The Jones Girls

Friday, Reyna and all of us drove over to Casitas Lake which is in Ojai.  What a beautiful place!!   We ate lunch and enjoyed the views of the lake.  There was an awesome playground and the girls spent a couple of hours playing there.  

I put down a couple of big blankets and Reyna, me and Mindy laid out and watched the girls play around.   There was a friendly game of football going on so we rooted them on!!  

It was so beautiful.    We wanted to rent a boat, but I have no boat driving experience.  We will have to come back with Cliff and rent a boat for us!!

We got back and everyone played in the jacuzzi while Reyna made the best barbecue dinner for us!!  It was a wonderful day.

The weater was about 75 degrees – 20 degrees cooler than where we live.  It was so nice!!

Last Thursday we drove up to Santa Barbara and had a blast at the zoo!!    My childhood friend, Rene, and her daughter, met us at the zoo.   The Santa Barbara Zoo had so many beautiful exhibits and animals!!  The girls fed animals and cracked up when the pig kept oinking at them.    It was hilarious!!   We took a really neat train ride through the zoo.  It was a great way to get a tour of the zoo.  

At the end of our visit, the girls were cashing in on my promise to buy them a little something from the gift shop.  Savannah picked out a little stuffed giraffe.   Miranda picked out a 6 inch neon green crocodile that squeaked.  Maryssa picked out a 4 inch frog the ribits and lights up when you rub its belly.  She also picked out these cool rubber frog rings that light up when you press the head.   Amanda picked out a cute stuffed green gecko lizard.  She has been into lizards lately…

At 6pm we said our goodbye’s to Rene and her daughter Savana.  We drove down to our family friend, Barbara Hobbins, who lives in Ventura.   For dinner, we brought dinner for everyone and Barbara’s favorite, burritos from Chipolte.   We met her boyfriend Jim.   She has been keeping Scotty for us and she loves him.  The girls were so excited to see Scotty.  We got lots of pictures and everyone had a great time.

At about 9pm that night we drove to our friends house, Steve & Reyna.  They live in Oxnard.   We were up for a few house and then spent the night at their house. 

What a fun and eventful day we had!!

Yesterday we spent the day at Newport Dunes in Newport Beach.  It was amazing the difference in the weather…in La Habra it was 98 degrees and at Newport it was 75-80 degrees.   We spent about 4 hours there.    Took us about 40 minutes to get there, not a bad drive at all.

I was a little disappointed because their website mentioned they had daily crafts for kids.  When we got there, they had no crafts going on that day and they said that they run most of their crafts on the weekends.   Wish they had mentioned that on their website.

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Today Cliff, me and the girls ventured to Hollywood and Griffith Park.  We took off at about 10am.

We parked at Hollywood Blvd & La Brea Blvd.    Get this, these rip off tour operators want to charge $39pp adults and $29pp kids 3-11.  Hmmm, I smell a RIP OFF.    The tour consists of taking you to walk along the stars, driving around a bit and hear about interesting facts of Hollywood history and then go on a tour to view movie stars homes.    We could choose from an A/C bus, a double decker bus or a van that has an open canopy.    The offered us a discount of $30pp adults and $19pp child 3-11.  Triplets would be free.  Adding that up, it was about $120 bucks for us!!  Ummm, I don’t think so buddy, we will do our own tour.

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I spoke to my Uncle Ned on Friday and he invited us to spend Saturday at his beach house in Manhattan Beach.      He was spending the weekend in Orange.

So Saturday after our morning visit with Uncle Ron, who brought some yummy donuts for all of the kiddos, at about 10:30am we headed out and I took all of the girls and our dog Teddy down to Manhattan Beach.  It is about a 45 minute drive.

This was the first time my girls have been to his house.  I was so scared of them going up and down the stairs and also concerned they might break something valuable.   They thought his house was so beautiful – especially Mindy.  She said it was her very first time being in a 3 story house, plus a house on the beach too!!

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The next morning, Friday, our friends, Corrie and her kiddos, and Silvia and her kiddos came over for a water slide play date.

It also happened to be Corrie’s girl, Madeline, 5th birthday that day.  So we celebrated and had lunch which were corn dogs with fishie crackers followed by cupcakes.  The kids got to decorate their own cupcakes – putting on their own frosting and sprinkles.    We put a candle on Madeline’s cake and all sang happy birthday to her.

Mindy made a really neat birthday banner for Madeline and we had it hung in the house for her.  It made Madeline so excited.    Then all 5 girls colored and made pretty birthday cards for Madeline and we gave her $5 for her birthday present.   Madeline was going to Disneyland that afternoon and we wanted Madeline to buy something special for herself at Disneyland.

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That same day, last Thursday, I took all of the girls and our dog Teddy out for a walk in the neighborhood.    I made Shepard’s Pie and it was baking in the oven while we took our walk.   We were gone for about an hour.

When we got back, I heard Daddy Cliff’s voice coming from the backyard.   He said “Hey girls, I have something for you to see”.   Everyone squealed with delight and ran to the backyard.

They all stopped screamed and jumped up and down!!   Cliff had surprised them and put up their water slide!!  Mindy had not ever seen a huge water slide before, let alone in some one’s backyard!!    They threw their bathing suits on and had some fun on the water slide while I got dinner ready.

Thank you so much for doing this for us Daddy Cliff!!