Visit to Riverside

On the weekend of July 29 to August 1 we drove down to visit Grandma Knight and Aunt Alison and to also see the rest of our family in Riverside for a quick visit.  We had a really nice time and since Evan's Birthday was the weekend right after they were so kind and decided to have a special family Birthday Party for him during our stay.  He was thrilled!  Here are the kids both ready to open some arrival gifts from Grandma and Auntie the Friday we got there.  

Evan and Grandma posing with his new book.  He loves it!  She read it to him that night too and throughout the weekend.  It remains to be a special book at home now too.

 

On Saturday, we woke up and drove to visit the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris.  We all had so much fun, especially Evan.  It was a unique demonstration railway museum so you could ride several different types of trains.  We rode all of them that were available that day.

Here are Aunt Alison and Evie waiting together before we board the train.

Here is most of the crew, Grandma Knight had stepped away for a second to use the restroom.

These were some of the super cool trains we got to ride.

Evan was a happy camper on each train.  He was having a blast!

He was so excited he didn't want to stop and pose for a picture in front of this train, thus why he is missing. :)

The museum was very nice and had a lot to offer, except air conditioning.  When we left the kids were pretty wiped out and immediately feel asleep as soon as they got in the car.

Later that day we all headed over to Cousin Bob and Debbie's house for the special birthday celebration for Evan.  Here is a picture of Cousin Emma and Evie playing together during the party.

Evan was having a great time kicking the soccer ball with Cousin Robert.

The kids also got to go swimming with Daddy.  Good times!

Here is the gang eatting the delicious dinner.  So yummy!

In this picture are all the cousins, Robert, Jim's Cousin Becky, and her kids Emma and Andrew.

 

After dinner Alison had some fun party games for the kids to play.  The party was sport's themed (soccer and baseball) this game was pin the ball on Home Plate.  The hiliarious thing about this game was all the kids were getting the ball right at home plate, but were not fessing up that they could see through the blind fold.  We didn't find out until Cousin Andrew's turn happened and he blurted out "I can see."  So funny.  It was still a great game.

There was also a really neat soccer relay game.  Here are the kids getting ready to begin.

After the games it was cake time- delicious Soccer and Baseball cupcakes!  Evan loved them along with the rest of the party.  

The big kids liked them too.

Evan's favorite part of the party was opening presents.  Here he is in action about to open his first present from Grandma Knight that evening.  The other kids were very excited.

One of his presents included a singing Cars 2 card from Aunt Kathy and Uncle Herb and he absolutely loved it.  He continues to listen to it now.  I love this picture below of all the kids looking/listening to the card and Evan's little smile.

And finally here are the children now playing with all the birthday loot.  So awesome!  The kids had the best time.

On Sunday, our final full day of the visit, we headed to Laguna Beach.  The crazy thing about this day was that it started off pouring rain in Riverside.  We weren't even sure we were going to make it to the beach, but we took a chance and when we got to Laguna the weather was perfect!  Everyone had a great time playing in the water and sand.

We had so much fun visiting Grandma Knight and Aunt Alison along with all of our other amazing family.  Thank you for blessing us with love and the best hospitality.  Can't wait to see you all again real soon.  Love you!