There's a first time for everything!

On our first official day of spring break, my daughter broke her wrist in 2 places. A fun night spent in the ER at her dads work to get her arm in a full cast. Kind of killing the freedom of the week! We go in for the hard cast next week. She can get all her friends to sign it and she's very exited for that!

After that unwelcome start to our break, We took a quick planned trip to look at colleges with her cousin and aunt during the week. Since I didn't go to college it was very eye opening. I have been freaking out for the last year about high school and now I have a whole new fear in how to pay for college! I will say it was very hard to look at these kids and schools and not have a tinge of jealousy. I wish that I had been inspired by anyone in my life to go to college. Many people say to do it now, but I can find a million excuses to not go back. Most involve time and money. I keep saying, someday....

Back to the college visits. We went to Cal State Monterey. A very nice looking school and super small. If you are into tech or marine sciences this is your school. Otherwise, I wasn't impressed.

The weather was beautiful during the week. I got a nice little face/chest tan. I wish I had been more preparred for the weather. We stayed overnight in Morro Bay and had a gorgeous view of morro rock. We went out to the rock and walked around. The kids took of their shoes and chased the waves. We saw otters and squirrel rats (as I call them) We walked around the downtown had dinner. It was a great evening.

Next up, Cal Poly SLO. I was definately impressed with this school. Beautiful campus, lots of friendly/helpful kids. Great Tour guide. We met up with a former student from tays school and she was super helpful. She even let us see her off campus house. It was such a typical student apartment. Reminded me of my first apartments.

After our visit we headed in the opposite direction to Hearst Castle. Since this was the first visit by the aunt/cousin we did the same tour #1 we've done before. I think later this summer, tay and I will head back and do tour #2. It was a gorgeous day to visit an amazing place.

We then headed south to down to Santa Barbara. On the way we stopped at my dining place, Addamo. I wish I wasn't driving so I could have tasted. I don't think anyone else really cared about my wine but me. Oh well. Next time I'll just stop for wine and keep heading south.

We arrive in SB after 8pm. Too late to look around and too early to go to bed. We just lounged, cleaned out the car, showered. No alarm needed the next day since our tour was at 11am. At this point toh and tay were tired of walking around. Cyn was getting tired too. I was getting there, but then we got to the campus. OMG..such a beautiful place. The weather was fabulous, the campus was active with students on bikes, playing soccer, studying and even laying out on the lawn in their bikini's! This was a true so cal school with the exception of our over achieving tour guide. Scholar student, A++ grants given. She told us the tale of her first "C" and how she turned it around getting help at office hours. I didn't really think toh liked the school, but her mom said she did however it was far away from home. A concern for both parent and child. To me it doesn't seem so far, but I like to travel and love the sun/sea so I'd be inclinded to visit my daughter over having her come home if she was at a coastal school.

I had wanted to stop in Solvang on the way home, but found I just wanted to get home. We had hung out at campus for a bit after our tour. Had lunch in the student union and got to watch the ASU speech/debate. Tay was really paying attention to this! I don't think my kid was too impressed with the schools as she is too young to care. She was super pissed that I did not purchase a sweatshirt for her at any school. Really, her arm is in a full cast, by the time she can wear it, summer will be here! No good reason to spend $50 on a sweatshirt.

All in all a good time. I have been talked into a trip to magic mountain with the kids this summer. Tay feels that she's old enough to handle it. I suggested we check out some additional so cal schools and throw magic mountain and disney into the mix. We'll see. We have a busy summer planned and are waiting on scholarship information for 2 seperate camps for taylor. If she gets in we have a small window of time to do vacatons. Plus, I really don't want to spend money yet, since we'll be doing our big spring break cruise next year. Less than 1 year from now...can't wait!

Hope everyone had a great easter. Final countdown to the summer begins..yahoo.

They're over...phew!

Well the competitive sports have ended. We now can go straight home after school to do homework and make dinner and the "normal" family things. Although "normal" really is a thing of the past. So many of the kids from kindergarten thru high school don't really sit for family dinner anymore. We are all lucky if we get 1 night together. With the amount of homework and activities these kids have it's amazing they can do it all. My daughter has realized her limits. She has decided to go down to one sport at a time next year. Soccer and volleyball with a possible softball team. Depends on if she makes volleyball and when ends.

It's been an interesting year so far in middle school. While tay has started off well she struggles in one class. It's so frustrating to watch them struggle. I think back to my middle school days and really can't remember my parents helping me with homework or even checking to see if it was done. Really nothing back in the past happened until it was too late. Nowadays we are trying to get in front of the problems so they don't happen in the first place. Is that right or wrong? Should our kids experience some kind of failure?

For example, last weekend was tays last volleyball tournament. They tanked it. Teams they had beaten hands down were kicking our butts. The girls, however, we having a great time. Goofing off, laughing having fun during the breaks. At the end of the day a couple of them, including my child, were shrugging their shoulders at their last place finish. So what, who cares. Have we protected them so much from failure that when they do come in last they don't care? And personally, I think they should care. I received a little blowback when I stated that I was displeased with their performance. Aren't we supposed to learn from our mistakes? How are we supposed to learn if we don't think or care if we're making them.

Just my thoughts after the end of our first official year of team sports.