Summer 2010--we hiked to Stewart Falls

We started off the summer with a hike to Stewart Falls on Memorial Day. For those of you who know Chris, you'll know that this was definitely NOT his idea! Yes, I dragged my family on this hike again, and by the time we were done none of them were thrilled with spending the day this way. But the way I see it, what is better than some fresh air and exercise in the mountains? Nothing, I tell you! But my husband and children beg to differ, so you probably won't see many more hiking pics of our family in the next several years.

What did the Shippens do during summer 2010?

It's hard to believe the summer has come and gone. It was such a busy one, I haven't been able to even think of blogging until now. So I will attempt to update you over the next few days with blogs about what we did this summer. Let's start with the beginning of summer: these are pics of the kids on their last day of school, and Talia at her preschool graduation.

Robbie's last day of 4th grade

Sarah's last day of 2nd grade

Talia graduated from preschool

Spring break 2010

Spring Break 2010--we had been looking forward to this since January, when we bought our plane tickets. We went with two of our neighbors, the Carters and the Pratts, and had a GREAT time!! The Carters found an awesome house to rent in La Jolla, and the kids had great time playing together, swimming, and going to Sea World. We flew out Monday morning, and the turbulent plane ride put Cody right to sleep--yeah!! He slept the whole flight while the other kids watched TV (it was our first time on Jet Blue, but it won't be our last--LOVED the TVs in the headrest thing). We flew into Long Beach, rented our car, and drove down to La Jolla, stopping along the way in San Juan Capistrano to eat tacos for lunch. When we got to the house we unpacked and relaxed in the pool, and the women went shopping for groceries. While the house was great, it was a little understocked and we had to go buy our own towels, soap, TP, paper towels, kitchen towels, etc. The house was great, and really big, but it did have a few issues, mainly a water heater that only worked half the time. Two of the bathrooms always had hot water, but the hot water for the other three bathrooms was very temperamental. We experienced a few cold showers/baths, and ended up taking turns for the one shower with hot water.

Tuesday we went to Sea World. The highlights of the day:
1. Talia rode her first roller coaster, Journey to Atlantis, and LOVED it!! She held her hands up the whole time, and begged to go again.
2. The Shamu show, still a classic and a family favorite
3. The walrus and seal show
4. Feeding the dolphins
5. Cody's squeaky shoes, which drew attention everywhere we went
6. The play area at Sea World--the kids had a blast!!
7. Kids eat free at Ruby's diner in San Diego, which is where we went for dinner after our day at Sea World!

Lowlights of the day:
1. Losing Talia somewhere between the dolphins and Shamu stadium (she was found by the staff and taken to the security office; it was very scary for us and her, and I must say that Chris stayed very calm and didn't lose it while we were trying to find her)
2. Cranky Cody, who refused to take a nap in his stroller
3. Tired, hurting feet after a day of walking

Robbie and the starfish. My kids actually liked the sting rays the best, but I couldn't get a picture of them touching one.


I'm pretty sure this was in the shark tunnel.

After riding Journey to Atlantis--Talia looks ornery becaused I told her we couldn't go again. I splurged and bought a poncho so I wouldn't get soaked on the ride--best $8 spent of the whole day!!

Wednesday we spent the day relaxing at the house. The kids spent most of the day in the pool and hot tub, and some experienced their first sunburns of the year!

Sarah is my little fish and loves swimming!!

The view from the back deck--AWESOME!! Talia is one of those kids in the pool.

This is the back of the house--it was a perfect house for the three families, even if the hot water heater only worked half the time!!

Late Wed afternoon, the women took the kids to the beach while the men went shopping for steaks for an evening BBQ. We had to hike down over some rocks to get the the beach, and just when we were enjoying ourselves, a huge wave came in all the way up to the rocks and covered everyone except me, Talia, and Cody. All of a sudden we had wet, sandy, screaming kids while we were trying to chase down our bags, towels, shoes, cell phones, etc that were being washed away by this wave. Not fun. Needless to say, our beach experience lasted a whopping 45 min, and we were glad to leave. This is a pic of Talia before the "tsunami 2010" hit:

Thursday we lounged around in the morning and went to the USS Midway aircraft carrier in the afternoon. The kids liked the tour, even though we didn't finish it. After the aircraft carrier, we went to Seaport Village and got ice cream at Ben and Jerry's and let the kids ride the carousel (which, by the way, Cody was terrified of).

Talia on her carousel horse

Pics on the USS Midway

Friday we spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing and swimming some more, and then packed up and headed back to the airport. We experienced Fri evening traffic in California (YUCK!!) and then our flight was delayed leaving. We finally got home at 1:15 am, tired and already missing the warm weather and ocean breeze from California. Another great spring break vacation was over!!

Easter 2010

OK--it's been SOOOOO long since I blogged, and I can't possibly update all that has happened since Halloween last year, so I won't even try. I'll just start from now, and hopefully will be a slightly more frequent blogger from here on out!
Our Easter week was VERY busy. We colored eggs for FHE on Monday of that week, because I knew there would be no time later on in the week to do any coloring. The kids had a great time, and experimented with multi-colored combinations.

Later in the week, we said goodbye to Chris's sister, brother in law, and their kids--very sad, because our kids and their kids are very close, and Jen is one of my best friends. We will miss them a lot. They moved to Arizona, so now we have two family members we can visit when it gets too cold here! On Saturday morning, the day before Easter, we were on the road bright and early to travel to Idaho Falls for my grandmother's 90th birthday party. We listened to conference on the way up, and had a wonderful afternoon celebrating with extended family I haven't seen in a few years. After the party there was an easter egg hunt for the kids, and then we headed back home--lots of driving for one day!

On Easter morning, Robbie and Sarah were up at 6:30 (seriously! I just wanted to scream, "Please, kids, it's not Christmas!!!") looking for their baskets. At 8:30 they still had not found them, and they both had to have a little help from mom to finally find them. That made Chris all ticked off, because he thinks that if they can't find them on their own, they shouldn't have them at all. Anyway, I didn't take any pictures on Easter morning (I know, worst mother award!), but I did take a video of them having a silly string fight with the silly string that was in their baskets. Check it out--and don't worry, they did have to pick it all up!

Easter ended with conference and a dinner of leftovers so we could empty the fridge before we headed off to California for spring break vacation.

Halloween 2009

Talia picked four different Halloween costumes this year, and was a cowgirl, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Hannah Montana (I know--cringe, cringe. I tried to talk her out of it, but obviously failed) at different events/parties. Good thing we didn't have to buy any of these costumes--we borrowed the cowgirl costume, and the others are dress-ups that she got as gifts from previous birthdays.

Here she is as a cowgirl for her preschool party. Please note--we couldn't find cowgirl boots in her size, so she thought her winter boots would work great. I agree!


Cody was a grumpy astronaut:

Robbie was a whoopie cushion for school and Halloween day. He dressed up as Barbie for the family party, but the school and his father will not allow him to go out in public cross-dressed!
And Sarah was a wonderful zombie/mummy--we couldn't decide which one the costume looked more like. Here the kids are just before going trick-or-treating:

Pumpkin carving time!

Our annual pumpkin-carving evening was held Friday night, and we had a great time! The kids are learning to scrape out the guts of the pumpkins better, so that means less work for me! Talia carved a small pumpkin that she got at Pumpkinland when she went there for her preschool field trip. Robbie carved a shark and Sarah did a scary face. I didn't take a picture of my masterpiece, but I carved an NY for the Yankees, since we're rooting for them to win the World Series! (Actually, I could care less who wins the world series, but my husband and son are die hard Yankees fans, so the pumpkin was really for them) Go Yanks!

Shippen Halloween Party

Some highlights of this year's Halloween party:

• Adam dressed as a Cafe Rio worker
• Becky dressed as Julia Child
• Skeleton scavenger hunt
• Frankenstein pinata
• The boys dressed as girls (Colton as a cheerleader; Robbie as Barbie)
• The ball-playin boys (Jackson and Kaden)
• The nurse and her patient (that would be myself and Chris, who was still game to host the party even though he was 3 days post-op an emergency appendectomy!)
• The wonderful witches (Bev, Melissa, Ella, Lily)
• Witches brew, i.e. homemade rootbeer
• Doughnut eating contest winners Adam and Colton
• Ashley and Cooper dressed up as characters from the game of Clue
• My photogenic zombie, Sarah, who ended up in almost every picture I took that night!

Here are some pics of the night: