Take me out to the Ball Game....

All of the interns at Andy's work got to go to the Dodgers Baseball game. Andy was lucky enough to win an extra ticket so I could go along with him. And speaking of winning....we were given food vouchers but on the bus ride over Andy won some more food vouchers. Free game, free food, long date and free babysitting. Does life get any better than that?!?!?

Cousin Fun

Amy was nice to drive down and see us. It was fun to get the kids together. Although it took a little time to warm up to each other, Blake and Ethan hit it off pretty well. They had lots of fun playing at the beach. And this picture is pretty good because good old nervous nelly Lucas is actually in the water and having fun instead of sitting on the side stressing that the waves might hurt him!

50 years ago

50 Years ago Andy's parents were married in the Salt Lake Temple. We celebrated with Andy's mom by going to the temple and then out to dinner in Beverly Hills. It was a wonderful day with almost all of the family. We love you mom!

Mom and her kids
Andy, Robert, David, Gene, Amy, Mom, and Carol

Mom and the In-laws
Chad, Chris, Mike, Kim, Mom, Amy

10 Years!!

Ten Years ago we were married here in the L.A. Temple. Hard to believe it has been ten years already!!
Andy surprised me and took me away over the weekend to celebrate ten years. He ended up telling me several days early so I could "train" his mom how to care for Ethan's diabetes. She was so so kind to watch our kids and did a great job with them.


We stayed here in Long Beach and enjoyed eating with NO kids pulling on us, no screaming Jane, no shots to give, no clean up and no bedtime routine to go through!! It was heaven. We also had fun going to a late night movie and browsing the book store while we waited for the movie to start.

Saturday morning we woke up to no alarms (nice) and headed out for a great breakfast at a French Cafe we stumbled upon. It was so yummy!Then we spent the rest of the morning biking along the board walk and seeing some great sites!








Thanks to Andy's mom for watching the kids. Thanks to Andy for a WONDERFUL weekend. And most of all thanks to Andy for a wonderful ten years!!

Did I mention we love this family?!??!

We loved being with the "S" family for our Disney adventures and had fun spending Saturday and Sunday with them.


We enjoyed going for a ride and showing them the area we live in. The kids might not have enjoyed the ride as much as us but they did enjoy getting out of the car and running around from time to time.
Ethan and Jenna had fun climbing palm trees. Joe would have to tell you what kind they are as he has apparently become quite a palm tree expert!

The happiest Place on Earth with the happiest people on Earth makes for a VERY happy day!!!




We were finally reunited with some of our Indiana friends - Sara, Joe, Libby, and Jenna (the happiest people on earth) and what could be better than doing it at Disneyland!! We had a fabulous day with them and other than the weather (perhaps a little cooler) we couldn't have had a more perfect day. Andy and Joe worked the fast pass system and we managed to get on LOTS of rides - including all major roller coasters and the longest we ever waited in ANY line was maybe 25 minutes.

FUNNY STORY
We participated in the "give a day get a day at disney" program so we got in absolutely FREE. And apparently our service paid off throughout the day. We wore buttons indicating that we had done that service and once while in line a lady came up to us and gave us a really nice Disney gift to thank us for our service. Then one of the HIGHLIGHTS of the day was being in the Main Street Parade!!! Because they saw our service buttons (OK by now Andy was the only one wearing it) they asked if we'd like to be in it. We were escorted off behind the gates (no pictures allowed back there - darn!) and placed on the old firetruck which happened to be leading the parade. We were taught a few different kind of waves and off we went, waving, singing, clapping and giggling a lot. We kept wondering how WE ended up in the parade. Crowds were lining the streets watching us and yes, even video taping us!!! he! he! he! The kids thought it was cool but I'm pretty sure that Sara, Joe, Andy, and I enjoyed it more than the kids! After the parade we had a lot of laughs about being in the parade. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and one of the highlights of the day!!!
Here we are on the firetruck in the parade!! Good times!

Jenna and Ethan took turns ringing the bell throughout the parade - notice all the people on the streets!!

Ethan LOVED the roller coasters - the scarier the better. I was impressed that Lucy tried all but Thunder Mountain. She cried/screamed the entire Space Mountain ride (I felt bad) but she kept getting on them!! Yay Lucy. And Andy and I enjoyed all the rides with our kids because Mom S stayed home with Lucas and Jane. It made it for a pleasant day for everyone!! (Thanks mom!)

The Girls finally made it to see lots of the princesses! It was cute!

There was a parade in the middle of the day. We watched some of it and the girls had tons of fun dancing to all the music.
I was just so happy to see Sara again!!
We did find treasures on Pirate's Island - too bad we couldn't bring it home to pay for school books!!


We weren't sure how long we'd stay. I figured we'd stay until the kids were tired but figured we'd be home around 9:00 or 10:00. Well, we were all worn out by the end of the day and did everything we wanted to do and walked in the house just after midnight!!

What did you do today?

Today we enjoyed the sun and had a wonderful trip to the beach!! The waves scared Lucy and Lucas a little bit but Ethan and Jane had NO FEAR!Ethan got a thrill from the waves knocking him over and Jane couldn't get enough of the water. She got mad each time I picked her up out of the water.

Food, Folks, and Fun!!

We had so much fun over the 4th of July weekend with a lot of my cousins, uncles, and aunts. We of course had plenty to eat, lots to do, and much to talk about. Isn't family GREAT?!?!?

Some highlights were:

The People

Alisa and Ryan

Chad and Sara - the two responsible for this happening!

Liz - Does she look spoiled rotten or what?!?!? Tal and Reginas house was wonderful They had a beautiful pool, yard, and tennis court. We also all loved the cotton candy machine, popcorn maker, jumper for the kids, and snow cone machine - yes we had fun!! We also enjoyed the beach but I didn't get any pictures of it.

The Prizes
Everyone gave me a hard time because I kept winning so many prizes - camera, gift card, and technically Andy won $100 but since we're married I kind of won it too!!

Tal had a bunch of cash and whoever could guess exactly the right number would win $100. As it turns our nobody guessed exactly but Andy came the closest! Thanks Tal!!

Uncle Myrl and the money Jar
Growing up, whenever we'd go to California we'd stop by and visit Uncle Myrl (grandpas brother) He would always let us kids reach our hand into a jar of money. Whatever we could pull out we got to keep. It was very exciting. Myrl is now very old and living with Tal and Regina. At the reunion all the great grandkids got to stick their hand into the money jar. It brought back a lot of memories!

Remembering Uncle Rod
This was our first reunion since Uncle Rod passed away. He was missed by all. We each got a balloon and let it go in memory of him

A visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house and the candy closet!!
It was fun to visit Grandma and Grandpa's new house. When I was growing up we always got to visiti Grandma's closet which was full of candy. All the great grand kids had fun walking through the closet and instead of choosing one item they got to fill a bag full of candy. They loved it. By the way - this is the Grandma Lucy was named after.

All the kids enjoying their treats

Even Jane was delighted to eat a sucker and get in on the fun!!

Thanks to Tal and Regina for letting us stay at their house. We had so much fun!