Way behind on updates...

Good heavens -- sometimes I wonder how in the world life became so busy and hectic. I have kind of skipped around on my blogging over the past month and noticed that I haven't updated since the kids' first day of school. Brett, Kendall & Kameron are all loving school which is so reassuring for me to know that they are happy -- as I really miss having them home with me. With school being at the forefront of my mind right after the girls' birthday in July, I failed to post pictures from their birthday party as well as our almost 2-week vacation to Nevada and California. I'll update briefly on our vacation (as I'm not sure how many details of the trip I will remember since it was in mid-July) and then jump to what we've been up to over the last couple of weeks since school has started.

(I just had to post a picture of the "castle" cake -- as this is the first decorated cake I've really ever done.) ;o)

We left for our vacation the day after Kendall & Kameron's 5th birthday party to fly to Las Vegas. From there, we drove over the next few days to the Los Angeles and then San Diego areas. On the trip, we saw sights such as the Extraterrestial Highway (aka -- Area 51 area), Valley of Fire State Park, Yosemite National Park and the giant sequoias, Sequoia National Park, Walt Disneyland, Universal Studios, Calico Ghost Town, Hoover Dam, as well as tons of sights in Hollywood/Los Angeles (Venice Beach, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Dodgers game, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sunset Strip and Hollywood & Vine, Father of the Bride house, Brady Bunch house, Pretty Woman fire escape, Mann's Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, the famous Hollywood Sign, La Brea Tar Pits, Olympic Stadium, Rodeo Drive, the Rose Bowl, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills Hotel, UCLA, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios), and San Diego (Padres game, the Queen Mary, Sea World). Unfortunately, the only "celebrity" we saw on our entire trip was in a Denny's restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood (go figure!) and we didn't end up taking a picture as we didn't want to interrupt his lunch meeting. It was Quentin Tarantino -- and oh my, he is definitely an odd character! Here are a few of the pics (in no real specific order)...

The camera was acting very weird so I honestly have NO idea why this picture came out in black and white.

Little A'Le'Inn Restaurant on the Extraterrestrial Highway

Inside a giant sequoia




Kendall & Kameron on their "actual" birthday eating a yummy cheesecake with the birthday candle that they both just blew out.

Walt Disneyland




Universal Studios


Couldn't resist putting this one in as the previous picture is from The Simpsons area at Universal Studios. Randy's Donuts is a tiny little place on the corner of a very busy intersection -- but the donuts we had from there were fabulous!

Mann's Chinese Theatre

Hollywood Walk of Fame -- Michael Jackson's star

The Queen Mary in San Diego -- famous oceanliner that was faster and bigger than the Titanic that was used to carry rich and famous people across the North Atlantic for several years and was then used in WWII as a troopship known as "The Grey Ghost." The Queen Mary is known as one of the most haunted places in the world and while very neat to visit, it is definitely a creepy place.

Calico Ghost Town

We just had to pan for gold while at the ghost town. ;o)

Honestly, I'm really not giving this trip enough details in this blog entry; however we saw so many things that I would be typing this entry for the next few weeks trying to fit everything in. We haven't ever been able to take a two-week vacation together as a family and it was an absolutely wonderful vacation!

Since this past weekend was a long one for Labor Day, we took the kids up to the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago to explore the museum as well as see the Harry Potter Exhibition. The kids enjoyed seeing so many things in the museum and the Harry Potter Exhibit was definitely very neat. Kameron was selected in the very beginning of the tour to sit up on stage and wear the hat that Harry wore in the first film where it was decided what house he was going to belong to. Kameron got up on stage and said her name with much enthusiasm -- and when asked where she was from, rather than saying Peoria, or Germantown Hills, or even Illinois, she simply and honestly replied with "AMERICA"! ;o) All of the people with us in the audience were laughing at how cute her answer was. I just love the innocence of children!



Kameron getting ready to find out she was being "assigned" to the Hufflepuff House. ;o)

This is what I felt like doing as we were leaving Chicago.

We wanted to get the kids settled in school before we signed them up for additional activities...so now with them happy and content in school, we signed Brett up for a Martial Arts class and Kendall & Kameron for a Ballet class. This past week was their first week for these classes, so I'll post more on these when I get a few pictures. Mike is in India for the week so I'm praying that everything in our household runs smoothly and nothing extreme happens while he is gone. ;o)