Alfaro Forever!: July 2010

July 31, 2010

Audriana's new love.......Country Music!

I'm not sure who I have to thank....Aunt Kristi, Uncle Mike, and Grandma all listen to country music. The music influence at home has always been Latin inspired (Martin, obviously) and 70's classic music, funk, current, progressive (actually, all music except for hard rock, and rap). Some Country here and there, but it certainly has never been a music "staple" in our house at all......but all of a sudden, it is all Audriana wants to listen to! We have music playing a lot of the time on our tv (Comcast has lots of music channels). It's usually one of Martin's latin stations...until recently. I would say that this has been going on since May.......her favorite songs right now are "Water", by Brad Paisley and "Rain is a Good Thing" by Luke Bryan. We've all kind of gotten into the Country bug because of her -- in fact, I love both of those songs now too. Audriana knows all the words to them -- so does Sofia! When we get in the car, Audriana makes sure we have one of the Country stations playing. And she almost always says..."turn it up, Mommy"! It's funny. The jury is still out on how Martin feels about his daughter's newfound love......he say's he'll stick to his music, thank you very much!

July 25, 2010

Loose on the Palouse 2010 -- Valley Ford, WA

The girls got to ride their bikes in their very first parade today!!!! Granted, it was an extremely small parade, traveling about 1 block, with only a dozen or so entrants, but it was so cool!
Lynda Williamson (mom to Caleb and Nikki) was the one who had the idea for our kids to ride their bikes in the parade. They live out in Freeman and had heard about this small town parade from the gal at the local coffee/espresso stand, On Sacred Grounds. The parade began at the Fire Station and traveled on the Palouse Hwy, about 1 block, to the coffee stand. They had some live music, as well as about 20 or so art vendors set up for people to see.

Martin had as much fun as the girls did! He helped them decorate their bikes and get them ready for their big ride. The best part of their bikes was their bubble machines that he secured to the front of their bikes. The girls turned on the machines just before they began their ride and it worked like a charm -- bubbles everywhere!

Nikki and Audriana began Montessori Central together when they were 3 (along with Maria Bennett). She now goes to Freeman Elementary and Audriana goes to Mullan Rd, but they remain friends. She is such a sweet girl and has become a friend to Sofia too!

Daddy playing with Sofia

After the parade, we went with Lynda and John, Caleb and Nikki to the Valley Ford Park for a picnic. The kids had a ball playing together. It was another very hot day (upper 90's) ...but the kids didn't seem to mind. The girls slept very well that night! LOL!

July 24, 2010

Skyfest 2010 at Fairchild AFB!

What an awesome day! I'd never been to Skyfest before, and when I found out that it was happening this weekend at Fairchild, and that it was FREE, I thought that it might be a good idea to bring Martin and the girls out. But then I thought about how hot was going to be, and that there was going to be so many people...and almost talked myself out of it. But, after work on Friday night, I ran into my new friend Denise Lund (mom to Everet, Kendra, and Addy) and we decided that it would be fun for our two families to go together. (We giggled and totally got so excited to do this! She's so great and we have become very fast friends!) So, plans were made to leave by 10am the next morning, with lunches, water, and sunscreen packed. We parked, stood in the screening line, and finally got in by 10:45am.

The first plane we saw (after standing in line for an hour!) was a Cargo C-17 plane. It was huge!

Here are the 5 kids inside the C-17. They were so hot (upper 90's!)...and were so patient as we waited to get up into the cockpit for them to see all the cool instruments that make the plane fly!

Here are the girls sitting in the "drivers seat"!

The kids were so hot, I broke down and bought us all some Minute Maid Frozen Lemonaids to share -- it was a cool treat!

The airshow began and all of us were so amazed at the cool acrobatics -- what talent! I was totally blown away! I remember thinking....I'm so glad we came out here today. The big finale was the Thunderbirds at 3pm. So awesome!

The Thunderbirds (and other planes, as well) were extremely loud, so we had ear plugs for the kids. Todd and Denise brought these great earphones (is that what they are called?) that Sofia and Addy wore.

Hello Thunderbirds!

Addy and Sofia being silly.........what's new..........

....they look like they are up to something......

More Thunderbird maneuvers....

Audriana and Everet had a really great time together. He's 10 and they have struck up a very nice friendship. Here they are inside on of the planes -- I feel bad that I didn't get the name of that plane.....

The last picture of the day.......the kids got to get on this Wells Fargo Stage Coach. What a great day!

July 23, 2010

Summer in July! Fun times!

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Here are 3 pretty awesome girls who have just graduated from thier 2 week swimming lesson program at Cannon Pool! Good job girls!

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We picked up Aunt Virginia tonight (just me and the girls, since Martin had practice), brought a picnic dinner (Subway!), and headed to Audubon Park to hear some live music and enjoy the evening. The girls had fun running through the splash pad and getting wet, and Aunt Virginia and I had a good time talking and chatting about her recent trip to Africa. She travels at least once a year with other Senior Citizens to wonderful and exotic places that most of us only dream of. She has been to Europe, Africa, Central America, and next year, she is planning China! She has many great stories!

The girls with Aunt Virginia

Cool shot!

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Washington Trust Box seats for the Spokane Indians game!

Kristi and her boss, Lisa, were able to get us into the Washington Trust Box seats at the Indians game tonight! It was so awesome. We had lots of room to move around, sit or stand, and we even had our own waitress who would bring the food we ordered right to us! We were really spoiled! Thanks Washington Trust for the seats tonight!

This was our 2nd Indians game of the season (the first was on July 4th) and we are really enjoying this great American pastime! It's a lot of fun being together as a family and creating some wonderful memories.

We had a lot of fun at the game!

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FUN AT THE MILL RIVER BEACH IN POST FALLS, ID!

Last summer my friend Kara introduced us to this awesome beach right on the Spokane River, close to C'dA. Well, this summer, we've made about 4 trips out there already. It's a quiet spot and doesn't have the crowds that many of the beaches have this time of year -- in fact, many times, we have been the only people there! The swimming area is just perfect for the kids...not too deep and has a great dock that Audriana loves to jump off of! We recently took our friends, the Lunds, out there with their kids, Everet, Kendra, and Addy. The Bennett's joined us to! I had a great time visiting with Todd and Denise, as well as Joye and Sid, and the kids had a ball!

Audriana and Everet had a great time soaking Todd with their squirt guns. What a trooper he was to play with them for so long (the kids didn't stop!).