From June 4th

Wow!! It’s now Thursday and I haven’t even finished the blog from last week, let alone starting this weeks. Oh well, here goes. As most of you know we were preparing for Ross and Rhys to arrive on Wednesday. The days were the usual; I worked a little longer to get some stuff done. The boys are preparing for the end of the year at school; they have finished most of the testing which is good. Everyone is just fried and had enough. Tuesday was the big one for me. As we all know the house has to be cleaned before visitors arrive so that was the boys and I as well on Tuesday afternoon evening. I got home from work and started cleaning, Bruce and the boys did some vacuuming etc and I did the bathrooms and kitchen then started on the baking and dinner prep for the week. I did dinner in the middle of it and the boys went off to bed and Bruce went off to Paula’s for some business coaching. I continued on my baking way and chatted with Elise on the web cam while I was running around the kitchen. I’m sure it gave her a headache. Wednesday we got up and out of the house as per usual, Bruce picked up Ross and Rhys at the airport around lunchtime; they dropped into work on the way through and went home for some lunch and to pick up the kids. Then of course, naps, they were both stuffed, to say the least. Rhys didn’t sleep at all, like his auntie, no sleeping in a chair. I got home and put the lasagna together and we sat down to a nice meal and caught up on what’s been going on at home. The boys stayed up and played and they were all in bed at an early hour, not for too long for the travelers. Ross was up in the night. Thursday morning hit and we were out of the house letting the boys sleep. Bruce bought me some lunch to work and informed me that Rhys had had a nice 15 hours sleep and had just risen. Pretty impressive!! I got home from work at little later and the boys were running around the house without their heads, they were so excited. W e jumped into the car and went up for the usual Costco bulk-buying visit and got back for Game One of the NBA Finals to start. So, there are a couple of hours of peace for me. I got some washing & tidying done, (no one said I got to relax, just doing stuff at the other end of the house, in the peace) After dinner and the kids went off to bed I took the boys down to Walmart to get some of the bits and pieces they wanted, candy etc. I’d forgotten how cheap all that stuff is here, they were both very happy at how cheap all their stuff was. It’s really warming up and it’s only getting hotter as the days go on. Warmer days are coming….yeay!!!! The only bummer is that we have no pool, so my skin is probably saying a big thank you. Friday came and went and was pretty uneventful, sort of. I finished up work early and we picked the kids up from school around 1.00pm and we all jumped into the Van and headed for the outlet mall. We spent the afternoon at the outlet mall, and the boys got through their shopping list I think got most of it done, and of course some stuff they didn’t plan on getting. Its bargain time here, what am I saying, it’s like that all the time. We made a couple of other stops on the way back home and yes again, we all bought stuff we didn’t plan on, that’s what happens. Then we went out for dinner to Logan’s. ALL the boys very much enjoyed throwing the peanut shells on the floor. We got a couple of photos, Rhys took a little footage and we went to Baskin & Robbins (Rhys’ request) for some ice cream. We arrived home at a reasonable hour, the boys played the birthday present that Ross had bought Conner for a little bit then off to bed for everyone. Ross and Bruce had to be at the airport early. We were all up to say goodbye to Uncle Ross and then I did a big Saturday breakfast, which the kids love, pancakes, toast, eggs, we even had some strawberries left so they had them on the pancakes and realized how nice it was. Saturday turned out to be a chilling day, the garage saleing was supposed to have happened but they all got lazy and ended up lounging around instead. I baked in the afternoon for the block party at the Rivera’s. We arrived and most of the neighbors were already there. We had some food, met some nice people and the kids all played. Rhys got into a game with Conner and another couple of the older kids, it got very competitive (other boys) Rhys was just laughing and his shots were going in, so I’m sure it’ll make for good stories when he gets home. We sat and the other adults drank, I got some good photo’s and the kids just played and played out in the street there was at least 20 of them at one stage. We packed our things and left around 10.30, it was a very fun night and I’m sure we will be doing all again very soon. Sunday – WOW what a day. We were packed up with snacks etc and out of the house cruising to Santa Cruz by 9.00am. It was along drive (3 hours) but the kids did really well, and Jamieson didn’t get sick Yeay!! We drove through the mountains, and forests, through fruit countryside; there were berries of every description everywhere, then we finally arrived at lunchtime. We stopped to stretch our legs at a dinky little stop with a fruit stand, I can’t think of the name at the moment. It was one of those funny American Names. We arrived at the boardwalk, which was nice, not as nice as I was expecting but it’s been there for 100 years, not sure what I was expecting. We walked around and checked things out, the boys all went on a couple of rides, and there were people on the beach, which was nice to see. Lots of different types of people, it was definitely a people watching experience. We jumped into the car around 3.00 and made our way home, a different way. Although we did make a wrong turn north not south and ended up passing Stanford U and towards San Fran before going over a VERY LONG bridge (which Rhys has footage of) and heading back. We arrived at home just in time (for the boys) to see the start of game 2. We threw together some dinner and watched the game. San Antonio won again, not that I really watched it but there was a lot of noise coming from the lounge room. The boys were off to bed and Rhys chatted on the computer and Bruce and I went off to bed around 10.30, I think.