the return (*updated)

Okay. I have not fallen into a ditch and am not living under a rock. The kids were on Spring Break and we took some time off to spend with them. I'm actually also obsessively reading the complete Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I'm on 10! I know it's not exactly high brow literature, but I love this character and I am lost reading about her crazy antics and find myself giggling hysterically! It's awful, but I get like this every so often where I have the need to binge read. I remember as a child spending entire summers in my room reading the days away.

I'm also doing some last minute projects for Katey's shower this weekend up in St. Helena. We're leaving Thursday morning and am very excited. Feeling a little guilty but am really excited to get away from all the testosterone in this house and looking forward to hanging with some girls!

We've taken tons of pictures which I am slowly working through. I will be posting them soon, and by date so they will appear before this post. I am under the delusion that it would go a lot faster if I had a larger screen. Sigh. Am green with envy at Caroline's new computer screen. Want one! That and the new Photoshop please! Sigh.

*See below for new entries.

Griffith J. Griffith's Observatory

Over the holiday we got a chance to take the boys to the Griffith Observatory twice! The first time was in the evening and the second was in the morning. The best time to go to the actual observatory is at night and the cool thing is that it doesn't close until 10pm!


Once the sun sets people start lining up to view the night sky from the huge telescope housed ontop of the observatory. When the line starts to become agonizing they set up additional telescopes on the lawn in front of the building. This is where we got to see the most amazing planet of all, Saturn. I don't know why I was so shocked and amazed to actually see the rings around Saturn. It was like an urban legend that was confirmed to be true!


We roamed around the building checking out all the exhibits before grabbing a snack down at the cafe. Afterwards we went back in and looked at the exhibits again before wrapping up the night with the last showing of a film in the Leonard Nimoy Theatre. Wouldn't you know it? The film was about the history of the Observatory hosted by none other than Mr. Spock.

A few days later we decided to go back to see the show in the Planetarium, take a hike to the top of the park. I love to hike but some of the trails the boys were picking out were scaring the heck out of me and had me re-evaluating any future trips on the hiking trail with them! If you click on the slideshow here you will eventually see a shot of a pair of dogs on the side of the hill. One is trying to help the other down the steep slope. It was pretty amazing to see the one dog trying to herd the other to safety. I felt that dog's pain!

PS the Desert

Spent the entire day in the Palm Springs area yesterday. Kenny wanted to take the boys to the desert, visit the Salton Sea and climb rocks in Joshua Tree. We started early, but did not leave until about 8a got to Palm Springs by 11 and had brunch at Elmers.

Then it was onto the Salton Sea. It's a stunning spot, but I can also see why it doesn't make it onto many must see lists. You can see how beautiful it is, but what you can't detect is the faint putrid smell coming from the sea. After we'd had our fill, we drove back towards Palm Springs and Joshua Tree.


The next few hours were spent roaming the park picking out cool rocks to climb. The destination of the day was Skull Rock. The boys had so much fun traipsing over these big boulders.

We ended our long day at Ruby's Diner on the way out of Palm Springs. This one is located near the Morongo Casino Resort and the Outlet Mall. We totally lucked out because it was Kids Eat Free Night and the food was really yummy.

We got some nice shots of our day in the Desert.

and met some dinosaurs along the way!

boys on BIKES

We took the boys to the park to get some mileage on those bikes we got them earlier in the month. Kenny took the training wheels off Henry's bike and he did pretty well for first try. Actually Henry did so well in fact that by the end of the trip he was fully riding his two wheeler bike!

happy EASTER

We scrambled to get ready for a 9:30 church service. The idea was that Angele was going to come by to pick Henry up and we would have the option of staying home with Rhys. That was the idea. The execution was impossible since Rhys wanted to go where ever Henry was going. So in the end we traded cars with Angele (who has one car seat), thereby allowing for both boys along with Muni to get to church on time. Kenny and I followed about 10 minutes later.

When we got there we found the pew pretty quickly and noted that Hilary and John arrived. Henry was very well behaved, and Rhys held it together pretty well with the exception of his fidgeting. He kept wandering and twisting around in the pew often forcing me to pick him up to hold him still. I was getting really testy feeling all out of sorts convinced that everyone in the accompanying pews were getting very annoyed with his behavior. But by the sign of peace he just layed down the charm, beaming his 100 watt smile holding out his hand to everyone!


We all met back at our house to kill some time before heading back out to our annual Easter brunch at the Hilton in BH. We got the same private room we had last year and it was just such a treat to spend Easter with eveyone. The kids made out with killer baskets from Auntie and Grammie/Jammie and special treats from Muni. There was even an Easter egg hunt poolside! After stuffing ourselves we drove down the block to Century City to go see Horton Hears a Who. The next day Henry was salivating as he reminisced about the bacon we had at brunch.

Here's a set of Henry with this cute chick.

parties

We've been harrowingly busy lately. Rhys had a great time when Gabriel came over on Thursday for a playdate.


I threw together a simple lunch which included the boys and Heather as well as Nellie. I made chicken and tomato sandwiches on french baguettes accompanied by a cucumber and tomato salad with a side of mac and cheese in case the boys weren't thrilled with the other options. It was fun to get together with some old friends during the week.

Over the weekend Kenny and I dropped by to see Jen at Salon Amba for haircuts. It was pretty tense, especially for me since I really view trips to the salon as special private down time for me. We both got our haircut styled by Stephanie who was pretty sensational. He got his cut in between my session and while it was my turn he ran the kids around the nearby park. I didn't score so well when it came my turn, mainly on account of the fact that I had the smock and apron on with my hair up and saturated with color wash. Luckily it didn't take too long and in the end we both felt so fresh and renewed.


Later that night we met Muni, Angele, Hilary and John along with Uncle Andy and Aunt Margie for dinner in honor of Muni's birthday. Rhys feel asleep again on the way over to dinner so we let him sleep for a little in the car before Kenny carried him in and set him down on the couch in the bar area as we waited for our room. Once we got situated though, Rhys came back to life!

Afterwards we decided to take a stroll down the Thirds Street Promenade. We hadn't been there for ages and it was a bit strange noting all the new stores and slight changes on the existing stores and structures.

Sunday turned out to be a pretty full day an actual Birthday Bonanza. We first attended Gabriel's bday party getting there around half past noon. It was a fun party. Ariane and John were there along with Owen and Lindsay. Henry and Sofia hung out with the gaggle of kids present. We were treated to a bit of live music courtesy of Hugo and his friend, even Sofia surprised us by singing us a song!


We were able to stay a couple of hours before heading over to Ben's BBQ bday party.

Friendly Frog Makes a Visit

When I picked Henry up from school today he was super excited cause he got chosen to take Friendly Frog home for the night! This is apparently a very special treat reserved for the most deserving. Once you get Friendly Frog home you're supposed to concoct fun things to do with him (or her?) and then chronicle the adventures and perhaps include a photo or drawing in the journal that comes with the frog.

tiny Reunion

The other night Caroline, Yun, Nellie and I got together for dinner. It was a fun girls night out made super special since we hadn't all been together in a long long long long long while.

m.i.a.

I've been busy. I've been busy working on Katey's Bridal Shower invites. They finally went out last Friday, but that doesn't entirely explain my lack of posts. I've been tired and lazy. In short I've been playing hooky. (I actually found time for a book!)

Here's a quick recap the weeks events. Friday: Katey's invites were dropped off at the post office and that evening I dropped my parents off at the airport. They are currently on a cruise to the Caribbean. As a matter of fact today is their anniversary! 40th. F-O-R-T-Y! They're on the Love Boat (Princess Cruise) and are set to return Saturday night.

On Saturday we spent the entire day out of the house. The morning began with breakfast at IHOP. I would have preferred Coffee Co. but Henry loves IHOP why I'm not really certain considering he didn't touch much of his breakfast. I actually thought ahead and brought paper pads and color pencils to keep them occupied. This proved to be quiet the hit, so much so that we all ended up doodling!

As soon as breakfast was finished we decided to pay a visit ToysRUs. This ended up being a L-O-N-G visit. We were there for what seemed hours. Initially we stopped by to get some puzzles and somehow we switched gears and were looking at bikes for the boys. They tested a bunch of models before settling on matching yellow bikes with helmets for the each of them. They rode around the aisle again and again so excited to be taking one home.


Afterwards we headed to the park to let them run wild and kick a ball around for a bit. Once we wore ourselves out we strolled over to the movies to catch an afternoon showing of Spiderwick.


At the theater we munched on popcorn and hot dogs. The movie really caught their imagination and had Henry begging to go home and Rhys kept turning his head away at the more suspenseful moments. At one point I caught Rhys with his hands together as if in prayer!

When the movie let out, lo and behold it was time to get on the road to meet up with the rest of the family for dinner to celebrate Uncle Patrick's 60th birthday! We were there in no time and the kids all ran crazily around the room having a great time. Once dinner was done we started for home, a bath and fell straight into bed.

The next day we just lazed around the house doing various chores. I eventually dragged myself out the door with Henry to get him new school shoes. That evening we met Muni, Angele, Hilary, John, Alston, Nancy, Charlene and Michele for dinner at Casa Escobar. Nancy kept the boys entertained with PSPs, one for the each of them! They were entranced!


Earlier this week my friend Dena dropped by and I finally got my first chance to meet the adorable Brady! This is terribly embarrassing because Brady is now 6 months old and they don't live more than 5 minutes away!

Rhys jumped from the steps and missed! He fell hitting his left eyebrow leaving an ugly bruise! Luckily it there wasn't too much blood and he did not suffer a concussion! Yesterday while driving I caught him singing the ABC song! It was so cute!


I mentioned in a previous post that my cousin Victoria would be featured in the upcoming 'Seventeen'. Well its on the new stands now!


Way to go Victoria.

Lastly I want to point everyone in the direction of 'What's...Aahh...Happening?' which can be found at benshappenings.blogspot.com My brother Ben has started a blog of his own!