Happy Easter

We had a quiet Easter at home this year. Our plans were to be in the desert dirt-bike riding, but with the Southern California "rain watch" we decided to wait it out and head out after the rain, which NEVER came to our area!! Surprise! Then it got to be too late on Friday to go (sitting in traffic at 5ish) and too long of a drive to go on Saturday morning - so the Vosselers stayed home. Easter Sunday was nice. After going to church in the morning, we all played croquet, ate chocolate, played video games, ate chocolate, had an early dinner, and finished off the evening with some chocolate! 

Now we're back to school and work - and as Andrew proclaimed yesterday, "I'm through with high school, I have major senioritis" Poor boy, only nine more weeks of HS! Mike's off to Florida tomorrow for a week or so to get Yardhouse finished and opened by Mother's Day next month. Chris is busy looking at apts/condos for rent with his buddies. This should be VERY interesting! Lauren's back into swim full-time after suffering from swimmers ear over Spring Break - good timing, heh? Izzy's making plans to go see Adam in North Carolina next month - we are a busy bunch!! What about me, you ask? Well, I'm home holding down the fort while everyone's off and running -

Happy Easter

Kernville

What a beautiful weekend we had at Camp James in Kernville with Janis & Don!! Camp James has done some much needed renovations, like getting rid of all the 'full-timers' to make way for more camping spots. Our camping site was on the river and the sounds were soooo soothing. The kids got some much needed R&R (actually, I think the word is BORED!) Kernville is a place that never changes, the smells, the trees, the raccoons, the river all bring back fond memories of spending many weekends there as a child with my grandparents, which we hope our kids will remember as well. We spent most of our time in camp playing cards, reading, relaxing and of course EATING!! Why is it that camping brings out the hunger bug? It seems all we did was go from one meal to the next - no problem, really! The kids went fishing with Don and came home with many LARGE tales! We couldn't have asked for a better weekend weather wise - sweats in the early morning/late evening and shorts in the afternoon. Ahhhh... camping is the GOOD LIFE!

The Vosselers

SPORTS Stars!!

Didn't I tell you we were heavily involved with the kids sports at this time? What a weekend it was for Andrew and Lauren. Andrew had a volleyball tourney all day on Saturday, they placed 1st in the Bronze division. Lauren had a swim invitational on Saturday (literally ALL day - she was gone 14 hours) Lauren made the OC Register for her personal best in the 100 FREE Style. This was an Invitational with 10 schools participating - what a day it was! Monday she had to return for the Invitational Finals to which she placed 2nd in the 100 FREE Style and 2nd in the 100 Back, plus the other team events that she participated in placed 1st and 2nd, which gave Pacifica a First Place trophy for girl's Varsity! Again, Lauren's name was in the OC Register! We are so excited about this team! What a great bunch of girls!

Since the weekend, we've attended two swim meets, and a volleyball game - we don't know if we're coming or going at this point!

We're taking the weekend off from sports and heading to Kernville! We'll be camping along the river and enjoying some piece and quiet with Andrew and Lauren.  Look for photos to come. 

Love 

The Vosseler Family

Sports! Sports! Sports!

This seems to be the season for sports in our family! Everyone's getting into the action!! Andrew's on the varsity team and had his first volleyball game of the season this week - they won 3/5 games. Last night we enjoyed watching Chris play basketball with his 6' under team, which they lost.  And Lauren had her first swim meet today.  She did well and we expect to see more time shaved off her strokes as the season continues. 

The weekend will be spent at a volleyball tournament and a relay meet for the swim team. How do parents attend two team functions in the same weekend? Beats me! Lucky for us, the California sun will be shining on us! Here begins a weekend of Sports & FUN!

Thoughtful Thursday!

I want to share with you my Thoughtful Thursday story. This idea originated at Kayleigh's Story. My husband works for Yardhouse Restaurants and each month they give him Yardhouse bucks to spend at the restaurants as a thank you and incentive to bring in family and friends. In the past, we've taken friends & family out for a nice dinners and always used every cent of our Bucks (which total about $300 per month). Well, recently I was out with friends enjoying 'Happy Hour' with 1/2 price food items and having a great time. When our bill came, I paid with my YH bucks and still had $25 left over -which had to be used by the end of the month. I looked around the restaurant and noticed a very young couple sharing a pizza and having a couple of sodas, obviously, a date. I interrupted their meal and told them that I had $25 to give them to put towards their meal. "Order dessert" I told them! You can imagine the look I got! The first thing out of their mouths were, "What do we have to do to get it?" I explained to them that my husband worked for the restaurant and I was GIVING them $25 - they still had a look of disbelief on their faces! Why would I choose them? Is this for real? etc, etc...  I wished them a good evening and left the restaurant - walking by the window I was watching their expressions and they seemed to be flabbergasted that this happened to them! I think from here on, I'll make it a habit to give some of my bucks to those in the restaurant. The reaction I got was priceless and I'm sure this young couple went home to tell everyone how lucky they were.  

"Been to Death Valley"

Mike and I headed for Death Valley this weekend with my my sister, Janis and her hubby, Don and some of their friends. Our intent was to view the 'wildflowers' in bloom, hike and enjoy a weekend of camping. Well.... if any of you have ever been to Death Valley, you're probably laughing your head off about now. First of all, the flowers were NOT in bloom and we did our camping (first night) in a dirt parking lot with no hook-ups and quiet hours from 7am to 7pm, with NO FIRE-RINGS!! Needless to say we were tired from our long drive so we headed to bed a little early that night. Janis & I awoke early the next morning to put our names onto a 'first-come' list for camping with hook-ups at the 'resort'. NO problem, we were #2 & #3 on the list!! We had to stick around camp till 11:00 to see who was leaving so we could have a spot. Well... the resort is not a RESORT!! It's an extension of the dirt parking lot, with the only exception of having FULL HOOK-UPS. Yippee! We could run our lights, a/c, water, etc BUT we still had to abide by the 7pm quiet time and still NO fire-rings! Camping aside, Death Valley is just that... DEATH - not much to do here, I think we saw most of everything in our 2 1/2 days there. We hiked to see shiny granite, the valley floor, a ghost town and took the tours of Scotty's Castle. Scotty's Castle, you ask? Well.... let's just say that once home I 'Googled' the castle and believe it or not there is lots of 'story telling' going on there with a few facts mixed in to make it interesting OR is it the storytelling that made it interesting? At any rate, we can say we've "Been to Death Valley" and won't be going back anytime soon. Next trip? Hmmm

Weekend Stuff

What a weekend! We got to drive to Malibu (I'd never been there) to watch Pacifica's varsity waterpolo team play a CIF game. It's been a pretty exciting journey - Lauren and some of her JV teammates were called up to sit on the bench as 'extras' for the Varsity CIF game. Lauren didn't play but she had a great time rooting her friends along. In the end, we lost to the "Malibu girls with attitudes" but our girls held their heads high and accepted defeat.

Mike's been busy working on the trailer getting it ready for our trip to Death Valley next weekend. I'm ready to roll... pack the food/clothes and WE'RE OFF!! The kids will be staying home by themselves, so if you see a party or smoke call the police!!

Love

The Vosseler Family