And Then There Were None....

First Day of School! Of course the first day is always a big deal. New teachers, new grade, new clothes, catching up with friends you haven't seen all summer, etc., etc. But this year was especially big for our family. Madison started Kindergarten! My last little birdie has left the nest. *Sniff* *Sniff* To make it worse, she's in all day Kinder. So there's no easing her (or me) into it with the half day of school. Nope, it's hard core jump right in and go! Sigh.....

Anyways, here are my three good lookin' kids!

Nate is the big man on campus this year at Jordan School- 6th grade! He now looks eye to eye with me. It's very disconcerting disciplining your child when he's at eye level....

Trevor is in 4th grade and considered an "upper grader" now. Apparently that's a big deal.:) He's still
sporting the long hair. It usually looks a little better than this, but it's still wet here. Not a huge fan of it, but I'm learning to accept it.


Miss Madison, our big Kindergartener! She has been so excited for this day. She has practically lived at the schools since she was born,drug along by me while I helped at the schools. Now she finally made it! She was excited, but so worried about me being home alone all day while she was at school. Nearly broke my heart when she said that!

Here's my girl sitting at her desk.

I made Todd take the morning off of work so he could go with me to drop her off. Apparently he was in the same room as Maddie a million of years ago when he was in kinder and went to this school. Maddie thought that was pretty cool. :)

Legoland with the Putnam Family

It seems we now have another tradition- an annual summer trip to Legoland with our good friends the Putnam family. This is our 3rd year we've done it but this trip was extra special because Todd got to go with us for the first time.

Maddie, Trevor, and Joel

Joel and Luke Putnam

The shaggy twins, Trevor and Luke

Maddie jousting. All of the boys were good sports and waited patiently while Maddie rode the "kiddie" rides.

Maddie just HAD to get her face painted. And of course she chose a puppy face.

Trevor

Nate

Maddie

Every time we go to Legoland we see this lego dad and joke that it looks just like Todd. Well it does, doesn't it?!

The second day there we went to the new Legoland water park, but no pictures.

We had a fabulous couple of days with some of our favorite people. Thanks for the invite Putnams!

By the way, yes we still have 3 children, but Nate is going thru this anti-picture phase so it's hard catch him sometimes.

Family Camping

Our annual family camping trip had a new destination this year after a 15 year run at Stony Creek. This year we went to Twin Lakes up north.Unfortunately, life happens and there wasn't a lot of family that made it- including Todd and I. But thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Chitwood, our kids were able to go.

Maddie checking out the water.

JJ and Kristen

Cousin Alex and Trevor

JJ, Mom (Karen), and friend Greg.

Cousin Molly and Maddie

Whatcha doin there Al?

Ummmmm.....the lake is the other way Al. Don't get many tree fish around these parts that I know of.....

Cousin Sharon and Mom cheering Al on.....:)

"Drunkle" Keith. He decided toleave the tree fish to Al to tackle. He's fishing for boring old trout.

Game night in Aunt Bette's trailer. Aunt Bette, Molly, Maddie, Nate, and Al

Apparently there were a lot of deer around the campsite all week. Funny story about a deer...On the last day everyone was packed up and ready to head out. Our dear, special Trevor was in a clearing when he saw a fawn and her 2 does. Uncle JJ told Trevor, "don't get too close" and then walked away leaving Trevor alone with the deer. Next thing they know, Trev is walking back to the campsite with a bloody nose. When asked what happened, Trevor told them he wanted to get closer to the deer. He was creeping closer and closer when all of a sudden the mama deer came up to him, turned around, and kicked him in the nose! LOL! I miss all of the good stuff! When asked why he would try and get so close, he told them that earlier that day he saw a deer by itself and it came right up to him and licked him on the cheek. So he figured when this one started coming toward him, it was going to do the same thing. No such luck!

All in all, it sounds like everyone had a great time!

Annual Casida Family Beach Day

Every summer Todd's family gets together for a beach day where we all get together and hang-out at Doheney beach. They pull their trailers down, and we camp out all day and enjoy each others company and have fun in the sun.



Trevor, Cousin Molly, and Nate are working on the sand castle.

Maddie was more a supervisor than anything. Uncle Logan is strutting his stuff in the background.

Todd helping with the construction.

Later in the day, with the castle washed away with the tide, everyone started building an RC car track. It was pretty impressive.

Ummm...not too sure what exactly Todd is doing here...

Maddie playing us a tune on her "guitar"




Future brother-in-law Scott skin boarding.

Watching the race: Scott, Kamryn, and Ryan (Scott's brother)

Trevor with a seat front and center of the action.

Those trucks got some serious air! it was pretty fun to watch.

The Last Air Bender....

Todd, not remembering that he's not 20 anymore, tore his minicus (sp?) playing volleyball with my brothers, sisters-in-law, and friends the other night. He went to see our friend Casey who is a chiropractor, and after zapping and beating up Todd's knee, he put this blue tape on. We think it looks like the last air bender's head.

Glen Helen Races and Oak Glen

Todd only had to work a couple of hours Saturday morning, and then had the rest of the weekend off, and I had to get out of La Habra so we packed up the kids and got out of here! Our first stop was the Glen Helen Raceway where a friend of our family was racing his car. It was a lot of fun, but very hot. Unfortunately our friend had engine problems and didn't get to finish the race. So when he was out, we decided to go to our hotel all the way in Redlands and go swimming in the indoor pool.

John Proctor in his car.

Sunday we went to Oak Glen where they have apple orchards, fun things for the kids to do, and yummy delicious treats.:) We went to the petting zoo where Todd and the kids fed all of the animals.

Nate
Maddie
Trevor. That goat that Trev is feeding kept following me all over the place and chewing on the cuff of my shorts. ICK! For those of you who don't know me, I'm not the biggest fan of animals. even less a fan of animal drool!


Maddie happy as can be on a pony.
Trevor was just along for the ride.

We were waiting forever for this peacock to open his tail. We finally gave up and started walking away and then he finally opened it up so we ran back.

We had a really good time hanging out together all weekend and came home with lots of yummy appples and fresh pressed apple cider.
This was from Disneyland in ToonTown. We went Monday after Todd got home from work.