Friday, May 30, 2014

Memorial Day Weekend

Now that Jon has a "regular" job we just can't get up and go whenever we want to.....we have to plan it all and then of course make sure he can get a day or two off. The boys are having a hard time getting used to this because before Jon was usually home during the summer. Even though he was usually studying in his bat cave, at least he was home and had a more flexible schedule. So since he had a long weekend this past weekend we headed to one of our favorite spots in California.......San Diego!

Our San Diego Zoo/Safari Park passes will expire in June so we thought we'd take advantage of the passes before we can't use them anymore.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the zoo:





On Tuesday we went to the Safari Park to explore their latest exhibit....Tiger Trail.


The Tiger Trail did not disappoint! The tigers were amazing.


Another favorite..........Lorikeet Landing




We saw these two cubs in January when they were just a few weeks old........they're getting big!!

Monday, May 5, 2014

AWANA Grand Prix

At the beginning of April they announced in AWANA that May 3 was the big grand prix. Jojo ran out of the chapel that night so excited to buy the block of wood and start on his project. While they were buying the block of wood, one of the directors said that Naynay would be able to participate too but just wouldn't be able to get any awards........keep this in mind.  So, Jon walked out of the AWANA store with two wooden blocks and no idea how in the world we were going to create two awesome derby cars.


And this is where "Uncle Jimmy" and "Papa Keith step in.  Without their help there was no way we were going to live up to the boys' expectations for an awesome derby car.


Uncle Jimmy worked so hard on the cars that he even got his tool stuck in his sweatshirt.....LOL!


Once we had the shape of the car the boys got to sanding.


And then the whole process of painting the cars started. The boys were beginning to get very impatient.


At the very end this was the finished product! Pretty cool!


On Saturday the boys and Jon headed to the AWANA grand prix for the big race day.


I love how they decorated everything and made it such a special day for the kiddos.


Jojo's car wasn't very fast but...........

he won first place for best design. Nathan on the other hand came home so disappointed because his car won first place in every race but since he's in Sparks he couldn't get any awards. The judges loved the look of his Corvette and he would have placed first in most authentic but once again he couldn't get an award. They were nice enough to give him an honorable mention ribbon though. It was a great teaching experience because he is so competitive and always wants to win! This just wasn't his opportunity to win and he needed to accept that!!