Bumper Boats

Like I said in the previous post, this time the girls had permission to get wet as we were going home straight afterwards. Well, wet they took that as an order! They didn't just get wet, they got soaked!! Good that we had extra clothes to change into for the car ride home! But, at least they had lots of fun, and with the temperatures that we had, it felt pretty nice I'm sure!

Z Fun Factory

Last Saturday, a week ago today, we took the kids and went to Z Fun Factory here in Yuma.We had never been there before as a family, I had only been there with Sharla when we took the little ones there for playtime in the Pirate Playhouse. We now started out outside with Cassie and Sina so that they could have a ride at the Bumper Boats. We wanted to play Mini golf, but it was way too hot still. We have to come back and do that later in the fall.

The girls loved it. They had so much fun, but as they were still going to go inside and play in the arcade, we told them that they had to go easy on the boats. Not getting totally wet until we were about to go home. I did take extra clothes to change over in, but not more than one set, so rather wait until the last thing, then change over and go home. It was fun though, also fun to watch them trying to steer the boat, not that easy in the beginning until they got the hang of it.

No no no, steer AWAY from the water...

After the girls boat ride, we went inside so they could play in the arcade, and Benjamin and Isabella could play in the Playhouse. Fun Fun Fun!!!. They were giggling and running up and down the slide, up to the very top, calling us to show where they were and then off they went again. I had a work out just following them around running from one side to the other. Not around in the gym, but to see where they came out, never at the same spot and very rare together..

Also, when I was here with Sharla, we were the only ones there, this time, there were many children in there, and also bigger ones, so we had to watch ours so they wouldn't get run over. It was a lot of laughing and running and other kids were playing with them in there. Fun to watch!

What also was kind of fun, something that I at least hadn't seen before (not that I'm a frequent bar goer, but still). All along the bar, they had a special drink cooler! There were a line of frozen snow/ice to put your drinks to keep cool. I thought why not, and put up the kids drinks there too, and the bartender just smiled and had nothing against it! Pretty cool I thought!!

While Chris and I were busy keeping track of our little ones, Cassie and Sina went with Nico to the Arcade and played all kind of games. The Arcade isn't very big, but still had fun stuff and especially fun and original decorations! They also have a very smart way of handling the games. Here you load a card with the amount of money that you want to spend. Then you only have to slide the card through the different games, and it takes the amount off. Perfect!! Not like Chucky Cheese for instance, where you have to run around with your cups of tokens...This was so much better!

The photo booth didn't work...:(

Here, I finally got hold of Isabella! She had so much fun running around in the playhouse, that she refused to listen and we wanted to move up to the Arcade to join Cassie and Sina. When we were there, the horse was the first thing Isabella wanted to ride, and of course, it didn't work. Isabella says still today, "horse don't work"...when we are talking about it. Hopefully next time, it will be fixed.

After finishing up the games the girls wanted to do, we all went outside so they could do the Bumper Boats again - and this time with permission to get wet!

Golf Buddies

Every morning when our visitors were here, and we were back at home in Yuma, these two got out of the house early to go for a round or two of golf. Early morning, before the sun get too hot. But the question is, with over 110F/42C isn't that just too hot? Well, a little heat didn't stop these two, and around lunchtime they came back tired and "complaining" about missed shots, how well they played in the beginning until this or that happened....:) Haha, excuses excuses! Still, they had a great time and I'm sure there will be more golf played during future visits.

Friday

Every Friday I see all the comments on Facebook. TGIF, Finally weekend...the endless comments about what everyone makes for special dishes for their families, what snacks they are going to eat and how nice it is to wind down with a glass of wine or beer in front of the TV....

No, I'm not at all ironic or at all sarcastic. Or - maybe a little? It's a normal thing to do, I guess. To long for the two day weekend to come along. To enjoy to the fullest when a week is over. When you work, that is. When you work outside the house, that is. When you have at least a husband that works Monday-Friday and is home all weekends. THEN, I guess you would be able to have some kind of normality and some kind of "weekend feeling". THEN you could start some kind of tradition with special food or special snacks I guess.

I have none. Haven't had a special weekend feeling for the longest time. We don't eat anything special on Friday nights, don't watch anything special on Friday nights, don't brake open a bottle of wine or drink beer on a Friday night. Boooooring! Normality for us. For me.

For me everyday is the same. I'm at work everyday 24/7. The picture above says it all - I'm a mom! :)

Bye Bye Grandma

Thursday, last week, we had to say good bye to Grandma as we took her to San Diego Airport again. It was sad to say good bye, but we  hope to see her soon again. Maybe she'll be coming to visit us in winter when it's not so hot here. We'll see.

After dropping her off at the airport around noon, we drove home to Yuma to be back early afternoon plus if fitted our nap schedule for the kids good. Gabrielle, Nico and Sina stayed in San Diego for the day and came to join us at home later that evening. Cassie worked like mad the whole evening on another book report plus a creative presentation that she had to present the next day in school. It felt like she was rushing it, and I told her that she shouldn't be upset in case she would have missed something or in case her presentation wasn't the most creative one there.

The students could choose from making a poster or a power point presentation, and being gone for a couple of days in San Diego, there was absolutely no way she would have time to finish up a power point presentation that evening, so a poster had to do the work this time. BUT, no need to be worried, she did an excellent job as always and we found out today that she received 70/70 on the book report and 30/30 on the presentation so 100% it is!!! Way to go Cassie!!

 Cassie on her way to school the next morning,

with her finished report in her backpack and her presentation poster in her hand.

Here are the final pictures from San Diego. Just minutes before we said our Good byes at the airport. I was able to gather grandma and the kids in some pictures and what I also wanted, to get one nice one with Christof and his mom together. I did. See below.

 Grandma with her youngest grand children. 

The two oldest ones of Gabrielle's children are missing, Melanie and Alexander.

Cassie & Grandma

 Chris with his mother Loretta

Last Dinner & Family Pictures

After the beach, we all cleaned up to go for a nice dinner together. The last one. For how long? For all of us together, most likely at least a year until next time when Chris's sister and family are coming to visit again. As it's not everyday we get together, it's even more important to document the visit and get some nice family pictures taken. Right?

So here we go, a couple of the pictures I took outside the restaurant in the evening. As said before, not easy to get both the little ones to look into the camera at the same time, so due to that, more pictures are taken to make sure that you get at least one or two where they show their pretty faces.

Inside the restaurant, the little ones had a hard time to sit still. It was way past their dinnertime, so they were both hungry and cranky and out of their comfort zone. The restaurant wasn't that child friendly as you would need, but more of a dark bar/restaurant. Very cosy, very nice set tables with lit candles and "real" cloth napkins (yes here in the US, you get paper napkins even in some considered good restaurants). Nice, but more of a romantic setting with drinks, an expensive bottle of wine for two type of setting. Not for kids. With no fast service for little ones. We always order the kids meals first so it should come in just in time for us to order our meals. Gives the kids their food fast, plus we get a chance to read the menu. When we wait for our food to arrive, we have both hands free to help the kids with their meals. Normally this works out just great for us. Normally that is.

The kids were acting up, being hungry, tired after a long afternoon at the beach, being in an unfamiliar setting with people that they are not totally warmed up to yet, made it hard for them to relax and just "behave". This wasn't the restaurant that you could easily walk around a little in or look at fishes in an aquarium for instance...no nothing at all like that. I had lots of little toys, crayons and paper and other little fun things to occupy them, but one can only do so much.

When their food finally came, they were not having it at all. I made the decision there very fast that this is not going to work out and be an enjoyable evening for us if we stay, so I asked Chris to help me back to the hotel with the little ones so I could take care of them there and feed them and put them to bed. We got their food and my salad in a box and left. Luckily the restaurant was just up the road from the hotel, so Chris was back pretty soon after dropping me and the little ones off at the hotel.

This way the rest of the family were able to sit down longer and really enjoy dinner and a conversation that they wouldn't have been able to otherwise. The kids were happy to play and eat in the hotel room so a win-win situation for all.

Good that I only had ordered a salad, didn't matter if I took it with me in a box. No meat that got cold or anything at least! The kids had some more nibbles of their french fries and hamburgers before they were happy to get into bed with their milk bottles.

Pacific Ocean Waves

The Pacific Ocean. It was wonderful to see you again. If you have lived close to water and always enjoyed water, it's very hard to getting used to not having a lake or the sea close. Here in Yuma, in the desert we don't have the beach within reach. To be more exact, we are three hours driving away from the beaches in San Diego. Not something that you drive over a day, but still we have tried to go a couple of times over the time we've been here in Yuma. Growing up on the east coast of Sweden, we had very close to the beach and some swimming. The beach of course was nothing special, but we had some bays that were very nice with sand and were I spend many summer days as a child.

During the years in Switzerland, I didn't live close to the sea of course, no beaches in sight, but there were lakes and there were so much else that made up for the lack of "real" beaches. Besides, I normally went back to Sweden during the summer time, where I had my share of swimming and enjoyment of the beaches.

During my years in Germany, it was the same thing. Not much sea around, I lived far from the coast in Germany, but I lived very close to a lake, and the walks and picnics around there, were nice. Not so much for swimming though, even if people did, it was a dark lake, with muddy, stone/gravel filled entries, not so much my kind of taste...I like the smooth sand under my bare feet when I enter the water, not some skin cutting gravel or mud that seem to suck you down..So no, I never went swimming there. I got the total reassurance not to go swimming there, after walking by when they pulled up a man that had drowned not far from where I stood. He had been in water for a few days, no need to go more into detail there..

During our years in North Carolina, we enjoyed the other side of the United States. The other ocean. The Atlantic. Wonderful wonderful wonderful beaches. I enjoyed them so much. The water in the Atlantic are also so much warmer than in the Pacific Ocean, so the swimming and playing around in the water was very much enjoyable! We went many times to the beach and I enjoyed all of them. The only thing that wasn't that enjoyable or even sometimes a bit bothersome, was that it was very windy on the NC beaches. Very much so. So much that you got sand in your eyes. That you almost didn't hear the other person call you when you were just a couple of feet away in the water. It was always loud. The wind was loud. The waves were loud. No soft little waves gently rolling in, no the waves came roaring in full force and very loud!

I have never been to the beaches in the beautiful vacation spots, such as Thailand, Bahamas, The Maldives for example, but I'm sure that I would love them all!! One day, I dream. One day, I'll be vacationing on one of those beaches!

Therefore, I must say that I love the Pacific Ocean. I love the California beaches. I knew that I would even before I went there. I knew that I would! And I wasn't mistaken. The soft smooth sandy beaches, that gently caresses  your feet while walking towards the water. The sand that makes children feet happy. No shoes needed, only in the driest spots were it can get too hot in the sand, but the wet sand is just perfect to run around in. Hardly even any seashells that could feel sharp under your feet. Nothing but sand here. Wonderful!!

Since Benjamin & Isabella had a bit of a cold and we didn't want them to be in the cold water too long, I was busy with them up in the dry sand, and therefore not being able to play around too much in the cold water. Yes, the only downside with the Pacific Ocean ofcourse is that it's cold water..BUT, as it's warm and very hot on some days on land, it's nice to cool off in the water too.

Cassie and Sina enjoyed the waves to the fullest this day. They were jumping, waiting for the next one, getting ready for the next jump and the next big wave. They had a wonderful time and even if the waves were a bit strong this day and even quite high, they were responsible and stayed within the distance we had told them to stay. We of course had our eyes on them at all times, because as you can see, some of the waves were pretty powerful!