Random Camping

On Friday night we were in our living room watching t.v. around 6pm, when Sean said that we needed to go camping I mentioned that we always say that but never actually plan a time to go so I told him "Let's go right now!" that way nothing could come up and ruin our plans. So we went. We packed our tent, some food, and clothes and hurried to REI to buy a stove before they closed. We got there right as they were locking the doors and told them that we were going camping right then and only needed a camp stove... luckily we are masters at the sweet-talking so they let us in! Whew. Close one!

We went to Burnt Rancheria Campground in the Cleveland National Forest and spent one night there. We set up our tent, made taco soup, and played cards and Yahtzee in the dark that night. In the morning we went up by mount Laguna to see the awesome view. It was fun! We were glad we went because it helped us figure out the things we still need to get for camping. Usually we go with friends or family and everyones stuff is combined so we never know what we still needed in our camping supply... and now we do.

Three cheers for camping!!

Free Desk

We got this desk for free from our friends the Coxs (David and Wendy).

I loved how it was small and had a lot of drawers... I did not love the color or the 80's hardware that was on it, I saw the potential that was in it though! Here is what you can do to make an old desk go from drab to fab:

Step 1. remove ghetto hardware

Step 2. sand entire desk

Step 3. wipe with tack cloth to remove dust

Step 4. stain desk using the color "ebony"

Step 5. go on a random impromptu camping trip with your husband (optional)

Step 6. apply second coat of stain

Step 7. seal stain with wipe on poly satin finish

Step 8. screw on updated brushed silver hardware

Step 9. add a matching chair preferably from IKEA so your cost is low... and that's it!

I did these nine simple steps and I love my "new" desk now!

celebrating half a century

I went to Idaho for a few days for Mom's birthday party. HAPPY 50th MOMMA!!

It was my first time away from Sean... that was interesting. I don't want to do it again but the reason was a pretty good one, it's kinda a big deal to have been around for half a century! All four of Mom's kids were able to come too, so it was all worth it to her and that is what matters. It was good to see the family... but it's also good to be back to the cooler weather (a perfect 75 degrees!)

I was in Idaho for 4 and a half days and I only took 2 pictures, neither of which have any people in them. oops.

... so here is some Idaho scenery for your viewing pleasure, lucky for you, Idaho is beautiful.

Part of Hell's Canyon

An old barn in Cuprum

Now lets see what has come of Mom's hard work during these 50 years (well at least 30ish of them.)

Take a look at her pride and joy... her children and grandchildren.

She has loved, nurtured, and taught all of these silly kids:

She never gave up and, trust me, we can be hard to handle at times!

She has played with us, and cried with us. Sacrificed for us, and succeeded with us. And helped us all get to where we are today.

We clean up nicely...

Not too bad huh?? We think she did a pretty good job!

This was 50 years well spent... Hope your next 50 is as successful as the first Momma!

Thanks for everything!! We love you!!!

Good Morning! from San Diego, California

even I can be a morning person with a view like this to wake up to...

{this picture is courtesy of Sean, he was the one awake at 5:36 that morning.}

U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition

Who knew there was a nation wide sand sculpting competition? Lucky for us it's held right here in our own back yard! We went with the Coxs and Wests to check it out after church today... We were really excited to see all the cool sandcastles and had no idea how big of an event this was. After driving in jam packed traffic going 5 mph for some time we finally found a spot four blocks away from the beach (which we were excited about because it was actually closer than we thought we would get.) We made our walk toward the beach and saw the amount of people around us growing as we got closer. We knew there would be awesome sandcastles on the beach, we didn't know there would be a gazillion people, fair booths and street vendors there too. There were seriously SO many people there, like you couldn't move without bumping into some random person next to you! It was crazy!! The viewing time was from 3-4 o'clock at 4:00 the tide came in and starting washing all the sculptures away, along with all of the people... everyone in our group got hit by a big wave and we were all drenched! We walked the four blocks back to the car very wet and sandy. But we had a lot of fun the whole time!!

That is A LOT of people!

supposedly there were 300,000 people there... woah!

Take us out to the Ball Game, again...

That's right! Sean and I got to go to another baseball game... Today we went with the Wests' to watch the Padres play the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park here in San Diego. AND... the tickets were FREE, again. Kent got 4 free tickets from work and they invited us to go with them. The seats were awesome! We were right behind home plate and just a few rows back!! The game was fun, the company was amazing, and the Padres got the trashed kicked out of them (10-1) let's face it, they just aren't very good.

the view from our sweet seats:

Benson is loving the Subway sandwiches

Kent, Anna, and Benson

Let Freedom Ring!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

I love this country and I love celebrating every July 4th!!

All of our friends were out of town this weekend... So Sean and I had our own little party today. We slept in (after getting to bed around 2 last night because we were driving back from LA after the baseball game.) For breakfast we made waffles with strawberries, blueberries, and whip cream (and I made Sean a flag waffle.)

We had a BBQ which included: hamburgers (with garlic, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles.) macaroni salad, corn on the cob, and cantaloupe.

We watched the fireworks from the Navy base in Point Loma (this years theme was "Big Bay Boom") We saw seven different groups of fireworks on all sides of us over the bay, It was awesome!

For dessert we made Root Beer floats. Yum!

Angels in the outfield... and the infield.

Sean scored free tickets to an Angels game... yay for the military again! We got four tickets and invited the Coxs' (David and Wendy) to come with us. It was really fun! We brought Taco Bell food into the game with us, and Wendy brought some peanuts for us too. They had a firework show over the stadium after the game which was really cool! The Angels lost to the Orioles 6-4.