Visit from the Wallaces

Brad, Tifani, Cade, Makinzi, and Cody came to visit us... Once again we slacked in the picture taking area! Why do we always do that?? We had a blast hanging out with them though. The first night we went to Hodad's for some famous hamburgers. It was awesome. Brad was the only one (in the whole place, I think) that ordered a double bacon hamburger with cheese and a basket (which meant that it also came with a mother load of potato wedges)... it was huge. HUGE! You can't even begin to understand... but the picture will help you. The waiter even said "wow, good for you!" when he ordered it. We didn't know what that meant until he brought it out. We were all laughing when we saw it! Brad definitely struggled with that burger, but was able to defeat it... and was a hero to us all that night!

On Friday we watched the kids while Tif, and Brad went to a wedding in L.A. We took them to La Jolla to see the seals, the library to get some movies (our movie choices were boring to them), and took them swimming. The pool at our apartment was their favorite part of California... they are low maintenance. We had a lot of fun with them!!

We spent a lot of time at the pool and a little time at the beach. We went to Bj's for dinner one night, oh man, I love that place! We went to IKEA. We vita-mixed a lot. Sean and I took their family pictures for them (that was interesting trying to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time while smiling!) Mostly we just hung out. It was a fun weekend for sure! Thanks for coming guys! We miss you already...

Green Valley Campground

Labor Day weekend camping trips are pretty much mandatory. So we went. And we loved it. We choose the Green Valley Campground in Cuyamuca State Park and stayed 3 nights and 4 days. Fun? Definitely! Since our little group of camping friends were either out of the state (Wests!) or having a baby (Coxs!) we went by ourselves and it was still awesome.

We packed all of our stuff and left on Friday around 2 when Sean got home from work. We got up there and picked our spot. The ranger said that spot had a nest of "meat bees" in it we figured it was no big deal since if you leave bees alone, they leave you alone.... We made tin foil dinners that night and had s'mores for dessert.

Saturday morning we wake up excited to have blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Remember the bees?? Well, we figured out how "meat bees" worked that morning... they do leave you alone (like any other bee) if you leave them alone, unless there is food involved in that case, they have zero respect for your personal space!! Before we even got our first pancake in the pan, there were seriously 349 zillion bees swarming the small little bowl of pancake mix. Yep! They were EVERYWHERE! We couldn't move. They would follow. We couldn't cover the food. They would wait. Bug spray? Tried. I think they actually liked it. So we ate our breakfast in the car that morning (I think I may have eaten a couple of bees as well.) While in the safety of the car (so much for camping, huh?) we brainstormed a plan of attack for those evil little insects! We put our camping trip on hold for a little bit and headed to wal-mart in search of a mesh shade tent. We succeeded! We got back to the campground and set it up in time to try it out for lunch. It worked like a charm! The bees were still swarming but they were flying right into the side of our mesh screen! Sean thought it was necessary to rub it in the bee's faces by saying to them: "That is why I am man, and you are bugs!" and I agreed with him. Lunch was peaceful, and so were all the meals after that! We hiked to the waterfalls that day and the swimming hole. It was awesome! For dinner we had bbq ribs in the dutch oven and rice-a-roni.

Sunday we had mess for breakfast (bacon, eggs and potatoes scrambled together). We walked down to check out the river and hiked to the waterfalls again. This time we got in! It was freezing, but fun. We hung out and played games, most of which I won. We had chili dogs for lunch. Dinner consisted of french bread pizza and strawberry/peach cobbler for dessert (I love dutch ovens!)

Monday we explored for the last time and took some pictures. We packed up our campsite and then drove to some of the other ones in the area to scope out some options for next time. When we got home we were feeling good from a fun weekend and really dirty... And we were already talking about going again!

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