The McDonald Clan » Tomi

8th Anniversary Bouquet

momitomi — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 01:10:43 +0000

Today was our 8 year wedding anniversary and Mike surprised me with a beautiful flower bouquet when he got home from work. He knows I like different flowers and he didn’t disappoint with this arrangement. I am so lucky to have such a loving and caring husband and I couldn’t think of a better dad for my kids. I can’t wait to have many more years with him.

Family Disneyland Trip

momitomi — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:49:41 +0000

Recently we took a family trip to Disneyland. We loaded up the kids and met my parents and brother down in LA for a mini vacation. We spent three days at Disneyland and we all had a really great time. It had been a really long since my brother had been there so, there were lots of new things for him to see and do. Aubri had a great time going on a lot of rides that were more her speed. Her favorite ride right now is Small World and we rode that quite a few times. She also really enjoyed the Jungle Cruise. Dylan proved to be a little more adventurous this trip. The first ride he wanted to do when we got there was Pirates of the Caribbean and he also agreed to go on Soaring Over California. He also took his first ride on The Matterhorn with Mike and Jacko and he really seemed to like it. Both the kids also really enjoyed getting their faces painted. Aubri chose to get hers painted like a puppy and Dylan went for a dragon mask. My dad and brother spent some time off by themselves and hit up some of the bigger rides. We always have a really fun time when we are at Disneyland, but I think that this trip was really special because the kids got to enjoy it with their grandparents and uncle. Hopefully we can do another trip like this again soon . To see the album of photos from this trip, please click here.

Posing with Mikey

Little Miss Aubri Kitty

Dylan with his dragon mask

Jacko getting ready to ride Toy Story

Me with my little goofball

Monterey Bay with Jonny and Casey

momitomi — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:39:01 +0000

One of the places that Jon and Casey wanted to go to while they were visiting us was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. So, Mike took off of work one day and we all went. We started out the day having breakfast at one of our favorite places “First Awakenings”. It is a great place to have breakfast and they have a really nice outdoor area that we really like when the weather cooperates. After that we headed over to the aquarium. I think everyone had a really great time and we got to see some beautiful fish and many other creatures. After the aquarium we headed over to have dinner at Bubba Gump. The restaurant is right on the water in Monterey and it has a beautiful view. It is one of Mike’s favorites so he wanted to be sure that we ate there while we were in Monterey this time.

Jon and Casey in a clam shell.

Aubri and I snuggling in a penguin egg

After dinner we walked down to a place where you can get out on the beach and walk down to the water. The kids had a great time burning off a little energy there and exploring with their Aunt and Uncle. Below are a few pictures from our trip. Please click here if you would like to see more.

Uncle Jonny checking out the Monterey Bay with Aubri

Auntie Casey checking out the rocks with Dylan.

Trip to China Peak

momitomi — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:11:13 +0000

The kids had been asking to go and visit the snow for quite a long time. I finally figured it was time to try to make a trip up there and let them experience the snow. My brother Jack had been wanting to go snow boarding for quite a while, so we decided it would be fun to head up there together and let Dylan snowboard, Aubri ski and Jacko snowboard. My mom came along also to join in the fun and help take care of the kids. The first day up there Dylan took a snowboarding lesson first thing. He really seemed to love it and he had a lot of fun. He fell down a few times and thought it was hilarious and then got right back up and tried again. The first time he fell, the instructor ran down to check on him to see if he was okay. Dylan’s answer while laughing was “that was fun”. After his lesson was over, Dylan decided he wanted to take another lesson, so he signed up for a second one later that afternoon. Once Dylan’s lesson was done it was time for Jacko and I to take our snowboarding lesson. I have been wanting to try snowboarding for years and I was excited to try it out. It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot harder than I thought it was giong to be. In usual fashion, my brother seemed to take to it pretty naturally and he was showing me up every time. I thought it was funny that when I got out the camera to video tape him he fell because he did really great most every other time. After a couple of hours, I had had enough and I spent time helping Dylan back up the hill so he could get some more practice in. That night we were all pretty tired and I think everyone slept pretty soundly.

Getting ready

Aubri watching with Grams

The next morning Aubri decided that she wanted to try skiing. Dylan thought it seemed like fun also so he was game to take another lesson and see what it was all about. Jack also decided he wanted to try skiing so he took a lesson on his own. Aubri seemed to LOVE skiing. She went down with a smile on her face and she couldn’t wait to get back up fast enough. Dylan lasted through about half the lesson and then he lost interest. He said he really like snowboarding a lot better so my mom took him back so he could exchange his ski’s for his snowboard and get some more board time in. Eventually they took the kids over to a little bigger hill and Aubri was ready with the other kids to take on this new challenge.

Excited to go!

Dylan and Unc's getting their ski's.

We all really enjoyed our trip up to the snow and we can’t wait to go back again soon. This time Mike really wants to come along so he can watch the kids also. If you would like to see more photos from our fabulously fun trip, please click here.

I have also put together a video of our trip. I hope you enjoy watching it!

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Gopher Snake

momitomi — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 05:13:56 +0000

I had an errand I needed to run out and do this evening. So once Aubri was asleep, I figured it was a good time to go. As I was getting to the bottom of the hill I noticed the people who live in the house that is on the lowest street corner were out in the middle of the street. Before I turned I saw they had a pretty large gopher snake that it looked like they were trying to usher across the street. I turned and pulled and over to the side of the road and went to see if they needed any help. They said they had been sitting on their deck and had noticed something in the middle of the road and thought it looked like a squirrel. He went and got his binoculars and then could tell that it was a snake that was coiled in middle of the road. They saw a car go directly over it and then a bus soon followed. They wanted to come down and try to get it out of the road. I guess they got it to one side before I got there, and then it turned around and headed back into the street. They said it looked determined so they just wanted to see it make it across the street. I chatted with them for a bit and helped try to keep the snake moving in the direction of the sidewalk. When it reached the side of the street however it turned and looked like it was going to head up the gutter in street. Luckily they had brought a big box down with them and we decided it would probably be best to get it in the box and then drive it back up behind all the houses and let it go where it wouldn’t be near the road. Where the snake was headed was in between the road and the freeway and there isn’t that much space for it to roam so we figured it would probably turn around and head back across the street and it is a fairly busy main street and it didn’t seem like it would be very safe.

I have had quite a bit of experience with snakes and we had been kinda pushing it along and it was pretty much ignoring us. I have seen gophers before that coil and strike if you try to mess with them, and this one didn’t really seem to care that we were there. So I decided I would grab it, I actually expected it to put up a little fight when I lifted it up, but it really didn’t struggle. We put it in the box and then when we were trying to close it up, it almost got out but we were able to get it back in. I put it in the back of the Mazda and threw a blanket on top of it. The couple made sure I would be okay and I assured them that it would be okay and with the blanket on the box I didn’t think it would get out.

On my way up to let it go, I thought I would run by the house and grab Dylan to go with me because I knew he would think it was really neat. So, I grabbed him out of bed and we drove up behind the house to find a good place to let the snake go. Dylan was very excited but also worried. When I told him it was a Gopher snake he though I said Cobra and I had to explain to him what kind of snake it was and that it wouldn’t bite him. He was very excited to see it in the box, but when it started to come out of the box, he lost a little bit of his braveness and kinda stood behind my leg. He really thought it was exciting though and followed it for a while until it turned and started coming toward him and then he thought for sure it was going to bite him. We couldn’t keep it headed out into the field so I figured the best thing to do would be to pick it up and take it out as far as I could and let it go. I gave Dylan the video camera because he wanted to take pictures of it and I took it out about as far as I could and let it go. As soon as I did, it turned and came back toward me and I thought for sure it was headed for the street again, but it turned and followed another path away from the street so I think it should be safe now. I ran and got Dylan so that he could see it disappear and say goodbye but we couldn’t find it once we got out there. I really hope that it stays out of the street and has a long life out there.

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