end of the day. Of course, our precious little girl was all up in the action with her favorite boys. She sure has fun with these guys and they all look after her like big brothers. They even helped her overcome her fear of the collapsing bouncy house. By the end of the day, she was in there body slamming the Egan boys and climbing to the top of the big slide by herself. We are so thankful for our fire department family and always have the best time with these dear friends. It is so nice for all of us adults to just be able to sit back and enjoy the company of one another while our kids run around like crazy having the time of their lives. Being married to a fire fighter isn’t always easy, but being a part of this awesome family sure makes things easier!

Thanks for the great time guys!