August 11, 2011

road trip galore

Mark's training schedule has left some big open holes in his weeks, so we have been taking full advantage of this by going on spontaneous road trips. I never thought I'd be able to with kids, but it's proving quite doable; though, when they start their synchronized crying, I feel the regret start to bubble up inside me... but then they calm down and it always ends well with no regret in sight. After packing up the beef jerky and water bottles, here's where we've road tripped:

Muir Woods 
San Francisco (2)
Berkeley (3)
Lake Tahoe
Nevada City

Road trips right around the corner:

San Francisco 
Santa Cruz
Yosemite National Park
Disneyland (? - 8 hours away)

When we get 'home' and the kids fall asleep all I want to do is watch movies and eat m&ms. Oh, the memories..

What are your favorite road trips ever? Are they spontaneous? Do you plan them out months ahead of time? Maybe, both? What are your favorite snacks? Favorite road tunes? Favorite people to road trip with? Do you play any games in the car? Ever meet any really interesting people? See any funny animals?

ps - cool photo, eh? internet can take credit. 

he's two!

His favorite present? his new sprinkler.. it even has wheels.
Missing from this picture: matchbox car (Bentley) and wooden passenger train

Mont turned 2 this last Saturday! I can hardly believe it has already come and gone.  He is learning, doing, and saying new things every day. Every time we stop the car and put it in Park he says, "here we are!" Here's what we did on his birthday:

woke up before 7 and headed downstairs for presents
toast for breakfast
playing with balloons and new toys
watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks in the car
stopped at Distribution to pick up Primary Songs on CD
visited the Sacramento temple - beautiful! 
stopped at a fruit vendor for some red red strawberries
rode the carousel - a horse and an ostrich 
ate peanut butter and jelly with french fries for lunch
played in the little pool
ate the homemade ice cream/lemonade cake - best ever!

August 3, 2011

photo gram

This is one of those updates you leave in your google reader feed to read later because you just don't have the time. Well.. I'll try to make it more interesting with a little less talkin' and a little more picture action (remind anyone of an Elvis song?.. Mark?).  ha - Here we go! It's an update for the last 3 months via my Insta.gram iphone photos. ... a bit more visually interesting than my typical iphone photos.

driving down through California's farmland, FFA's farmers feed America signs were aplenty. (mom this is what I was trying to find to show you) 

Mont loves to "sweeeeeeeeeEEEENE?" (has since been able to swing on the big-kid one!)

The backyard in our first TLF, I love shade from trees. 

his gentle-with-the-baby stage (he's relearning this): 

babies love to sleep!

and sleep...

and sleep...

and play in sprinklers on the way to the park:

doesn't she look thrilled to be in a dress? ready for our first Sunday at our new ward/church: 

now in the new (our 2nd) TLF, and here is eating nachos for lunch. This was one of those moments as a mother where you just love to watch your child, your creation! meticulously learning what is what, and how to do something new, and just be his own little person... what a little ball of fun kids are:

A very happy and cuddly nap on Father's Day while visiting Mo and Tory and Max (all those knee scratches! my goodness, this rambunctious boy...):

Oh, how I love Emmy in her little sun hat! This was one morning at the park with Mont and Mark, us girls were just watching:

Another one from us just watching, a couple days later while the boys played in the water out back:

Oops: added late: all from the same day. The three wiggly ones are from the morning of:

Wild turkeys on base... Mark took Mont to chase these down! Mont had the time of his life:

Still waiting to fit back into my 4.5 sized wedding ring. I know - why didn't I just get a size 5 when I had the chance!? I retired the 'okay' substitute and got all glitzy with this $28 substitute from Nordstrom's. Nice jewelry, nice price:

Mont is a huge new fan of carousel rides. I was the first to take him, and I LOVED hearing his exhilarated laugh. It was pure, terrifying delight as he clung for dear life onto the shiny gold bar of his pony. Mark took him next and mounted him on a more manly dragon! 

Viewer discretion is advised... this poor face took a beating this day. Early in the morning he clothes-lined himself under the playground bridge, then he fell off concrete stairs in the backyard, landing first on his already fresh bruise (this was about 4 weeks ago and I can still see a bit) and added some nasty scratches. After I took this top portion of the picture, he gave me a goofy face for the next picture.. but it just looks odd having a goofy face with such a terrible looking bruise, so I paired it with the calm-down picture... it was so sad!

here's a sight for your sore eyes! sorry about the last one.. this should make up for it:

Trip 1 to San Francisco:

On the phone, Mark heard "meet us at Blue Bean" - boy were we off! This was way better than blue beans!

Got this looker for a steal! I love bargain shopping:

In our bathroom one night I noticed a light coming out, so I went in to find that you can nearly see, and easily hear what is going on next door! Builders have some explaining to do.... good thing we're only 'renters.' Helloooooo, neighbor.

See what I mean when I said he's graduated to the big-kid swing? He fell off once while pointing to a huge truck, but he got right back on that swingin' horse!

Remnants of the face scratches, but he's still out enjoying himself:

lifeguard on duty. nice cool day I was able to leave the door open with just the screen shut:

this is what she was watching: 

scenes from Wheatland, just outside of the gate ('just' meaning the closest thing, meaning 8 mi. away):

Scenes from Wheatland:

Scenes from Wheatland:

thrills and frills.. something so nice about finding a new piece of jewelry:

First toilet success.. still hasn't 'succeeded' since - what have I done!

meet Midge, Emmy's doll:

No, I was no cheerleader, but I do like to high-kick.. even though my form is still terrrrrrible! I still got it!

love those baby soft rolls and hand on the knee while sitting outside with Mont in the pool: 

same place as the high-kick pic. huge oak tree:

this is a catch and release only pond:

We love this boat, even if it does sink; only makes it more realistic, right?.. here it is beached:

Mont just found the buttons on the safe we aren't using for anything. beep beep!

What?! Mont is eating something healthy-ish? He loves the watermelon here:

more please:

This is about when I ran out of space on my phone so I had to cheat and take pictures only through insta.gram. This meant I only had one shot at a moment... so before this, you would have seen Mont dunking his pb&j in the pool and eating it like it was the best thing on earth. Finally, he was disgusted and handed it to me to deal with... this is when the picture took:

and sleep... {almost}

San Francisco trip #2 this past weekend. We got to stay in a hotel right off of Powell St., listening to the trolleys 'ding ding!' into the late night. Mont must have thought it was a business trip, he had to stay on top of things back at the office, you know:

Powell St., San Francisco:

and sleep... 
(this was a nap at 7 pm before heading to an restaurant in Oakland with the Reeder clan)

Sunday service in Berkeley where Max was blessed. Mark's dad is holding Emmy in her new dress.. her little flower headband didn't make it in time from England, but she was still a little doll.

This kiddo's birthday is on Saturday; he'll be two! Here he is playing with his early birthday present from Mark's parents. He brings it over, sets it down and just starts messing with it. He loves it:

Also from the weekend in Berkeley: Max naps with Gramps:

all squeaky clean: 

congrats on making it to the end! stay tuned for next time..