California

So I'm here in Sebastopol California visiting my dad. Jake was going to "Manzilla" (yearly guy trip to Jackson Wyoming) and so I figured since it was the same weekend of my dad's birthday I'd bring the boys on a little trip. We got great flights on Southwest, and though I was nervous about taking the boys by myself, they actually did pretty good. Josh got to see the cock pit and pilots of the plane and thought it was pretty cool.

1. The boys did so well on the plane. I brought treats and new coloring books/crayons to help- and they had their moments- but it really went pretty well.

2. The air here. I just love the smell of the air here. Much more humid than the dry dessert air of Utah and full of smells; ocean, plants, trees.

3. The property. My dad's property truly is beautiful. The vineyards, the gardens, the lake. Today I took Josh and Dekker exploring. They loved seeing the chickens, spotting jackrabbits, frogs, birds, etc....

Busy, busy

I've been bad about posting lately... I've just been really busy. Jake and I are going to Costa Rica in September, and so all this last week when I've had time on the computer its been spent researching all about Costa Rica and trying to figure out where and how to spend out time- not to mention how to get around and all that. Plus, getting the paperwork and stuff together to renew my passport and get Jake one.

It's been a good week though. I'm thankful for many things but here are a few highlights of the top of my head:

1. Jake not only came home about an hour early from work so that I could get my hair done- but when I came home I found him in the kitchen making his famous breakfast burritos for dinner.

2. I pulled out Jake's baby book looking for his birth certificate- which then got us looking through his, Josh and Dekker's and reminiscing...

3. Jake had a big sell for Magellan this week- and to celbrate we got take out from Bombay House!!!!

4. Going to the VERY BUSY Timpanogos Temple this week. Apparently the Provo, Jordan River, and Salt Lake Temple were all closed this week for cleaning and so it took us longer to get into a session than to actually do a session. Though it was unexpected it was kinda nice to spend so much time just hanging out with my sweetie and talking quietly with him there.

5. My friend Bri had her baby this weekend. They had WIFI in their hospital and so were sending out updates during the whole thing- so it was really neat to feel so a part of a moment so special. Bri is a champion 16 hours of labor with no pain medication, then an additional 20+ more with an epidural followed by 3 hours of pushing for their first 8 lbs 14 oz boy!!!

My new do

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I got my hair colored and cut. Kinda a fun change... not sure I want to post pic on our photoshare page yet... I feel I can be a little more forthcoming on this one.

Favorite stuff from the weekend

1. Josh dressing Jake. When we got home from church Jake was trying to get Josh to change out of his church clothes before running around (so his little suit doesn't get trashed) and I guess in trying to get him to change he told Josh that he could pick out "play clohtes" for him too. What did Josh pick? Of course a BYU Tshirt and some "fast shorts" (Jake tried to put on some cargo shorts and Josh quickly corrected him and pulled out Jake's athletic shorts). They came downstairs saying "Look Mom!" and were dressed practically the same.

2. Josh falling asleep outside on our patio chair after only a couple of bites of his popcycle. See photo here.

3. Josh doing "the dolphin" in the Lake with Jake. We're trying to get Josh over his water hesitations. It seems to be mostly from the latest "submarining tube incident". So the last couple times on the boat we've had to push him to get out on the tube or into the lake swimming, but we try to always make it fun and then get him out of the water while still on a good note. Saturday "Tio" (aka Jesus) taught Jesus how to the "the dolphin" (push your self up out of the water and make a squeeking noise while bobbing your head). Josh thought that was pretty cool and actually requested to get back in the water at one point so he could do the dolphin dance with Jake.

4. Dekker poking Josh. Dekker is getting to be mischievous... On the boat he kept getting this smirk on his face when he'd be close enough to stick out his index finger and reach in Josh's vest to give him a poke on the side... I had to try hard to not let him see me laugh.

5. "Peter Pan Josh". So when we have the boat turned off we sometimes let Josh pretend to drive and I was calling him "Captain Josh". He quickly corrected me- apparently because his only "captain" reference is to Captain Hook from Peter Pan. "Mom, pirates are mad. Peter Pan is happy! I'm Peter Pan Josh!"

6. Brett Dennen. We were listening to this music artist a lot this weekend, and I think he's fabulous.

7. Chipotle chicken salad from Costa Vida Saturday.

8. Pizza on the grill Sunday.

9. Sea Salt Pretzle Caremel Ice cream for dessert Sunday. Introduced to us by Bryce and Marcia. This Target Creation might sound weird (sea salt should not be said in and ice cream flavor) but it is delicious!

10. New rope for the tube. Lou (Jake's business partner and the one we share our boat with) bought a new rope for the tube- this thing is AWESOME! It has some spring in it so it works almost like a sling shot across the wakes and creates quite a ride!

11. FREEDOMS AND LIBERTIES OF THIS NATION!!!!! Wandering the booths at the Provo Freedom Days I saw t-shirts made to recognize all those who protect our nation. I may just have to look them up online because one that said, "Thank you for the freedom I enjoyed today!" just rang so true to me. I guess all the fireworks, parades and stuff are cool too.

avoidence and procrastination

Just to be honest- right now I'm checking blogs and writing a post just to avoid all the stuff I should be doing:

2 loads of laundry to fold
A MESSY kitchen to clean
Cherries to pit and dry/freeze (ALL the cherries get ripe at once and I try not to let too many of them go to waste!)
A garden to water and weed
A couple of bills to pay
and a dirty car to wash...

If it weren't so dang hot out I'd do the "good mom" thing and take the kids to the park or something fun that can sometimes be another form of procrastination- but right now we're all staying in doors as much as possible.

1. Dinner at Tucanos. We celebrated my birthday on the 28th- but my actual birthday is on the 30th- so on Monday Jake and I went to dinner at Tucanos. They give a free meal to you during the month of your birthday if you bring at least one other person in with you- so it was a nice treat.

2. Costco. Jake disagrees with me on this one- he thinks Costco is inconvenient and overrated- but I like being able to go and stock up on some of the things that my family goes through so quickly; goldfish crackers, yogurt, nutrigrain bars, diapers, etc.

3. Neighbors. I had to renew my drivers license this morning and my neighbor offered to watch Josh and Dekker while I went to do it!!!!

Such a fun birthday party!!!

So the big 30th birthday party was lots of fun!

The blow up toy for the kids got here just in time (few! It got here late afternoon the day before).

Food was great.

Ice cream cake was great.

The company was AWESOME.

And planting flowers and decorating the back yard turned out fun.

And of course there was Rock Band happening too.

I was really glad my friend Rebecca was able to come. She's the one I spent a semester with in Guatemala. She's been living in California and recently moved to Reno. She happened to be in town this weekend and so was able to come with her cute family to the party!

Our friends the Petersons who live in Farmington now and we haven't seen for almost 2 years came too.

There were so many others who came as well. My sweet little sister Karina and Garrett's girlfriend Kristen picked up the cake and brought it over - but also did the majority of the clean up for us, and helped watch all the little ones running around. How nice is that?! I think we had a total of close to 30 adults and 20 kids.

Jake also picked out a beautiful piece of art, "Gardening in the rain". Not only did it go with our party theme of "growing" but it is by one of our favorite local artists.

I'll be posting some video clips and photos to our photoshare website soon.