Surfer Boy

Last Saturday Zack's friend Connor had a surfing birthday party. His Mom is the party guru and always goes all out and this year was no different. They paid for the kids to have surfing lessons out at the beach which is a dream come true for Zack. Zack loves the beach and the ocean so he has always wanted to surf. So we headed out to the beach for a great family day because of course we wanted to see him surf. The one thing we did not plan for was how cold it was going to be at the beach. Every year I forget that even though it is hot in Simi it does not mean it will be hot at the beach. And how long have I lived here??? So we were freezing and unfortunately the rest of us did not get in the water but at least we had towels to bundle up in.

The surfing lessons were awesome but I kept thinking there was no way that all of these kids were going to be able to get up on their boards. I was amazed though and by the end of the two hours all of them had pretty good rides. After about 2 hours the kids slowly started coming out to play on the shore but not Zack! He was the last one in the water and loving every minute of it! He was awesome! So now we are going to rent some boards and Zack is going to teach us how to surf. It looked so fun!

The hard part was putting on the wetsuit, especially because he was already wet and sandy. Like the instructor said, "It is just like putting on pantyhose" to which Zack says "Oh OK".

Of course he had to do some posing on the board. He had the longest board there!

First, they had to learn what to do while they were on the sand and then they graduated to trying it in the water.
And there is my boy! Surfing the wave all the way in. I must say he has pretty good form.

Thats our surfer boy! I don't think that this will be his last time surfing - He loved it!!

Magic

Well Adam has been on a kick lately of getting me new appliances and I will not complain because I love new things. The newest toy I have gotten is the Magic Bullet. It is on sale at Costco right now, it has a $10 instant rebate so we decided to pick one up and try it. I love it but I think more than me, my boys love it! They have used it more than me. It is great because whenever they are hungry they just go in the kitchen and whip themselves up a smoothie. It is great for protein shakes, smoothies, milkshakes and more. It is suppose to even grate cheese and chop onions but I haven't even used it for that yet. I am just waiting to make salsa or guacamole in it. Yum! So far I give this new appliance a 5 star rating, Nothing better than finding the kids making themselves breakfast or a snack using fruit and preparing something that is actually healthy for them. Love it!

Mmmm, Mmmm, Good!

Moving On - So Long Elementary!

Picture above is the first day of Kindergarten for Zack and the picture on the left (standing the same way) is Zack on his last real day at Elementary school. It makes me cry to see how much he has changed physically but he is still my little sweetheart and my cuddlebug! They grow up way too fast!

Adam is such a Loser!!

Adam is a Loser! The BIGGEST loser that is! There was a weight loss competition at our gym and the person who lost the highest percentage of weight in the 8 week period would win $500.00. Adam and I, being the competitive people that we are and also needing to lose weight, decided to sign up so that we would get motivated to work out and eat healthy. Well, it was a close race down to the end but Adam pulled ahead and won first place!! Way to go Adam! He lost a whopping 42 lbs in 8 weeks! I did come in 2nd and I was the top losing woman competing. I was able to shed 36 lbs in 8 weeks...not too shabby. Of course, 2nd place wins nothing but Adam and I said that if we won 1st and 2nd we would split the winnings in half since we were in this together. But Adam, being the sweetheart that he is and knowing that I worked hard for this, decided to give me all of the winnings so that I can go buy new clothes. Yippee!! Not only is he my biggest loser but he is my biggest sweetheart!!!!

**As previously noted in an earlier post...this is the classic "Walden Pose". Sorry!

Goodbye School Plays

Last Friday night we went to see Zack perform in his class play at school. It was a very cute musical about America, Daniel Boone, the "Golden Spike", yada yada yada. He was so adorable in it! He is quite the little actor and of course he had some dance moves and his singing is pretty good also. All in all, he is a pretty good performer and likes to be onstage. It was really cool though because one of the boys who play one of the main parts was sick the night of the play so Zack had to fill in at the last minute and he did both of the parts perfectly. You would have never known that he was filling in at the last minute. He knew all the songs and dance steps perfectly. We were quite proud of our little performer!

It makes me sad though to realize that this is probably the last school play that I will be having one of my kids perform in. Unless Zack does Drama in middle school or high school but I highly doubt that he will. Elementary school is the best and I am really sad to see it come to an end but all things eventually end. We will enjoy these last couple of weeks of it though!

Hiking for a Good Cause

Saturday we participated in the Tyler Broberg Rollercoaster Hike and it was a great experience. For those who did not know Tyler, he was a wonderful teenager in our Stake whose life came to an end in an accident last year. He was such a good kid and was admired by many. They came up with a foundation in his name, to honor his good life, and have raised over $100.000 for the Habitat for Humanity organization. Wow! It is truly a tribute to the wonderful young man he was and also for such a great family that he has. They had a fundraiser hike on Saturday and I believe that over 200 people were there. It was a beautiful day and the hiking trail was awesome! It ended up being such a great tribute to a young man who led an exceptional life and touched many peoples lives in such a short time on this earth. Truly an amazing experience!

Some pictures from the day-

Oh Happy Day!

I finally got a new Roomba! On Saturday Adam took me to get me my new Roomba and it is the new model! It looks sleeker, it is quieter and has better attachments. I love it! I guess the holding off of vaccuuming a few weeks helped my case. The floors really do get dusty fast! It was really embarrassing because we watched the neighbors dog this last week and he went around eating all the crumbs off the floor in the kitchen. And I thought I kept a clean house! He was kind of like my Roomba. It is a happy day (and a clean day) in the Walden home again! Yeah!