"Camping"

On Memorial Day weekend, David and I were invited up to Silver Lake to spend some time camping with my best friend Melinda and her family.  Well, it ended up being very snowy and cold, so we headed back down the hill and spent the day out on their family ranch in Plymouth.  We still had a great time and I had a lot of fun taking random pictures.

Painting with Max

Danny loves to get to hang out and play with Max. One of their favorite things to do is paint. They also love the trains, swinging and jumping on the trampoline.

At the Beach with Elissa

My friend Elissa drove down with me to Santa Cruz to get the boys.  Of course we went early so we could go to the beach.  I took her to Natural Bridges, my favorite, so we could see the butterflies and the beach!

 When we arrived to pick up the boys Austin came running, jumped into my arms, and wouldn't let go.  It's a good thing I saw him coming or he would have knocked me down!  It made my heart feel so good though to have that reaction from my boy who is growing up so fast!

#36!

My 36th birthday celebratory dinner with some of the most amazing girls ever!

Nessa - my baby Sister, 

Melinda - best friends since 16, 

Anne - friends since 14, 

and Brendian - friends since our Singles Ward days!

Road Trips and Rainbows

 The last 2 weekends I have driven down to Santa Cruz to pick up the boys.  Down and back in one day is quite a long drive for me, so I have been recruiting road trip buddies!  Nessa went with me the first weekend and Dera came with me yesterday.  I made sure on both weekends to get there with enough time to at least be at the beach for a few minutes!  The first weekend with Nessa it was warm with a gorgeous sunset.  Yesterday with Dera was cold and rainy but we got to see a total of 3 rainbows, one of which was a double!  It feels so good to be at the beach, no matter what the weather is!

Me and Nessa on trip #1 at Natural Bridges:

 Getting ready for trip #2.  I was so excited that it was cold so I could get the chance to wear my new hat.  I am happy to say, it helped keep me nice and toasty!

 At West Cliff, my favorite place to watch the waves crash against the rocks.  Can you see rainbow #1?

 Me and Dera, road trip buddy extraordinaire!

And the final rainbow of the day was a full arc and a double!

 Danny playing with his dinner on the drive home.

It was messy but very creative!

On the trip home with Nessa, Danny woke up from a doze, very concerned, because "Mommy, I can't see my own eyes!"

On the trip home with Dera . . .

Me: "Danny are you hitting Austin again?" as I glanced back to see that he was indeed hitting Austin again with the paper toy they had got in their kids meal.

Danny: "No," (a pause with more giggling and hitting) "the paper is!"

Lovely Ladies

A girls night out at Ruby Tuesday's for my friend Tami's 50th birthday, surrounded by a group of truly lovely ladies . . . Alyssa, a friend, Tara, Tami, Wendy, Me, Lynn, Patsy, Alicia, Carrie, Alyssa's mother in law, and Carol.  It was so fun to spend and evening with them and get to catch up, several of them I have not had the chance to see since I moved from Placerville 3 years ago!  So thank you to Tami for having a birthday, and Alicia and Tara for planning it so we had the excuse to get together!

(and thank you to Carrie too, because I pirated the picture from your blog!)

The Best Park EVER!

If you are ever in the Monterey area you have to go to Dennis the Menace park!
I first visited this park approx. 13 years ago on a trip to Monterey with the Single Adult ward, and I remember thinking how cool it was then. The picture is old and grainy but I am in there (Trevor too) sitting in the middle row, in a blue sweatshirt (which I still have!).
This park is just simply awesome! The most awesome part of it's awesomeness is the train, a real, live, old locomotive that someone donated to the park. Even better is the fact that the kids can run, climb and explore all over it! And boy did they love it! I think the kids need to learn more about trains because there was a lot of talk about captains and turbulence! We went with our good friends the Hanson's and the Bybee's, and Bryce's little brother Steven is in town visiting for awhile. It sure helped out having his extra set of eyes and hands to help corral the boys! So here are some pics of the kids in, on, around and under the train:

Second only to the train were the slides, especially the roller slide. I think the kids spent at least one solid hour on it!

Oh, but that wasn't all! There was rock climbing wall, several play structures, bridges, tunnels, a maze, hill sides and trees to climb - a veritable wonderland for kids!

We made it home after horrible traffic (an idiot and his idiot friend stole a car, ran from the police, crashed into a guard rail and poof - a major car fire!), and meeting up with Bryce for dinner (who luckily picked a beat at the opposite end of the county). The boys are in bed, completely zonked out. I am a wee bit sunburned but it was worth for such a great day!

Danny's 2nd Birthday!!

Today is Danny's 2nd birthday and what a fun day we have had! We had a WALL-E birthday party with friends and family and it was great! Everything was Wall-E/robots themed because Danny absolutly loves Wall-E. It is the cutest thing to hear him say Wall-E just like the movie. We drank oil (known to non-robots as rootbeer) out of oil cans. We built robots out of junk, searched for nuts and bolts in the sand and threw bean bags through space, I wasn't really thinking when I decided on the time for the party and I scheduled the party to start shortly after Danny's naptime. Luckily his Oma was there so he had a lap to nap on! Danny thouroughly enjoyed his pre-party cupcake, his party cupcake and his after party cupcake! Here is the robot building. The kids came up with some great robots. Austin has been planning his Wall-E type robot for weeks now. He had a little help from Auntie Dera putting it together (she was in charge of poking the holes, thank goodness!) but he designed it all and I think he did a great job! My Brother Trevor spent a couple hours on his robot and it is amazing! Some more random pics of the party, the kids playing the games, drinking out of the oil cans, etc. Thank you to all our great family and friends who came, enjoyed and helped Danny have a great 2nd birthday!

FHE BBQ @ SCSB

Yesterday evening we had a Family Home Evening Bar-B-Que at SeaCliff State Beach with some friends, the Bybee's and Hansen's. True to the north coast in the summer it was foggy and a little bit cold. But not cold enough to stop the party! The older boys (Austin, Soren and Isaiah) had a blast playing on the beach, discovering and exploring all sorts of things. Their favorite was the dead birds. Lovely. The littler ones (Danny, Ian and Sydney) stayed closer to the picnic area, blew bubbles, chased birds and watched the big kids play.


The big boys out exploring

Danny and Sydney watching the big boys. Doesn't she have the best pigtails?!
After playing down by the water were they all got wet, Danny hitched a ride back up with Bryce.
"Dude, there was this wave . . ." Austin is exclaiming as he tries to run back up the beach with his wet pants falling down!

Despite the weather being cooler than we had hoped it was a great evening. Good friends, good food and the beach, a great way to spend an evening!