October Update

Things got really busy after we came back from Kansas City. Didn't even get to blog our last day! Oh well. Pretty much we just ate at Cracker Barrel, shopped for a second in Zona Rosa, ate lunch at the airport (Tequileria - yummy margarita), then flew for the rest of the day (1 stop @ LAX) until we got home at 8pm. So that's that. Flying back was much less exciting than the rest of the trip. ;-)


Now, onto the second half of the month! We were quite fortunate that Drew's parents were called on by the marriage healing program they volunteer for (Retrouvaille) to come to CA for a few weeks to help with some training. So they came out about one week after we returned home. Yay! This was much cause for both celebration and activity planning! Dionne and Vito invited the family to go on a trip together up to Apple Hill. We were blessed with a beautiful day together. The weather was just right, and we managed to luck out with parking and patience even through the heavy crowds. A majority of the Sacramento fams was there.



APPLE HILL

Family Pic: Maria, Vavo, Jocelyn, Vito & Dionne, Vavu, Heath & Angie, Gina & Alyssa, and Aiden and Jeremy in the front

Aiden liked moving pumpkins around. He especially loved picking up large ones.

Vavu pretending to throw Aiden's pumpkin down a hill (Aiden thought stopping him was hilarious)

Apple Doughnuts courtesy of Vito (thanks, Vito!)

Jeremy and Aiden with their pumpkins

Aiden and Jeremy sitting on a HUGE pumpkin

Boo!

Angie and Heath with the traveling bear

Aiden on the pony ride (look, ma - no hands!)

Alyssa on the pony ride (look ma, I'm a pretty pony princess!)

Jeremy on the pony ride (cheese!)


The kids made their own "creatures" at the fudge shop. They "glued" candy onto marshmallow "bodies" with chocolate to assemble their creations.

Alyssa making her creature

Vito helping Jeremy make his creature


Aiden concentrating highly on his creature

Jocelyn joined in the creature fun! Her method was to pile as much candy as possible on top of the marshmallows.

Apple Hill was great. We were so glad we went and were able to spend time together.

Last week, Aiden had his very first school pictures taken! He wasn't too sure about it at first, and told us that he didn't want to do it. We had a little practice session at home that got him excited for it, tho. We got the proofs back and ordered a small package of photos. Can't wait to see them! For now, here are some pics from our "practice" session at home. Of course, Jeremy wanted to practice, too!

PRACTICE SCHOOL PICS

Over this past weekend, we went shopping with Angie for her wedding dress. We being Mom Pascoal, Erica (maid of honor), Dionne, Gina, Maria and Alyssa. Of course it wouldn't be right to SHOW the dress (duh), but here's some evidence of our success:

ANGIE'S DRESS

Success, thy name is Angie

High Fives all around!

We celebrated Halloween with a party at the Mason's, dressed as a pirate family. We spent the evening there, eating dinner and playing games. The kids had a really good time running around with all the other children. They have boundless energy, it seems! Vavu made a special costume just for Jake: fru-fru (sp?) coffee!

HALLOWEEN PARTY

Pirate Aiden

Pirate Jeremy

Mr. Clean (Vito) and Dionne

Pirate Family

Alyssa the Butterfly

Wilma and Fred (aka Laura and Jake)

We closed out this last weekend with a visit to San Andreas to see Grandma and Grandpa. Drew wanted to get some yard work done, so we decided to get out of his hair and go for a little ride. It was nice to just go up for a visit and no special reason. We visited a park where Maria used to go to Girl Scout Day Camp back in the day. The park is in the town of Angels Camp. There's a much more sophisticated playground there than there used to be! And the boys sure did take advantage of it!

The boys swinging with Grandma

Rural, thy name is San Andreas

Whew! I wasn't kidding when I said a lot happened. Note to self: blog one time per event, and don't let them store up til the end of the month. It makes for a long entry. Next up...H a l l o w e e n !

Lion King in Kansas City

This morning we got up to pack for our drive back to Kansas City. It was sad to leave. But we got good news that Vavo and Vavu will be traveling to Sacramento next week to stay for a couple of weeks for Retrovaille! So we’re happy that we will be able to see them again soon.

Vavu made us some breakfast, then we left, saying goodbye to Vavo, Vavu and Uncle Howie. The drive to Kansas City is about 3.5 hours. We only stopped once, for lunch at Subway. So we made good time. We checked in at the Radisson then headed upstairs to take a nap. Next thing we knew, it was time to head out for dinner, then to the Music Hall to see Disney’s The Lion King!

We were all very excited as we drove through downtown Kansas City – seeing the signs for the show and the large convention center area where the Music Hall resides. We went inside and headed straight for the souvenir stand – where we purchased the soundtrack (gotta love reliving all the Disney experiences at home through music), some coloring pages and a magnet. We took our playbills and went to our seats. We were sitting in the orchestra level, so we had a great view. And even more fortunate was that each of the boys were seated behind another child, so they could see well, too.

The boys were well behaved throughout the show. They were quite interested in what was going on. The would ask us questions periodically. Sometimes the music was so loud that we were able to answer them straightaway. Other times, they had to hold on until later. Jeremy kept asking why Scar fell off the cliff at the end. Aiden wanted to know if he could practice his roar. He showed off this roar to Maria and Andrew, as well as some of the employees that help with the crowd control and seating. They thought he was cute. :-)

It was nice that we were able to sit and enjoy the show because the kids were paying so much attention. It was beautiful both in sound and sight. The music was moving, and the costumes were very creative and elaborate. They were artistic renditions of the animals, and you could actually see the actors manipulating the characters almost like living marionettes. It was really cool to both see the facial expressions of the actors as well as the overall look of the animal they were portraying. Especially impressive were Scar and Mufasa, as their masks stood up above their heads, but were able to drop down for emphasis or when they got on all fours.

We left the hall around 11pm. The boys were tired, but happy. Aiden said he liked the show more than the movie. That was pretty impressive, as usually a cartoon wins out over live action for the boys at this age. When we got back to the hotel, Aiden asked to hear the music we bought. So we played it for them on the laptop while they got ready for bed. And they were singing along!

Speaking of singing along...one little anecdote to add before signing off. And this isn’t a very flattering tale to tell, but it’s funny...so here it is. We were listening to the iPod on the drive back to the hotel, and “Hand in My Pocket” by Alanis Morissette came on. Aiden really likes that song for some reason. He piped up, “that’s the hand in my pocket song”! As he was listening, when she said, “I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other one’s giving a peace sign”, he asked what a peace sign was. We showed him and then he knew what it was. Then later in the song, there’s one bad word that usually the boys don’t seem to notice. She sings, “I’m brave but I’m chicken sh*t.” Well this time, Aiden picked up what she said. He started laughing, and told us, “hahaha...she said chicken sh*t.” Oops. He even repeated it one more time. Guess stuff doesn’t slip by them as easily anymore. Hopefully he won’t think about it again. The boys really think the word chicken is funny for some reason, so anything with the word chicken stands out for them. If Jeremy doesn’t know what to say, he’ll just say, “chicken!” As in, “Jeremy, what time is it”? Jeremy responds: “It’s chicken!” Or he’ll tack it on to the end of a statement like, “No thank you... chicken!” :-)

Jeremy on the drive from Arkansas to Kansas City

Aiden on the drive from Arkansas to Kansas City

On the road again!

Driving over the Missouri River into downtown KC

We weren't allowed to take photos during the production. But after, we asked someone to take our pic in front of the stage. It didn't turn out to be very useful, as it's blurry and you cannot see the stage. Oh well. We know what it was!

Aiden working on his ROAR!

Maria's Birthday

Maria woke up this morning to a beautiful breakfast prepared by Vavo and Vavu. The table was set, there were pastires, fruit, longanisa, and a fritatta that Vavu made. We enjoyed a nice meal together with Uncle Howie then got ready for the day. Vavo and Vavu offered to stay with the boys so that Maria and Andrew could go out shopping.

Maria decided that she wanted to go to Sephora (makeup store) today to claim her free birthday gift. They gave her a free tote and Vanilla Birthday Cupcake shower and bath bubbles. She broke her no-makeup-purchases ban for her birthday and bought Too Faced Starry-Eyed Liquid Eyeliner in Mad Mad Love (pink glitter). It was really hard to just buy one thing! They had the Bare Escentuals Mineral Veil on the Go that she had been wanting, and the new Extreme Glimmers eyeshadow collection, too! Oh well. We’ll live without those. But pink glitter eyeliner – now that’s something special. :-)

Then we did some more window shopping in Pinnacle Hills Promenade. There are some really nice stores there. Next, Maria wanted to go revisit Hobby Lobby. She spent a long time in there, looking at every single little thing! After a short jaunt to Target in Fayetteville, we headed back to Rogers for dinner at Maria’s Mexican Restaurant.

Vavo, Vavu and Uncle Howie met us there with Aiden and Jeremy. David, Stephanie and Madison were able to join us too. The boys had made Maria happy birthday cards. The Summits gave Maria a Starbucks giftcard. They sure know what she likes! Vavo and Vavu surprised Maria with something very special. Two tickets to go see the touring production of Disney’s the Lion King at the Kansas City Music Hall tomorrow. What a wonderful surprise! Andrew then surprised Maria with two more tickets – so we can take the kids with us. :-) We’re really looking forward to it.

So tomorrow morning we head out for our drive back to Kansas City. We will spend the night after the show, then depart on Saturday. It was a great birthday today, with more fun to come tomorrow!

Visiting the Summit and Fitch Families

Today got off to a slow start. Aiden made the waffles for breakfast this morning with Vavu, so he had fun with that. He stirred the batter and watched the waffle maker to see when the light indicated the waffles were done. Vavu said it was nice because he was able to load the dishwasher while Aiden watched the waffles. And they came out perfect! Vavu also said that when they were done making and eating the waffles, he told Aiden that he could get down to go play. But Aiden’s response was, “No, I’d like to sit here and visit with you.” So they sat and had a conversation together. Vavu thought that was really special that Aiden would want to do that. Maria thought it was pretty neat, too.

In the afternoon, Uncle Howie took the boys outside to play on the neighbor’s play structure. The neighbors have twins that are 4 years old and volunteered the play structure for our use during our stay. It was a great time for the boys. Too bad the neighbor kids aren’t home during the day. Both of the parents work, so most days, none of them are home.

Then we headed over to the Summit’s house for a visit. They installed nice new floors in the living room. It looked so good! The boys played with Madison while the adults sat outside on the screened in patio. It’s so nice to have a screened in deck area here, because there are lots of bugs, and they are big! What do they feed these bugs in the midwest? They must be eating all the fried chicken (there’s lots of fried chicken places around here)...

It was nice to sit with Steph and Dave and just hang out. It was a very nice relaxing afternoon. The weather was great. We just sat out there with no jackets – just perfect temperature. And the kids really entertained themselves inside. At one point, Jeremy came out dressed up like a princess. He informed us that he was beautiful. As we all were talking to him and checking out his outfit, Madison came out laughing. She said, “I did it!” It wasn’t much of a surprise, as we had pretty well already figured that out. They did have one incident toward the end, where Aiden came outside very upset. Madison had colored a tiny little mark on Jeremy’s arm, retalliating for Jeremy coloring on her paper. And Aiden got really protective of Jeremy, quite upset by the violation. So we washed Jeremy’s arm off and showed Aiden he was okay. Aiden said, “but I don’t like it when people do that to my favorite friend.” It was sweet. Later when we came inside, Madison had written a letter of apology and an explanation about her feelings. It was super cute. But then it was time to go, cuz Maddie had bible school and they had to take off to get her there on time.

In the evening, Vavu made meat pies with the leftover “Thanksgiving” turkey and chicken from the Monte Ne Chicken House. We invited over the Fitch family to see if they would like to join us. It was quite last minute, so we were very happy that some of them were able to come over and visit. First Uncle Chuck and Aunt Diana stopped by. We had a nice visit with them – sharing Maria’s blog book from the last trip and reminiscing. Later in the evening, Kevin and Angie came over with their 3 sons to visit. Their boys are so cute! Vavo offered them ice cream, and all the kids bonded over yummy treats before it was time for them to head home for bed.

Late that night, we decided to play the Bean Game. It was all the adults who were left – Uncle Howie, Vavo, Vavu, Andrew and Maria. It was a fun game. We started to wear out toward the end, as we grew tired. We were playing the game at the stroke of midnight, when it officially became Maria’s birthday! It was a nice way to start the day. :-) Vavu won the game, beating out Uncle Howie by 3 coins.

Now it’s time to head off to sleep. Tomorrow we’re going out to dinner for Maria’s birthday – she’s selected a local Mexican restaurant called Maria’s. hehehe.

(top row) Maria, Andrew, Joseph, Angie, Kevin

(shorties) Joshua, Aiden, Jacob, Jeremy

The Perfect Lazy Day

Our 7th day away from home was spent in quite a relaxed manner. Most of the morning was quite laid back. In the evening, the Summits and the Staffords came by to hang out and play games. They brought over Chinese food, and we played lots of fun stuff. One group played Ticket to Ride while another played Scattergories. Then we all got together to play Cranium.

Cranium is a hard game! It was the Summits vs Dan, Gina, and Uncle Howie, vs Vavo, Vavu, and Maria. Dave was able to hum the Superman theme with like 2 notes and his family guessed. Maria drew a toucan with her eyes closed. Dan sculpted a turtle and a ridge out of stinky clay. Steph said she stunk at cherades but was hecka good at it. Justin knew that the letter in “The Scarlet Letter” was “A” for adultery and not “P” for prostitute. heh heh. As you can tell, it was an evening of laughs. Oh, and we still didn’t know what a flying buttress was even tho we apparently played this game and drew the same card last year. Uncle Howie informed us that it’s those arch supporter thingies on cathedrals. Let’s see if we remember that when we play next year. ;-P

Thanksgiving Day (almost)

Today, Aiden went with Auntie Steph, Uncle David, Justin, Madison, Auntie Gina, Alyssa, Auntie Dionne, and Vito fishing. He was very grown-up about the whole thing. We warned him that he would have to get up very early. And he agreed. He got up this morning without complaining. We warned him that he would have to sit still and be quiet so he didn’t scare the fishies. He was fine with that. So off he went early in the morning with everyone. He even caught some fish! He said he had a really good time, and that Uncle David helped him a lot. He told Maria that he wants to practice fishing a lot so he can do it all by himself.

The fishing kids: Aiden (4), Madison (6), Alyssa (5)

Aiden with his fish :-)

Jeremy was a little sad that he wasn’t going. He isn’t exactly at the age where he can sit quietly and wait for the fish to bite. So he got to help Vavu cook breakfast after Aiden left. He helped Vavu make some pancakes. He really enjoyed that. He was really content this morning – just playing on his own – with any toy he wanted whenever he wanted. He got creative and made a duck fly an airplane. So we were happy he had a good time too.

Sous Chef Jeremy

After everyone came back, the cousins stayed and played at Vavo and Vavu’s house. Steph went back to her house to start the Thanksgiving ham, and Vavu started the turkey here.

The kiddos having fun before the rain started too bad

Aiden getting frozen custard in the rain. Can you tell he was excited? He was jumping...

When it was time for naps, Jeremy went to sleep and Maria took Aiden out for his special dessert all to himself. We went into Rogers and had Andy’s Frozen Custard. Frozen custard is a big thing back here. Maria kept seeing frozen custard places everywhere. So off we went, in the rain to get frozen custard. Aiden was sooo excited when we got there. They had many many combinations to choose from, but Aiden wanted a cone. So he bypassed all the mix-ins for a plain chocolate cone.

Next door was a big Hobby Lobby store. After being so good in Archivers (by not buying anything), Maria thought she could handle looking at the scrapbook stuff in Hobby Lobby, because she had never been in one before. WOW. That store was wonderful. Maria could barely contain herself. Ack! There was tons of scrapbook stuff and craft stuff. If only she had been a shopping spree winner...that would have been nice. But alas, it was not meant to be. The shopping spree would have to wait until another time.

We returned home and everyone was back at the house ready for “Thanksgiving dinner”. They were playing dominoes and pinochle...watching movies and visiting. Aiden went in to take a nap, and Maria went to catch up on the blog.

After the kids were done napping, it was playtime for them again. They really enjoyed spending time together this evening. They kept themselves entertained the whole night. They were running around – which did lead to a nasty bump on Madison’s cheek. So they moved on to hide and seek and play on the bed and air mattresses.

Thanksgiving dinner was awesome. We had turkey and ham and the traditional mashed potatoes, gravy and shay (Portuguese stuffing). We had corn on the cob, peas, and cranberry sauce, too! It really was like Thanksgiving. Vavu made a blueberry pie for dessert, and Vito made one of his famous cheesecakes. Today’s special was banana cheesecake. Yum! We played Ticket to Ride and Scattergories after supper. Then after a little more visiting, it was time for everyone to head out. Our numbers will be dwindling as we lose more of our crew tomorrow to the airport back to CA.



The rest of our time here is completely unscheduled. Ahhhh...relaxing! So we’re just going to see what we feel like doing tomorrow. What a luxury. The boys already want to try the scooters that the neighbor’s children were kind enough to lend to us to use. So if the rain lets up, we’ll probably be doing a bit of that.

Our [almost] Thanksgiving Day

And it's off to Arkansas we go...

Everyone decided to get together the morning after the wedding for Dim Sum in downtown Kansas City. Except of course Tim and Heather were in flight to Florida! Also, Angie and Heath had a very early flight, so we missed them, too. We went to Bo Ling’s Chinese Restaurant. It was really nice. They had all the different kinds of dim sum that are our favorites! We spent a long time there, visiting and eating. Then we all headed our separate ways. Peter and Nai had to leave to go to the airport. So Vavo and Vavu drove them with Luke to drop them off. The Summits headed back to Arkansas straight away, as well as the Staffords, and Dionne and Vito. We had to go back to the Zona Rosa area to return the tuxedos.

Dim Sum at Bo Ling's

When we exited the freeway to head to the tuxedo shop, we pulled up alongside a couple on a motorcycle. The boys were waving to them, and they were waving back. So we rolled down the windows to let the boys talk to them. The couple asked the boys if they would like to get on and go for a ride. And what happened next was so funny – Jeremy said, “But we don’t have our helmets!” The couple was hecka cracking up. It was really funny. It’s nice when you just have these random, friendly interactions with strangers. After dropping the tuxedos off, we began the drive to Arkansas.

The boys took a nap during the drive to Arkansas. The sun was too bright for Aiden, who put a shirt over his head.

We spent a lot of the day driving. Then in the evening, the family met up for dinner at Monte Ne’s Chicken House. It’s a locally known establishment out in the rural area of Rogers. We got lost on the way, but made it there okay in the end. Thank goodness Steph and Gina could come meet us back by the freeway and lead us there!




The dinner was good – homemade fried chicken, soup, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn, rolls with apple butter, and our choice of dessert. Aiden had a little mishap with a green bean that led to him losing most of his dinner, but he was okay. Mommy promised him his own special dessert the next day, since he couldn’t have one that night. We headed home to unwind and get some sleep. It had been a long day for everyone.





Tomorrow is our early Thanksgiving, as a large portion of the family will be here still, and we wanna have some time together before everyone leaves. See you tomorrow – on Thanksgiving!

Dinner at Monte Ne Chicken House