Day Trippin'

The Otellio's don't take day trips much(so this is a long post). We've been to Sea World a few times and see a movie maybe twice a year. Usually we hit up local parks or just consider our weekly Costco trip followed by some frozen yogurt a family outing.

However this summer we made a little list of some stuff we wanted to do. 

#2 was Ride a Train

So we did!

We got on at the Santa Ana station and rode the 28 minutes to San Juan Capistrano. 

 The nice train man hurried us along...

We made it...

 The Los Rios Historic District has amazing adobe buildings, shops and little restaurants.

 Yes, I grabbed me a cup...cream behind the counter and no stirrers at 9:45am? Hummm? Oh well...coffee is coffee (for the most part) in my book. 

An old house.. 

I had bought a Jasmere (like Groupon) deal for Zoomars...$18 for us to get in 3 baskets of veggies for the animals and 2 kiddie train rides.

  We LOVE guinea pigs and my kids have always wanted to hold a rabbit. So when they saw a 20x20 pen filled with both running a muck they were in heaven. 
I'm anti-pet stores, circus' and can barely tolerate zoos-so I'm a little sketchy on the care ALL these little guys get-they looked happy and willing to be man-handled my dozens of kids though. What can you do?

We LOVE piggies!

I LOVE goats!

The pigs were sweet.

So were the ponies.

Emus are a bit creepy, but made awesome sounds.

A big cow:

The llamas win for best fur:

A $6 bag of dirt magically had "precious" gem stones in it while panning. I could have sported $12 for the bag that had a "real" arrowhead in it, umm. no.

Juliet thought it was awesome, I suppose that is the real point. (and I should grumble about the $6)

After Zoomars we headed to the the Los Rios Historic District to check out the historical sites...

(yes, I think this hilarious)

We had lunch at a little family owned restaurant that is in the old train depot...they also hold a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater there...it's really a beautiful building.

After lunch we walked by Mission San Juan Capistrano. Abigail went there in March on a field trip and Brad went the many times as youth, as did I. We didn't go in....Juliet will just have to wait four years until 4th grade so she can go too.

 We aren't getting into heaven anytime soon:

We saw a few photo shoots going on around town, there are SO many great spots for them!

Los Rios Park is fairly new. There isn't much shade, since the trees aren't mature yet. But the weather was great and the girls played until it was time to board the train to head home.

Here comes the Amtrak!

Abigail had a brief moment of panic when she read or heard something that said "this train runs non-stop to San Luis Obispo." (which is about a 6 hour drive away)..panic..almost tears. Even the "it's ok we have money to get home or someone can get us and we'll always keep you safe" speech wasn't helpful. Until they announced our stop was coming up. End of panic mode...thank goodness.

We were home by 3:15pm after stopping at 7-11 for some Slurpees. Later that night we went to Souplantation for dinner, stopped at a park for a while, then went home and all watched Kicking and Screaming (we love Will Ferrell-even in clean form)...I'd have to say it was just about the BEST.DAY.EVER. for us people anyhow.

♥

Insta-Friday: I & We Edition

I made these:

 I ate this:

 I love this (Mary Kay:big pimpin' edition):

 We helped save this:

I did this:

 We rode this:

(disclaimer:semi insta...because I'm a slacker)

Wordless Wednesday: Evil Edition

(honestly?)

Summertime Pantry Challenge

I came across this today:

Good Cheap Eats - oh, how I love cheap anything.

This is a site with great tips and tricks for saving money on your grocery bill and making yummy food. I look more then I actually try out the recipes, but this one caught my eye. 

I love the idea of actually using what you already have in your own cupboard to make stuff...you've already spent the money...use the stuff. 

Just pick up fruits, veggies and meats that are on sale and see what you can create.

Here I go...{disclaimer-not really attempting to be healthy here}

*Those last 6 frozen chicken tenders in the big bag from Costco that wasn't sealed properly and had ice crystals all over them...they made AWESOME shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches!

*Used my homemade marinara sauce with a half box of angel hair pasta I found in the cupboard.

*Can of Chef Boyardee raviolis-the girl acted like they had never had this sodium filled treat.

*Found two packs of frozen bologna (that'll last a while)

*Fish Sticks, not expired. Who Knew?

*3 pounds of hamburger

*3 cans of roast beef

*A few bags of frozen veggies

There's more in there...this should be interesting...add in the velveeta, boxes of mac & cheese and ramen and we are good go! (please take note my white trash humor here-though i really have all this stuff!)

I won't be as detailed as others participating in this...but you get the idea...assume some cereal, toast or waffles for breakfast (I love Costco so have plenty of all. And that bologna I mentioned before will be for lunch. A lot.

Something to Scratch Your Head About...

I have a gym pass. A two year pre-paid pass none the less (thank you Costco). This has been in my possession since January (yes I hopped on that bandwagon). I went twice. However now the super duper gym with a WATER SLIDE and kiddie pool has come to town (which meant a $214 upgrade and now it's only good for a year). I took Miss J on Saturday to play in the kids area while I got my work-out on, then it was pool time for her. She loved it. So today I got up the motivation once again to tackle those machines. Got myself and the girls ready. Miss A was overly excited for the slide (her sister isn't tall enough for it-oddly this hasn't been an issue with J yet)....so we get there:

There is one little four letter word that gives me the heebie-jeebies...every time I hear it I'm creeped out.{LICE}. This word literally causes me immediately begin to scratch my hair and instantly insist that something is in it. My one mild bout of lice came at age ten from sharing softball helmets... after which just about every girl in the entire league owned their own and lice became a memory. Until those dreaded mandatory "your student has been exposed to lice" fliers would circle around. 

So my sweating and toning (and by toning I mean jiggling)plans where stopped in their tracks...a mom told me of this 'great news' before I even entered the building. I literally stood there scratching my head. Miss A almost busted into tears on the spot. It took me a few minutes to realize the pool area was probably louse free...so unto the pool area we went, where my children had three life guards all to themselves. I rolled up my sleeves and basked in the sun for 50 minutes. 

Nothing like a lice scare to get a water slide and pool all to yourself.

Thanks 24 Hour Fitness!

{my head has been tingling the entire time I've been typing this}

The Simple Things...

Best $2500 ever spent.

                                        

Evil Woman.

Joy's Hope

I've never met this local blogger woman, but I love her. However she is evil...this is why:

I'm pretty sure(actually I know)I ate over half the pan of this stuff.

Thank you awesome blogger woman that I don't actually know...