Memorial Day in Oroville.

Sunday afternoon, we loaded up the troops and drove down to Oroville.  I didn't take too many pictures but we had a great time.  They kids played, I got to visit Angelee and meet baby Liam, we swam in the hot tub and the kids swam in the freezing cold pool, I think I ate for like 5 hours straight at the bbq, Than played lots of corn-hole and was the undefeated champion.....

...we ate lots of cherries off of their cherry tree and they were delicious!  

 Gentry's face had a permanent cherry stain.  And her diaper had lots of pits in it.  Disgusting, I know. 

The kids played in the backyard a lot.  I love this picture of scotty.  He is the ultimate daredevil.  

 Becca got her pinterest on and made some yummy treats. 

 And that's all the pictures I have!   What is up with that?? We were just busy having fun and really, we were only there for 24 hours.  My kids are begging me to have a long stay there.  They are always like, We're leaving already!  I told camry we were going home and she said, "I'm already home so I'm not going!"  Gotta love Grandma's house.  

Learning new tricks.

For the past two nights, Than has been out of town and I've fallen asleep with three out of four kiddos on my bed.  We've been reading some chicken mystery book and it puts me to sleep!  I've said it before and I'll say it again...I cannot read at night!  So, needless to say, I haven't caught up on my blogging because I've been too busy sleeping!  This week has been pretty uneventful but going by super fast since we had a monday holiday.  And seriously one of the things that I like least about California is how late school gets out!  We still have to go next week and I think that is just plain wrong!  Utah has it right....and probably most of the rest of the world...no school after memorial day.  My kids are ready to be done but are excited for all the end of the year fun.  Field day, swim parties, park days.  Fun fun fun. 

Here are the new tricks that my kids have learned this week.  I don't have a picture of her trick but here are some cute pics of her in her new red dress from Maddie, our neighbor girl down the street.  Claira's trick was learning how to hang clothes on a hanger!  She was so proud of herself and was like, 'It's so easy!"  Don't worry, Claira, we will put your trick to good use. :)

 Camry learned how to blow a bubble with her gum!  She's funny.  She says, "Hey, mom, how do you blow a bubble?"  And so then I get some gum and show her and then on her first try, she blows a bubble.  That is just the camry way.  

 Oh, wait....I messed up. 

 Blowing....ever so carefully and thoughtfully....

 ...until Woohoo!  Success and happiness. 

 Pacen has been a baseball junkie these days and has learned how to slide and how to pitch!  We've been playing catch a little everyday and he makes me get down in catcher's position so he can pitch to me.  Hey a little bit every day is all it takes. :)  His slides are getting there.  He is loving his benny outfit and looks so dang cute in it.  

In the car yesterday we were talking about new teachers.  I asked Pacen which teacher he wanted next year in the THIRD grade. (Crazy!).  He said, "I don't think I want Mrs. _____.  I think she is probably a really good teacher, but some people say that she has a permanent black tattoo on her back."  I almost choked on my water when he said that.  I thought he was going to say like she hits kids or something but no, the black "permanent" tattoo was enough for him.  I love this boy.  

I wish I was posting about my cutie pie Gentry and how she's learning to use so many words and communicate with me instead of screaming at me all day, but that is not the case.  Why use words when you get exactly what you want by just grunting and screaming????  You wouldn't.  She will copy words back to me when I tell her to after the screaming but it isn't her first choice.  Someday.  Someday.  

Spoiled Rotten Girls.

Last night Than and Pacen got to go on a Fathers and Son's campout...really a Young Men's campout but Than and a friend of ours brought their boys and Pacen was stoked!  And while he was stoked, he was also bragging about how he gets to go camping with just dad and him and play with Ethan and Anthony so the girls were a bit jealous and bummed.  So to make them feel special too, I planned a little mommy and daughters trip for their first mani/pedi!  Now they were so excited!  Claira kept asking, "Is it 4 o'clock yet????"  

It finally came and we were on our own with no stinky boys. :)  

First...."You pick color." 

Camry chose all the fluorescent rainbow colors while Claira's were all pinkalicious and sparkly.  

The watching and waiting....

They were a little apprehensive the whole time but loved the pampering.  They really just watched every move they made.  

Come on!  How fun is it to have girls?!?!?!?!

Now for the hands....

Camry has a very serious demeanor sometimes. 

 She's definitely got the hang of it. 

And this little one obviously acted like she owned the place.  She was making all sorts of friends putting on her friendly waving cuteness show and everyone loved her.  That is right until the end when she was done waiting and just wanted to be spun on one of their little chairs. 

 This was as good of a final picture as I was going to get since Gentry was acting like such a crazy.  They were bright and perfect with a little flower on them.  Could you ask for anything more?!?!?

Today they've shown their fingers and hands off as much as they could.  It's so fun being a girl.  After we did this, I met a friend downtown and we shopped and ate and chatted a bit and went to a neighbor's house to celebrate a birthday and then went yardsale-ing today.  

Than and Pacen made it home safely and had tons of fun.  Pacen had a milestone today.  He hit a wiffle  ball over our fence into the neighbor's yard.  It's a good thing we've learned from The Sandlot that you just have to go over and ask.  :)  He was very proud of himself.  Now everyone is crashed on the couch and I'm going to join them.  I'm tired because Than made me help him clean out the garage but it was so worth it.  It's so clean and  I love throwing away things even though he called me a hoarder all afternoon. 

Borderline Obnoxious???

....Or just all the way obnoxious?  From the looks on a few of my neighbors faces, I'd say just plain old obnoxious. :)  Walt found us this flag pole at a yard sale last year and we've been waiting to put it up.  Gotta let our cougar pride show out here in Cali!  

Crazy Hair Day

 You can't tell from the picture, but my kids were pretty excited for Crazy Hair Day.  Well, Camry looks excited but Pacen has a very un-enthused look on his face like seriously, why are taking pictures of me....again?!??!  With Pacen's short hair, Than had a fun idea of putting a bunch of bows in it but Pacen vetoed that even before I finished my sentence.  So plan #2, also thought of by Than was the swim cap spikes.  It was a hit!  

 I tried to put wire in Cam's hair and make her braids stick straight out but that was a bit too crazy for Camry and she started crying.  So, a bunch of regular braids was what we settled with.  

Aren't they sooooo crazy?!?!? 

Gentry's Arch Nemesis

Gentry VS. the Garage Door

This is a challenge that we face almost everyday.  She just can't handle that the door can shut on it's own and stands there keeping it open and screaming until someone will come and help her.  The real answer to this problem would be not to freak out anytime I go into the garage.  She can open the door but then can't seem to figure out what to do next.  I'm glad she loves me so much that she can't stand to be apart from me for even 2 minutes. :)

Seattle!!!!

So I headed out on a plane at 6:00 on Friday for a (very) short weekend with my sisters.  The only thing wrong with it was that it was too short.  Next time (Emily, didn't you suggest NYC??  Yes, I think you did!) I need one more day.  Other than that, it was perfect.  We ate, we shopped, we talked, we laughed, we annoyed Rick with all of our trendy hip hop music, we even exercised.  It was really a lot of fun.  

Erin just lives in the most beautiful place.  Granted, to get it beautiful it has to rain 90% of the time but it is so pretty.  And her apartment is perfect.  It has an unbelievable view.  This is right outside her window!  You can just watch the boats come in and out all day if you wanted.  And bird watch.  And people watch if you really wanted to. 

Saturday morning we woke up (i still woke up at 7:00....argh!!) and went for a five mile "walk".  I'm going to remind you that Emily is 8 months pregnant and she did just fine.  We were joking that we could send her home to Marc with a new baby in hand with all the hills we walked.  But it was beautiful and right outside Erin's door.  You can see the Sound, Mt. Rainier, tons of wildlife.  AMAZING!  

Then it was shopping time.  We shopped and shopped and shopped.  I bought my first piece of lululemon workout clothes.  And I may never go back.  It's the most comfortable shirt ever.  EVER.  It's totally trendy out here in WC and I sort of made fun of it but I am now a believer.  Don't ever try it on.  Consider yourself now warned. 

I forgot how much I love shopping without kids.  I love browsing and going into the dressing room by myself and getting myself a cupcake without having to buy three and ordering a soda because my kids aren't there to drink it all and complain that Claira drank it all.  It's the little things.  I even bought new bras.  I really think I hadn't bought a new one since Claira was a baby.  Seriously.  It's a good feeling.  

So after shopping all day...Oh!  and it was a beautiful day...sun shining, birds singing, tons of people out and about....we went home and got ready for dinner with Rick and then walked to dinner.  Emily had to have been dying but she didn't ever complain.  

Here are the pics from our walk. 

This was the third picture and would not post it but it was the only one that wasn't blurry.  I had a plan to steal that jacket from Erin but it didn't fit in my luggage. :) 

 The first one....

 Adjust the hair....

 Final product. 

 Oh it's so pretty!

 These guys are pretty too. 

 Erin and Rick....to be wed Dec. 21st!  Can't wait!

 Where we ate dinner.  I love Thai.  Especially when its Thani thai. 

Thanks girls....can't wait to do it again! 

Utah!!!

Anytime we can sneak in a trip to Utah, you know we are game.  This time was definitely sneaking in a  trip.  I already had a sisters trip to Seattle planned for last weekend, but Than had to train someone out in Utah so we switched my flight to fly from SLC instead of OAK and headed out to Utah Tuesday night after young men's.  9:15 is much too late to start driving to Utah from California...just a piece of advice for you.  But we did it and we survived.  I drove first while Than worked.  Then he drove while I slept.  Then I drove while he slept.  Then he drove while I slept.  And then at like 5 am he started his work phone calls to people on the east coast and drove all the way into Utah working.  He doesn't waste any part of his work day!  The kids were so excited to go to Utah.  They love it there.  I think they will always have this absolute love for Utah and always think it is the best place ever because of their younger kids memories.  And that is what we want!  We have to get them to want to go to BYU after all. :)  

And everybody played wonderfully again.  I think they are beyond forgetting about each other now.  They just go on playing like they just saw each other yesterday and I love it.  Pacen also got to see Ty which his was really excited about.  Trina was so nice to pull Ty out of school for a few hours since we were so short on time.  And then I got to see her and Merideth.  I miss my neighbors!  It is so nice to be able to go back.  

Wednesday we did that, ate Cafe Rio, bought clothes for family pictures, hung out with lanell, made homemade ice cream, saw Sam, just hung out.  The kids got to watch a movie and fall asleep in the playroom.  I fell asleep on the couch as documented by lanell.  I was proud that i made it that far!  

I stole these picture off Jana's blog and it's not very steal friendly. 

 Thursday we went to the park, and even though Jana was sick, she stuck it out.  She is a real trooper. If you didn't know, she has a lot of little kids.  5 is a lot more than 4.  Like double. :)  

 My hair is just funky in this pic.  This is the rolled out of bed and I'm not showering until right before our pictures look. 

This is what Jana looked like for the majority of the day.  She needs to take it more easy because she's had mastitis twice already!  But check out that cute baby.  Baby Ray is CUTE!  

 We did our pictures which I haven't seen any of yet and I'm totally anxious.  Then I stopped by Tiff's house unannounced and she wasn't home.  :(  Then we drove to Kathy's and the kids stayed up until like midnight watching movies with her.  She spoils them rotten and I think both she and the kids enjoy it equally. 

We did some morning pictures since I was feeling lack of picture taking guilt. Who needs this picture in an extra large?!?!?!  Man I have a lot of wrinkles.  Thanks for that, mom. 

Pacen you are such a boy. 

I love the look on Gentry's face.  I like it....i think I like it...

No, I don't think I like it at all! 

After the rain cleared, we headed out to SLC to see the new City Creek Center.  It is beautiful!!!!  I was blown away and I walked right past Elizabeth Smart!  It took a lot in me not to scream out, "Hey!  That's Elizabeth Smart!" but I didn't and Kathy and I were like, Dude!  Did you see her??!?!  I'm so glad her life is happy now.  

Kathy wanted to get Camry a belated birthday present but that turned into all the kids getting a little something from the Disney Store.  Kathy is so great to my kids.  And lucky for us, the disney store is right next to the Cheesecake Factory.  Pacen tried on his new iron man helmet while we ate.  And made a little smiley face in his mac-n-cheese. 

We walked around the mall area and then headed over to Temple Square.  The kids loved the fountains. 

They had this really awesome game of trying to get Kathy wet! Even Gentry figured it out! 

 I love these of Pacen.  He got right in the middle and waited for it to get him.  He's funny.  And then we got in trouble for taking our shoes off.  

 At temple Square.  Claira really wanted to touch the temple.  There were tons of brides.  And I doubt anyone is reading this at this point, but can someone please fill me in on the off white wedding dress trend???  I'm think its beautiful but doesn't seem quite right to me.  Camry asked, Why aren't they wearing white dresses?? 

After that, I headed off to the airport.  The next day was a dream come true....they got to meet Jimmer!  Pacen has been wearing that thug hat ever since.  

 And then Than had to drive home all by himself!  And he did great.  For whatever reason, our kids rise to the occasion in situations like that.  I had no worries for him.  The problem with going by yourself is going to the bathroom.  You've got all the kids in an unusually small and dirty nevada bathroom.  Just a little tricky.  But they made it home safe, and so did I and now we are one big happy family again!

 Oh wait, Than is already back on the road.  Alabama this time.  But he's already coming home tomorrow.  Woohoo!