Fun at Cherry Hills

We went to Cherry Hill's again this year. We love to go there and play. We stayed at the Roundy Ranch and the accommodations were amazing and the breakfast in the morning could not be beat. Thanks Roundy family!!! This was on the miniature golf course. We love to play but we do not like to keep score.

The kids took this wonderful picture of us. It really is a pretty place.

Here are the kids with their cousins. We went to play with them and the Hamster Haven was being repaired. So we got ice cream and headed down to watch the kids hit balls.

Natalee did really well at it. She hit those balls just as good as the guys did.

Here is Matt in action. He doesn't like to admit that he is getting older so he has to show up the kids every once in awhile.

Here is the baseball kid himself. He is getting ready to start a fall league for baseball and wanted to keep up on his mad skills.

This is the next day and this ride is called Cardiac. We went down this one so many times. The kids love it and we had a good time too.

The trick is to hold on to the other tube for as long as you can.

Here the kids are in the lazy river. That was one of my favorite rides in the park. Because we just hung out in tubes and talked. It was great we can't wait to do it again next year.

Cruisin

We went on a seven night cruise to Mexico. We had a great time. We got to do lots of things together as a family. We love to vacation because we don't have to take any phone calls or be to anything. With Matt's new calling it could not have come at a better time. Here we are all geared up to climb the rock wall. We all made it to the top, some a little faster than others.

Here are the kids in Mazatlan on the body boards. They had so much fun doing that. We also had the best fresh salsa EVER there.

Here we are with some of the locals. If you look closely the one that Matt is holding has a little hat on. We had to have a picture of them.

Here we are playing Miniature golf on the ship. It was a little windy and if the boat rocks just right you can get a hole in one. Just ask Carson.

Here we are in Cabo and that is our ship in the background. The weather was wonderful and we enjoyed our time on the beach.

If you like Mexican food you need to head on over there. We were not disappointed with any of the places that we ate while we were at port.

Here we are in the dining room on formal night. Natalee was so happy to get lobster and she also enjoyed the escargot and shrimp cocktails. The food on a cruise ship is right up her alley.

Here are the kids on our balcony. We have never had a balcony room before but it was great. We saw hundreds of dolphins, sharks, flying fish and even a whale.

California Fun

We spent a week in Newport Beach with some of my family. We stayed in a beach house that was beautiful. We walked out the front door and our feet hit the sand. My 2 cousins have kids also and our kids had a ball together. It was such a great week. Thanks to all that we shared it with. We went to Medieval Times for the dinner show and the kids cheered hard for our blue knight. We had a great dinner that we had to eat with our hands. Here are all the kids together.

It is nice to travel with other people so that you can have a picture of your whole family too!

We also went deep sea fishing. There were a lot of fish being caught on the boat and only one sickness from our party. We all had a great time.

There is Natalee's long fish, but it was not fat enough to keep. But it was a beauty.

Here is Carson's prize winning fish. I don't know why but they made us throw that one back too. My uncle cooked the ones up that we were able to keep and that was some seriously good fish.

One guy caught this starfish and then let the kids all take pictures with it. They loved it.

This guy was right out front of Disneyland and this is the team that Carson played for in Baseball. He thought that was pretty cool.

Here is 10 of the 14 people we were with at Disneyland. We had a great time.

After 16 days on the road Matt was missing work so we stopped by the Post Office in Toon Town.

This was at the Discovery Science Center in California. Who wouldn't want a picture of their kids in a nostril?

Here is Natalee and Hailee on the beach in Newport. They played with all this wonderful ocean stuff. The beach was a little piece of heaven.

Here we are at Lego Land. We didn't even get through half of it in one day. The kids loved every minute of it.

We went on this ride over 4 times in a row. It was hilarious. You had to pump the truck back and forth and then get to the water pumps and jump out and pump those also until you put the fire out. Then you jumped back in and pumped it back to the beginning. There were major bets on the winners of each round.

Baseball Season

Growing up I was all too familiar with Baseball season. I had 3 brothers that played and I finally started working at the snack shack to keep myself entertained. I made a mean scone back in the day. I thought that I would never enjoy being at the baseball field that is until Carson started playing. Yes at times I am a nervous wreck but it has been awesome watching him progress this year. Here he is at bat and if you look hard you can see the ball right in front of the bat.

Here is one right after he hit it and it is in the air.

Here he is at catcher. His Grandpa is so proud that he is carrying on the legacy of catchers in the Payne family.

Here he is after he hit a ball. We call this the home run look. Yes it went into the outfield but quit looking at the ball and run boy.

Here is another one that is right in front of the bat. He really had a good game.

Look at those catching skills. He played a lot of catch, a good amount of pitcher and some first base this year. His pitching has really come along. He has learned how to bring the heat. It was a great season and I am so proud of him.

We are suppose to have baseball today.

We are 6 days away from June and we wake up to this? Carson is suppose to have a baseball game tonight but I don't think that will be happening.

A trip to somewhere warm sounds really good right now. I can't wait!!!

Special Things That Happen!

I don't know why I only post about special things. But there was an everyday thing that happened today that ended up being a special thing for me. I made the kids a chore list last night and they asked for extra chores to earn some money. They did that last week also and didn't feel like doing the extra chores then so I was prepared for the same thing today. Instead I woke up this morning to hear little dishes clinking in the sink and the dryer door shutting in the laundry room. I had to get up to investigate. This is what I found. Two kids that were working hard on their list and were mad that I caught them in the act. They worked for HOURS today to get this list done.

Now don't call child service on me but here was the list. Laundry, Bathrooms, Vacuum, Dishes, Shoe Closet, Mirrors, Scrub the tile floors, Basement, Room, Change Sheets, Bring towel and mats from bathrooms up to wash and last but not least pick up all their own stuff in the house.

I know it seems like a lot but they wanted to earn extra $$$$ so they did every last thing.

The best part was that I didn't even have to ask them or fight with them to do it. P.S. they didn't fight with each other either. I know CRAZY but I wish that every Saturday morning went like this. I love my kids they are great and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Blue and Gold Banquet

Carson just had his Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. The kids had to make a cake with their Dad's and then had a cake walk that night to win a cake. Matt and Carson came up with this beach cake. They thought that is would be a snap seeing as how they both love to watch Cake Boss. They even used brown sugar for the sand. It turned out really cute and I know that I am a little bit partial but it was the best cake of all the others.

Here are the proud pair showing off their work. Natalee was so mad that they got to do this since she really wants to be a food artist when she grows up.