Santa Cruz

So we had a plan to go on a family vacation to Santa Cruz to see the beach at least once this summer. But do things ever go as we plan? The night before we are to leave I hear Taylee wake up crying (what's new) and I go running in so not to wake Jon. This was his first night sleep home from work. As I'm running, I round the corner I hit my right 4th toe on the casing around the door of the kids bathroom. SNAP! I thought to myself, "Crap. That really hurt." Despite the pain I got Taylee to the bathroom and situated back into bed, but then realized it was really hard to walk on my right foot. The more I tried, the more it hurt. So then I hopped back to our bedroom hoping not to wake up the kids, but my loud hopping wakes Jon up and he's NOT HAPPY at all. "Interrupt his beauty sleep?, How dare I?". I told him that he needed to look at my foot because it really hurt. Sure enough he flicked on the light and my toe was sticking out at a 45 degree angle to the right. Now I said, "CRAP!". This can't be happening. It appeared displaced so Jon yanked on the toe to try to put it back into place 3 times. SERIOUSLY OUCH!!! It didn't look any better. So Jon got me ice and taped the toes together to splint it. Then he fed me a banana and ibuprofen. Perfect athletes meal. What a good nurse he was...though he was still irritated that I was running in the pitch black and ended up getting hurt interrupting his sleep. He's tired and I don't blame him. By the way, Taylee got up again 2 more times and Jon put her back to bed. So much for catching up on some much needed sleep. Plus the poor guy is not used to getting up with the kids in the middle of the night. Oops! So then morning came and I'm dead tired and in pain. I stay in bed for an extra 2 hours, but it doesn't matter, life still goes on. I got up and then packed up everyone and off we went. Nothing was going to stop us. The beach was nice and the boardwalk was fun! I forget how relaxing the beach is because it occupies the kids all day long. At the boardwalk Brody had great aim. He hit the milk bottles down and won a stuffed animal! He was trilled. He didn't even want to ride on the rides. He wanted GAMES. Geez, if it wasn't so expensive! Brody and Rylee filled the balloons with water and also got a prize. Old school gamers, here they come! Much family time was needed. Next time I hope we won't be so cranky.

Broken Toes!

(Written 4 months later)
This week Heavenly Father was trying to tell me something. I had broken two toes on two separate occasions. First was in the middle of the night around 2am. Taylee was crying and I ran to her so she wouldn't wake anyone else. I rounded the corner of the hallway too wide and nicked my right 4th toe on the door frame molding of the kids bathroom. OUCH! I hobbled over to Taylee, took her to the bathroom and got her a drink of water, then back to bed. I started to hop because it was getting harder and harder to walk. Jon awoke from my hopping very irritated. This was his first nights sleep at home after being at work for 4 days straight. I asked him to look at my toe. Sure enough it was laying at a 45 degree angle to the right...the wrong way. I just thought it was out of place and that once it was back in place it would be ok. Jon yanked on it 3 times and it didn't go back into place. So he buddy taped it and I placed it in an ice bucket with some advil. Back to bed I went. That next morning we were leaving to go on one last family vacation to Santa Cruz before school started. Walking around was not my idea of fun but I slowly made my way around to make the best of the situation. Jon was not rested up one bit so he was a cranky mess. We were there for a couple of days visiting the sand the boardwalk. Good times, sort of. Then Thursday of that same week rolls around and it's time for Jon to go back to work. I'm still hobbling and it sucks, but whatever right? Then it's Friday and I'm walking briskly out of the play room and BAM! I hit my left 5th toe on the molding of the door frame. SON OF A GUN!! Now my left toe was sticking out to the left at a 90 degree angle...wrong way. So again I thought, it's just out of place so I will call my fire fighter friend down the street to come yank on it. They walked down and yanked on it 3 times and AGAIN it wasn't going back into place. Now I'm a gimp. I couldn't walk good on either foot. I decided to call Jon to take me to the ER. Once there, the MD yanked again on my toes before xrays because he thought it was just out of place. Sure enough. It was not. Both toes were completely broken and one was a spiral fracture so now it just sticks out permanently. Wonderful. I walked out the door with toes buddy taped in flat china shoes. Styling I tell you! Anyhow, here is the one picture. Pretty pretty.

Pool Party

Today we had a lot of old friends over from our old play group to play one last time before school started. Brody thought it would be fun to sport his pirate gear. Gross! Brush those teeth!

Wild Things

Today we went to the library activity and it was "Wild Things". This is a place where they take hurt wild animals and revive and release them back into the wild or keep them if they won't be able to make it on their own. We got to see many different animals up close, but this one took the money, an ALLIGATOR! We even got to pet it. Brody was scared at first, but when he saw Britlee touch it he figured it'd be ok.

Captains' Underpants!

"Silly silly silly!", said in a voice from the movie with Burger Meister Meister Burger in it. BHAHAHA!

Pioneer Day

Today we celebrated Pioneer Day commemorating Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. They were forced to leave Nauvoo, Illinois and head west. The stake provided dinner and all the festivities. Gotta love the face paint and the large waterslide!!

Garden Fun

Jon worked hard this past spring getting our garden ready. He did a great job with the drip system and manure laced dirt. Look at this harvest! And this is just a portion of it. It's fun to see food grow. It's easy to forget that food comes from our wonderful earth and that someone worked hard to plant, maintain and harvest such wonderful foods. Sometimes I think it just magically appears in grocery stores. We were able to make salsa from our garden for our homemade fried chips in coconut oil. Definitely a hit with everyone!

New Paint

We finally got our house painted. NO MORE BLACK!! I prefer the "no haunted house look" and we achieved it. The outside definitely reflects the inside and we couldn't be happier with decks finished so we don't get slivers. Thanks to some hard earned money burnt.

Snake in the Pool!

Seriously GROSS! If my mom was here she would have screamed. I remember the time when Johnny was younger he brought home a snake in his backpack and she hit the fan! I think this came out of the fill spout of the pool. It's been hot hot hot! Hurray for ice cream sandwiches, bare butts with dark tan lines and some good togetherness!

2 Weeks, just 2 weeks

So do you like this big hunk of machinery?! Well, so does Jon. BUT his trend is to "love 'em and leave 'em". This one lasted at our house for 2 weeks and I never even drove it or rode in it. Luckily the kids did and they had a blast riding in it from Ceres to home. I had to put in this picture of Taylee because these are the same shoes that Rylee wore when she was this age and it reminded me of the simple days. I love these sillies!

Blue Devils

Congratulations Blake! He made the Blue Devils marching band "B Core". This is a big accomplishment for him. Jon went down to Elk Grove to watch a performance. Go Blake!

Backyard Swimming

Can I just tell you how much we LOVE having a pool in our backyard?! I don't have to pack anything up or anyone up and Britlee can even sleep in her own bed for a nap! By the way, no floaties for Brody. He nixed those at the beginning of the summer. I love my cute little guppies!

6 Flags Discovery Kingdom

We are so glad that we got season passes this year! We had such a blast seeing the elephant show and the sleeping/peeing tigers. Seriously, watch out! Plus with all the rides for the little ones; everyone is happy! Jon got to do a lot of rides with Taylee because she is so little. She is a crack up and wanted to go again and again and again! We found the water park portion of it and we didn't bring our bathing suits. Taylee got soaked and she wanted her clothes off. I later was told by managers that she had to put her wet clothes back on. NO NAKED BABIES!

Random

These happened on the same day. Let me tell you a little about Britlee. She is alwasy smiling!! What a little ANGEL!!! We love you so much and are so excited you just LOVE EVERYONE...especially me and that makes me very happy indeed. Below Taylee is on our "Pee Rock". Since we don't want kids peeing in the pool so we designated a rock near the pool and the plants where they are allowed to pee. Taylee still thinks she needs to take off her bathing suit to pee. I love the stiff legs and arm positioning for concentration and focus. Taylee is a silly little one who knows what she wants and is determined to get it! We love you little ones!!