Happy Halloween! 2010

Happy Halloween from our little Alice in Wonderland and our blue fluffy bunny!

Tarantula Trail

Saturday (October 2nd) started off relaxing and very enjoyable. It had been a calm day at our house and then I decided to call Grandma to see if she wanted to go hike at Santa Rosa Plateau with the kids and I.

When we left my house, the sky was so crisp and blue with enormous white clouds here and there. These were the kinds of clouds that looked like mounds of fluffy white powdered sugar. I was excited to take my Mom to this hiking area finally, after all of the hikes I have told her about and how fun this place was. I think I jinxed myself by saying that. We arrived to the trail at about 4:30pm, which now looking back, was probably not the best time to go out in the hills....because it was feeding time - for the wild life! Yikes!

We started off the hike and came across a tarantula.... We pushed the double jogger stroller close to it so Hailee could see and so she would not be afraid....which she wasn't at all. So we continued on our hike.

Then we came across tarantula #2. My Mom and I started getting a little creeped out. These spiders are huge! We ran by it, in fear that for some reason it would jump onto us. But, we made it past safely.
Then we came to this mean guy- an enormous rattle snake. I have never seen a rattler tail so big before. You can definitely tell he does not lack in the food department. We stood a ways away, throwing rocks at it and trying to get him to move. He wouldn't budge. By this time, Hailee was starting to get a little nervous. She curled her legs up close to her body and bit down on her blanket. Not once did she cry though, she just sat there and watched us trying to scare the snake.
We threw rocks at him for probably a good 10 minutes, even hitting him a couple of times, but he would not budge. He only would rattle that tail of his now and then. We realized he dominated this trail. We had to turn back.


And thankfully, we ran into another one of these! (haha, I am being totally sarcastic that I was thankful for another tarantula).

Hailee spotted this one for us! (Tarantula #4)

Tarantula #5

And lastly, tarantula #6


So, in conclusion of our short two mile hike, we came across SIX tarantulas and one HUGE rattle snake. Guess we learned our lesson to not go hiking during feeding time at dusk. My Mom joked around that she will not come hiking with me out here again, but I'm pretty sure she will give it another shot. Whats a hike with out the "adventure", right?

Grandma, Hailee and Jake

Me and the kids


I have to say, Hailee and Jake are such amazing kids. They love to be outdoors and are always (most of the time) happy! And I was so proud of Hailee for being so brave with all of the big spiders and snake.

We decided that we needed to go do something not so adventurous, so we headed to downtown Temecula to walk around and get some dinner. We had a wonderful time!

Can't wait to go hiking again, but hoping I won't see another tarantula or snake for a while!

Once a month....

One time a month is seriously not enough for blogging...but it is all I am motivated to do right now....well, actually, it is all I can find time for. So bear with me each month for extremely long posts!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Ginos are amazing. They have 30 (Maybe more now) GREAT Grandchildren, and they always make sure each one knows that they are thinking about them. Each month Hailee and Jake receive a letter from them and a dollar for them to get ice cream. How amazing and great are they!?! Every time Hailee checks the mail with me, she always asks if her mail has come yet. When she does have her letter waiting for her, she gets so excited! She opens it and pretends to read their note and then has me read it to her and then we plan a special time to get her ice cream from Great Grandma and Grandpa! They are such a wonderful example to me showing that its the little things in life that really make a difference. At the beginning of September, we were able to go to Washington to visit Gregg's family. This was also Jake's first plane ride! We were so excited that he did so well on it! He seemed to love it! And so did Hailee! She has flown quite a few times already, so she knew what to do!

Jake meeting Nana (Great Grandma Larsen) for the first time

Jake and Grandma Duh

Hailee and Elli have become pretty close. They are the cutest cousins together and have so much fun!
The kids checking out Nana's room all decorated in pink

All of the cousins together on Labor Day

Pa playing games with the kids

The boys hanging out

Hailee and Elli taking a break from all of the shopping

Down at Gig Harbor

Seriously so beautiful here!

I don't know why, but this has always been one of my favorite fisherman houses here!


Pa, Duh, Hailee and Jake

Giddy Up!

We had such an enjoyable time staying in Washington with Gregg's family. They had a big BBQ with everyone over, we went shopping, out to dinner and just enjoyed being with one another. While we were there, Jake hit a milestone of ROLLING OVER!!!! Pa was the first one to see it and no one believed him until we all looked and Jake started rolling over a ton! We were so excited! He sure is growing up way too fast! We look forward to our next visit up there!

Jake is such an amazing eater. That's all he really wants to do! lol. I decided it was time to start him on solids considering he would stare us down every time we would eat and would try to grab our food. I started him on rice cereal first and he was a champ! A few weeks ago I decided to try sweet potatoes with him, and wow! He ate the ENTIRE container! He sure does love food! So happy I have such a good eater!

Hailee is our little hiker! She loves it! She asks me several times a week when we can go hiking again. So, I try and take her as often as I can.
We were up in Corona and decided to go hiking and Grandma came with! They were throwing rocks at the bushes! So fun to see how much Hailee loves being in the outdoors!

I LOVE when babies find their toes!

Later this month, Gregg's dad and step mom came to visit. We had a family birthday party for Gregg while they were in town. My Mom put together all of the games for me (Thank you!) Some were the "Minute to Win It" games and others were ones she came up with! They were so hilarious and fun!

"Inch Worm"
"Paper Dragon"

Can't remember the name of this game, but it was hilarious! It was an elephant trunk game!

Grandma and her girls

After my parents got back from Hawaii, my Mom decided to buy their own shaved ice machine! Wow...can I say what a piece of Heaven?? We had the ultimate shaved ice desserts!

Ice cream on the bottom, Shaved ice on the top flavored with pina colada, tigers blood, fresh bananas and pineapple on the side drizzled with a little chocolate syrup!

Hailee opened Daddy's gifts for him

Grandma and Jake
Hailee thought the elephant masks were so funny!

What a handsome lil guy!

We had a great night with family celbrating my Mans' day! And thank you Mom and Dad for having it at your house and for helping out! Love you guys!

What do you think, future cheer leader on our hands?

While Dave and Cheryl were here, we went down to Santa Rosa Plataea and went hiking

While we were having this picture taken, I was STUNG by the bee on my stomach! Come to find out, there was a huge bee hive in the tree and the bees were starting to swarm around us! We got out of there so fast! And that bee sting hurt! Its been over two weeks now and I still have a big red area surrounding the bee sting. Maybe I might be a little allergic to bee stings?

So beautiful here!

On top of Monument Hill.

The kids did such an awesome job on this hike!

We also went down to Temecula to the duck pond...I think those ducks are all way over fed because they weren't interested in the bread.

But, we still had a great time!

September was sure a busy month, but it was such a fun month! Jake also turned 5 months old (pictures soon to come....) We look forward to an exciting and super busy October now!