When did 17 years happen?
I'm not short - just in case you were wondering!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Jason Turned 17
My birthday boys! Grandpa's birthday is just 4 days after Jason's.
When did 17 years happen?
I'm not short - just in case you were wondering!
When did 17 years happen?
I'm not short - just in case you were wondering!
Girls Camp 2011
This year I got to go to Girls Camp with Madilyn and Megan as one of the leaders! I truly had a blast. The girls in our ward are just wonderful and the other leaders who went were amazing!
An added bonus was having Mardi there as a leader, too. When we were young we went to every year of Girls Camp together - that ended 20+ years ago! We had so darn much fun!!
An added bonus was having Mardi there as a leader, too. When we were young we went to every year of Girls Camp together - that ended 20+ years ago! We had so darn much fun!!
July 4th
We got home from our vacation on July 3rd. July 4th we loaded up the car and went to Uncle Dick's and Aunt Marlene's for ice cream and fireworks! Because that's what we do!
Exhausted but very happy to see my favorite people!!
My cute daddy with my cute Meredi and my cute Jason!
My cute mommy with my cute Jaynie!
Exhausted but very happy to see my favorite people!!
My cute daddy with my cute Meredi and my cute Jason!
My cute mommy with my cute Jaynie!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
California Ocean
It's the end of August and I'm officially now the whole summer behind in blogging!! This is the last post about our Disney/California/Oregon Vacation!! I'm leaving out Sea World - it was fun, once you've seen one killer whale, you've seen them all!
I don't know which beach Carson & Kandi took us to, but we had a blast!!
Carson introduced boogie-boarding to Brandon & the kids...
The boys did spend time in the water - but opted to spend more time on the beach.
My sand-haters!! Notice that neither Malorie nor Melanie is actually touching the sand with much more than finger tips and toes!! That's quite a balancing act!
Gracie had a blast playing in the sand and would only go into the water with mom!
Getting better at the self portrait! It's not hard getting a good picture when the scenery is so amazing and everyone is smiling from ear to ear!!
We couldn't drag Carson, Brandon & Maddie out of the ocean! They stayed and boogied until the sun went down!
The ocean was awesome! The very next best thing came after the ocean when we stopped at Little Caesars for pizza, bread sticks and soda, then ate it in the hot tub at Carson & Kandi's! Shhhh - don't tell their manager!
I don't know which beach Carson & Kandi took us to, but we had a blast!!
Carson introduced boogie-boarding to Brandon & the kids...
The boys did spend time in the water - but opted to spend more time on the beach.
My sand-haters!! Notice that neither Malorie nor Melanie is actually touching the sand with much more than finger tips and toes!! That's quite a balancing act!
Gracie had a blast playing in the sand and would only go into the water with mom!
Getting better at the self portrait! It's not hard getting a good picture when the scenery is so amazing and everyone is smiling from ear to ear!!
We couldn't drag Carson, Brandon & Maddie out of the ocean! They stayed and boogied until the sun went down!
The ocean was awesome! The very next best thing came after the ocean when we stopped at Little Caesars for pizza, bread sticks and soda, then ate it in the hot tub at Carson & Kandi's! Shhhh - don't tell their manager!
Sunday, August 07, 2011
Disneyland 2011
Here's your warning (Mindy)...there are close to 20 pictures in this entry. Just so you don't walk in to it blindly!
Day one at Disneyland - are you kidding me? Yes, mom was up and dressed, ready to go at 6:30 (park opened at 8). It almost killed me waiting for everyone to wake up!
Chip & Dale were awesome. We waited in line to see them and right when we were next, they were whisked away and replaced with Pluto! Apparently they had noticed our disappointment and they came around to where we were and played for a few minutes.
We had to keep our eye on Dale - he tried more than once to sneak off with our girls!
Doesn't matter how tall you get, Disney characters are still cool!
Lucky enough to be the first to visit Tinkerbell & Silvermist!
On our last night mom, dad, Madilyn & Megan stayed in California Adventure to watch the World of Color. So glad we did - it was an awesome show and a special night with the girls!
Monsters Inc.
Stitch and the kids.
Matterhorn
Splash Mountain!!
Tea Cups with Cousin Madison! Carson and Kandi and their girlies came to Disneyland our first day with us! It was so much fun to share the excitement with them!!
Garsh! Joseph wore his Goofy shirt all.three.days at Disney. Thankfully our hotel had laundry facilities! He was so happy to get to see him and take this picture!
Meredi & Joe and some random cuteness!
This was a fun surprise! We just happened to see them walking into their picture place and realized there was nobody in line yet. By the time we took our picture the line was about 30 people long - CRAZY!
Star Tours. I really liked this ride right until the final few seconds when I began to feel a bit motion sick - sheese, what a whimp! And before anyone asks, that's Marilyn! She has been a dear adopted member of our family for...well, a long time. Since Jared was a baby I think - maybe longer! You know it's true friendship when someone will take a week off of work to help haul your family through The Happiest Place on Earth!! Every family needs a Marilyn!
Day one at Disneyland - are you kidding me? Yes, mom was up and dressed, ready to go at 6:30 (park opened at 8). It almost killed me waiting for everyone to wake up!
Chip & Dale were awesome. We waited in line to see them and right when we were next, they were whisked away and replaced with Pluto! Apparently they had noticed our disappointment and they came around to where we were and played for a few minutes.
We had to keep our eye on Dale - he tried more than once to sneak off with our girls!
Doesn't matter how tall you get, Disney characters are still cool!
Lucky enough to be the first to visit Tinkerbell & Silvermist!
On our last night mom, dad, Madilyn & Megan stayed in California Adventure to watch the World of Color. So glad we did - it was an awesome show and a special night with the girls!
Monsters Inc.
Stitch and the kids.
Matterhorn
Splash Mountain!!
Tea Cups with Cousin Madison! Carson and Kandi and their girlies came to Disneyland our first day with us! It was so much fun to share the excitement with them!!
Garsh! Joseph wore his Goofy shirt all.three.days at Disney. Thankfully our hotel had laundry facilities! He was so happy to get to see him and take this picture!
Meredi & Joe and some random cuteness!
This was a fun surprise! We just happened to see them walking into their picture place and realized there was nobody in line yet. By the time we took our picture the line was about 30 people long - CRAZY!
Star Tours. I really liked this ride right until the final few seconds when I began to feel a bit motion sick - sheese, what a whimp! And before anyone asks, that's Marilyn! She has been a dear adopted member of our family for...well, a long time. Since Jared was a baby I think - maybe longer! You know it's true friendship when someone will take a week off of work to help haul your family through The Happiest Place on Earth!! Every family needs a Marilyn!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Family Vacation - Merced CA & Bakersfield CA
We noticed this fine how-do-ya-do as we loaded our van to leave the hotel. It's a "This Pool is Condemned" notice that was NOT on the pool gate the night before when our family swam in it for hours! I quickly took this picture as we left so I could call the number and find out if we needed to stop somewhere and get shots or anything. Turned out they just had a repair to their water pump that they had to have done before the pool would be opened again. I know, I know - that totally sounds like crud! But "Jessica" with Solano County Environmental Health promised we had nothing to fear!
We stopped for lunch in Merced. It was really, really HOT in Merced! A lot of people have asked on how earth we fed our family on this trip. Tip 1 - We only stayed at hotels with continental breakfasts Tip 2 - We did a lot of grocery shopping and meals like this in parks along the way. I don't think any of us will crave a sandwich for a while, but it worked!
We drove down Hwy99 to get to Bakersfield - which means we had to drive through Fresno! Holy TRAFFIC Batman! I think of our entire trip, this was the worst leg traffic wise! If I never drive next to, behind, in front of, or within 100 miles of another Semi Truck as long as I live it will be too soon!
The plan for Bakersfield was simply to get to our hotel before we melted! It was time to do laundry and everyone was very tired from the heat. (Tip 3 - Make sure your hotels have guest laundry. Tip 4 - Pack your own laundry detergent, but don't pack your microwave popcorn in the same bag. Tide scented Jolly Time is just gross! No joke!) It was 105 in Bakersfield at 7pm. Crazy! The pool was great!
Because I loved these shower curtains! I am totally putting one in our master bath when we finish it! No hooks and the bar curves out from the tub so the curtain doesn't smother you. Magnets at the bottom to weight the curtain inside the tub during a shower. Genius! (Simple minds!)
And so I didn't forget where to find these little gems:
ArcsAndAngles.com
We stopped for lunch in Merced. It was really, really HOT in Merced! A lot of people have asked on how earth we fed our family on this trip. Tip 1 - We only stayed at hotels with continental breakfasts Tip 2 - We did a lot of grocery shopping and meals like this in parks along the way. I don't think any of us will crave a sandwich for a while, but it worked!
We drove down Hwy99 to get to Bakersfield - which means we had to drive through Fresno! Holy TRAFFIC Batman! I think of our entire trip, this was the worst leg traffic wise! If I never drive next to, behind, in front of, or within 100 miles of another Semi Truck as long as I live it will be too soon!
The plan for Bakersfield was simply to get to our hotel before we melted! It was time to do laundry and everyone was very tired from the heat. (Tip 3 - Make sure your hotels have guest laundry. Tip 4 - Pack your own laundry detergent, but don't pack your microwave popcorn in the same bag. Tide scented Jolly Time is just gross! No joke!) It was 105 in Bakersfield at 7pm. Crazy! The pool was great!
Because I loved these shower curtains! I am totally putting one in our master bath when we finish it! No hooks and the bar curves out from the tub so the curtain doesn't smother you. Magnets at the bottom to weight the curtain inside the tub during a shower. Genius! (Simple minds!)
And so I didn't forget where to find these little gems:
ArcsAndAngles.com
Family Vacation - Avenue of Giants (Redwood Forest) & Jelly Belly Factory, Fairfield CA
This was a fun stop. We had "planned" to work Sequoia National Park into our trip, but by this day (abt 5 days into our vacation) we realized that cramming one more bigger day into our week would probably kill us. We considered maybe stopping at Yosemite National Park which is north of Sequoia, but we couldn't jive the timeline with hotels. We had made peace with bagging the idea when we saw a road sign that said "Avenue of Giants" - yeah for a smart phone. We googled it and quickly learned that we were approaching a Redwood park - it didn't have a cool Native American name, but Avenue of Giants seemed to speak to us, so we took the exit and spent an hour in the largest trees we had ever seen!
Once again, we lucked out and had this entire area to ourselves! The kids ran and climbed and walked the pathways...
...they humored mom and posed for frequent snapshots.
Went with B&W because it's forgiving! :) A lot of our pictures were taken with our cell phones and they turned out great for the most part, but if you try to zoom much, it's hard to keep it clear.
As if all of the texting with my Scoutmaster back home wasn't enough on this trip, I had a moment of personal gratitude for Jim, Jr as my Eagle Scout husband, who once had Jim as his Scoutmaster too, sprung into action with a remedy for Stinging Nettle. Use the plants own leaves to relieve the pain! Who knew...besides Jim & Brandon? (Joseph was totally grossed out by this! But very happy to have it work!)
You can take the boy out of the country...
We did it! I don't know how many rings this tree had, but I know it was 22 Lee Arms around!!
Meredith had a love/hate relationship with the forest. She loved it, but only for about 18 seconds. Luckily, I snapped this picture at about 12 seconds!!
We did some more driving south and finally arrived in Fairfield CA where we met up with Brandon's brother Brian and his family at the Jelly Belly Factory.
This portrait is made of Jelly Belly Beans!! Useless trivia: I am a total Royal fanatic! I may start calling my sister Pippa!
These hats serve ZERO purpose! They insist that you wear them through the tour. The tour consists of walking through a totally enclosed hallway that overlooks the factory floor. There is no way on the planet that a hair from any one's head could fall into the Jelly Beans! I just know the tour guides get together on their breaks and compare how dorky their tourists looked! Of course MY tourists looked adorable in their useless hats - I looked absolutely dorkish!
Just because she's so darn cute...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)