We made it to California ...

We left Saturday morning on our way to California. We took the quickest route to San Diego so that had us traveling the Southern route to California - Hwy 20 from DFW to Arizona just outside of Tuscon a bit. Well since we are on the Southern route it takes us so close to the boarder of the US and Mexico. There were a ton of Border Patrol Check Points that we had to stop at - a very interesting thing to do since we are not used to it. At this particular stop I was driving and Dave took some pictures of the nice BP man :). We spent the first night in Las Cruces, NM. It was a nice town and nearby was a very old town named Mesilla and we ate dinner there at the La Posta Restaurant that has been open since 1939. You can see their website www.laposta-de-mesilla.com and they once served the likes of Billy the Kid (maybe it had a different name at that time not sure).
This morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel and then headed on our way - we had a few more border patrol stops - fun. We stopped in Tuscon for lunch. We passed through lots of deserts with temps reaching 115 degrees - OMG!! We stopped to take photos of all the huge rock mountains and Dave wanted to climb them. We are now in San Diego and it is such a pretty area. Kelsey and Landry both said they wanted to live here for at least a month but then get home to their friends. Tomorrow we will be at Legoland!!!

Jonas Brothers Concert June 20, 2009

Last night Kelsey and I went to the Jonas Brothers concert at the new Cowboys Stadium with Lori Andrews her daughter Ashley and her friend Hayley and had a blast! First let me tell you that the new stadium is HUGE and so unbelievable!!! There is the BIGGEST HD digital screen in the world hanging from the middle of the stadium and it really brings the action up close so I can image that seeing a game there will be awesome! The parking lot opened at 4 pm and the doors to the stadium opened at 5:30 pm so we were there on time ... got in line right away and stood in the HOT sun at the door, thank goodness Lori new we needed to bring water with us for our wait. As soon as we got in we went to the t shirt stand and the girls all got a shirt then it was off to find our seats. We were on the floor (very cool) and to get down there we walked down a long winding ramp - a car could have driven down this ramp it was big and wide. Fun!!! The opening acts were Honor Society and Jordan Sparks - they were both great!

These digital signs went all around the stadium - I am guessing that this is taking the place of the ring of honor but not totally sure.

If you follow my posting you know I have trouble getting the photos to stay in order as moving them over to the blog so please forgive this mix up once again. :)

So a big, huge surprise happened - during the encore the stage started coming back up and the lights came up and guess who was singing with the Jonas Brothers ???? Miley Cyrus!!! She has a new song with the Jonas Brothers that they wrote together on the new Jonas Brothers CD, called "Before the Storm". Kelsey loved it!!! As did all the other people in the audience because the screams were so LOUD! :)

Kelsey having a great time at the concert :)

Nick Jonas performing.

Joe Jonas and Nick Jonas.

Kevin Jonas

Before the concert at our seats ... left to right, Hayley, Ashley, Kelsey and Lori.

Summer fun has begun ...

Just this past weekend we had our first block party and had a great time. The kids worked really hard at soaking each other with water guns and water blasters -fun! Landry really got into it as you can see from the photos of him spraying down Kelsey. It was a water war between the boys and the girls. We grilled hot dogs and burgers and had a fun time visiting with each other and meeting some of the neighbors for the first time. The kids are ready for another one :).

Again I had trouble loading the photos in the proper order - what is wrong with me??? Anyway I am sure that is another topic for another time. Our talented neighbor Jody got out the flashlights and glow sticks along with her camera to make some fun photo art. The kids ran around in the dark with the flashlights and glow sticks as she took pictures - turned out really neat!

More water war photos ...... fun for the hot Texas weather (it will be near 100 all this week)

We went to the Rough Rider MVP day that was a special day between the Rough Riders Baseball team and Frisco ISD. Kelsey had gotten tickets to a game from her school and then we got to come back the weekend school got out for some fun at the park and some autographs.

Kelsey with one of the Rough Riders mascots - Daisy

Bungee Run - fun stuff ...

School's out for summer ....

The school year is done for 2008-2009 ... we now have a 6th grader and a 1st grader - WOW!!!! They both had a great last day. The 5th graders had an award ceremony and recorder concert at 8:30 am and the 4th grade choir also came along and sang to them. Kelsey received 2 medals for being commended on two of her TAKS tests - Reading and Science. Also they recognized the graduating 5th graders that have been at Shawnee Trail since Kindergarten and it was fun to see Kelsey join the others that have been there this entire time. Good kids! After their ceremony they went over to Strikz for bowling, pizza, and games. I had fun working at the party and seeing all the kids.
The Kindergartners had their party that morning as well so Dave and I split time between being inside at the award/recorder ceremony and being outside with Landry. He had fun too. Lots of games and all of his friends. He loved school and we loved his teacher this year. It was a great Kindergarten experience for Landry and he made some good friends. I wanted to share some of the photos from the day.

Landry and Ms Griffith. She is such a nice teacher and we are so lucky to of had Landry in her class.

Kelsey and her homeroom teacher Mrs Jahn. She was very supportive of Kelsey and encouraged her to do her best. Fun fact about Mrs Jahn - her first year to teach after she got out of school was in Carrollton Texas and one of her students was Melissa from The Bachelor/Dancing with the Stars - fun!

Dave taking some time to chat with Landry outside before the end of their party.

Landry and I with his good friend Welsey. They are two peas in a pod! They have LOTS of fun together and Wesley has taught Landry all about NASCAR :).

Trying out his surf skills for our trip to California :).

Kelsey playing her recorder at the 5th Grade Recorder Concert - she made it to the top level this year earning her black belt :). Way to go Kelsey!!!

All the graduating 5th graders that have been at Shawnee Trail since Kindergarten - do you see Kelsey? :) She is in the brown shirt - ha! They are all in their brown shirts. She is on the second row.

Kelsey listening for her name to be called.

Kelsey receiving her medals and taking her walk across the stage. Ahhhh look at my baby girl!!!

Birthday Parties and 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's Day at school

I am really not sure how this happens each time with the last photo moved to the top but it does!! I will make the best of it, will you? Good :). We celebrated Kelsey's 11th birthday with a sleep over with 5 friends. To start the evening off we went to dinner at Bucca di Beppo for some yummy Italian food. This was Kelsey and Landry's first visit (well really Kelsey had been there one other time when she was much younger - I think 3 or 4 we went with Rob, Megan, and Patrick). It is a fun place to go celebrate a special occasion. After dinner we came home and then Kelsey opened her gifts and she was very happy to receive gift cards - her favorite thing plus a really cute Webkinz. The girls then made some tie dye pillow cases - they turned out very cute and each one was different.

A pillow case race the next morning with the tie dye cases and yes Landry got to race too - he is a very fast pillow case racer :).

Kelsey and I made cake balls for the party - they turned out pretty good and yummy. I think the white and milk chocolate were the key.

Celebrating a special birthday at Bucca di Beppo. Thanks Kelsey for letting Landry join you ;).

Ok so this was taken this morning as was the first photo posted here - again not sure why that happens - ??? Kelsey is going with the 80's look today - very cool! We sprayed and teased her hair too. Landry is representing 1977 as he was Darth Vader - he took his light saber and his Darth Vader mask to school with him so it would all work ;). Gotta love them!

Only 3 days of school left and then it is summer fun!!! Kelsey will be a 6th grader and Landry will be a 1st grader - time slow down!!!

Happy Happy Birthday to Kelsey!!!

WOW!! It so hard to believe that this little one right here is 11 years old today. Where does the time go? One minute she is playing with Teletubbies and the next minute she is asking for a cell phone. She is still my sweet baby girl no matter how old she may be. Today she took chocolate chip cookies to share with her class to celebrate her big day. Friday she will have a sleep over with a few girls plus Landry if he gets his way. We are going to go to Bucca di Beppo for dinner, yum! I hope she has a great day at school!!! We love you Kelsey!!

Relay for Life 2009

We celebrated with others in Frisco the fight against cancer at Relay for Life. Our team is Team Ashley and this was our second year to participate. It is hard to explain to some why this is so important to me. First all the money goes directly to the American Cancer Society to help find a cure and to help people who are fighting right now to become a survivor. Our team is named in Honor of Ashley Piltz a little 5 year old girl who is a cancer survivor. Ashley was in my class last year and we have become good friends. Kelsey and Landry love her and she has a wonderful family. Wendy, Ashley's mom, is an amazing person and I am so honored she is a friend. We also have another good friend on our team, Melody, who is a teacher at our school and is a cancer survivor. She is young also. At 26 she is a mother and has battled cancer on a couple of occasions. So those two beautiful people keep me returning to Relay. And also to walk in memory of my mom. I can not believe that this will be the 10th anniversary of her passing. Sometimes it feels just like yesterday and others like a life time ago.
Our date for Relay was originally set for May 1st but as you know there was a flu traveling around that caused lots of things to be cancelled or a date change and Relay was no exception. With so many lowered immune systems I get the idea of a date change, but with the date change meant a lot of our team could not help us out or walk with us. We were so sad that Ashley and her family could not be at the Relay on the new date, but with good reason ... she was on her Make a Wish trip to meet Elvis in California on a beach! Yes Ashley loves Elvis!! :)

This is our team outside of the AWESOME castle that Tiffanie and her husband Rocky made. So cute but oh so heavy to move and set up. They did such a great job and we won "Cutest Camp Site". Also you will see our popcorn popper - we sold popcorn for our own site fund raiser. In front of the group you see sacks and those are the Luminaries that people purchased in Honor, in Memory of, for a caregiver - when it got dark the Luminaria ceremony began and the bags were lit while a bagpiper played and on the video screen they showed the names listed on all the bags. Such a movie time.

Through out the night there were bands playing and contests. One of the contests was the people mache - each team could only bring newspaper and duct tape and create something on a person. Debra was awesome with her princess idea and guess what ???? We won first place!! Look how awesome Kelsey looks in her paper/duct tape dress - oh and this was at 2 am.

I was so excited to see some friends stop by, Pattie and Todd Wilson, came out from a town over - so fun to see them!! They are both from my home town and get this - Todd and I have known each other since Kindergarten, now that is a while, and Pattie since 6th grade.

Did I mention that Ashley was the Honorary Chairperson for Relay for Life Frisco ?? She was and they made a video of her to play at the ceremony since she could not be there. It was great to see her on the screen since she could not be with us.

A bad storm started brewing around 230 am and the winds were blowing so hard. The City of Frisco decided we needed to shut down and get out fast. It was amazing how we got the camp down and packed up so quickly. We were out of there by 315 am. We did have to go back this morning to pick up the castle. It was too crazy to get it when the storm hit so they let us leave it and come back for it. We shall see what next brings for us ..... hope some of you join us :). We appreciate all of the wonderful donations that were given to us all!!!