I'm just missing my little pumpkin.  She left today on her scooter and I watched her from the backyard, I really love living this close to the school.  Emma is turning six next month and I just love to see my little baby grow and learn new things every day.  I LOVE YOU EMMA!   See you in 6 hours...   :)

Going to the theater with Pedrito...Strike one!

So here is what happened; my husband decided to take the kids to the theater to watch "Rango".  I was going to stay home with Pedrito.  Then my husband says - "I think we should all go and see if Pedrito behaves.  Don't you think we should give it a try?  Besides, if he starts getting restless I'll take him outside and stay with him"  So there we are, all nervous about it, and he's doing good.  about 30 min. before the movie ends, he decides he wants to go to the restroom and Angie graciously offers to take him.  The movie ends and they never came back, so here I am thinking that maybe after he was done they stayed in the back row.  But they are nowhere in sight.  I go to the restroom.  Nothing.  We finally go outside and there he is smiling and playing on top of this big, cement turtle...Angie is sitting on the side...face cold and serious...tears about to roll down her cheeks...  She comes to me in a menacing attitude and tells me - "He DID NOT want to pee!  He just started to run around the lobby so I had to chase him and he REFUSED to go back to watch the rest of the movie.  SOOOO I had to come outside and now I missed the movie.   I felt sooooo bad for Angie, then I felt mad at my husband for insisting we come together, then for not fulfilling his promise.  I promised Angie we would come again and we will watch any movie she wants.

After that, Mesa Frozen Yogurt seemed to heal the wound in my sweet daughter's heart.   That and a free hour on Facebook seemed to do the trick, but one thing is for sure,  I am NOT "giving it a try" for at least 6 more months >: /
                                                                               

Isn't it time for a new photo?

Yes, it's been almost a year since we took this picture. I know my kids have grown, Emma is missing two teeth, and we just need a beautiful, professional family portrait that we can cherish for one more year. I'll call you soon Jenny!

Family Vacations Part II - Sacramento

We spent about a week in Sacramento visiting family we had not seen for the last four years. We had a good time and visited some of our favorite places.

This is one of our favorites, Old Sacramento. It still has that old west feeling and I think all the buildings are original though some have been renovated. This place is right in front the Sacramento River and still has that old railroad running along.

Emma having a good time on the carousel.


Pedro proving how good he is at shooting.

Visiting our compadre Shwartzeneger (spelling is right?) in the Capitol.

One of my most favorite places for a good homemade ice cream! It's a classic.

While there, Pedrito turned 2 years old. So we had cake and ice cream with the family.

Doesn't he look happy?

The next day, it was Laura's birthday!

This is Marisol, my sister-in-law, showing off her brand new, first grandchild.

Here is Laura, her husband Marco Antonio, and Alex and Alexa, my daughter's twin...I mean, cousin :)

This Erika, my husband's niece and her baby.

My sister in law Rosa and her son, Daniel. Sitting on the back of their house.

The Delta King Hotel and Restaurant, right on the Sacramento River.

The Aviles clan. Aren't they lovely? I especially love the one with the beard and the red shirt. He is the reason I have all those beautiful kids ;

Family Vacations Part I - Las Vegas

I know, it's been about a month since we went on vacation and I'm just barely posting about it, I will try my best to do it more often. We got to Vegas on a Saturday and found our hotel (El Cortez) and got ready to go on a long walk around the casinos...

You can see Pedrito approved of the hotel beds and was HAPPY!

My husband couldn't pass up the opportunity to browse around the Coca Cola store :)

I still think it's amazing how flashy and creative the casinos are.

Sorry, out of order. This was on Sunday after we went to church, we wanted to see the Vegas Temple. I thought it was beautifully located with the mountain on the background, too bad it was closed and we couldn't walk around its grounds.



Waiting for the show on Treasure Island to start. Too bad I didn't know it would be quite different since the last time we had been there, about 8 years ago. Too many "sirens" dancing and dressed in less than modest outfits. It definitely wasn't something for the kids. :(

Yeah, you can see the excitement in my kids' faces. I guess we must be doing a good job on teaching them about standing in holy places. They pretty much hated Las Vegas and questioned why I would think of taking my family there with so many worldly things all around us.

Pedro standing next to the Eiffel Tower...Some day we'll go to the real one. :)

Anyway, after so much whinning on Saturday, we got back into the Spirit on Sunday after attending church and remembering we can stand in holy places anywhere...Yes, even in Vegas.

Judgement Day is Coming!

While on vacation in Sacramento, California, we saw this truck on the freeway. Interesting...! I guess "Eternity Trucking" must have good connections with a higher power since they have solved the mistery that all wicked people are afraid of.....Judgement Day!!! And now they/we know...May 21, 2011. Hey! Wait a minute, wasn't suppossed to be 2012? I guess we'll see who nailed it, Eternity Trucking... or the Mayans...

Pueblo Grande Museum

On Friday we decided to go to the Mesa Main Library, one of my favorite places, and just get some nice, interesting books. When we got there, we saw this board about Culture Passes and so I asked about it at the Front Desk. She explained to me about this wonderful program where you can get either 2 or 4 FREE passes for any of the participating places (Mesa Natural History Museum, Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix Children's Museum, The Bead Museum, Pueblo Grande Museum, The Science Center, Arizona Youth Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Mesa Arts Contemporary Art Galleries, Heard Museum, and a couple more... So we Happily got our free tickets and off we went to Pueblo Grande Museum. It's right in the middle of Phoenix and a little bit hard to get to (I got lost for about 20 min.), but to me it was well worth it (Hey! It was free!). We had a great time reading about the Hohokams and all the wonderful things they did to adapt to this desert environment, I mean, who would build miles and miles of canals to bring water to the desert using only a stick and some stones to remove all the dirt!! This people were truly AMAZING! Pedrito enjoyed the outdoor trail (3/4 miles) the most since he got to walk and push the stroller. We spent about two hours there and then headed back home. I love when you get to experience something new, learn a piece of history, and it wasn't even planned... :)



Friday was only 97 degrees but we were still sweating and VERY thirsty, can you tell my kids were ready to be in the shade again? :D

It's funny to see so much of the modern world around this little piece of history. Behind me you can see part of the ruins.

My four loves strolling along the trail

This is the inside of a pit house replica. It was so nice I told Erik to look carefully so he can, sometime, build one for our family :D

Erik and Angie having a little fun with the planes. Yes this museum is very close to the airport.