Mini San Diego Family Vacation

We went to San Diego for a mini vacation since we didn't get away this summer. This is the first vacation we have taken in a few years that Alan's folks weren't with us and I must say it was kind of weird. The kids tried to get away with grandmas catch all motto of "We're on Vacation, anything goes" but it didn't work for them. I kept telling them that only works when grandmas there.
We went down for three days. On the third day we were supposed to see a Chargers pre-season football game. We were all excited to see it and then Lauren and I both got what we think was food poisoning. I started first, I tried so hard to keep going and not miss the game but in the end I just couldn't do it. We drove home early, which was fun with not feeling well on a 3 hour drive. Lauren started feeling sick on the way home. Poor Lauren threw up all night and felt horrible, I luckily did not. We both felt really bad the next day and took it easy. The day after that the kids started school and I had to go back to work, lucky us.
So our vacation, we did a ton of stuff. We went to the Wild Animal Park, The Festival of Sail, the Birch Aquarium, The Air & Space Museum and the Auto Museum.

Here's Alan in front of a motorcycle which was the first motorcycle he had when he was a kid. Look at that big grin.
The kids playing around at the Auto Museum.

This is at the Air & Space Museum. They had a Star Trek exhibit which we went to also but weren't aloud to take pictures. That was really neat. Both Alan and I always liked Star Trek so it was neat to see all the movie props.

Can you tell that this was at the aquarium???? No that's not a real shark eating us, ha ha.

Here is Lauren doing her Titanic impression. The Festival of Sail was happening while we were there so we went to explore. There were about 20 large sailing ships there. We bought the passports to go onboard them but only went to about half before Ryan had had enough of ships. It was neat to see the ships, but I was pretty much done too. Seen one sail boat, seen them all.

That wheel is awfully big, Ryan looks so small standing next to it.

Here is one of the ships. Most of them were like this though there was a Russion submarine that we toured too.

Here's the Wild Animal Park. Look matching hats. It was hot and we forgot hats soooo, we had to buy some.

So I opted for no hat, Alan got another hat to add to the River hat collection.

The jungle kids.......................

And here we have Ryan on his first day of school with Trent. Ready to start 3rd grade. He's grown up so fast. Lauren started 9th grade high school but didn't want me to take a picture. I wonder why.

That's all for now.

Night all, Kim

More Happening for August

I turned the big 40 on the 22nd so we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse with our wonderful friends for a nice adult only dinner.

I wore my new Brighton sandals that my wonderful in-laws gave me for my birthday and a cute top that I bought while out shopping with Ruth. I even changed my earrings, which I haven't done in probably 10 years. Mind you I haven't put earrings back in since the dinner, see how bad I am about that, that's why I just leave my hoops in and never take them out.














They even got me to taste an alcoholic beverage, the the always DD. As you can see by my face I wasn't impressed. Here are picture of our great night, Jen & Steve, Chris & Josh and Alan & me.

Lots of Happenings

Well I must say that August has been a super busy month. Here's the latest on the Carpenter clan in no particular order..........

The kids finished camp at Shoup Park Camp Sharwood

Here's Ryan with a couple of his counselors and a CIT



This was Lauren's first year as a CIT (counselor in training) at Camp Sharwood which she attending for 7 years as a camper. She worked (for free since CIT's don't get paid) for two 40 hour weeks.

Lauren took 6 weeks of summer school to get ahead this summer. She took one of her 9th grade classes early so that she would have a fun elective staring high school. She took Spanish as her first elective and since she went to summer school and got rid of one class she is able to also take Design in Glass as her fine art requirement.

We celebrated our usual mass of August Carpenter birthdays.


Here is a picture of Ryan with Aunt Honey who turned 95 this year.



Here is Kippy and me, both with August birthdays.





Carol this one's for you. Here is a nice picture of my wonderful in-laws, aren't they just the bomb!!!


We finally did it, the remodel is done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All that's left is to call for the final inspection but one of us needs to be home for that one. Alan's been traveling and I'm at work so maybe next week one of us can be home so we can get the final sign off. Keep your fingers crossed that the inspector signs off and doesn't want us to do anything else.

Here is our gorgeous frameless shower door, isn't it a thing of beauty. You know it is, go ahead and admit it. Towel bars are hung up, the mirrors are over the vanity, all that's left is some shopping with Ruth to get some things to pretty up the bathroom.

Here is the laundry room with the last of the door trim and baseboard done. We had to do jam extentions on this door which we thought would be a bear. We borrowed my brother Udo's table saw and it really wasn't bad at all, turned out really good too if I do say so myself.

Of course we're both trying to figure out what project is next. Stay tuned, there will definitely be another project on the horizon.

I took Ryan miniature golfing this month with Christine and the kids. They played miniature golf, did the bumper cars and bumper boats as well as played laser tag. So much to do when you go to Golf N Stuff, it's not just golf. Who'd of thunk it.


















Well there is installment number one of the August happenings.


Hope everyone is well. Love to all, Kim

I STAMPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and a remodel update

Look look look..................... I actually stamped, it seems like it's been forever.

Jen shared some "Riley" images that she got through the Wish RAK on SCS with me, thanks Jen. I thought he was just toooo cute and would be fun to use for Ryan's 8th birthday card. I just bought the Making Tracks wheel to use with the Born to Ride motorcycle set I bought off ebay a while ago and it was perfect for this card. The sentiment came out of my head, amazingly enough, printed on the computer, the coloring was with watercolor pencils and a blender pen. I actually used my Big bite crop-a-dile to set the eyelets. I bought that thing on the home shopping network months and months ago and hadn't even opened it.

Now there's a lengthy explanation and description for you ----------- I STAMPED ---


As for the remodel, well this past weekend we finished up the trim on the bedroom wall, plus we did the baseboard on the wall on the right in the photo so that only leaves two more walls in the bedroom. We also installed all the trim and baseboard in the bathroom. The plumber came today and hooked up the faucets, shower and toilet. It looks like a real bathroom, though it's still not functional. Bill has to install the listello for the vanity backsplash (you can see a couple of pieces of it sitting on the vanity along the wall) and he needs to seal the grout. Then we still need to get the shower door which I am getting a few more estimates for, though we're not opposed to using a shower curtain once the shower is ready until we get the new shower door. I need to get the towel bars and towels plus we need to hang up the mirrors. Oh yeah, the electrician needs to finish the last couple of items on Friday too.

Take a look, you can see the bedroom wall in the picture and then scroll down a bit and you can see it in a previous picture. What a difference a little baseboard and door trim makes..................

and here is our beautiful new bathroom, the double sink vanity and the corner of the throne. You can also see the shower with the fixtures......


Thanks for checking in.

Love to all, Kim :)

My 8 year old

Just a quick note - Ryan officially turned 8 today. I can't believe he's 8 already, how time flies.

Tomorrow I'm taking the kids bowling per Ryan's request and tonight he was able to pick dinner for his birthday so what do you think we had? You guessed it, Mc Donalds, what else!!!!

Here is a picture of the birthday boy with the presents he got from us tonight, right after this was taken he played his new X-Box game for a little while before going to bed.

Love to all, Kim

Bathroom tile complete..........

Can you believe it, the bathroom tile is DONE and doesn't it look beautimus? The bathroom is 6 feet wide, doesn't look it in the first picture but it is, and that's the shower at the end. The second picture is inside the shower looking at the seat and the cubie hole shelf thingy to put shampoo and stuff.

Here is the bedroom wall.......the carpet guys came on Tuesday night after Bill had finished the tile and fixed the carpet. It's the little things that are so great, not having to step on the turned over carpet pad to walk at the foot of the bed :-)

That's all for now. Oh yeah, tomorrow is Ryan's official birthday the 31st. He will be 8 years old. I can't believe I am the mother of a 14 year old and 8 year old, I thought I was still 25 but I guess I better wake up since my 40th is in just 3 short weeks.

Thanks for checking in.

Love to all, Kim

More remodel finished

This weekend we worked on the walk in closet and it's done.........................

We had to buy the baseboard and closet built ins, paint the baseboard, install the baseboard and door trim, wood putty the nail holes, calk all the trim, paint again after the calk was dry, then build all the cabinets and install them along with the closet rods. Sunday we headed to a second Home Depot to get the drawers which Saturdays Home Depot didn't have on the shelf. I stayed up late last night to unpack boxes and this morning I finished with getting the odds and ends like suitcases, sewing machine, aerobeds etc put away. IT ALL FITS!!!!! That's a really good thing.

Here are some pictures of the closet.........................

We also celebrated Ryan's 8th birthday which is officially on the 31st. He invited a few friends and wanted to go to the movies, we saw Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D. All the kids had a great time as did the two adults and two teenagers............................



See you all soon. Thanks for checking in.

Kim :-)