"It's Terrific...The Aquarium of the Pacific"

So it's Teacher Appreciation Month at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It is occasionally nice to be a teacher because places like this will have discounted rates.... sometimes. We have never gone before because it would be like $100 to go without the discount, but since it was 1/3 of the price we went for it. 

The weather this winter has been unusually rainy- much to Ryan's dismay as this means his planned trip to walk the John Muir trail may not happen because the snow pack is 165% above normal... Anyway today it was beautiful!

Most of it was outside which was great on a 78 degree day, but it got really crowded as the day went on.  They had lots of touch tanks with jelly fish, crabs, sting rays, sharks. They also has penguin, otter, sea lion exhibits to name a few. 

They also had a bird aviary where you could buy a cup of nectar and the birds would fly up and land on you to drink it.  That was pretty awesome.  It was a great day!!!

In other happenings since December, the kids had award assemblies at school. Aiden and Zoey both got a slue of awards for citizenship and academics.  Aiden was even Student of the Month in December! He also passed into 2nd grade on a computer program they use everyday called iREAD!! (he's in Kinder)

Our city also (finally) got a trampoline park that has a rock wall the kids love!!

Ryan brought out his guitar and the kids play it all the time. We also got them into Monopoly and bought a National Parks version they always want to play. Grandma and Grandpa Grover sent up their piano to us and we are learning how to play.

Finally, last weekend before the rain came we went on another "Treasure Hunt" (really it's called Geocaching).  It's the best way to motivate the kids to go on hikes!  We went out in search of 3 "treasures" and found them all!  All the while going on a hike on part of the Pacific Crest Trail. On our way home we were trotted at by a herd of wild horses (I say they came running at us, but Ryan disagrees...we settled on trotting) . Not sure if they were warning us off of their babies, or looking for food, but it was enough to give us a 3 minute fright!!!

Here is us walking the trail and finding the cache!

Until Spring Break when our next adventure is.............

renting a Cruise America and going to Joshua Tree National Park!!!

-The Cheney's

Wow are we behind!!!

Well it's only March and we're finally doing our Christmas post (don't judge).  Since we use this as our family picture album, I need to update. So here it goes....

We had our first Christmas in our now house this year.  It was the first time that we woke up on Christmas morning and had Christmas with just us!  We usually are at one of the grandparent's houses, but this year due to papa Grover shattering his elbow, we decided to  shorten our trip down to see them so we wouldn't overwhelm him....not just yet.  I was actually excited to have a Christmas "our way"with just the 4 of us.

 The kids came out and saw the loot.  The Santa presents were not wrapped, and Aiden got a "Walking Dead Zombie Shot Gun" and Zoey got a "Baby Alive- baby goes bye bye" that actually talks and pees :)

Then it was time to get the stockings and make some hot chocolate before opening the wrapped presents.

Now it was on....one at a time we each took turns opening our gifts. The final picture is all the loot (for this part of Christmas). Ryan got some books written by John Muir, a Raider's short sleeve shirt, and Raider's lights for his man cave (3rd car garage). Teresa got a necklace and a ring that the kids bought her at the Christmas store at school and a large clock for the dining area from Ryan.

After a hearty breakfast of all our favorites (scrambled eggs, hash browns and of course bacon) we drove down to Dana Point for Christmas round 2 at grandma and grandpa Grover's house.
There were tons of presents including Green Bay Packers stuff for Aiden!!!

We each got new blankets for our cold nights here in Lancaster. The kids got some more crafts to make, hot wheels, shopkins, legos, and the list continues......  Then it was Gingerbread house making time followed by our Grover traditional Chinese food for dinner.

We stayed the night and then drove back the next morning.  It was a great Christmas!!!

New Home updates

So,
     We closed on our new house on Nov. 22.  It was built in 1992, and needed some updating. So, since we had some money left from the sale of our old house, we decided to update.

Here is the kitchen before:

With it's white tile .......ugh!   Here it is mid-project:

And here it is with the new Quartz counter top and new deeper (love it) stainless steel sink.  We still want to paint the cabinets, but that's a large job for later:

Next up was the kids bathroom.  We decided to rip out the old vanity (so ugly) with it's seashell sinks and all.  We also tore out the extra shelf above the toilet and replaced the mirror and faucet. In doing all this, we also now need to replace the flooring since the old tile doesn't cover the whole floor anymore.  We'll be doing that at the beginning of the year. But for now, here is the before and after.

and finally.....the Master bath (my personal favorite).  We kept the vanity but replaced the counter top with a white/black quartz, replaced the seashell sinks with new modern square ones, replaced the faucets, drawer pulls, and changed the mirror into 2 separate ones.  Lastly, we decided to paint the vanity a grey color to match.  Here it is before and after:

Til Next Time-

RTSZAW