Upward Basketball

We are in the full basketball season over here.  We decided to do upward again this year since we had so much fun last year.  We are so excited that daddy gets to be the coach of both the kids teams this year! It has been so much fun.  Daddy has been teaching math at the Jr. College in the evenings for 7 years now and absolutely loved it but it made it so that he could not commit to any coaching and since that is something he really wanted to do we decided for him to take a semester off teaching and coach the kids teams.  The original plan was he was going to coach Aubrey's basketball and Carter's baseball.  As the season got closer we found out that Upward had a lot of coach's willing to coach Aubrey's age group and he would be the assistant coach on that team and they were in need of a head coach for Carter's age group so he jumped into that job on his team.  The upward organization has been wonderful and made it so the kids practises are back to back on Monday evenings and there are no time conflicts for games on Saturdays.  It has been great! Also on Aubrey's team we manged to get her good friends from church Molly, Eve, and Emily all on her team.  On Carter's team he was able to get his best bud from school, Cord and his friend from church Samuel on his team.  Aubrey is on the Commodores and Carter is on Storm.  We have already had so much fun and it's only the beginning. 

We live, sleep and eat basketball these days....

Couples Weekend Away

Lynn invited us to spend his birthday weekend 1/6-1/7 in Sacramento with him, Amy, the Chu's and us.  The Spain's are always so much fun planning little trips.  My family was willing to watch the kids for the weekend and we were excited to have some adult time. My dad came to Merced around lunch time to pick the kids up and then we all left for Sacramento at around 2.  We had a great drive all together laughing the entire way.  Once we got to Sacramento we went to Top Golf.  Both Spencer and I had only mini golfed up to this point so we were excited to try something new.  We had a lot of fun.  It did end up being the guys playing more and us girls on the couch in our little area under the heather talking.  We had some yummy appetizers and enjoyed hanging out. 

 After golfing we went Johnny Rockets for dinner and then to our hotel suite.  We had a great room that had 3 private rooms so we all had our space but were combined.  We had stayed at this place back when we went to my cousins wedding and really liked it.  There is indoor pool that we all jumped in and a spa that we got to relax in.  Then we came back to the room for cake and laughs all night long!

 Saturday we woke up and did some gym time.  Then we had a great breakfast at the hotel and then went to Ikea.  I always love that place! After Ikea the Chu's really wanted us to try "Pho" its a Vietnamese soup.  I was not impressed I thought it was pretty gross to be honest.  This is the boys trying liver:

 It had the weirdest things in it!

The Spain's had to be home by 4 to get their kids so we drove home and then dropped them and the Chu's off.  We could hardly believe that we could have another date night! The kids were going to be at my parents until Sunday.  So we dropped off our bags and unpacked in like 2 minutes (so much faster then traveling with kids) and headed out to the movies.  We saw Why him? it was hilarious!! After the movie went to mall and shopped and then had Sushi for dinner.  

 After dinner we came home and watched a marathon of Homeland and cuddled in bed.  It felt so strange being home alone with out the kids.  The next morning was really weird we didn't have to let Deuce out because he was up in Sonora too.  So we laid in bed watched another episode and listened to the rain it was such a treat.  After we finally rolled out of bed we went on a jog/walk together it was so nice.  Then we came home and got ready to get pick up our kiddos from my parents in Manteca.

They had a blast up in the mountains with Nana, Papa, Titi and Gaga.  The played games...

 Relaxed...

 Baked rainbow cupcakes that were so delicious!!!

 They also went to the arcade, out to eat and watched movies they were a couple happy campers when we picked them up in Manteca.  We were really excited to see them! We all had a Jamba Juice together and then did some party shopping at the party store.

 When we got home they were excited for the little gifts we picked out for them.

 It was a fun weekend for all!

Back to reality

After New Years day it really hits that the holidays are over.  So sad! But then it goes into organization, year goals and of course party planning for Aubrey.  Monday 1/2 we all had off so we stayed in our jammies and cleaned the house most of the day.  Also played a lot with the hamsters.

 Tuesday 1/3 came so fast and I was dreading taking the kids back to school! Monday night Aubrey's teacher called me with the flu I felt bad for her but excited that I got to work the first day back.  It was a bit chaos getting the kids back in line but for the most part we had fun.  We talked a lot about their winter breaks, we wrote thank you letters to family, we did the normal reading, history, language arts, math, we cut snow flakes and we even had time to do this fun art project I found the night before.  It was a fun day.

 On Wednesday that week Aubrey's best friend at school Daliyah's mom had an emergency appointment in LA and asked me to watch Daliyah over night Wednesday.  I was a little caught of guard because we don't know each other that well but she really seemed in a bind so I said okay.  The girls actually did really well going to bed early since it was a school night.

 And the next morning getting ready was also amazing!

 Deuce sun bathing....

 The kids were excited to have a beanie and scarf day at school.

New Years Day

New years day is Titi's birthday.  We love that we get to celebrate with her on her special day.  After church we headed to Modesto to meet up and all have dinner together at Red Lobster.  I wish I got a group picture but  we didn't.  I did get a few good ones of the beautiful birthday girl! The lighting was pretty dark and Laura doesn't like flash so some of the pictures have her eyes closed.

 Aubrey was so sweet and used some of her Christmas money to buy a best friend necklace for her and her titi! Too cute.

Happy Birthday Titi we love you!

Yosemite

We decided to do mini family vacation to Yosemite.  It was such a blast and a wonderful way to celebrate winter break.  We feel so blessed to have such fun kids that are easy to pack and go.  We hope to do lots more of these fun spur of the moment trips in this coming year!!

  We left Friday 12/30 in the morning.  We drove up the Mariposa way and stoped for the best burger in town at a place called Happy Burger! We found it on Yelp and it was amazing!  My mouth is still watering thinking about that burger and those curly fries and the amazing root beer float! All of it was so good!!! 

Then we made it to the park.  I forget how luck we are to have a National Park pretty much in our backyard.  Growing up in the bay area it was a good 4 hour drive so to think we can get there in less then 2 hours is amazing.  Seeing all the tourist and thinking about how far they have traveled makes me think I really take it for granted.  We were going to get a membership but found out that 4th graders and there families get in free for a whole year and since Aubrey will be in one in August (ahhhhhhh!) we decided to wait.  Our first hike was Yosemite falls.  The weather was perfect it was cold and wintery but not wet. 

 All the signs of not climbing didn't stop Carter of course! This boy is giving me lots of gray hairs!

After the falls we hiked around and looked for snow to play in.

 The kids were excited to ice skate in their shoes.

 I love that we can take Deuce on trips like this.  He is just the cutest!

 We found a great area to make snow angels 

 and to build snowman. 

 and daddy chased me around trying to put snow down my jacket until Deuce got too cold and he had to hold him.  It was the cutest photo opt!

The kids snowmans came out so cute!

We walked around and saw some others that people had built...

People take snowman making seriously! Some had hats and scarfs.  This one Carter found had a Christmas tree by it!

After our snow play we were ready for some hot chocolate so we went over to Half Dome Village to walk around and warm up.  It's crazy every background is gorgeous there!

 I love my snow bunny!

 After our hot chocolate we were ready to go check in to our cabin.  We got the cutest cabin ever.  It had a queen bed for Spencer and I and bunk beds for the kids.  It also had a bathroom and kitchen. 

After we got settled in we went and had pizza for dinner.  Then we stopped by the cutest market and stocked up on lots of treats and junk food. 

 That night we pigged out while we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the old one) and played games. 

The next morning (Saturday 12/31) we woke up in our cute cabin and got ready for the day.  On the agenda a nature exercise hike before the snow/rains started.

 The hike was about 3 miles and it was a lot of up hill.  The kids did really great.  through out the hike they had stop areas that had exercise equipment which was fun to do little challenges.

 We found a scary gold mine hole in the mountain at one point.  

 After our hike we went back and packed up.  We really loved this cabin so we will for sure come back.

 The place even had a petting zoo that the kids just loved!

 Once we got home we were all ready for a nap.  After our nap we decided to start putting all the Christmas decorations away.  That is always a big job! We all worked together and got everything down except the tree.  It was super rainy that night so we decided on a New Years Eve at home.  We had soup and grilled cheese for dinner and watched a movie together.  We stayed up until 9pm and watched the ball drop on You tube and had our traditional cream puffs and apple cider for dessert.

What a great way to spend the last few days of 2016!!! We have had a wonderful year.  There have been sad things and happy things happen this year! We are excited for 2017 and what it has in store for us!!