California: Part 2

California: Part 1

Our first stop on our California vacation was at my brother Ben's house in Turlock, CA. We love getting together with them whenever we can, because our kids enjoy each other so much and have very compatible personalities. I love to just listen around the corner to Reese and Jack 's conversations. And Anna and Emily are like sisters! Sam giggled every time we talked about going to visit Maya and Bella. They play so well together. Just cute little kiddo games. Like "working out" in Ben's living room. Sam had those girls doing push ups and kick boxing, and relays. And they loved every minute of it. It was quite inventive.Then there's Jessica, the oldest, TALLEST, most mature of the bunch. She really is so grown up! It wasn't until she drove the baby stroller like a nascar driver through the parking garage that I remembered she is 12. (That's a good thing Jess, be young as long as you can!!!) I tried to discreatly tuck baby Jeffrey under my arm as we left, hoping know one would notice. But Blake made me give him back! What a cutie!!!
Anyway, we felt lucky to attend Anna's baptism while we were there. The above picture was how well behaved our group of nine cousins were....during the baptism. The below picture is a better depiction of the cousin memories made throughout the weekend.

And through it all, my sis in law Emily put together a lovely baptism program, and a delicious luncheon without breaking a sweat. Impressive. Thanks for a wonderful visit!!!!


The slide show below is of our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had taken a trip there 9 years ago. When Emily was a baby and Blake was working in Modesto, CA. It was a fun trip then, but even better to take all our kids back, and watch them enjoy it. I have to say that all 9 of the kids were well behaved!!! A huge accomplishment in my book!

Feeling younger instead of older!!!

So, Blake asked me what I wanted for my birthday (which I thought was pretty brave considering the fact that I made him go to a Shakespeare play the last time he asked what I wanted to do), and I told him I would like to go skiing. And being the wonderful husband that he is, he found a way to make it happen. With a little help from Aunt Becky, who watched the kids for us, we spent the night in Albion, and went skiing at Pommerelle the next day. Neither one of us had been there before, but had always wanted to go. I was nervous the first run because it had been a while. So I told Blake we had to find a green or a blue run to start with. But it didn't take long to find out that even the trails marked black diamond were pretty mellow. It also helped that we had rented our equipment. I have to say that skis have come a long way since my "Rad Dog" days at Targhee. They made me look like a much better skier than I really am. It was a gorgeous day! And I ended up feeling alittle youthful, instead of older. We also found THE BEST place for scones in Albion. With the most delicous honey butter and raspberry butter to slather them with. YUM! It's just a really good thing that you have to go all the way to Albion to get them!!!!

The one Spring skiing tip we forgot was Sunscreen. We both went to church the next day with red faces and outlines were our sunglasses and headbands had been. LOL! (by the way that is the first time I have used LOL ever! What a dork I am!)