Here is the second part of Life of The Bullocks. To read earlier posts, check out shaybullockfamily.blogspot.com.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Our Trip Down South

My parents have made it a tradition to visit SoCal every January. So for as long as I live in Lompoc, I'll adopt the tradition too. Unfortunately, Shay cannot ever get time off in January due to a yearly training, so he doesn't get to join much of the fun.

This year we drove to Pasadena on Saturday, January 5th and met my parents. We went to dinner and then I went shopping with my mom and Solee while Shay, my Dad and the big kids stayed at the hotel.

Sunday morning we went to church and lunch and then Shay went home. That afternoon the rest of us headed to the California Science Center to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

On Monday we went to the Santa Monica Pier. Cayben enjoyed looking for shells, Embrie wanted to play in the sand all day, and they both enjoyed popping bubbles and riding the carousel.
Cayben 
Grandma Elyse, Cayben, Grandpa Jim & Embrie
Solee 
Grandma, Cayben, Solee, Grandpa & Embrie
Embrie & Cayben chasing bubbles

After the Pier we drove by the LA Temple, (It's where my parents were sealed many moons ago and they hadn't been there in a long time.) and then we went to The Grove for some shopping and dinner.

Tuesday we went to Universal Studios.
Fievel took off with Cayben and Cayben had no idea. He later told me he was mad at me for pushing him into Curious George's butt, but when he found out it was Fievel who did it, he thought it was hilarious. 
Grandma, Cayben & Frankenstein  
Solee, Donkey & Cayben
Shrek, me & Solee
"GRRR!"
Solee
Curious George was sure curious about Solee.
Grandma & Scooby Doo
Embrie & Scooby Doo 
Grandpa, Cayben & Scooby Doo
Grandma & Frankenstein
My girls
Wednesday we came back to Lompoc. I was happy to see my charming man. I always forget how much I miss Shay when I'm away from him. My parents stayed until Saturday morning. We spent our remaining time together shopping and eating good food. I'm sure grateful they came to visit. Hopefully someday we'll be closer to home.

Endeavour

In late September of last year our family got to see something pretty neat. NASA was transporting Space Shuttle Endeavor to it's final resting place in Los Angeles. On the way they did a low level fly over Vandenberg Air Force Base which happened to be where Shay, the girls, and I were at. (Cayben got to watch it from his school, which is also on Base.) I didn't have a camera because I didn't know it was happening until I heard it announced on the radio that morning, but this is basically what I saw:
(I got this picture off Wikipedia.)
Anyway, I was pretty excited about it because SPACE IS SO COOL!

Fast forward a bit, my parents, my kids, and I got to go see The Endeavour at the California Science Center on January 6th. It was so neat! I have always been fascinated by space, but who isn't?

Cayben, Solee, Embrie & Grandma Elyse

In addition to seeing the shuttle up close, we got to see an Endeavor exhibit, ride a space shuttle simulator and watch Hubble 3D on IMAX. Wow! The endlessness of space is mind blowing.

My mom described the whole experience as reverencing. I think she nailed it.

And to add a little funny bit that will one day embarrass Embrie, when I took her to the bathroom at the California Science Center she proudly said, "Mom, I just launched a poop!" Ha!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Family Pictures 2012

We got family pictures! I'm feeling totally on top of it because Embrie was nearly three before we ever got family pictures done that included her. Solee's only six months old, so I'm rockin' it this go around. I guess it helped that I had a friend offer to take them. She's just getting into photography and wanted some practice (although she already does a great job) so she offered to do them for free!

Here's a few a lot of my faves:














Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was unremarkable to me as a child. Then as a teenager and young adult it was one of the funnest holidays. Post marriage and children, it's been more of a struggle to find excitement on this holiday. It seems like a difficult holiday to accommodate children and adults together. And what about the sleep, or lack there of? After having children, sleep is a hot commodity. Why would I willingly stay up late?

This year I think I have found solutions to my dilemmas.

First, there must be good food. This is obvious. What is a holiday without good food?

Second, spend the holiday with fun adults and their fun children. It's like two mini parties in one: one for the kids and one for the "grown-ups." This New Year's Eve we had our good friends, The Cheneys, over. They have three kids all about the same age as my kiddos, which works out well.

Third, have a plan, but be flexible. (This is actually my resolution for this year. I think it will eliminate much of my grumpiness. I always have an agenda and it never works as planned. Duh, I have kids. It seems to be the sole cause of my irritability. So here's to flexibility!) I used an idea I had found on Pinterest to pop a balloon each hour. In the balloons were slips of paper with different activities to do. So our 6 p.m. balloon said, "Eat dessert." 7 p.m. said, "Have a dance party." At 8 p.m.,  "Play a game." The 9 p.m. balloon slip said, "Pop your confetti poppers." "Do karaoke" came at 10 p.m. "Make a toast," with sparkling cider came next, and the midnight balloon said, "Make some noise!"

The dance party didn't actually have much dancing. I was putting away dinner so I couldn't bust my moves and Cayben was protesting because I didn't have any "pop music." The kids decided to make their own music. Braden had his Paper Jams guitar with him and Cayben and Embrie have little acoustic guitars, so the kids put on a rock concert.

After that we played games. The kids played with letter puzzles and a memory game, and adults played Catch Phrase. It's one of my favorites.

At 9:00 p.m. we braved the cold long enough to pop our confetti poppers outside. That was followed by karaoke and a few toasts.

Here's a funny little side note: this morning Cayben said, "Mom. We forgot to do our toast!" After a little confusion on my part and some questioning I realized Cayben had a little confusion on his part and thought we would be eating toast. We worked it out.

Anyway, I didn't know if our friends had planned on staying up until midnight, and I wasn't even sure I wanted to stay up that late. The kids' started getting tired so we sped up the balloon popping and ended the party around 10:45.  It was a lot of fun.

For the fourth and final solution, keep your kids up with you so they sleep in with you the next day. Or better yet, go to sleep when your tired. It will be the new year when you wake.

P.S. I actually made it to midnight this year. I'm an animal.