San Francisco

Last weekend I took a girls trip up to San Francisco with all of John's sisters. Before I met up with all those lovely ladies, I made a pit stop to see Joanne (and Luke). She picked me up for the airport and before we hit the freeway I felt 16 all over again! Just like High School!! Joanne seems to have this effect on me. I started giggling and laughing the moment I got in the car - mainly because she was missing a front tooth and felt no need to forewarn me. How could you not bust up laughing when all her "f's" sounded like "th's"....

We headed first to Luke's shop. I had always wanted to see where Luke works. He makes really cool furniture from old trees that have fallen or died on their own... very earth friendly I might add.
Joanne and I couldn't resist a little fun with this window sticker. Seriously!
Like I said, it was like I was 16 all over again. Joanne took me around the shop and showed me all the different stuff they do. Luke mainly makes tables and furniture (like I said). He has a few partners that share the space with him. One guy makes wooden surfboards (I guess they are super light and last a long time. :)
Another guy collects old chairs and refurbishes them. As you can see on the wall behind Luke!
Another guy does mostly painting and sign work. In this picture with Jo you can see the chairs, surfboards, the cool table of Luke's and some small signs... sometimes a few of them will collaberate and work together on projects.
Like these cute little bird houses. Luke builds them and the artist paints them. Each one has a unique theme.
Here is Jo and Banjo (their dog) outside Luke's Wood Shop! I kept saying, "I took wood shop in High School - I loved it." The place smelled just like it too. :) Thanks for the tour guys.
Afterwards we headed back to Joanne and Luke's place.
Jo was making a delicious dinner for us all. I pretty much sat around and chit-chatted the whole time. It was heaven.
Lindsay and Jenny came over for dinner. It was us four sitting around the dinner table getting caught up on each other's lives. Lindsay had just gotten engaged the weekend before. Jenny was filling us in on all that little Taylor does. It felt so nice to be with friends, friends I've known for... gee... almost 20 years! Am I really that old? Let's say at least 15 to be safe. :)
I had such a great time. We stayed up late talking, catching up and laughing. I don't get to sneak away from the kids very often and it always feels so good to do it. I get to relax and laugh without worrying about poopy diapers, sippy-cups, snack time, fighting, sassy attitudes, pj's and all the other things I do daily. I had a great time with Joanne and Luke - they were the best! I only wish I could have stayed longer. Maybe one of these days I'll get a weekend away just to see them. :)

Big Bear on the 4th

Another great year in Big Bear. The weather was great. The kids enjoyed the boat and the fireworks were as amazing as ever. All the kiddies...
Paige and Fletch on the Crazy 8. Paige is a wild one - she has a serious ZEST for life!
Our annual family photo on the swing out front.
Paige and Fetch.

Even Orange looks good on this baby. :)

Cruise to Mexico

John planned a "tester Cruise" for our anniversary this year. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise, so why not a short 3 day one to try it out? Turns out we'd like to go on another one ...


An old winery
We anchored by Catalina
John posed by some old paintings
John farmed out kids out to all our friends and family - thanks for taking care of the kiddies!
Wendy kept emailing me photos of Olive... here she is having a blast at the beach.

Thanksgiving in Utah

Every year for Thanksgiving we go to Utah - this year when we went we were able to stay with my parents.  The kids had a blast at Grandma & Grandpa's house.  We stayed downstairs and had the place to ourselves... it was great.  We spent some time with my sister Emily (who is moving to Texas soon) going to the park and the movies.  We had a huge Thanksgiving Feast with my parents and still spent time with John's mother and brother's family.  We were there for 8 nights and we couldn't believe how fast it went by... a lot of fun!

Here is Brock being funny with some chocolate.
We tried to have fun whenever possible - here we are at a quick trip to a local grocery store... the boys were having a blast.
One morning John took Owen for some special Daddy time.  They went to a nearby creek and threw rocks in the water - you have NO IDEA how much fun this is to Owen.  This boy absolutely loves throwing rocks in the water.  Good cheep fun, right?
We met up with the Peterson family and headed to Chuck E. Cheese.  We don't get to see them very often so it was a treat. 

John couldn't help but feed into Owen's OCD... they lined up all the dominoes in order - Owen wanted to pose for a picture by them.
It was nice to visit with Great Grandma as well - she flew up with us and it only took a couple of days but then Brock really warmed up to her and couldn't get enough.  We would come home from an outing and he would run and jump on Great-Grandma's lap and say... "Baabaa!"  You just have to put in the time and then soon enough Brock with steal your heart!
We went to Jump On It, like always.  John can't help but get in on all the jumping fun. 

The day before we left we wanted to take the kids up to Salt Lake to the Children's Museum.  A friend suggested we go to the Dinosaur Museum instead - this was good because it was minutes away.  I thought we might kill a couple hours there and then do something else... oh no, 7 hours later more like it.  The kids LOVED it and didn't want to leave.  I couldn't' believe it!
Paige's favorite part was digging for bones... well "dusting" for them anyway.  This museum had a bunch of hands on things for the kids to do and this was one of them.


We even saw a 3-D Dinosaur movie.  I loved watching the kids reach out to grab the dinosaurs.  Note to self: Brock is still too young to go to movies.  I don't know when we'll learn our lesson - the guy was a disaster and John had to take him out.  It's a problem when your almost 2 year old tries to climb on other people.  Geeesh!



Another activity they loved was creating there own island and land for their little dinosaurs.  They had this area where you could move sand and water and create your own island.  It wasn't too messy because of the bibs, but fun.  I think our kids took most of the toys in there for themselves.  


After the Dinosaur Museum we started to drive off and saw two reindeer fenced up nearby for people to see.  We pulled over and ran to see who it was.  
Why, it was none other than Comet and Blitzon... well according to this cute boy who was taking care of them.  He went into great detail for Paige about how Santa dropped them off to be babysat while he got ready for Christmas.  He told her all about the reindeer and what they like to eat and how they help Santa.  He was super cute to her. 
Then he tried to scoot them over so she could pet them.  Very nice young man.

San Diego Trip

This past weekend we took a family trip down to San Diego. After a successful and fun trip last year we decided to repeat our trip again this year. It is just so easy packing up and driving 45 minutes away to our vacation destination - only this time the kids were older and Brock had even more fun.
Our first stop was Sea World. Here is Brock checking out the starfish! We met up with Adrienne and her kids (along with Fletcher) for the rest of the day. When we went to see Shamu Paige insisted in changing into her swim suit and sitting in the soak zone as close as possible. She didn't want to sit alone, so John was kind enough to make the sacrifice (I was wearing a white T-shirt) and sit with Paige. We sat in the second to last row of the soak zone, and according to Adrienne "you barely get a couple of drops" well Shamu was on a kick that day and we all got soaked. The boys were taken completely by surprise and cried pretty hard. Adrienne and I just laughed!
Here is Brock waiting for Shamu to surface.
At the Dog and Cat Show Paige insisted again on being a big girl and sitting separate from the rest of us... isn't she a little young for this? We were only a couple of rows back. How funny, she thinks she is so big.
Next Stop was the Wild Animal Park. This day was much hotter. It was a warm 95 degrees and it must of been one of the most humid days possible. The kids enjoyed it but got tired easily from all the walking. Here they are in a huge nest.
Brock didn't want to get left out of anything... including all the pictures. He'd whimper till we put him next to the kids and take a shot.
The best part was the Journey Into Africa Tour. We got to ride around and see all the animals pretty close up and not all caged. The kids loved it!
Behind the bush is a huge Wart Hog rolling around in the mud to stay cool - Brock wanted to get right in there with him. Sick!
The kids did their best to keep cool. There were some water stops and plenty of stroller rides.
I think we road this carousel at least 5 times (without getting off once). Each time it would stop the kids would switch animals and get on another one they likes. It was fun and all, but I was over it after the 3rd time.
Next Stop was Coronado Island. It was a beautiful place across the bay from our hotel. We searched for a park to go to - the kids loved being chased by their dad. Here is the first family photo we got of our weekend away.
Here is the photo the kids love to take. I think this resembles our family a little better.
I love this photo of John and the kiddies. These kids are such Hams, and like I said Brock likes to get right in there and copy the kids.
There was this interesting park right across from our hotel. Paige and Brock and I went by while John and Owen napped. Paige thought it was all pretty cool stuff. This thing spun around super fast right when you jumped on. I almost fell off of it.
After swimming in the pool for what seemed like hours, the hotel put on a movie night out by the poolside. They played Ratatouille. Owen and Paige loved it, and then we got to watch fireworks! It was a great way to end the day.
Here they are playing hide and seek in our little hotel room - not a lot of places to hide, but they loved this spot.
Before we left we rented this little car/bike... I'm not sure what to call it, and road all around the harbor. We came across this huge statue of this navy man kissing this nurse. Very cute. The kids had so much fun in this cart....
... the sad part was when we were riding back to the hotel we were trying to go fast (of course the kids keep saying, go faster, go faster) and Brock all of a sudden drops his plastic cup of water. He starts to cry, Owen gets wet and starts to cry - then John breaks to get the cup and Paige flies forward and gets tangled and dragged in the bars below. It was such a scene and one of our worst parenting experiences ever. All 3 kids are screaming and John and I look like the worst parents on the face of the earth. We both start laughing... who does that? I think we were both so embarrassed for what had happened.