Coming Together

L to R: Richie, Chris, Matthew, Mark, Bob, Mike

Chris' five brothers all came into town this past week for the funeral of their paternal grandfather. It was so nice to have them all under our roof for a couple of nights since it's been about six years when they've all been together. It was also nice to have all of the extended family together (on his father's side). Although the occasion was a solemn one, it was a blessing to reunite the family and spend a short time together.

A long, full life.

Great-Grandpa Bruce, age 97

September 7, 1912-November 8, 2009

Her First Haircut

Going . . .

Going . . .

Gone!

. . . Time Together

I promised my kids that I would throw them a little Halloween party today to make up for missing a fun family Halloween party the other night. It was simple and nothing fancy, but we had the best time together for a few hours after school today.

Chris joined us after work and was the master pumpkin carver.

We ate spooky snacks and made festive treats. Let the sugar-rush begin!

We did a "mummy wrap" and had some races. Who knew 2 rolls of TP could provide so much entertainment?

The kids also loved the spook alley I created under the dining room table (enter if you dare!), as well as the "touch things that feel slimy and gross while blindfolded" activity (peeled grapes as eyeballs, jello as ghost slime, cold noodles as brains, etc.). I love how my kids are so easy to please, and I love their excitement over simple things.

All in all, a super fun afternoon and evening together.

Happy Halloween!

Josh, at Great-Grandpa's party on Labor Day

Today happiness is . . .

. . . Seth cleaning up his little sister's mess without being asked. He was watching out for his baby brother.

. . . having a sister to call and cheer me up after a rough day at church with the kids.

. . . Chris coming home much earlier than I expected from being out of town this weekend.

. . . listening to beautiful music.

. . . quiet time.

Happiness Is . . .

. . . listening to my little girl sing "I am a Child of God" to her baby doll.

. . . watching my baby push his big brother and sister around the house in the doll stroller.

. . . listening to my seven year old learn his favorite hymn on the piano. Because he wants to.

. . . enjoying my oldest son's wit, artistry, and creativity.

. . . helping to brighten someone's day, as a family.

. . . being married to a good, good man.

Blake's Day

Blake on his 1st Birthday

Love you to pieces, Mooks!

A Little More of Our Summer

According to my calendar, tomorrow is the first day of fall. So before Summer 2009 officially slips away, I want to briefly post about a few more of our summer highlights.

Do-it-yourself entertainment. It doesn't take much to keep the kids busy in our home. I love their imaginations. The kids spent a good hour or so one day having fun layering their shirts. I think Josh and Seth each managed to put on 17-18 shirts while Annie was wearing 8-9. I had to peel the shirts off one by one to find my three sweaty kids.

I don't have any pictures of Josh's week at cub scout day camp or the boys at their week of Hero Camp (our version of vacation bible school put on by moms at our church), but I do have a picture of this giant weed we tenderly cared for and daily watched as it grew and grew and grew. Not much of a garden this year--we did get some strawberries, but Annie's watermelons didn't make it.

No pictures of Josh at swim team, or of our days at the park, beach, or lagoon. But here are the kids at the library. We always do a summer reading program--they love going to the library.

Thanks to one of Josh's cub scout outings, we discovered a butterfly house at the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach. Very fun little place--the kids loved it!





Seth

Seth, Blake, & Annie

Josh

We had such a great summer this year. The kids were so good and helpful and loved entertaining themselves. Better luck next year taking a few more pictures to document our summer fun!

The Tar Pits

We recently spent a fun Saturday in LA at La Brea Tar Pits (http://www.tarpits.org/). There is a museum with many Ice Age fossils on display (from 10,000-40,000 years ago), and outside you can see several areas where the tar is still seeping up from the ground as well as former and current excavation sites. The sticky tar trapped many plants and animals and preserved their fossils, and this place is world-famous for having the largest collection of Ice Age plants and animals. They've recovered a million bones in the past 100 years, and there are an estimated 3 million items (vertabrates, plants, and invertabrates) in the museum's collection. Very educational and so fascinating. We all loved it.

Josh and Seth by the tar lake

Blake

Annie by one of the excavation sites




Watch your step! Throughout the acres-large park around the museum, there are several areas fenced off where the tar has seeped up to the surface. The kids were scared enough of getting stuck in the tar, that it wasn't really an issue having them keep their distance.



Annie



Josh and Seth watching the preservation workers in the "Fish Bowl"

Josh and the saber-tooth cat (not tiger, we learned)--the remains from over 2,000 saber-tooth cats have been found in the tar pits.

Seth and Annie

A few dire wolf skulls representing the several thousand dire wolves in the museum's collection.

The crew

Of course, the place smelled like tar.


I don't know why it took us so long to visit this gem, but it inspired us to take advantage of the many other attractions (beyond amusement parks) in our area.

Seth the Shark

Seth, 7 1/2, just recently lost his first two teeth. I guess "lost" isn't the most accurate description. The dentist extracted them to make way for the two teeth that were growing in behind his baby teeth. As in, a second row of teeth. Think "shark." Although Seth informed me that sharks actually have three rows of teeth. He was still happy to call himself a shark, but even happier to finally lose some teeth and get a nice little visit from the tooth fairy. And it's a good thing the dentist took matters into her own hands since those two bottom baby teeth were not coming out on their own any time soon.

Double Digits

We celebrated Josh's 10th birthday last week. He had a great birthday: Disneyland with friends in the morning (thanks Sarah!!!), browsing the Lego Store at Downtown Disney for a while, In & Out for lunch, playing with the presents he opened at breakfast (including Legos of course), yummy dinner, staying up late for a Star Wars movie night, and Lego cake and ice cream. Since cake decorating is not my forte, I appreciate his simple request of another Lego cake (4th year in a row now?).

Great day! We love our Josh!

Telluride

After returning from our trip to Utah, we spent a few days recovering and then preparing for the next trip. Chris, Blake and I went to Telluride, Colorado for my brother's wedding. It was a quick trip with about half of our time spent traveling, but we enjoyed it so much. We had a couple nice long dates in the Denver airport during hours-long layovers both coming and going--Our first date started with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, then Mexican food for lunch, frozen yogurt for dessert, airport shopping, riding the moving walkways back and forth a million times while we scoped out our dining options. It was great!

Our most memorable adventure while traveling was when we turned around mid-flight going from Denver to Montrose. The flight attendant announced/yelled at us that the pilot had just passed her a note saying we were turning around. There was a problem with the plane (PA system stopped working) so we had to go back and board another plane. After we turned around, it was a very bumpy ride back to Denver on this itty-bitty plane. I was grateful we had just done our will and even more grateful when we were back on the ground safely. When we finally got to Montrose we were really grateful that our luggage made it also (several other passengers weren't so lucky). Unfortunately Blake's carseat somehow ended up in Chicago (really?), but we secured a loaner from the airline and then enjoyed the very scenic 1 1/2 hour long drive to Telluride. Traveling with just one child was a breeze, and Blake was such a trooper despite teething, not being able to crawl around, and many missed naps. We missed Josh, Seth, & Annie, but they had a blast staying with our fabulous Foxy friends while we were away.

The wedding and festivities went really well, and it was so much fun being with my family. Telluride is gorgeous. The views and scenery were stunning. And it was so peaceful and quiet. And the fresh, clean air! I loved seeing so many stars in the huge night sky--no city lights drowning them out.

Chris and I at Gorrono Ranch (where Tom Cruise supposedly takes respite from the slopes if you care about stuff like that) for the wedding festivities, elevation 10,500 ft. (coming from sea level I was a little concerned, but luckily no altitude sickness for us).

Blake, me, sisters Cindy and Lisa

Blake would not leave my drink alone. He kept trying to grab the ice cubes and just wanted to suck on them.

With the handsome groom and beautiful bride

Sisters Amy, Lisa, brother William, bride Carolyn, Dad, me and sister Cindy



I love my sisters!
Amy, Tami, Cindy, Lisa

The view of Telluride while riding on the gondola that goes between Telluride and Mountain Village

Chris and Blake

View from the gondola heading toward Mountain Village, where we stayed at The Peaks Resort, white building in lower right hand corner

Wonderful trip! I'd love to go back sometime!