Change...

the other day I had to drive out to Rancho Santa Margarita.  Since I 

wasn't really sure where I was going I pulled up the directions on my phone.

It took me out the Ortega Hiway past our old house and farther.

I was trying to remember the last time I was out there...it's been years.

What a change!

All of the orange groves that were there are gone and

the hills are graded for houses.

I could hardly tell that this was the "dump road corner" it had

changed so much.

this is a sign that says that there are going to 12,000 homes in

Rancho Mission Viejo.

What the heck!

When we bought our first house in San Juan Capistrano 41 years

ago, there were only 5,000 people in the whole town.  There wasn't

a market (had to go to Capo Beach Vons or up to Mission Viejo).

There was a drive-in movie and after soccer everyone it seemed was at Thrifty's getting 

ice cream.

Our friends were telling me that the dump road is finally going to open all the 

way to San Clemente.  So is that going to be another way for those

12,500 families to get to the beach?

Passed On...

last week Aunty Traci was having a sample sale.  Bri and Emme came over to 

hang out.  Lauren had recently cleaned out her room and had all of her "Pet Shops"

ready to give to Emme.  Aunty Traci got them out and Emme played

with them all morning.

She loves playing with those cute little things.  Lauren had collected and played with

them for a lot of years, so there are a lot of them!

Emme took them home and has played with them everyday since.

It's so nice that she has a cousin that passes such wonderful things on!

Recliner Racing...

Saturday we took Grey to see "How To Train Your Dragon 2".

It was just the 3 of us, Lauren was at a party, Jack was in Minnesota and Emme

was taking on a project at home.

Grey wanted to go to the theater "where they have the food".  Cinepolis in Laguna Niguel.

After we placed our lunch order, Poppa showed Grey how to have

a race in the reclining seats.

"one, two, three go...!"

I don't know which was funnier,

them doing it or Grey laughing hysterically because the leather

seats made a "tooting" sound as they moved.

S

They thought this was so funny.

What can I say?

Doesn't matter the age, boys just think that's a funny sound.

Fred...

the Eyelash Gecko.

Jack got really good grades, so he said that he wanted to get a pet reptile.

There happens to be a specialty store in SC that only has reptiles/amphibians.

So he got Fred.

Fred is pretty cool.

He's mellow.

He loved my bright colored dress I had on…it was pretty funny how he jumped

on me and wouldn't let me out of his sight until I covered up.

I like Fred.

Pie Not...

Friday when Traci picked me up from the airport, she asked me where I 

wanted to eat.  She knows a lot of really good places and we talked about the choices.

Since we didn't have the kids with us, it opened up a whole different list (but Lauren is

pretty easy "gourmet shrimp taco" is something she loves).  Anyway,

Geoff had told me about this place 

"Pie Not" in Costa Mesa.  I had really wanted to try it.  I gave them

a call to see how late they were open and if they still had any GF pies.

We made it before closing time and before they were sold out.

These are Aussie Style meat/veggie meat pies.

They recommend that the ones with a top crust, you flip out of the pie tin 

and hold in your hand.

So yummy!

And they had the "Blood Orange San Pellegrino" sparkling water!

I got the "Drover" it was like a mini shepards pie

topped with whipped potatoes and loaded with meat and veggies...

Traci got the GF veggie curry one and said it was great.  Flakey crust and all!

Pie Not...a little bit of heaven in the US of A

Spooky Decorations with Class...

Last Saturday hubby and I went up to Newport to have lunch.  

On our way back we stopped at Roger's Gardens. 

We hadn't been there in years.  We were both expecting lots of 

beautiful flowers, so I took my camera. 

 Much to my surprise, the whole place had been transformed

for Fall/Halloween.

They had a whole area that contained the most beautiful (expensive)

Halloween decorations that I've ever seen.

One of the coolest things was a whole display of holograms...

like those that are at Disneyland.  I tried to snap a photo while it was changing.

Roger's Gardens at Halloween, very cool!

From This 2 This...

Lauren has gone from flipping all over Waikiki,

to building her own balance beam in the house,

to taking real gymnastics classes at a local gym.

She's a natural!

Sunday Funday...

We had the most perfect day at San Onofre.

The weather was perfect, the water was warm and the kids had a blast.

All four of the grands having a blast.

Miss Emme moved all of the big rocks

Dinner on the beach...

hot dogs, poppas favorite!

Nothing better than dinner on the beach!

A Reunion of Sorts...

Last week I was at Kono's and I heard someone call my name.

It turned out to be one of my hula sisters from California.  They own a

place here in Haleiwa and were here for two weeks.  I called

Dave and Iris and we set up a time to have a potluck at their place,

which is on the beach at Kaiaka.

There was a ton of food...

Kalbi ribs, fried rice

one of my favorites, Spam pancake (thank you Iris)

We brought Paalakai chicken (of course)

It was nice to hang out on the grass in front of their place

 Mahalo Kathy and Terry for having us 

over for a hula sister reunion...

It sure was nice.

Last week...

Miss Emme at brother's soccer game with her baby...

Grey playing Spring soccer,

Jack reciting at his Chapel performance...

Lauren, after spending part of the week in Sacramento on her fourth grade

trip, she hung out at Jack's baseball game.

Glad I got to spend some time with these guys!