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?

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!

Anniversary

No it's not my blogiversary yet, but it is our Tenth Wedding Anniversary!



We look so young!

I woke this morning to Ryan's goodbye kiss as he was going out the door to work and found a card to me on his pillow. He has always been able to pen such sweet notes to me, even when we were dating. I, on the other hand, am terrible at it.

Then I recieved these by delivery:

I love him!

Since I don't have time today, on Monday I will answer Lisa's tag, but instead of anwering about me I will give 7 random facts on my man.

Workin' 9-5, what a way to make a livin'!

Last week I worked at my old job for a few days while they were all away at meetings. Every now and then they call me and ask if I want to work, it's pretty easy work and sometimes I just need something different to do. So I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Thursday and Friday I took the kids in with me and set them up in the conference room with the portable dvd player, Big D's DS and cable t.v. They like to go in, but after the first day, the novelty of it wore off and they were bored. So Friday I decided to take a walk over to the State Capital and show the kids around, plus Big D could count it as a requirement for Cub Scouts! Here are a few photos of the field trip:




I thought this was funny. Here is what most of the past governors paintings look like:

Dignified, right? Well, this one caught my eye and made me giggle:

I don't know why, but anyone else find this one funny?

It was a quick field trip due to the fact that I cannot control my kids in these types of settings, made even more difficult by the fact that I forgot to bring the stroller.

It really is a neat place to go with the kids, I suggest going on a cooler day than we did and walk around the grounds more. It is very pretty and has lots of great places to take pictures. I realized how much I have missed being able to go downtown and take in the hustle and bussle of it all.

I did have a few interesting things happen while I was there.

On Wednesday I went to the Farmer's market and observed a man stealing pistachios by the handfuls when he thought no one was looking. Then I watched him walk away and pull a dollar out of his wallet to pay for a drink. Unbelievable! And yes, for anyone wondering, I let the worker at the stand know! Although, I wish I had had the guts to say, "Sir, did you just steal two big handfuls of nuts?" But I didn't.

On Thursday I was sitting at my desk and heard a girl crying/screaming "Oh my Gosh! No! No!" Of course I am "curious" (ie. nosy) so I investigate. I looked out to see a young African American girl who has just just exited the Planned Parenthood next door. I quickly offered her some tissues and a shoulder to cry on. She had just gotten a positive test and was frieking out. Her friends just stood and watched her with their eyes popping out of their heads. Hopefully they learn from her mistake. So sad. I wanted to say, "If you would consider adoption I have some awesome friends........" But I didn't.

All in all it was a fun time, which will be even more fun once I get that paycheck in the mail!

Fun Times

I added a new blog patrol tracker on my blog a few days ago and really like it, much better than the Maploco I had. What I like about it is that it shows me the ip addresses for who is looking at my blog, top referrers for my blog, and "key word" search results that send people to my blog. So I was looking at it this morning and found that someone searching for "barfed in class" was able to find this post. Really? Barf? Hmmmm. I hope they enjoyed it.

In other news, last night we finally had the Angel's baseball party. Big D got his trophy and a baseball signed by the coaches. We had a BBQ at the park, all the food was really good. I took my Mother in Law's potato salad and these. Can you say YUMMY? I am drooling thinking about it all.

The park we went to has a great water feature for the kids to play in. O-dog steared clear of the water, he has never been a fan of the water features, and Miss P tested it out and opted to play on the jungle gym and swings, but Big D has always been my water bug so he had a great time playing in the water with his friends.

Camping Rundown

Well, we are back and we had a great time. It was really fun and, surprise.........relaxing! Basically the kids just played with each other the whole time, rode their bikes, played tag, put on a talent show, climbed trees, kid stuff! Everyone just helped out with each others kids when the mommy in need was unable to. It was great! We tried to go to the beach twice, but it was just so darn windy! We tried to build a shelter for the kids to be able to play in the sand, but it was just too much and after about 20 minutes we were ready to go!

We did get quite a bit of wildlife in the camp. The night before we got there they had a fox in camp. Then Tuesday there was a skunk in someones tent, thank goodness it didn't spray, eventually it just went away. Tuesday night I woke up to Jill screaming and what sounded like an animal ripping to shreds it's prey. It turned out to be two raccoons fighting in the trees over her tent. Wednesday we had a deer sighting while the kids did their talent show at the amphitheater.

We were supposed to stay 2 nights, but Big D came to me on Wednesday and said he threw up in the bathroom so I had him lay down and he just kept coughing, no more throw up though.... I didn't want to risk having to get up in the middle of the night and deal with that, and the cough was pretty persistent so I packed up pretty quick and we headed home.

Too bad because things were going so great! Here are some pictures of the trip

Time flies, when your having fun....

Let's see what has happened since the last post....

* Met my Sister-in-Law's new beau. He is really nice and the kids love him. Here's a plug for LDS dating sites!

* Went to a surprise 30th Birthday party. Having too much fun to bust out the camera!

* Hosted a bbq at our house for the family and said Beau. Burgers, chicken, potato salad, frog eye salad, raspberry cheesecake brownies, cookies....... too much good food! Too busy to take pics!

* Ryan started his new job, still at Kaiser. New schedule too! He gets home everyday now at 4:30!

* Big D had his last day of school. They rented some blow-up water slides and had carnival games and a bbq at the park next to the school. The kids had a blast. Forgot the camera!

* Had the pinewood derby, Big D had the winning car! Went out for yummy shakes to celebrate.



* Went to our last baseball game of the season!


* Cleaned out the garage! .....but still more work to do.

* Went and saw "Horton Hears a Who" at the cheap movies. The kids were good and the movie was cute.

Now I need to go pack for an impromptu camping trip to Bodega Bay with friends - sans hubby. Am I crazy? Check back Friday and see!