My Couch is an indoor Sandbox

I love my kids, I really do; especially Cooper when he uses the under-seat compartment of his trike to smuggle sand into the house. When I found him, he was scooping it out of his trike in handfulls onto the ottoman for his trucks to have a realistic construction site. I have to laugh be cause honestly... in his mind it's just logical: trucks need sand, sandbox has sand, trike can carry sand.... BINGO! Sand comes inside. Once I explained sand does not come inside he was very helpful about cleaning it up... he didn't get upset or throw a fit, he methodically scooped it back up into his trike. When he saw how the vacuum lifted it up as if by magic, he was way more into that than the novelty of having sand inside. But still, for a moment, he had created his own little world of sand.... pity it had to be right on my couch!

Wedding... isn't it about... TIME?!!!

To be fair we really only waited 6 weeks (that's how much notice we had), but it seemed longer. I said before how beautiful the whole thing was. I'm not so good at taking pictures and having them turn out, so I didn't even attempt the reception. With all the candlelight I would have marred the whole thing. Best just remember it how it was: simply magical. But here's us *trying* to look our best in our formal attire. Yeah, and also, no pictures of Spence and Taylor. It was their day after all... but some dip-wad was handling my camera... ooops I mean...

Nice Stuff.

Spencer and Taylor got married this weekend. It was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL wedding I have ever seen. Candlelight, fireworks, awesome food. Everything you could possibly imagine... and MORE! As if that weren't enough, Taylor's Auntie is letting them live in her house (for almost nothing), and her Grandma gave them all this furniture for a wedding present:

I know Taylor deserves to have it this good... but I'm not so sure about Spencer ;)

Washington County Fair 2008

The rain in the afternoon thinned out the crowds so much that we were able to walk on to any ride (except the ferris wheel) without any lines! Cooper loved them all except this one:It was too jerky for his liking. he got so scared he even held Maddie's hand! Then there was the Merry-go-round:
See normal people.....
And then us......

No normality here folks... best just pack up and leave.

Me & Annie

We like each other, that's a fact. We also like how we understand each other's quirks and habits, and how we respond in kind. Aside from that, there are several things I know for sure about me & Annie:

(1) We'll grow old... eventually

(2) We'll grow old... together

(3) We'll grow old... gracefully!

You may ask "how do you exactly plan on growing old gracefully when you can't even be graceful now?!"

Answer: With big hats of course!

Old ladies with big hats are always graceful! You know that kind who wear scarves and sunglasses (and, of course, big hats), as they drive their convertables through town. Sure, we may not have any of those kind of classy old ladies in our town yet.... but that doesn't mean me & Annie can't be the first! (We plan on taking a cruise just to test out our big hat theory.... we'll never see those people again!)

We've had this idea brewing for a while now, and that was the extent of it. We knew we'd get old, and we'd wear big hats. Just as old age was imminent, so were the big hats... and that was our plan. Until I saw a clip on Martha Stewart (here) about couture millinery (millinery = the art of hat making)on Martha Stewart.

Now it looks like we'll be making our hats as well as wearing them.

Here are my favorites from Suzanne Millinery on 61st street in NYC

Find your favorite big hats, and you too can grow old gracefully.

Just like me & Annie

Endowed

Now that Taylor recieved her endowment in the temple... we're just one step closer to the actual wedding day! I can't believe my buddy's getting married! Man! Talk about Crazy!

I never thought I'd see him this happy with ANY girl; now look at him! Well, she isn't just ANY girl either. She's one of the best I've met... seriously amazing, Spencer's going to have to get hisself into gear if he's going to keep up with her awesomeness.

New Building

This has been a dream of Jesse and Kevin's ever since they expanded out of their leetle shop and had to lease a second building; building a huge, all-inclusive shop to house the entire workings of Green Valley Cabinets. After shopping around and looking at several options, they've chosen a lot and it is in the process of being leveled for the foundation of the building. Everyone who's ever built anything (house, company, anything) knows how labor intensive and exhausting it is just to get to this point, but how rewarding now that it's all finally coming together. Jesse wants this to be the end-all, be-all for GVC (please, please, PLEASE!) and to pass this building on to Cooper. So for posterity, and our little Coop, here's our little family on the cleared dirt all ready for the foundation of our GVC building:

San Diego -Day 6- (Friday)

Last day!
We headed out to the USS Midway (so HUGE!) for a few hours. Spent some time at a park in Coronado and then made our 7 hr. trek home.... arriving home (back to the heat) at approximately 3 am.

All in all, a successful vacation. I think in the future we might pick something more tailored to the interests of our kids... and just keep it simple. We might have tried to pack in too much for these little guys, I have to remember that they are happy just playing in the dirt, so anything more than that is overwhelming. Sea World and the Animal Park were amazing, but being out all day and seeing all the new things exhausted them. Maybe planning a rest day in between every activity day would be better.
Also, our rental house was a huge disappointment. Though it was very nicely built and furnished... there seemed to be no sort of cleaning preparation for our stay. We spent portions of our vacation washing pet hair off of the towels so we could shower, cleaning pet hair off our beds, vacuuming, and washing the dried food off of dishes so we could cook. Leila even developed an allergic rash on the back of her neck because she took a nap on our bedspread before we washed all the pet hair off. I'm not sure if it's a common practice for this rental property or not. I suppose they can charge whatever they want and get it, whatever the condition of the house, because of the close proximity to the beach. Whatever. Next time we'll either book a hotel (however far away from the beach) or only book a rental house based on reliable references.
Planning ahead for this type of large group vacation was a must. We did many things ahead that made the vacation that much easier. We bought a 3 for 1 pass at Costco that allowed us unlimited entry to Sea World, The Wild Animal Park, and San Diego Zoo for 5 consecutive days. The passes were $80 each and we didn't need to buy one for the kids (under 3 is free). Admission at the gate of these places was around $40-$50, and even though we didn't make it to the zoo, the passes paid for themselves with our multiple visits during the week. It was nice to have the freedom of coming and going as we pleased (especially with kids!), we didn't feel like we had to pack everything into one visit because it was so stinkin' expensive to get in.
The weather was refreshing, it was a new experience for the kids, and we got to be with loved ones... Hurrah for the San Diego Vacation... we will remember you fondly :)

San Diego -Day 5- (Thursday)

Another Beach/Lounge day
I stayed at our rental house with Leila while she slept (she doesn't EVER sleep this much! This vacation must have been so much for her to take in!) and Jesse went with everyone else back down to the beach to try and conquer those violent waves again. Sadly, they were hammered even more than we were the first day! They all came limping back, injured, but happy.
I happened to bring a DVD case I borrowed from my mom that was chalk full of the classics: All the Herbie movies, Davy Crocket, and many other old school favorites. We stuck those in whenever we had a few minutes to kill between places. I had predicted Davy Crocket would be Kevin's favorite, seeing as how all the old school expressions that are in that show occur frequently in Kevin's everyday speach( "I can out-eat, out-hunt, and out-shoot any man in this here territory!" or "happier 'n a hog in 'na mud puddle!" and " You mean to tell me that this here is DAVY CROCKET?!!!"). Yeah, I think he liked them :) I also packed pipe cleaners, fuzz balls, fake eyes, and glue to keep Cooper busy in those spare moments. I didn't intend on everyone else being entertained as well... but it worked! By the end of the trip we had pipe cleaner people and eyeballs strewn all over the house... go figure.
Sadly, we used the last part of this day to do laundry and pack up... trip almost over.

San Diego -Day 4- (Wednesday)

We split this day between the San Diego Wild Animal park (different from the zoo), and more Sea World. Cooper was, again, uninterested in the Animals and more excited about the things he normaly loves: pushing the stroller, riding on anything, and just being with us. Figures. We had fun though :)





His favorite things at the animal park was this fake log, and the ball fountain. He could have spent the whole time there and been happy







And then some more sea world:

I took Cooper on the Sesame street little kiddie rides, and while they scared my tummy and made me squeal, Cooper was laughing and throwing his hands up and wanting more and more... He must have gotten that from his Father.

San Diego -Day3- (Tuesday)

Beach Day!

I like all these pictures, but they may be quite decieving. Wind 'n Sea beach, let me tell you, is NOT for beginners. We all got jacked in the water so many times! My injuries are still healing! STILL! We were afraid to take the kids in the water because we couldn't even keep ourselves upright. The few times we did try to take Cooper he got smashed down in the waves right along with us and was not loving it. Also, note the mote and little play area that Jesse built for Leila so the waves couldn't attack her.

They did love the sand though, maybe a little TOO much.

I found myself saying: "quit eating the sand!" too many times. I forget how much sand you bring home with you in every single crevice of your body. Nice. Also on Day 3 was my surprise date from Jesse. Tricky man! We left the kids with Monique and Kevin and drove downtown with Candice and Flint, and Nikki and Sam. As we neared the pier I was looking out on the bay for the first time and all the ships and started wondering out loud: "Wouldn't it be cool if we had our dinner out there on one of those boats?" BINGO! Jesse started laughing and said "WE ARE!"

Enter: DINNER CRUISE!

What a guy, right? I am still realizing that every day! How funny that just as I am realizing myself what I want... he's already found it, booked it, and told everyone to keep it "hush-hush".

What a blast. Even though they had sparkling cider for us "non-drinkers", you wouldn't have known there was no alcohol in our drinks from the way we were joking about everything, laughing at everything, and dancing to everything.

Also, did you know I can fit my mouth around the entire rim of a champagne glass? Thought you... might want to ... know that.

Memorable moments on our 3 hour tour:

Flint's "Fence-setter" face :)

Nikki: "why did they put 3 butterballs on MY plate?!"
Jesse: "Laura! Laura! Take a picture of my sweat!"
-Jesse trying to slide under Candice's legs and getting stuck on the wood floor by his sweatiness.
-Jesse: "that boat looks like a storm-trouper!"
- They gay couple who dressed the same for their first date.
-The fancy couple who didn't even propose!
- The table of old people who shouted to Jesse as we left: "YOU DA MAN!! YOU GOT SOME MOVES!"

-All the drunk people who danced with us, and all the non-drunk people who watched.

-Jesse saying to me as we romantically flowed under the coronodo bridge: "rememer the lady who tried to jump and commit suicide off this bridge?"