What's Up Wednesday

Linking up with Shay, Mel, and Scheaffer for What's Up Wednesday this week!

What We Are Eating:
Anything grilled! I love to make food but I hate the cleanup so I've been just throwing meat on the grill and it's turned out yummy most of the time. Pork tenderloin, whole red snapper, chicken - all on the grill..

What I'm Reminiscing About:
My trip to visit my family in California and hanging out with my people.

What We've Been Up To:
We have a little bit of a break between out trip to California until we head back out to Cancun so we're using it for downtime. Aside from swimming lessons and church camp for Mark, we are just hanging out at home.

Mark and his buddy walking to camp. So cute!

What I'm Dreading:
I'm kinda dreading the back to school shopping.  All 3 boys have 3 different school supplies lists and hunting for the school items can be frustrating.

What I'm Working On:
We are planning vacation for next summer so I'm working on researching places and things to do.  The choices are completely different - an adventure vacation to explore and visit my family in Asia or a relaxing, tropical vacation to Hawaii. Can't lose with either, I think.

What I'm Excited About:
My new stuff from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale.  I know, it doesn't take much to get me excited.

What I'm Watching/Reading:
I just discovered that my kindle is broken - battery not charging. I was in the middle of reading this. So far, it's just OK.

Before that, I read this. So good! I finished it in like 4 days.

I'm hoping to get my kindle replaced by our Cancun trip because I had planned on going through a few books.

And I'm indulging in reality TV.  I'm keeping up with RHOC and Jojo on The Bachelorette. No drama in my life so I've got to get a dose of drama elsewhere.

Even the hubs wants to know what happened during "Men Tell All." Ha!

What I'm Listening To:
Whatever is playing on the radio in the car.

What I'm Wearing:
Lots of tank tops and shorts. Oh, and gym clothes even if I don't make it to the gym.

What I'm Doing This Weekend:
We have no plans, but Mark has been wanting to go see The Secret Life of Pets so we will probably do that.

What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month:
Our vacation! I'm looking forward to going to Cancun with the family.  M and I took a trip there without the kids at the beginning of summer and it was so relaxing, but we missed the kiddos. In less than a week, we will be taking them with us to a family rest and I think they are going to have a blast!

What Else Is New:
Nothing really. We are just summering around here.

What Is Your Favorite Part About Summer:
No schedule! We go to sleep whenever and wake up whenever.

That's what's happening here!  Have a great rest of the week.

Friday Favorites - California Bound

Today we are flying to see my family in California. I'm very excited to see them and to play with my Ben-Ben and Makena!

I'm linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea for Friday Favorites to share my favorite things to do when I'm in California visiting my family.

{ONE}

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row, Fisherman's Wharf

We visit Monterey almost every time we visit California.  The older boys are getting a little tired of this place, but I still love it.  I'm hoping as they get older, they will learn to appreciate this place again. Mark loves it here especially the touch pool and the KidZone.

Posing out in Cannery Row.

Our favorite thing to do here is catch the feeding show in the Open Sea exhibit.  

{TWO}

San Francisco Giants

I may live in Texas but my heart is with San Francisco when it comes to sports. Catching a baseball game at the beautiful AT&T Park is one of my favorites.

{THREE}

Farmers Markets

One of the things I miss about California is the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables during the summer months. The farmers markets here have so much variety and are so much better than any I've seen in Texas. So going to visit the Farmers Market is a favorite.

{FOUR}

Berry Picking

We sometimes go to one of the many farms around the are to pick fresh strawberries.  Nothing beats red, ripe right-off-the-vine strawberries! We can also pick blackberries and olallieberries too, but strawberries are your favorites.

{FIVE}

Napa Valley and Wine Tasting

M and I try to make time to go and visit some wineries when we are in California together. With his work schedule, he can't alway go with us when we visit California, but when he does go with us, we try to do an overnight in Napa Valley. I love Wine Country. It is one of my favorite places in California.

{SIX}

Just Spending Time With The Family

We try to visit my family at least twice a year. Last year, we went 4 times so it was very nice to see them so much. I think it's important for my kids to see and get to know the people who love them. It's important for them to see each other in order to maintain and build a close relationship because we live so far away. It's so special to see my kids interact with their cousins! And I'm so excited to welcome another niece or nephew in November.

A Day in Our Lives

Random post on what we did last Tuesday. To be honest, it was a pretty full day for Mark and I - not typical on a summer day. Mostly we stay home and swim or just hang out.

I woke up bright and early. Not 5:58 early, closer to 6:30. I made my coffee and got online to check emails, read my blogs, etc...

I'm loving my new mug from my trip to Waco.

Then I went out to water my plants. Best to do this in the morning when it's not so hot.

Mark usually wakes up closer to 9 on a summer's day, but he decided to get up early this morning so while I was picking up, watering and doing a load of laundry, he was doing this.

We headed out to the gym after I fed him breakfast. Post workout selfie. It was a hard class so it kicked my butt.

I fed all three boys lunch and then headed off again with Mark to see a magic show at our local library.  They put on the best programs for kiddos. Mark loved the show and laughed his little head off!

As we were walking out of the library, he saw Jamba Juice and informed me that this was a perfect day for a smoothie. How can I not agree?

Then we walked over to one of my fave stores. He found a friend while I browsed around for some workout gear.

We met up with a friend to swim for a little bit. These two were born on the same day, in different countries but found their way to each other and became friends. The world works in wonderful ways.

I left the older two boys home to fend for themselves during all these activities with my Mark. This is the first summer that I'm comfortable leaving them home and it's pretty awesome. They just hang out, snack, and for the most part, stay out of trouble. I call them constantly to make sure they are OK, which they think is annoying. That's the price to pay if they don't want to participate!

After dinner and showers, Mark and I relaxed with a cup of chamomile tea and a little TV before bed.  On this night, we watched Maya the Bee.