Sunday, July 27, 2008

A family affair


Saturday morning we got up early and donned our new race day shirts for the 1st Annual Alzheimer's Aid Society Memorial Run. This event was a family affair since Uncle Alan worked so hard to bring this even to fruition. They told him he would be lucky to have 500 people to sign up the first year, but they had over 1,200! It was definitely a success!

The children had their own race according to age and recieved a medal afterwards. O-Dog and Big D participated in their events. I was sure O-Dog wouldn't run in his when 10 minutes before it started his attitude took a nose dive, but he did it! He was so proud of his "golden medal".


Filling in the gap - part 2

Cousins swap

I had this idea a while ago to have a "cousins swap" with my sister Elizabeth. We have boys about the same ages, so I thought it would be fun to trade kids for a few days. We met in Colfax and I took her 3 1/2 yr old and she took big D. Since the smoke was so bad we mostly stayed indoors, but on friday I decided we needed to finally do something fun. We met our friends at the "train" (lightrail) and rode up to Folsom to the outlets. After doing a little shopping for the moms we had lunch at McDonalds and played ay the playplace. The kids had a great time, and it was just what we needed to cure our summertime boredom.

The cousins, still in their jammies...


Riding the "train", hence the blurriness...


The boys were fascinated by the random fish they found in the middle of the outlet mall. How it got there will remain a mystery to us... but don't the boys look so cute all huddled around it?

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Filling in the gap

I am suffering from terrible guilt for not posting in the past 3 weeks, and when I think of all the things I could and need to post about I get overwhelmed and don't want to blog. It's a vicious cycle! But, since this is basically our family journal, I feel the need to put it all here and have a record of what we've been doing lately. It will take me a few posts but I'll get this gap filled sooner or later.

Our Anniversary:

We had such a great time in Lake Tahoe! My Brother-in-law's mom works for Marriott Hotels and got us a great deal here. Ryan's family watched the kids for the weekend. We saw a movie (Get Smart), rented bikes and went on a 15 mile bike ride, I got a fab massage, rode the Heavenly gondola up the mountain and rode the Heavenly Flyer (It was awesome, my only complaint was that it was too short!) We ate at a buffet (never again!- we say this every time, but I am documenting it here to remind us.) I also got a huge surprise as soon as we got there when Ryan pulled out a gift in a little square box, I got a beautiful new ring!

my hot hubby...

me (hot and sweaty)...


The view from the gondola deck at the top... you can see the layer of smoke from all the fires going on in the mountains. It actually wasn't too bad while we were there.

waiting to ride the flyer...

It was a fantastic weekend even with all the smoke in the air.

4th of July:

We started out the day at the Stake Pancake Breakfast, it's always so fun to see everyone and their kids in their most patriotic looking outfits.

Then on to the annual Lewis Family 4th BBQ! As always, the food was delish and did not disappoint. I made this cake, frog eye salad, and potato salad. The cake was so good. If you've never had this cake, you're missing out. Just a warning, ... it's chock full of butter! It was great to see lots of family. One of the funniest family movies was made at this event. Check it out here. And don't be hatin' ...that's all I'm saying!

Later that evening we set off for Lincoln for their fireworks show. As always it was great, although I did miss having music playing during the show. I really feel like it adds a lot to the whole experience.



Lake Clementine

The next day we went up to one of our favorite summertime destinations, Lake Clementine. It was just our little family so we didn't hike back too far and found a great spot with a decent swimming hole and a nice big shallow area for the little ones. The water was perfect: clear and refreshing. We took a picnic lunch and an umbrella and relaxed on our own little private beach. Big D and I climbed a rocky (and steep) hillside to pick a few wild blackberries, they were so yummy! I wish we could have picked more to take home and make our favorite cobbler.

Miss P with handfuls of rocks to throw in the water.


O-Dog with a big one to throw in the water and make a big splash! This was his favorite activity there.

Big D is my fearless little fish. He loves to jump off the rocks with Ryan.


Just hangin out in the tube.


I know my sister Heather will appreciate this next one. And, the answer is no, I'm not, if you're thinking to yourself right now that I look preggers! Don't worry though, I think I look pregnant too.


On the way home we stopped at Foster's and got shakes - it's just one of those things that we always do on the way home from Clementine.

More fun coming soon!