Sunday, July 31, 2011

CA Science Center

My friend Amy planned a day to the Science Center in Exposition Park for our old presidency (me, Andrea, Rachael and her) and I’m glad that she did! I hadn’t been here in a while and definitely not been since I’ve had kids! It is free to get in but it does cost $10 to park (oh, and take the carpool exit to 39th off the 110 and turn left it shoots you straight into the museum!) :)

It was a little crazy at times chasing 14 kids through the museum but we did it (with a little help from Samantha, Anabel and the older kids) but they all had a great time. If you haven’t been there in a while it is worth the trip. They had an aquarium section, a building section, a play house section (and various play areas even some for really little guys), and more! It is very nice inside and they’re adding items from the Air and Space museum—they’ve even been chosen to host the Space Shuttle Endeavor! Enjoy the pictures!

It was hit right off the bat since it had a huge jet next to the parking lot and Sammy told me in awe, “this is better than the zoo!”

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Our helpers Anabel and Samantha!

CAScienceMuseum_July2011_ 041  Amy and one of her two kids, Quincy

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Andrea and two of her four kids, Abigail and Alex

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Sammy and Zach one of Rachael’s five!

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Nathan and Cady (another one of Rachael’s). He tortured, I mean played with, Kady and Addy a lot. They are really good with him! CAScienceMuseum_July2011_ 114

Here we are…me and my three boys (for now!) They weren’t too happy about leaving but it was after 2 pm and waaaay past the baby’s nap time!

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You can find a few more of my favorite pictures in the album below or head to Smugmug to see them all!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Fire Station #30 with the Scouts

I have wanted to go to a fire station with the boys but never got around to it so when Thad mentioned that he was taking the Scouts on Wednesday I asked if we could tag along and I’m sure glad that we did.

The scouts were so shy at first but the little guys were so excited they couldn’t hold it in. Eventually the scouts got into it and William and Adam trying on the super heavy gear. They got a tour around the fire house and got to ask any question that they wanted. They got to climb in the fire trucks as well and had a blast! I was so impressed by these firefighters—they were so good with all of the boys (ages 1-14). It was a great night! Here are a few pictures!

Here is the outside of the station. It is a beautiful building!

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Here are Sam and Nate by one of the fire engines. They also had fun sitting up in the engine pretending to drive as well!

Scouts_FireStation30_July2011_ 2011-07-27 009Here’s William all dressed up and trying to go up a ladder…he didn’t make it very far. They said the equipment weighs about 100 pounds…I don’t know if William is much past that! Scouts_FireStation30_July2011_ 2011-07-27 048 Here is Adam all dressed up!

Scouts_FireStation30_July2011_ 2011-07-27 071  Here they are trying on helmets. Sam kept his on for at least thirty minutes!

Scouts_FireStation30_July2011_ 2011-07-27 083 The captain even got balls out for the little ones while the big boys sked questions! Andrea and Abigail were there too! :)

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Here is the group in front of the quint. It is named that way since it has five uses. Captain Bauer is in front with the boys!

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The rest of the pictures can be found on Smugmug or a few more of my favorites are in the album below:

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Santa Ana Zoo

We headed out for some Driggs family fun organized by Grandma! We picked up Grandma (Grandpa was driving the neighbors to the airport) and met the Fongs at the Santa Ana Zoo yesterday. It was a perfectly cool morning and a great day at the zoo. It is a small zoo but perfect length for our younger kids. Sammy’s only regret is that there weren’t more snakes (we only found one big boa constrictor)! Danny loved the monkeys and Nathan loved the train (luckily Grandma spoiled us all and paid for the train tickets since Mommy said no because it was $3 per person!) Enjoy the pictures!

Sammy and Nathan with their cousins Lizzie and Lucas (Jared was in DC with Grandma Fong!)

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:) This one makes me think of Toy Story 2 where the Barbie is driving…Liz is always ready with a smile for her crazy picture taking Auntie Allie! :)

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Danny spotted the poison dart frogs!

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The boys watching the beautiful Macaws.

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Danny dragged Grandma to every single monkey exhibit. If she tried to skip one he pulled her back!

SantaAnaZoo_July2011_ 2011-07-27 053 Sammy demonstrating how he would do a cannonball into the lake where the ducks where…he quickly changed his mind when Uncle Danny told him there were sharks there too (a little fib). When Sammy quickly questioned why they didn’t eat the ducks he told Sammy the sharks choke on the feathers. He accepted that and cannonballed himself onto the floor—ouch!

SantaAnaZoo_July2011_ 2011-07-27 067Walking with Grandma (sorry for cutting your head off Mom!)

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On the train!SantaAnaZoo_July2011_ 2011-07-27 085And finally…a group picture!

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If you want to see more pictures check all of them out on Smugmug or a few of my favorites in the album below!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Frontier Summer Baseball League

Sammy played T-ball this year and had fun so when Frontier offered a little summer league (2x a week for 1 hour each) for little guys and for T-ball age we jumped at the chance (plus for $30 we got a t-shirt and an embroidered hat too!) We went this week and I am glad that we signed up. The best part is that they have their best coaches that are helping out and teaching them the fundamentals. They are really good with the kids!

They have a “sandlot” age group for 3-4 and Nathan was soooo excited about being able to play and not have to just watch (poor Danny still has to watch)!

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Nathan already seems to be getting the hang of it and is hitting well off of the tee and hustling a lot!!! (You can see the blurry ball if you look hard!)

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And Sammy signed up for the T-ball and I think that it will be good for him!  He seemed pretty happy as well!

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And he’s getting better at fielding too!

Boys_SummerBaseball2011_ 2011-07-19 050  Poor Danny just has to wait for now…

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Monday, July 25, 2011

Swim Lessons

SwimLessons_7-21-11_ 2011-07-21 001On the previous post I talked about Splash and how we love it…but how we found out about Splash was actually through swim lessons. I tried to get Sammy signed up for swim lessons in Cerritos but couldn’t so I started looking around…found them in La Mirada and signed him up! That is when we found out about Buccaneer Bay and Splash! Their facility there is really nice and the people and teachers are fantastic as well! :)

This year Nathan was old enough as well and got to sign up for swim lessons with Sammy! They were very excited! Sammy is getting really brave (but this was his third summer of swim lessons) and is learning to swim a bit on his own but Nathan was a little afraid but showed great improvement as well. Here are a few pictures from their last day which Rose, their teacher, made a fun play day for them!

Here they are playing freeze tag with their friends. Fun game…or maybe this was red light green light…who knows! They were enjoying it! :)

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3…2…1…blast off!

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And of course if Sammy got a rocket launch Nate needed one as well!

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It is hard to tell here since he has a life vest on but he got really good at floating on his back and likes to float when we’re at Splash! He is getting better at swimming with his eyes under the water as well!

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Here they are at the end with their new friends Isabella and Jacob!

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Danny wanted to jump in too…he was always a bit sad to have to stay out of the pool!

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Saturday, July 23, 2011

One of our favorite summer activities: Splash

LivingSocial.com had a deal about two weeks back and you could get a four pack of tickets to Splash, our favorite mini water park, in La Mirada for $27. A bunch of our friends from church (Malabickys, Railes, and the Ta’agas) went so we grabbed our passes and joined them! I didn’t have my camera but our friend Sarah had hers and got a few pictures of the boys!

The boys and I love to go here at least once or twice a week! Sometimes Thad isn’t busy and he’ll go with us and sometimes Amy and Lincoln will meet us, but most of the time we venture out solitos (alone). It’s a bit crazy with three small kids but it is small enough that they can’t get too far and they do a good job at staying close to me (phew!)

Here are a few pictures (thanks again Sarah—I stole them off her FB page!)

Sammy and Katelyn are262939_240314352656724_100000344843002_833144_6607266_n over 48 inches so they had special bands to be able to go on the big waterslides and be able to swim without a life vest. They were rarely seen without the other one. Sammy actually went on the green slide yesterday (it goes in the dark for a while) which is a big step up from the super slow yellow slide! He told me today, “I’m never going on that yellow slide again! The green one was so awesome…you were in the dark and then the light surprised you!”

188237_240315109323315_100000344843002_833157_6059639_n Nathan loved(loves) jumping off the side and did it a bunch with the other three year olds there! He also loves the mini slides (and would love to go on the big slides too but isn’t allowed to yet because of his height). He also loves the lazy river and does really well as long as I’m close by him and there aren’t any inner tubes nearby!

272334_240314865990006_100000344843002_833153_7537947_oDanny is getting so big and so independent. In the Lazy River he rarely lets Thad or I hold on to him and prefers floating solo. He loves to jump in as well but wants to hold our hands still (phew).

 

 

We had a fun day and hope to have many more fun days at Splash this summer! Email us if you want to join us!!! We’d love to go with you!

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Monday, July 18, 2011

Carnival Fun with the boys

Carnival_July2011_ 2011-07-14 117I wish that I had a video that showed the boys once we got out of the parking lot and to the carnival in Norwalk this past week. They were like kids in a giant candy store with huge smiles (I know that isn’t hard to imagine with our boys) and were so excited that it was cute!

We had never taken them to a carnival before (once to the OC Fair but the rides are too expensive there so they never had gotten to ride a real fair ride!) Thursday night it was only 50 cents per ride and so we thought we could actually afford it! :)

Here are the pictures from the Ferris Wheel (Nate’s first choice!) Sammy was unsure about it but once he found out that Mom and Dad were going he was okay. All three of them enjoyed it!

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They also had a fun little bouncy car ride that even Danny could ride! :)

Carnival_July2011_ 2011-07-14 049They also had a potato sack slippery slide that they loved!Carnival_July2011_ 2011-07-14 042

They also had swings! (The pictures of them up high didn’t turn out since we forgot to change the ISO on the camera! Oops!)

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And a cute little kid rollercoaster (the kids are in the back car!)

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They even went on one of those super fast spinning rides. Sammy told me, “Mom! They had a magnet in there that made my hands stuck!” So we taught him a little more about gravity and centrifugal force since he happened to be the experiment!

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At about 6:45 we had to leave since I had training for my new calling at church (1st counselor in the stake primary presidency—it’s been quite fun so far!) so Thaddeus and the boys dropped me off at the stake center and then went back to spend their last five tickets…this is where it got exciting.

When Sam and Nate had one ticket left each Nathan disappeared (luckily it is a small area in front of the civic center) and Thad was looking everywhere for him. He checked all of the rides for kids and didn’t see him. Sammy ran off and tried to get on a faster roller coaster that he was too short for. Thad chastised him for running off and he said, “but Dad look, Nathan’s on that ride already!” Ahh! Nate, who was about 8 inches too short and if he had been tall enough was supposed to be accompanied by an adult had been let on the ride. The guy working the front didn’t speak English and so didn’t understand Thad trying to tell him that the little boy that he let on was too short. Thad didn’t have a ticket so he couldn’t get on and so finally Thad sent Sammy on to be with Nathan. Well, they didn’t die or fall off of it and they both had a blast. When I walked in from my meeting Nate ran up and said, “I went on the super fast roller coaster” and I said, “that’s great sweetie” not yet having heard the real story. I’m glad that nothing happened and a little excited for Disneyland (if we ever get passes again) since Nathan will be tall enough and brave enough for a bunch more rides! Too bad Thad left the camera in the car when he went back with the boys or we’d have proof of the last ride…I hope that next year they have another deal like this because we had a blast! :)

To see more pictures click on the album below:

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