Headed North

We went up to the great state of Alaska last month to visit my sister and family for my niece's graduation.  It was a nice chance to visit with everyone and catch up on all those things we miss over the miles.

Me and my beautiful mom

My 3 favorite sass-tastic nieces

geocaching

While we were in Oregon this June, we took a little time to go geocaching.  If you've never done it then you should.  It's like treasure hunting for cool places.  Along the way, we got a couple choice photos.  One of the kids contributing to the local "gas" and one of hubby and I.  Good times.

Pictures of Alaska

 Hiking at Skilak lake

  Catching Dolly Varden at the Russian River

Catching Salmon on the Kenai River

Hiking at Hidden Trail

Catching Halibut and other oddeties in Homer

A Surprise Trip North

We spent a few days up in Oregon visiting friends and family on a surprise trip last week. One of the highlights for me was getting to see my niece, Meg, play basketball the night we got there. Even though she is one of the taller ones on the team, she is point guard and has developed some pretty reasonable ball handling skills.
I also spent some time with my BFF, Heidi, making a dress for my little darling daughter for the holiday season. Heidi is more of a seamstress than I am, but I think the dress turned out pretty nice, nonetheless.And finally, the highlight for my husband, was seeing that all of the world is not as crazy as California. There are places, like Oregon, where, if you want to do something, you are allowed to do it. For example, at our house in California, if we want to have a campfire, we have to go to a federal campsite and pay to have a fire but it must be only as big as the ring allows. We are not even permitted here to have a controlled fire in a barrel to burn trash. In OREGON, however, someone still agrees that men should be allowed to be men and that includes playing with fire:

Congratulations

My eldest niece up in Oregon finished her confirmation in the Lutheran Church last weekend. I couldn't be more proud of my goddaughter.Isn't she beautiful? Congratulations Sweetheart~

Go Play Outside!

Yesterday we went down to the river to look for neat bugs and sticks and rocks with the kiddos. It was a beautiful day for a hike and we got to see lots of neat sights along the way. Of course, the kids' favorite part was stopping for snacks on our hike but my favorite part was seeing the kids get out and enjoy the day without interruption from phones or computers or televisions. Just good 'ol fashioned playing outside. Priceless.

Almost a TEEN!

Happy 12th Birthday to my sweet niece, Meg. Soak it in honey, because next year you'll be a teen and then expected to grow up and all that nasty stuff. Take advantage of being a "kid" as long as possible. I love you very much.

Bump Set Spike!

My oldest niece is learning to play basketball and getting used to making her kneepads meet wood. She's got all of the spunk you'd expect from a girl her age and she shows lots of potential play varsity when she gets into high school.

Here's a shot of her follow-through after whaling on the ball to serve it (they aren't allowed to underhand it anymore so they're all learning to serve overhand):Here she is in action, diving and to return a serve:Of course, at this age, the best reward for their win is getting to load up on insanity-invoking candy after the game:

New Hogan Reservoir

We had a great time last weekend, about an hour east of Stockton. Both my siblings joined us with family/friends in tow. There's a reservoir there that apparently nobody else has gotten the memo about because it was beautiful and the water is warm and there were virtually no other boats (or people) on the water at all. We got to camp right by the lake too, which was pretty neat. Shhh - keep it a secret - it's too good to let the public catch wind of.

Decorating fun

Last week it was Nana & Grandpa's anniversary and since they were gone on vacation we thought we'd decorate the house for them to see when they got home. The kids had a fun time throwing white flower petals all over the floor, wrapping presents and adding tinsel to make things sparkle. Their favorite part I think was getting to test the jordan almonds for edibility.

Monkeying Around

We had a fun time earlier this week visiting the animals in San Diego. We were there from lunch time until closing so we got to see the animals at their more active times, around dusk, which is neat. If any of you live in the area and are contemplating going, do it. The later summer hours are nice for beating the heat, the new elephant exhibit is very cool and there were really no crowds to speak of while we were there. Here's some highlights:

Shake it Baby!

We did an easy and fun craft today that I thought those of you with kids might like to try. All the supplies that you need are:
-empty, dry water bottle
-paper
-crayons
-tape
-glue
-rice or popcorn or beans or marbles (or any other pebbles)

1)Cut the paper into 4X11 (printer paper folded lengthwise)
2)Have your little darlings color the paper with crayons
3)Tape the paper around the outside of the water bottle
4)Fill the bottle with rice/popcorn/beans, etc.
5)Glue around the inside of the bottle cap and screw it on tightly to the bottle
6)Give it to your little one, turn on some music and watch your little one shake it!

Lake Isabella

We went up to Central Cali for the weekend to visit some friends and had a great time in the 107 degree weather. How you ask? Well, we had the river to play in on Saturday (where hubby limited out on trout) and the lake to play in on Sunday. What a great weekend and TOTALLY worth the drive. I wish all of these friends lived closer to us so we could do these kinds of weekends a little more often.

Our Day with the Stars

Since both of her sisters got to go to a theme park while they were here (Hurricane Harbor & Sea World), I figured it would only be fair to take my niece to one while she visits this summer too. She likes movies so we decided Universal Studios would be best. Last Thursday afternoon we took the metrolink up to Moorpark and stayed with family then got up early Friday morning and spent the better part of the day at the park. Her favorite part of the day was the fancy breakfast buffet we went to at the Hilton and her second favorite part was the Simpson's ride (which I have to admit, was pretty cool). We had a bit of a falling out after she trusted me and got onto the Jurassic Park ride and proceeded to be scared out of her wits until the ride was over though. Oh well, you take the good with the bad I guess. I knew better than to take her on the Mummy ride after that (not that I could have gotten her on it if I wanted to). Overall, a fun day with the stars in Hollywood.

A Night Under the Big Top

Ringling Bros & company came to Anaheim this week and we drove down to check them out. Nana & Grandpa joined and we all had a very fun time. Here's some quick highlights:

Hair's to you!

My niece is visiting for the summer and we have had quite a heat wave. Add to that, she gets loads of knots in her hair and whines like a wounded cat when I try to brush them out and all signs point to needing a haircut! She's got quite a challenge when it comes to hair because her Mom's hair is straight and Dad's side gave her curls, so she's got straight hair growing on top of the curls. What to do? We didn't want to lose length but needed the volume reduced. Layering seemed the obvious choice and the added benefit is that her natural curls (jealous) show up much better now. Here's the before & after shots:

It's Easy Bein' Green

I've been trying to get around to refinishing the toy room for quite some time now. I made some curtains, painted the trim and cabinets a couple weeks ago, refinished a kids' chair, and bought a full-sized chair and shelves to refinish. Today I finally got around to working on the shelves (after seeing the complete destruction that is the toy room right now). After sanding it for a bit with belt sander (insert Tim Taylor grunt here), I invited the kids to help me paint it. Of course, it didn't turn out nearly as neat as it could have if I did it myself, but every time I see an imperfection in the paint job, I will remember the fun time we had painting together.

Gettin' dirty

We had fun last weekend when we went camping with some friends at a local campground. Daddy made some carne asada, the kids played some impromptu t-ball, we went for hikes, spent most of Saturday on the lake, had a couple campfires, roasted s'mores (apparently two syllables for all of us non-grammar types) and in the meantime, got really REALLY dirty. It was a incentive to wash the bathtub Sunday after we got home, unpacked, and saw for ourselves how very dirty we really were. As everybody knows though, lots of dirt means lots of fun!
PS~Thanks -J- for the pics

My 30ish Sis

Happy birthday old lady! Your daughter made you a birthday stack of cookies since we didn't have cake on hand.

I'll leave you with some famous words to ponder on your 30-something birthday:

The woman who tells her age is either
too young to have anything to lose

or too old to have anything to gain.

A day on the Lake

We're pretty lucky to live so close to the lake and be able to launch the boat pretty much any day we want to. We went out on the lake last week and took the kids swimming to get them comfortable in their life jackets. All in all, it was a success, except that hubby decided that our pup does not get to come on the boat anymore because we had a rough time keeping her in the boat. Go figure, our golden retriever/lab mix likes to swim - who'd have guessed?