Swim Lessons

Aiden is learning to swim and she's getting really good at it. Here we are on the boat over the weekend. ENJOY!!!

A Splash of Summer Bash!

So this being our first official summer in our new community we were invited to the Lincoln Crossing annual A Splash of Summer Bash! that was held at our clubhouse on Saturday, the 17th. Tickets were dirt cheap, $5 per adult and FREE for kids under 4. Good thing too because neither of the girls really ate that much. They were too excited about the cotton candy and snow cone booths. The BBQ started at 11am and lasted till 3pm. Jake's Mom Joan went with us to the event. It was really awesome. We had BBQ beef brisket, chicken, beans and cole slaw, all supplied from JR's Texas Bar-B-Que of Sacramento. The beef brisket was really tender and yummy but if I'm being honest here I much prefer the brisket from Lucille's BBQ in Rocklin but that's just me. 8)

They had food, a DJ, a magician, a face painting booth (the girls got their faces painted - see pics) a cotton candy booth, snow cone booth, bubble blowing booth, an arts & crafts table for the kids and 5 water bounce houses & slides, a rock climbing wall, a bungee jump thing and a dunk tank. Kyra and I went on the water bounce slide, not once but twice. I, being the brave parent opted to do the water slide with Kyra. I'd have been OK however at the end of the slide my pinkie finger on my right hand got caught in part of the plastic and pulled in the opposite direction. Did you know that your fingers aren't supposed to go the opposite way? Now my finger is all purple and hurts so bad. I think it's sprained, thankfully not broken.

We had such a blast at our first community BBQ. We'll definitely be attending next year. To see all the photos from the BBQ go HERE.

Jake & I got ourselves ready to go to Jake's 20th High School reunion at Fat's Asia Bistro in Roseville for appetizers and drinks. We had a pretty good time. Out of 98 people he graduated with about 30 of his classmates came with their spouses. Not too bad of a turnout.

Well that about wraps it up for now. Stay tuned for more updates. See you next blog.

Little of this...little of that

The Mason family has been super busy these past few weeks. Toy Story 3 in 3D, Birthday party, camping trip and celebrating the girls first July 4th.

Friday, July 2nd - We celebrated our nephew Erik’s 7th birthday with him and his slip-n-slide party! Jake’s Mom made him an awesome birthday cake of a dirt bike on a hill. It was pretty awesome!!! Great job Mom!!! Eriks Party pictures.

July 3rd - We tried a new adventure with the girls...seeing an actual movie in the theater instead of at home on DVD. We went with the Pascoal family to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. It was great. Kyra & Aiden actually sat and watched the whole thing without fuss or talking. They both kept their 3D glasses on the whole time. I guess it also helps that Kyra had a box full of popcorn to keep her occupied while she watched the movie. After the movie we went over to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.

Andrew and Maria had plans afterwards to go his sister’s house and do some fireworks so we parted ways after dinner. On the way home, Jake, I and the girls went back to the house grabbed our lawn chairs and headed to scope out a spot to watch the city of Lincoln fireworks. They were really beautiful. 30 minutes of ooing and aahing was some great fun! Kyra wasn’t fond of the noise in the beginning so she covered her ears but after awhile she uncovered them and enjoyed the fireworks display. Aiden was asking lots of questions but finally quieted down and just watched along with us. She seemed more interested in who those people were in the car that was parked in front of us was. LOL. She finally settled down and watched.

City of Lincoln fireworks

July 4th was an unexpected surprise. We were initially going to go over to Andrew & Maria’s house to celebrate the 4th but they had called just before we were heading out the door and told us that their air conditioner had went out and had to call a repairmen and being that it was a holiday and a Sunday they would have to wait till Monday to call anyone. So we moved the festivities over to our house instead. Drew had cooked up some hot dogs, steaks and corn earlier in the day and we ate when they got to our house. Man we had so much food but it was yummy in our tummies. July 4th Pics.

After eating a good dinner we headed out to the front yard to let off our fireworks. They had brought some with them as well as bringing some sparklers for the kids to do. I am amazed at the sparklers these days. I always thought they were supposed to be safer for the kids when they don’t really seem to be. First of all, our friend’s son Aiden (same as our Aiden) got burned by the sparklers pieces being flown off the end on his poor little foot. Then Kyra was holding her sparkler and twirled it and the end of it flew off and onto the ground still burning hot almost hitting our Aiden in the arm. WHAT THE HECK!!! Safe for kids, my butt, we beg to differ. I’m beginning to think that the metal ones we had as kids are safer. This is just my opinion anyway. They were called Morning Glory sparklers. I’m considering writing the company and letting them know how unsafe their sparklers really are. Again, just my opinion.

Kyra was being a typical 2 year old and running all over the place just before we set off the fireworks so Jake brought out her highchair from in the house and she was okay for a little bit then she wanted out. Took her out and sat in her little lawn chair with the other kids and had a fun time watching our own family fireworks display. All in all we had a great 4th of July 2010.

Thank you everyone for reading our latest blog. See you next blog.

Aiden ~ the Artist

We have noticed that Aiden is downright artistic. She draws & colors very well for a 3 1/2 year old. She had one of those doodle type things and she drew this little guy and said he was Santa on skis. LOL! That's my girl, always thinking about CHRISTmas.

Camping in June

Yep, it's that time of year again...Camping season for the Mason's. Jake & I have always loved camping in the summer season and we do it a few times a year. Our first of the year camping trip, we joined forces with friends Evan, Stephanie and their son Liam at Folsom Lake. It was Aiden & Kyra's first time camping. And it was Stephanie & Liam's first time camping too. When I asked Stephanie at the end of the camping trip would she do it again and she happily said YES!!! Woo Hoo. She also said it has it's pros and cons; cons being the bugs and Liam falling many times and getting scratches on his poor little legs. Pros, spending time with friends and really getting to know each other better.

The morning of our decent started off pretty good. By afternoon Jake & I were both stressed out. We had every intention of leaving the house by 2pm to get to our site around 2:30 or 3:00 and as in usual Mason style...we were late! Imagine that! LOL.

Here is how MY afternoon went. I went out the side garage door to throw out a dirty diaper in the trash, try to get back in the house throught the inside door to get back in the house and it is locked. So I'm standing there trying to think of something to do of how to get back in. Hey, I have my cell phone on me I can just call Jake and he can answer it and come let me in. Meanwhile upstairs Jake is showering and can't hear the phone. I was soo hoping he would hear it. I called him at least 4 or 5 times with no success. So then I decide to open the big garage door so I could go to the front door to ring the doorbell for Aiden to come down and let me in. Aiden knows how to open the baby gate so I was hoping this would be my saving grace. Umm..yeah right. The garage door is locked down tight with the safety lock and I didn't notice till it was too late. The door tries to go up and buckles under the pressure of the security rod and bends in the middle and one of the glass windows break. I'm there a total of at least 20 minutes in a hot garage and can't get out. There is glass scattered on the floor of the garage and on the new car (luckily nothing happened to the car). So I sit on the freezer and just wait patiently for Jake to finally get out of the shower and come get me. Meanwhile I'm posting on Facebook my dilemma. I even have offers from friends to try to get Jake's attention. LOL. Is this the end of my story...OH NO, not even close. A little bit later I hear some movement in the hall by Jake's office. That has to be Jake. I make one final attempt to call him, he answers and I tell him to come to the small garage. He comes out sees me sitting on the freezer and asks what is going on, he looks over my shoulder at the broken glass and bent garage door. His face turns white and I could just tell that it was another added thing he had to fix before we left for camping. I felt soo bad. I told him what had happened. In my haste to tell him what had happened I failed to catch the door before it slammed shut and yes then at that moment we were both locked in the garage. He then takes a broom and knocks off the glass from the broken window, let's us both out the garage. I immediately go to the front door ringing the doorbell and calling Aiden's name. She's yelling back "Mom, someone is at the door". I'm yelling as loud as I can so she could hear me "Aiden it's me Mommy, come to the front door and let us in" and she screams "WHAT?" Jake walks over and opens the front door..it was unlocked. WTHeck. I can laugh about it now. :o) What an ordeal.

After our ordeal we continued to get our things together and head out the door for our camping adventure. We drove to Folsom Lake, parked the truck & boat in front of our site and started unloading. Luckily our campsite wasn't too far from our parking space so we left the girls in the truck and ran the air conditioner and put in a movie for the girls to watch while we unloaded everything. It was nice because we were still able to unload and keep our eyes on the girls at the same time. Jake set up the tent while I organized the camping gear near our table. We were finally all set up and we let the girls out of the truck. Kyra being at the age of curiosity she wanted to first go exploring around the site. Our site was kind of awkward, we had to set up the tent on a little hill. Jake being the clever guy he is used an ax to makeshift a little step to get up inside our tent in the dirt. Very clever that man!!! The girls went inside and loved being in the tent. The first thing Kyra did was jump on Aiden's air mattress.

Evan, Steph & Liam arrive around 7:30 and we had dinner. It had been a long day for everyone. We all turned in around 9. Since our campsites were kind of far from each other we all turned in at the same time and didn't have Smores'. Kyra absolutely hates the port-a-crib. She cried the second we put her in it for bed. The last time we used one she fell asleep not too long after. We were hoping this would be the same way but not a chance. She cried and cried and cried. It was getting later and later. We took her out put her in bed with us and all she wanted to do was play so we put her back in her crib. Yeah...no way Jose. She cried again. By this time it was 11pm and she was still wide awake. I was scared that Kyra screaming was going to keep the other campers awake and we'd be the talk of the campsites. We took one last feeble attempt to put her back in our bed and at last she finally fell asleep at midnight. Neither of us got a good nights sleep but Kyra sure did. She didn't wake up till 9am.

Breakfast on Saturday was quite yummy. Jake made pancakes and turkey sausage. YUM-O. After the breakfast dishes were cleaned up we all got ready and put our swimsuits on we headed to the lake for some boating fun. It was so much easier getting the boat in the water this time than it was our first time boating with the girls. Evan, Steph, Liam, Aiden & Kyra stayed to the side until we got the boat in the water. We tooled around for awhile. Found a nice cove in the shade and ate our lunch and went swimming. We had so much fun!!! The kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

We tooled around some more on the boat and was heading inland when Kyra & Liam fell asleep on us so we opted to let the kids nap on the boat instead of heading back to camp for naps. Aiden does well w/o naps but she took a very, very short catnap. It was getting warm again so we opted to find another cove and go swimming. I was hoping Kyra would stay asleep while I went in but she woke up as soon as the boat stopped moving. Liam on the other hand slept for a little while longer. I think the motion of the waves really keeps Kyra sleeping. By the time we headed back to camp we decided it was too hot to cook on the grills and since we were close to some restaurants we would just go grab a bite to eat. We went to Round Table pizza and had pizza and salad.

The evening was warm. I tried putting Kyra down for bed and she wasn't having any part of it. I seriously think she doesn't like the port-a-crib. Jake knew I wanted to roast some marshmallows so he said he'd take over night duties with Kyra. We had been promising Aiden a smore' since we got there so we had to follow through with our promise. I went down to the firepit at the Evan & Steph's site and chit chatted. I went to take Aiden to the bathroom and Jake was in the car with Kyra who was screaming at the top of her lungs crying. He had the air on and the car running trying to get her to calm down and go to sleep in her carseat. Poor Jake he was again stressed out. I then took over Kyra duty while he went back up to the site to sit down with Aiden & everyone else. I had a talk with Kyra and told her it was night night time. It must have been 10-15 minutes later and she was fast asleep. Jake came down, took her up to our tent, put her in the crib and slept all though the night. She got a really good nights rest then. It is so difficult to figure out what Kyra wants when she's throwing herself and can't use her words to tell you what she does or doesn't want. So difficult indeed. We're looking forward to the time when she uses her words more. Maybe then it won't be so difficult for any of us. Poor Kyra and poor Jake. Kudos to DH for being so calm w/o letting Kyra see how frustrated he was. He's like me when we can't figure it out what it is that she wants or needs. After Jake took Kyra and put her to bed in HER bed he stayed with her. He wasn't feeling well. I went back to have some roasted marshmallows. Aiden sat on Steph's lap and fell asleep. Evan, Steph & I were up till 11:30 talking and sitting by the campfire. It was really nice to finally just sit back and relax awhile.

Sunday woke up to a cool...no warm...no a HOT morning. The temperature was supposed to get into the low 100's. Evan & Steph had breakfast duty that day. Evan & Steph woke up to ants in their food boxes & ice chests unfortunately. The biggest issue they had however was the french toast sticks that they brought got soggy in the ice chest. We did have some yummy scrambled eggs. All in all, it was a good breakfast despite the few setbacks. We packed up the campsites and headed our seperate ways. They were going to go home get some naps in and showers in. We were meeting our friends at the lake for a few hours and then meet up with E&S later that evening for steak, corn on the cob and roasted red potatoes for dinner (the dinner we were to have had to cook on Saturday night). We had a really great time with Evan, Steph & Liam. We are looking forward to our next camp adventure with them in the future.

Kyra is looking at Liam as if to say "How does that work"?

These 2 little characters have a language all their own. It's so fascinating watching them interact with eachother. They are only 3 weeks apart in age.

OMGosh, how can you not fall in LOVE with these 3 cuties. :o)

The rest of our camping trip photos can be viewed on our webshots. Camping Trip.

Our next camp adventure is coming up the weekend of July 9-11. We are going to the coast with our friends Ray, Gail, Robyn & Jim. We're going near Bodega Bay, campground called Salt Point SP. That should make for a nice weekend. Since we'll be near the ocean we're hoping for cooler weather. We're also hoping this time around Kyra will be somewhat behaved at night. But we're going to do everything we can to figure out how to best make the best of the situation. We're considering just putting her & Aiden in the tent and let her fall asleep where she lays her cute little head. Don't think we'll do the port-a-crib. Wish us luck!!!

Thanks for reading about our latest adventures as a family. See you next blog.

Boating Fun

Jake and I have a 1979 Thunderbird yellow on yellow boat that we inherited from his Dad after he passed away in 2006. We are lucky enough to be able to store it in Marysville during the winter at Mom's house. But since we have the new house we can house it during the summer, we have easier access to it as we please. We took the girls in it for the first time a few weeks ago. It was a bit difficult to maneuver how we were going to handle getting in the boat and waiting for the other person to come back after parking the truck & trailer In the past (before the girls) it was easier to put the boat in the water...however not this time. But it all worked out and we were out in the water. I dropped off the trailer & truck in the parking lot and walked down with Kyra to the dock where Jake & Aiden were waiting patiently. Other boaters...not so patient. LOL. We got in the boat and we were off.

Aiden sat on the floor of the boat at first and she freaked out a little bit. She was so scared that she was going to fall in the water. We assured her that she was OK and nothing would happen. Aiden wasn't fond of boating at first, but within about 10 minutes she was boating like a champ. She had her life jacket, sunscreen & shades and she was good to go. She was such a good girl. She did everything we asked her of her. We explained that while boating is fun but it is very important to listen and do what Mommy & Daddy asked of her to keep her & Kyra safe. We are so proud of her. She truly was a Big Girl that day.

Kyra took to water & boating like a champ too. She even sat in the drivers seat a few times hoping to drive. Hehe. Got pictures of that too! When we moored the boat in the cove, she was more than eager to get in the water. She couldn't get in fast enough. We thought for sure she was going to jump in without one of us being in the water before her. So many things about Kyra make me think she is so much like me. She loves water as do I. We are both WATER BUGS!

We tooled around for awhile on the boat and then it was lunchtime. The time snuck up on us pretty fast. We drove over into a little cove and had lunch and drinks and swam till we couldn't swim no more. Hehe. It was a bit on the hot side that day but yet the breeze was still blowing. One of my favorite things to do @ Folsom Lake is drive over to the Marina and get an ice cream from the little marina store. If you moor at the marina long enough you'll be lucky enough to be visited by the Geese that have NO MANNERS and beg for food. Haha. The girls got a kick out of feeding them some bread and snacks we had leftover from our lunch. The funniest part was one of the Geese was very brave because he was literally coming up to the boat and biting the side because Aiden wasn't throwing food to him fast enough. I have never seen Geese so aggressive but I guess when it comes to food they are pretty persistent.

I think Kyra ate more crackers than she did feeding the Geese. LOL

If you do so like, we uploaded the pictures to our Webshots. Boating. Enjoy!!!

Kyra Celebrates 2 Years Old!!!

Kyra's 2nd birthday party was a hit. We had her party the day before her birthday. We had family & friends come over to help us celebrate. She had a lot of really great gifts which she has either worn or played with alot. Our friend & balloon artist Tiffany wore her Fairy outfit and made all sorts of balloons for each of the kids. All her pictures from her party are on our webshots for your viewing pleasure. BIRTHDAY We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family. The girls are really lucky to have them as are Jake & I.

Jake & I took Kyra to Sears to get her 2 year pictures done. Please follow this link to see the rest of the pictures that were taken that day. Kyra's 2 years