Circus and San Diego

As if we weren't having ENOUGH fun, Daddy who was traveling for work, arranged to stop in LA for a week to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary AND to try to help us get back to Spain, as we'd been calling for flights back for upward of 3 weeks and it wasn't looking good.

In the meanwhile, Ringling Bros. was in town and we saw a wonderful show!



We went to Moreno Valley to celebrate Ms. Casuandra's birthday with the Landry's and Aunt Thelma!



Then drove down to San Diego to Sea World where the girls got to pet a dolphin and we sat in the front row to see Shamu. Had it not been for our Soakers we would have had to SWIM out of the stadium...I am not exaggerating when I say there were GALLONS of water poured on us REPEATEDLY!!!
Hiding in the soaker...Rayna is NOT happy about the prospect of getting wet!


In the polar bear caves! Brrrrr :-)

And we stayed in the beautiful Marriott Marina hotel overlooking Coronado Island.


Happy 11th anniversary Honey!! View from our hotel room and our requisite "one-arm-shot" photo :-)

And my delay getting back to Spain worked out really well, as we were able to stay long enough to hang out with Mom and Dad a bit longer and all the way up to Dad's surgery before Johann drove the girls and I up the 5 to Travis AFB for the flight home. Our cousins, Baby Sister and Curtis hosted us for the weekend while we waited for the flight on Sunday morning. I have to say, our Heavenly Father worked everything out beautifully. And we all got back home safely, including Dad.

104 days of summer vacation...

While in LA, the girls fell in love with a new show called Phineas and Ferb...it's about these two genius boys who have adventures each day of the summer to keep from being bored, and their nosy sister Candace who is always trying to "out" them to their mom for, say, building a rocket, but never quite has the timing right.

Anyway...the title song goes:

There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it; So the annual problem of our generation is finding a good way to spend it.

LIKE MAYBE

Building a rocket
Or fighting a mummy
Or climbing up the Eiffel Tower
Discovering something that doesn't exist
Or giving a monkey a shower

Surfing tidal waves
Creating nanobots
Or Locating Frankenstein's brain (it's over here! )
Finding a dodo bird
Painting a continent
Or driving your sister INSANE!

As you can see there's a whole lot of stuff to do
Before school starts this fall
So stick with us cause Phineas and Ferb
Are gonna do it all!

OK...so...what does that have to do with US, you ask? Well, as we reflected on our own summer, we, a la Phineas and Ferb, definitely DID IT ALL...

Here's our version...

LIKE Maybe

Visit Ms Bridget, Ronni and Destiny,
Nyree and Payton too
Surfing some waves
at the Waters that Rage
and getting rid of that dang-ling TOOTH!

Taking Disneyland,
a Play and yummy food
Karate and a tea parTAY

Then Daddy came to town,
we saw the circus clown
and Sea World to visit Shamu

As you can see there's a whole lotta stuff we did before we came back to Spain,
So stick with us cause Reese and Ray are leavin' on a jet airplane!

(Visiting with the Ward girls!)

Raging Waters!!!


Debbie Allen's TWIST at the Pasadena Playhouse! Followed by dinner at PF Chang!



Fancy tea party at Granny's with Ms. Adrienne, Auntie Dawn, Lois and Paije!




Disneyland and California Adventure...where Reese lost not one, but TWO teeth!



One down...


"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" :-)

In Santa Monica at the Dojo with Sensei Cousin Linda! Best Karate classes EVER!!



Ut oh, Rayna! You better move fast or Cousin is going to swat those feet!!


...Summer tales to be continued...

Making up for lost time...

So the rest of the school year flew by in a flash...

R&R (and I) performed in the Spring Dance recital on base. The girls danced to "The Colors of the Wind" from Disney's Pocahontas...

And I danced to "Moon River" from Barbara Streisand from Breakfast at Tiffany's. The show was movie themed and had dances to The Pink Panther, Singin' in the Rain, etc. It was fabulously orchestrated by our favorite dance teacher ever, Ms. Joy who sadly (for us, not her) moved back to the states and is expecting a little girl (to join her two cutie pie boys).

After the recital, the girls finished up their school year and we hit summer HARD!! Swimming at the pool everyday after Daddy came home from work and just enjoying Spain for a few weeks all the while calling the air terminal each day for information on a trip to California.

We even got to see Miss America and Miss Teen USA at the NEX before we left.



And yes, leave we did...Lucky for us, there was a heliocopter that needed to get back to LAS VEGAS, so instead of having to fly to Travis AFB, (7 hours away from Granny and Grampy) we got to go to Vegas (3 1/2 hours away).

We went from Rota to Dover, Delaware - disembarked, checked through customs and quickly boarded back onto the plane to Vegas. This plane was a C-17 and so the passenger seats were "jump seats" along the side of the aircraft...and there was a HUGE heliocopter strapped to the middle of the plane...with a sign that said, "Gas in Tanks" in the window...this did NOT make me feel warm and fuzzy. To further my stress levels, once we got to cruising altitude, the crew encouraged everyone (there were 14 of us flying) to "get comfortable", ie. get out of your seats(belts), make a pallet on the floor and go to sleep...R&R did just that and were snoozing in seconds...I on the other hand was a little freaked out by all the possibilities for disaster and stayed wide awake watching to make sure that the helio didn't want to take a spin around the aircraft and that my children, happily snoozing underneath said helio didn't go flying around the plane if we hit some turbulence...which we didn't..but still.

We landed in Vegas and Granny was still in Los Angeles, so I called my cousin Tamaya who lives there and she picked up up and we had a ball catching up and letting the cousins meet for the first time (R&R and her three children, Ahzane, Lazaye, and Tommy). Mom got there around 8pm and after pizza for dinner, we got on the 15 south and headed to San Dimas!!!