California Trip

1. Slalem ski course behind my dad's Natique. I forget how much I love the challenge of the slalem course and how incredibly tiny the wake behind my dad's boat is. The two things get me racing across the wakes and smoothing out my turns. Its one of the things I feel pretty confident doing and just love so much.

2. The beach. I figured I couldn't go all that way and not go to the beach. So, Sunday Dad, Brian, the boys and I drove out to the beach (its only 15-20 minutes form my dad's house). The water is cold, and it was a little chilly, but it was still fun to hang out on the sandy shore, listen to the waves, smell the air and stick my feet in the waves. Josh and Dekker weren't too sure about it at first- but had lots of fun after a few minutes of observing everyone else there exploring.

3. Talking with dad. My dad hasn't always been the easiest person for me to talk to, but on this trip he really opened up to me. Its kinda strange when you get to that point where you start having adult to adult conversations. It was nice though to hear his honesty, his struggles, his excitements, and his opinions. I think my dad really needed my brother and I around for a bit.

4. My brother. Brian is such a cool big brother. Everyone just loves having him around. I felt like when he got there (Thursday night) "the party" could really begin. He was so sweet with the boys too. On Friday he took Josh by himself (while I stayed at the house while Dekker took a nap) down to the lake and out on the canoe. They took fishing poles and pretended to fish, rowed out to one of the islands and got off there to explore. Brian even got out his pocket knife and carved them a couple of spears. How cute is that?!

5. Blackberries. While we were there it never got real hot, but apparently the week before they had 100* weather- so some of the blackberries had been ripening earlier than usual. Blackberry picking is kind of addicting- once you start its hard to stop because you're always sure there are even better ones just around the corner. We picked a TON and the boy were helping (well, kinda- Dekker just ate them- even out of the basket- and Josh mostly ate his too) but we still had PLENTY for cobbler and topping off homemade tapioca (I'd never had it warmed and homemade before and actually liked it prepared this way).

6. Saturday was my favorite day of the trip. Saturday was my dad's birthday. EVERYONE went down to the dock TOGETHER and had fun boating. Shauna and Sera even tried wake boarding. We had yummy sticky buns for breakfast that my brother picked up at a local bakery and for dinner we made my dad yummy grilled racks of lamb, garlicky mashed potatoes, and a fresh salad. For dessert- blackberry cobbler of course!

7. Josh and Dekker's first modeling gig. My sister Sera did her 8th grade project on photography. She's been learning and practicing a lot. One of her freinds' parents started a mineral makeup line and asked Sera if she would want to do the marketing photography. She was working on that a lot while we were there and asked if she could use Josh and Dekker as models for some ideas she had for the bronzing and shimmering powders. It was lots of fun and pretty darn cute. I'll have to post pics on our photo site...

8. Cute kids. Josh and Dekker were always busy and exhausting as usual- but they did relatively well for being out of their element and routine. There were lots of cute/funny Josh and Dekker moments. The one that I remember most was while we were picking berries:

Josh: Mom, Dekker has boogers!
Me: Thanks Josh, but I don't have kleenex, it'll have to wait till we get back to the house.
Josh: But Mom, he's TASTING it!!!!

9. Small town wards. I went to church there on Sunday. Everyone was so friendly!