Homeschool? Fun time? Family time?......YES! All of the above!

For school a few week ago we studied cartography. If you don't  know what that is, it is map making.
We walked around our hometel and made notes about the thing we saw and where we saw them
 then we went back to our room and drew what we remembered. After that we took to the walking
 again and drew as we walked. After we were finished with that we compared our drawings
 and maps to the map that the hotel gave us. The kids did great and had a wonderful time.

P.E or fun pool time what ever you want to call it. We have been lucky enough to take the kids
swimming almost everyday for the last 8-9 months. They have grown leaps and bounds as swimmers.
 At the begging of our adventure Bobby was a very scared swimmer. CJ was not comfortable in the water
and always wore a floating device. Eva was fearless in the water but didn't have the strengthen or skill to
 swim unassisted. Lindy was just a baby floating around in the little baby seat. Now Bobby can swim with
 out fear and even likes to push his limits trying new trick and racing to beat his best time across the pool.
 CJ  now  loves the water, can swim with out a float, and even likes to dive to the bottom to collect toys.
 Eva is still fearless in the water but now I don't have to worry so much because she has built up her stamina
 and can swim across the pool unassisted. Lindy went from the baby float seat to a toddler life jacket
 to arm floats, she loves the water and loves the freedom to kick all over the pool.

After a fun night of trick or treating the Maravilla clan the kids dumped out their buckets and began to sort,
 count and trade their stashes of candy! It was a super fun Halloween.

After we studied about the history of Dia de los Muretos, we headed down to Old Town San Diego
 to go the annual festival. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot too.

Mom and CJ at the festival.

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Sugar candy skulls from the festival.

While in Old Town we stopped by the Mormon Battalion Fort. It is now my favorite church history site!
If you ever come to San Diego don't miss it! After we learned about the Mormon Battalion at the fort we
 went home and studied about it in the Doctrine and Covenants.
 The kids will never forget this history lesson!

Shutdown!

In case you were living under a rock and missed it.....the government shut down a few weeks back.
With the shut down in full swing, Colt's job got put on hold until the government reopened. We had been in San Diego for a short 2 weeks, when we had to pack up everything and load back up the car and head "home". The only problem with this is that we technically don't have a home. I  mean we are still residents of  Colorado and all of our information and our house is there, but our houses is rented out. Oh and the drive back to Colorado from San Diego would have been way to far. So because of our gypsy life style we have adopted Grandpa and Grandma Stevens' home as our "in between home" and they have so graciously welcomed us.
We spent about two weeks in southern UT during the shutdown. We had lots of fun. We were also able to get a lot of things done that we needed to. We found new doctors for all the kids. We were able to get some plans going to deal with our storage unit. We were able to get Bobby all squared away with his Cub Scouts stuff. We were able to organize and repack the right clothes that we need for San Diego.

Cub Scouts!!!! I come from a family of all girls, so this whole scouting thing is new to me. Luckily for Bobby and I, Colt is an Eagle Scout, Grandma raised 5 Eagle Scouts, and she is the Cub Scout leader in her ward!!! We worked hard and Bobby was able to earn his Bobcat while we were in UT. He was able to attend his first pack meeting and his first den meetings. I think after my quick run down of what I need to do as scouting mom, I can handle this and it will be FUN!

We were able to be in town for Grandma Gubbler's 80th birthday. It was so fun to see her with all her family and friends. People came from far and wide to wish her a happy birthday. It was also nice to catch up with extended family that we don't get to see very often.

After a the government reopened Colt went back to San Diego and the kids and I stayed for a few more days. I wanted to stay so Bobby could go to Day Camp. He had such a fun time. We also had a few doctors appointments.

We also had to make a very sad choice. Our dear sweet Lola was starting to get the short end of the stick with all of our traveling. Every time we go to UT our inside dog has to become an out side dog. When ever we left the hometel she had to come with us, but when we got to where ever we were going she had to stay in the car, because dogs aren't always allowed. She now has a new home, but thankfully she was adopted into a loving home and we will get to see her whenever we can. Thanks Nana and Tata it makes us all feel better that she will be well taken care of!

Lucky for me Colt's brother Brice offered to help me drive with the kids to San Diego. I was glad he was with me, because on the freeway there was an accident and a huge traffic jam that was backed up for a long way. We pulled out our maps (GPS) and found a detour down a back road, if he wasn't with me I would have just been sitting in the row of brake lights with 5 tired kids. We finally made it to the "hometel" at 2 am.

Lola!

Brandi, Colt and Randy.

Lindy and Aunt Brandi

Bobby putting his Bobcat pin on mom.

Bobby cutting the flag.

Bobby helping retire the flag with the American Legions.

Lindy enjoying the camp fire.

Eva and Lindy up in a tree.

Lindy helping in the yard.

Piano lesson with Julia.

Learning to work the VCR.

  

Old Friends

This was from about a month ago! I will be spending some time playing catch up! Please bare with me.

We are all so excited that we already have friends in San Diego. We love this family so much. We got to spend a lot of fun time with them over the week. First they had us over for dinner and family home evening. Allison made a wonderful dinner. The kids had so much fun playing with their younger kids. Their older kids are so sweet and so great with the younger ones. We all enjoyed their company. Later in the week we went to the beach together. First she took us over to see La Jolla cove where all the seals have just taken over. The smell was unbearable, I almost lost my lunch behind my car. We talked to the lifeguard and he said it was so bad because it had just rained and washed all the poo off the rocks they sit on. We then went to La Jolla Shores. I LOVE THAT BEACH. The sand was so soft and perfect for building sand castles. The water on the west coast is FREEZING!!! The kids didn't seem to care about how cold it was they jumped right in and started jumping the waves. I loved getting to catch up with such a great friend.