Delaware Beach Trip

Last weeked a bunch of our fabulous friends decided to head to Delaware for a beach day. Both the kids had been wanting to go to the beach all summer, and Chris was finally home so it was a perfect opportunity to have some family time.

Gradon loved the sand. We called him the baby sand crab. He was literally covered in sand the whole day.

My girls spent the whole afternoon in the water. Atlantic beaches are not warm at all, in fact they are sooo cold. It didn't seem to bother either of them, they loved being in the water. Each of the families brought yummy food to share and we set up camp.

Everyone had a great day. As for me, I just wanted to hear the sound of the water. I love the ocean.

We all loved our trip. We hope to go back again next year and make this an end of summer tradition.

10 years

today. I have been married 10 years today to the most wonderful man. I remember my wedding day so clearly, it was a dream come true.

Chris and myself, Fresno California LDS temple, August 4, 2001

Today I feel the same way. I am a lucky girl. Chris you are still my sweetheart.

We celebrated our anniversary early this year. We went to Wicked at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., back in June. It was fantastic! The story was so compelling, and the music completely took my breath away.

Chris got home today (hurrah!) from his first rotation in family practice. It was a great experience. We are very much looking forward to the rest of the year and figuring out what he ultimately will choose for a specialty.

Talking tonight together we both agree that ten years seems like a long time, but really it's gone by so quickly. It's been such an amazing journey from where we started to where we are today. I find myself humbled by how much I have learned over these years. Life is good, our life is so sweet. I so love my family. I am grateful for our life together.

Savor every minute. I wonder what the next ten years will bring? =)

Chris and I, Kennedy Center, Washington D.C June 2011

Happy 1st Birthday Little Gradon!

It was one year ago I was laying in a hospital bed staring at the most beautiful baby boy sleeping soundly next to me. What an amazing blessing this boy has been in my life.

July 2010

A few things I love about you right now at age one: you love music, you love to sing and dance and clap your chubby baby hands when you hear a song you like. In the morning when I pick you up out of your crib you like to give me a big hug and pat me on the back for a few moments, it's one of the highlights of my day. You are becoming quite the little clown, I guess that is what happens when you have two big sisters and everything you do is funny to them! You are a crazy fast crawler. You have been taking baby steps recently. I am not ready, please slow down. This year has gone by too fast, as my friend Jeri said the other day, 'its like we missed three months!' true. I don't know where the time has gone.

Today was a great day. We didn't have our dad here with us to celebrate, (we are waiting for him to come home) but we did do a few fun things. Today we made cupcakes and took some friends to the pool with us. I also made some fresh salsa. The girls swam like little fish. I am amazed at how well Ellie is swimming this summer. It was a great day. I'ts been a full day. Now I am tired. I have a fun photo shoot planned for Gradon tomorrow. Happy Birthday Gradon, we love you so much!

California Trip, Disneyland, part 1

Our last leg of our trip was at one of my favorite places...Disneyland. I love this place. Maybe I love it becuase I have so many memories from my childhood, or that people there are so nice and so friendly and the place is clean and the people who work for Disney are amazing. Really. They are amazing. Another reason why I love this place so much is that we always have a great time, and no matter how many times we go back, it is magical, for everyone.

My parents have a time share with Disney and boy do they love going with their kids and grandkids to the happiest place on earth. We were so fortunate to be able to go, my folks were very generous and made this fantastic vacation possible. Let's talk first about the hotel, The Grand California resort and spa. This hotel is amazing. It is beautiful, it has everything you could possibly want for an extended stay. The pools, the food, the incredible craftsman style architecture, and the rooms are amazing. I don't know why I didn't take any photos of the hotel, I think I was simply too busy. Shame on me, next time. But here are a couple from the web.

(source)

(source)

Our first day in the park was June 21st. My girls were excited to dress in their favorite fairy costumes so off we went, to the new Little Mermaid ride. One of the nice things about staying at the hotels is you get in early to the parks. The Grand California has an entrance inside California Adventure, so we ate breakfast and the girls and I headed out. Sophia and Ellie both loved the new ride, once Sophia had ridden she determined that it was her favorite ride.

In line for Ariel, first thing in the morning!

After Ariel, we headed to my favorite ride of the week, Midway Mania! The new toy story ride. My folks, Chris and the baby, my sister and her hubby as well as my brother and his family met up for this fun ride. Even G got to ride. It is SO fun.

This might be one of my very favorite pictures of the whole week.

After midway mania we rode the paradise pier carousel and met this little lady:

Sophia was thrilled. Thrilled!

This was just the beginning! Whew! =) Next would be more rides and lunchtime. After lunch we would leave California Adventure for Disneyland and Astro Blasters, the Buzz Lightyear ride, the NEW Star Tours ride, and a little time in Fanstasy Land. The girls had been begging us to go to Cinderella's castle.

In line for buzz lightyear!

Star Tours!

Yay, we made it. =)

Dinner that night was made by Javier, homemade enchiladas...yum. The girls and Chris headed to bed and Anna, Javier and I headed back into the park until late with a walk down into Downtown Disney and then ice cream at Hagen Daas. Fantastic first day!

California Trip, Chapter 3

This is the post where I get really sentimental.

(Just to warn you before you delve deeper)

I really enjoy going back to California. I love to see my family, pop in on old friends, visit places that hold memories. This time was no different of course. This time I also tried my best to capture some more simple moments with my camera so I would remember them more accutely. I have found that unless I document everything in my life I just don't remember it like I should. This realization has gotten me to the next thought- that in my own way I have become a historian for my family. I am not much of a writer or journal keeper, but I love photos. Thank goodness for my camera. I actually remembered to take some photos ofmy mom's wonderful garden. She is a master gardner you know, has amazing roses, daylilies and magical corners in her yard.

A few of my favorite sentimental moments from our trip last month were driving up and down and up and down California seeing stretches of road that I have driven a hundred times; (literally) and they still look the same. (We did lots of driving this last trip) Same worn out roadsigns, same run down shop fronts, same green orchards and farmland. It's interesting how these places really don't change for us as we grow up.

I loved watching my girls spend time with my folks. My girls had an amazing time playing at their grandma and grandpa's house. They spent hours playing upstairs in my sister's old room with dolls, books and toys. Oh the messes they made. They made cookies with my mom, played and dug in her garden, and oh yes they swam swam swam swam. They played with their cousins. They discovered my treasures that I played with as a child. It was a joyful time of memory making.

Photos of my mother and her sisters, her with her whole family, and on right- her parents

Assorted family photos of me and my family growing up

Weekend Recap

I was totally dreading today. I laid in my bed last night wondering how I was going to do another week at church without Chris...with my wiggly squirmy overly tired baby...or my pouty and disagreeable 6 year old or my defiant 4 year old.  Why does church sometimes bring out some of the worst behavior in my children?? Oh yeah, and it's my month to do sharing time too, and we have been short handed all month in primary because of the summer break. I went to bed feeling very anxious but said a prayer asking for help to get through the day.  

Sacrament meeting turned out to be one of the longest hours of my week, the minutes seem to crawl by and yes G was hard to manage and yes my girls argued about the only Dora coloring book in the church bag. (*eye roll* they don't even really like Dora anymore and there are so many other great books in the bag to choose from...my life is always about economics it seems) So with part of my sanity in check I left a few minutes early from the meeting to attack the chairs in the primary room and get things going. I also had to get the baby to sleep somehow and collect my thoughts.

Luckily my 2nd counselor was totally on the ball today to help me...she is wonderful. I don't know what I would do without her...and she always has chocolate in her bag to share. I love her to bits. I got the baby to sleep quickly in his seat and was able to pull everything together for both my sharing times. (Sharing time is the part of our childrens' class where a teacher gives a lesson about the gospel. ) My sharing time for both hours went really well. I have to say we had a great time and talking about the temple really helped me put everything in perspective.

Baby slept for an hour which was so needed for everyone. Whew.

Now we are home and getting ready to head out to dinner at Chris' brother's house. We miss our daddy. We are so looking forward to having him home soon. All in all we are doing fine, but Sundays are the hardest. I miss having his calm demeanor to keep me in check and another pair of hands to wrestle the kids.

I must say, I am so proud of his accomplishments!

He is doing so well in his first rotation...learning a lot and getting great experiences. We also got great news about his step 1 test scores... he rocked it! I am so relieved and pleased and grateful that Chris is going to have the options he wants in deciding his specialty. Nothing is worse than feeling like you are stuck with what is left over. Step 1 is over and we can look forward to our last couple of years and come up with our next plan. I can't believe we are even getting to that point in this...but it's coming...so quickly.

As for Friday and Saturday night we spent our time at the park near our house. It's one of my favorite parks, has a great view of a man made lake, and the kids literally are happy for about 2-3 hours there. Last night we took a picnic and stayed until Gradon was tired...then we got ice cream.

Three weekends down, only a couple to go without our dad. We miss you honey. Thanks for working so hard for us.

U2

 photo on Dan and Kelly's front porch prior to the drive to Anaheim
I have been a HUGE U2 fan for several years, maybe half my life...tells you just how old I am. =) I have been wanting to see them in concert for just as long, and have missed out on a few opportunities to see them over the years. On June 18th I FINALLY got my turn. About 10 months ago Chris and I were planning our trip to California and we realized that U2 was going to be in Anaheim over the dates that were planned to be in California for my family's reunion. We decided to include Chris' brother Dan and his wife who also live in central California. We also planned to surprise her with the tickets since the day two concert date fell on her birthday. For the last several months I have beens staring at the four U2 tickets in my dresser drawer, counting down the days to the concert.

Saturday afternoon we picked Dan and Kelly up in Hanford and made our way south we were kind of in a time crunch and of course hit traffic. Dan was great withhis smart phone navigating us through the worst of it, and helped us find a crazy burger joint for dinner. We arrived right on time and found our seats. It was a fantastic show. Lenny Kravitz opened the concert and until this point I had always liked his music, but his music live is another story altogether. Intense, powerful, soulful, blazing with a smoking brass section and back-up vocals, he almost stole the show. *almost*

After Lenny did his set, there was about an hour in between U2's opener, and I found myself on the hunt fora particular tour t shirt...I finally found one and got to meet several die hard U2 fans in the lines, amazing how friendly everybody was, It was so fun listening to fans tell their stories of concerts they had attended over the years, one fan who has seen nine concerts this year alone, and who has met Bono in Dublin. As I was finally making my purchase I heard the opening strands of David Bowie's  'Ground Control to Major Tom' echoing through the stadium. ( Space travel was a theme for the tour.) 

I grabbed my bag and RAN back to my seat in the stands. 'Even Better than the Real Thing' was the opener, fabulous. They played 4 songs from the album 'Achtung Baby' in a row, which was great for me, it's my second favorite album behind Joshua Tree. The night was full of song surprises, with interesting choices by the band stretching their  30+ year career. I wished it would have lasted just a wee bit longer...but isn't that the way it always goes? You just want one more song? I do wish they had played 'Bad' one of my very favorites and a classic song from the band's 'Unforgettable Fire' album, but all in all, I am so happy. I got to hear 'With or Without You' and 'I Will Follow' live. If you want to check out the complete set list you can view it here. It was a great night, a night well worth the wait.

midway through the concert via Kelly's iphone