McComb Family

Adam's soccer schedule

We just had our first soccer game! Adam's team started off a little shaky and the other team quickly scored two goals. Then we came back and it was 3-2! In the last second of the game the other team scored again, and we finished with a tie score! Great job for their first game playing actual positions (which they are still learning!).

Adam was up trying to score a goal right before half-time, but the goalie ended up stopping the ball. He tried to kick it back in to play, but it bounced off Adam's face first. Ouch! He decided he wanted to go back in as goalie rather than risk getting hit again. He actually did a good job and stopped several goals, although it can get a little boring down there when the action is on the other end of the field, and sometimes you just end up chit chatting with your buddy and don't really know the action is starting to come back your way!! Should be a great season though.

All of his games will again be at District Field in Georgetown on the following dates:
9/11 - 12:30
9/18 - 9:00 and 11:20
9/25 - 1:40
10/2 - 12:30
10/9 - 10:10
10/16 - 1:40
10/23 - TBD
10/30 - TBD
11/6 - TBD

Briana's team plays off the Divide this year, so we are still waiting for her schedule. Her first game will be on 9/11. When we find out when and where, I'll be sure to post her information as well.

Posted in: on Sunday, August 29, 2010 at at 12:09 PM 0 comments

First day of school 10-11

Here is the first day of school. Briana's backpack was so heavy she is doubled over in the pictures because the thing weighs more than she does. Luckily she left most of the stuff with her teacher and has since lightened her load, but the girl is going to have serious back problems!

Adam and Addie (together in class again!)

Adam checking in with the help of his new teacher Mrs. H -- he loves her!!

Brie and her teacher Mrs. Remillard -- she's having the best time so far!

Brie and Taylor

We're all to a great school year so far. One week down.....

Posted in: on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at at 2:48 PM 2 comments

It's hot!!!

The kids and I had to leave today, because it's just too hot. So we hit up the air-conditioned stores and got some school supplies. What did Bret do -- stay home and work on the roof! Good idea! It's 100 degrees today, and he's out of beer. *shudder*

While the kids were picking up some school duds, I decided I needed a new dress for Bret's reunion this weekend. And maybe I can even use it again for my reunion in November. Anywho....I couldn't decide, so I'm putting it out there to you. Which one do you think would be best? The reunion is at the Power's Mansion (sounds ritzy!), but as Bret pointed out, "I didn't know there was a mansion in Auburn." We shall see.

Don't pay any attention to my rat nest hairdo or the fact that I don't have shoes on or the fact that I'm sweating like a pig because it's 100 degrees and we don't have air conditioning (sure wish my husband was a contractor or engineer or someone who knew how to fix things!!!), which outfit do you think I should wear?

Outfit #1 -- blue to match my eyes and totally comfy

Outfit #2 -- cute but will totally require Spanx

Outfit #3 -- similar to #1 but black and shorter

What do you think -- do tell!?

Posted in: on Thursday, July 15, 2010 at at 6:56 PM 6 comments

Last Softball Tournament

This weekend is the last All Stars Tournament for this year. It will be down in Elk Grove at the Elk Grove Regional Park on Saturday, July 10th. The first game is at 12:45 and the second one is at 2:30. If they win a game, they will play again on Sunday, but most likely we will be done on Saturday.

Directions to the park are: South on 5 or 99 to Elk Grove Blvd, go left (east) onto Elk Grove Blvd, turn right (south) onto E. Stockton Blvd. to the park.

She will be playing on Temporary Field 2. Park in lots P-3 or P-4 (parking is limited).

It feels like summer is quickly coming to an end, so it will be nice to have some time without softball practices and tournaments!!! We can actually go on a family vacation -- Maui here we come!!!

Posted in: on Friday, July 09, 2010 at at 1:45 PM 5 comments

Father's Day

Father's Day started off with a softball game for Briana down in Rocklin and then a trip up to Loon Lake with the McComb family. When we arrived we were greeted by a fox -- who would've thought!!! Apparently Dennis has been catching critters nightly at his house, and the night before he had trapped a fox. He decided to relocate it to Loon Lake, so we all watched as he got ready for the release.

The fox wasn't too sure what was going on. He ran down the hill a bit, stopped and looked around. We all thought he might run back and climb back in the trap. But, he eventually headed off over the hill, hopefully to find a nice little home in the mountains.

The day was going to be spent kayaking, and since Todd, Dennis, and Robb all own their own kayaks the only person left out was Bret. I thought it might be fun for him to have one of his own, so his Father's Day gift was his own inflatable kayak. Todd drove it up for me, so when we arrived we leaned it up against the Jeep and Adam (eagerly!!) led him over for his surprise!

It was a beautiful day, but a little chilly!!!!!

Luckily we had seasoned pros around who knew exactly how to inflate the kayak, so here is Bret and Adam giving it a go.

Todd set up the BBQ and we had a delicious meal out on a big rock slab. Not too shabby!!!

Here's most of the gang chowing down.

Adam definitely enjoyed his burger!!! Look at the size of that thing -- it's practically as big as his head!

Then we hit the water. Brie rode with Robb, and she was an awesome rower/paddler/oarer (?). So awesome in fact that the next day she was freaking out because her "lungs" hurt. I told her those were stomach muscles she doesn't ever use that had gotten a little overworked the day before. I don't think she's ever been sore like that before. It's a great workout!!

Todd & Brenda, Dennis & Anne, Austin & Alexxa, Robb & Brie

We went for quite a while. Here we are having finally found one of the inflows into the lake.

Here's a little waterfall we found.

Adam on a rock island. He's pretty trusting still that we would actually come back for him!! :)

And finally, we had to get a family shot before we left. It was so beautiful there, snow still on the ground in spots, gorgeous scenery, a brilliant blue lake. Can't wait until the next time!!

Posted in: on Thursday, July 01, 2010 at at 6:33 PM 4 comments

Santa Barbara

Most of you have probably read the condensed version of our daily activities in Santa Barbara last week, but here are some pictures to go with the stories.

We ate lunch on our way down in Moss Landing. We could see kayakers paddling by, sea lions swimming around, and boats going in and out of the harbor. When we finished lunch the kids wanted to go take a closer look at the sea lions so we headed that direction. As a was taking pictures of piles of sea lions, I noticed a little baby. A man asked if we had heard about it in the newspaper and we replied no. He said it was very unusual for them to be born in Moss Landing and a rare sight to see. As we were taking pictures of him, a big sea lion next to him knocked him off the pier and into the water. He was too small to get back up, so he swam across the water to the rocks. The kids were so upset that his mom might not come back and get him, they wanted to go down and rescue him. I'm not sure what they were going to do once they got him, I don't think they thought that far into their plan, but they were certainly concerned. We had to leave before the mom came back, so we all hope he's doing well!! You can see a video on the newspaper web site here.

We continued down Highway 1, and it was an amazing drive. The views were beautiful, so we ended up stopping several times to take a closer look and of course take some more pictures. A man offered to take a picture of all of us at one of our stops, so here we are. You can tell it was slightly windy!!!!

We made it down to the San Simeon/Cambria area that afternoon and checked into a motel. I don't realize how loud my kids are, living in a fairly good sized house out on 5 acres, until I put them in a small room with other people on all sides. Just goes to show how spoiled we are! We headed across the street to the beach, but it was windy and cold. That didn't stop the kids from playing in the water though. Brrrr!

We headed out the next morning to finish the trek down to Santa Barbara. Adam thought this big rock near Pismo Beach was cool, so we stopped to take a picture of it. This is the five minutes of the trip they were acting like they actually liked each other!!!

We didn't have anything planned for the afternoon once we got there, so we headed to the zoo. Very cool!!

The next day we went to meet Jason and Luisa at Kids World. Jason is Ken and Helen's son who is here from Australia while his wife does some research through UCSB. It was great to catch up with him and meet his daughter Luisa. And the kids loved this park. It was build next to a gigantic tree and is just a kid's dream park. They would have stayed all day but hunger finally won out!!

We checked out Michele's office and the touch tanks at her school. Then we walked across the street to the beach. Yes, her office is that close!!

The next day was devoted to Stearn's Wharf and the beaches around there. The kids found plenty of things to spend their $20 on that Dad gave them to spend. We had lunch on East Beach and played at West Beach (had to try them all out!). The kids buried each other and ran in and out of the water. They wanted to try boogie boarding, but that area is pretty protected and there weren't any waves.

The last night we were there Michele and Ben had us over for a BBQ. Everything was wonderful. The kids even got some pool time before we ate!

It was a great trip. So glad we went. And hopefully we'll get down there again soon!!!

Posted in: on Monday, June 21, 2010 at at 5:11 PM 4 comments

Day 4 of our SB trip

We had a nice lazy morning today. Finally got up ang going, and Michele stopped by to say hi. We headed to the grocery store and got all stocked up for a day at the beach.

We headed downtown to Stearns Wharf. We went to East Beach and had a picnic lunch. Then it was off to the wharf where we had to hit up the gift shops (some of them several times) in search of the right souveniers. Next we went to West Beach for fun in the sand and water. The kids took turns burying each other before heading out into the water.

From there we headed to Michele and Ben's for dinner. It was fun to see their new place in person. The kids went swimming in their pool because they haven't been in the water enough this week! The food was great and all of Ben's family came over too, so the company was great as well. The only not too great part was having to watch the Lakers win the championship, but when your host is their biggest fan, you go along with it!!

Posted in: on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at at 10:37 PM 1 comments

Day 3 of our SB trip

This morning we headed to meet Jason and his daughter Luisa at a park. It was awesome -- the kids could have spent the whole day there!!! :) We went to an Irish pub for lunch (kids request -- hehe!) and then headed to UCSB to meet up with Michele.

She took us to see the touch tanks, which were really cool. Briana loved the sea hares! Then we saw her office which looks right out over the ocean. I would not get one bit of work done if that was my view!! We then walked right across the street and went down to the beach.

The kids splashed in the waves and built a sand castle (which was really more of a pile of sand with a big moat around it!!). They tossed kelp in the water and caught bugs. Good times!

Then we headed to Jason's rented house in The Riviera. I don't know anything about SB, so that didn't mean anything to me, but oh my gosh what an amazing view they have!! I found a place I wouldn't mind moving to!!! :) We had fajitas for dinner (yum) and brownies and strawberries for dessert (double yum!). It was great to visit with Jason and Gia, and the kids had a ball with Luisa.

Another fabulous day!!!

Posted in: on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at at 10:02 PM 0 comments

Day 2 of our SB trip

Adam woke up about an hour before Brie and I this morning and very nicely folded, put away, straightened, and organized everything that needed to get done. What a boy!!! He finally got us up and going, and we finished the last part of the drive down to Santa Barbara.

We got down here and Michele met us for lunch and getting settled in the Chateau Johnson. :)

We then headed to the zoo for the afternoon. It was a fun, adorable place. The kids were bummed that the Crooked Neck Giraffe wasn't there anymore, but they still enjoyed themselves. Lots of pics to come!!

There was then a park, dinner, visiting, ice cream sundaes, and a late bedtime for one little boy. What a fun day!!