2013 Tour of California: Day's 1,2,3 &4

The title say's it all... we really did tour California, central, northern and southern. We left on Thursday, May 23rd- and got back on Sunday, June 9th... 18 days full of fun! (This will probably take me a few days to write up everything... keep checking back! :))

Thursday, May 23rd- The kids and I had a goal to leave by 6am... we got on the road by 6:35 which I think was a great accomplishment since I had been up till 1am the night before finishing our packing... without Rich there to prod kids out of bed (and realistically- to prod me out of bed), it was hard to wake up and get going- so the 30 minutes behind schedule was almost miraculous! :)

With just the kids and I in the car it goes pretty smoothly. Alex get's the whole back row to himself and has plenty of space to spread out. Ashley get's to be the food boss up front and pass out snacks to everyone, and Alyssa and Angela get to hang out in the middle and control the movies. We were able to make it to Gilbert Arizona by 6:30 their time.

Friday, May 24th- We took advantage of the great hospitality of Rich's brother Dave and wife Amanda and two kiddo's. We played in the pool, talked, watched tv, played wii, played with Amanda's nieces and nephews that are similar ages to our kids... we just had a fun time hanging out and spending the day with them.

Saturday, May 25th- The kids and I loaded the car back up, and we headed to California. Rich had been at a conference in L.A. that week and we were going to pick him up at the rental car return of one of the airports. I happily slid over to the passengers seat and gave the wheel to Rich for the rest of the drive.

Sunday, May 26th- We visited Sequoyah National Forest and Kings National Forest. To say the Giant Sequoyah's are big is an understatement. It was amazing to walk among the tree's and see them.

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House projects

After a few weeks of Rich working from home, we decided that we needed to do some moving around of stuff in the house. The exercise equipment needed to be taken out of the office, and we made the decision to dismantle Alex's room since it's downstairs and that would become the new exercise room. His stuff got packed up, and the room was painted and the treadmill was put into that room (which was a feat of it's own! It won't come out of that room until we move away, and maybe not even then! lol! The office got a coat of paint as well and two of the bathrooms. Now the entire house (except for closets) has been painted since we had moved in 3 years before. But then the biggest house project was thought of, and debated and decided on. We had always said that we would like to redo the kitchen in this house, and decided to tackle the project. We found cabinets online we liked and worked with a company to decide on our cabinet layout, and we ordered them....

2013 Tour of California: days 12, 13- Six Flags Magic Mountain, Hollywood

Sunday, June 2nd. After church in Santa Rosa, we made our way south to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Monday, June 3rd. Ashley had been waiting forever to go to this amusement park. She is the thrill ride queen and can't ever get enough of the fast crazy rides. Rich's brother Dave and his family (who the kids and I stayed with on the drive out) drove out from Arizona and joined us as he and Amanda are thrill ride junkies too. :) We had a great time- so good that I didnt take very many pictures, but we spent two and a half days at Magic Mountain and had fun the whole time. Tuesday, June 4th. After spending a few more hours at Magic Mountain, we drove down to Hollywood. We stopped and walked along the walk of fame and found the stars and handprints of famous actors we like. Most of those pictures are on Ashley's phone, so I'll have to add them later. :) That evening we checked into our home for the next four nights- Disney's Grand California H...

Our Dog Tale...

So... we have spent the last three weeks looking at puppies online, finding one that would be great for our family. We found an adorable little 4 month old black lab from a lab rescue in Tulsa, about an hour and a half drive away. We contacted them, and filled out the adoption application paperwork. Sent pictures of our fenced back yard, and got approved to adopt her. The lab rescue had named her Regina, for their records mainly- they generally called her puppy and girld so that she would easily adapt to a new name. We bought a large crate (she would get big!) and food bowls and a collar, leash and tag for her and on Saturday we drove to Tulsa to pick her up. The lab rescue was doing an adoption fair, so they had all the dogs they were trying to adopt out at a Petsmart and we meet them there. We got there around 1pm. As I was walking over there were a few people asking about a cute little puppy, and I overheard that it was Regina, and she was being adopted... I then said that I was Jul...

THE NEWTON'S

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