A Walk Down Memory Lane

This is my Grandma, Bea. (I credit her for giving me the stubborn and independent streak, in a good way.  She is one tough cookie.)  I also love her to pieces.   Growing up just 45 minutes away from Grandma's house meant most holidays were spent there celebrating with my other cousins.  I have the fondest memories of Easter Sunday BBQ's and Christmas Eve's at her house.  Those were the days... my Grandma knows how to host a holiday, that's for sure.

This last visit had me feeling nostalgic about the growing up years visiting her at her home.  So, I walked around and took some pictures of things that haven't changed in her house in the last 30 years.  This clock has been over her TV as long as I can remember.  I don't know where it came from, but I've never seen another one like it,  and I can't imagine her house without it.

This key sticker went up on the back sliding glass door after one of my uncles ran into it and hurt himself pretty badly.  It was a running family joke for years.

Just a sampling of the gorgeous flowers she keeps growing in pots on her patio.  I wish I had inherited her green thumb.  I didn't get that gene.

This has also been in her yard forever, yet I don't even know what it's called. 

The back patio, where many BBQ's and Easter Egg Hunts have been hosted over the years.  It will be a sad and emotional day when this house is no longer in our family.  Everytime I visit, I remember how many wonderful childhood memories I have of this place. 

When we got back to Vacaville, we watched the World Cup game, which Spain won!  Yay!   And then the boys took Charlie outside to learn how to play soccer.  Charlie loved chasing around the giant ball.

Megan and grandma also started working on a Lego house.  Those girls love building their Lego houses.  The boys build armies, but not the girls...  it cracks me up how much my mom loves to build Legos with her grandkids.

The finished product... three stories of Lego architecture... James May would be proud, guys!

A Day in which a slice of Humble Pie costs $75

For years, I've been trying to convince my husband to let me make a trip home to see the grandparents without him.  I'm a good long-distance driver and our kids are good travellers.  Now that Brayden is 5, they are down right easy in the car.  And besides that, I practically have the road memorized between here and there.  It's 800 miles, but it's all interstate the whole way.  This summer, he finally relented.  He knew how badly I wanted to make a trip home and he didn't have enough vacation time to do it.  Being the self-sufficient-spirit that I am, (code for stubborn and independent), I was determined to make this trip and have it be successful, too.

I only told a couple people I was coming.  My kids didn't even know until the day before we left.  I made them take a vow of "radio silence" (code for texting and facebook), and we were off the next morning.  All was going well until we had some car trouble in Santa Nella, CA.  I was only 130 miles from my destination.  We stopped for a bathroom break at a truck stop and when we came back out to hit the road, my car wouldn't start....and it wasn't a dead battery.   Trust me, I've had my fair share of those. 

I called Eric and my parents... not sure what to do, and to my husband's credit, he didn't say, "I told you you shouldn't make this trip alone... look what happened and I'm over 600 miles away and can't help you out."  He was much nicer than that.  The employees at the truck stop helped me get in touch with a mobile mechanic who came to help us out.  He suspected the fuel pump on my car was going bad and it couldn't get the pressure it needed to start the car.  So, once he used his magical "starting spray" to get the engine started, he told me not to turn the engine off until I reached my destination and I should be able to get where I'm going.  However, once I turned the engine off, it would be likely that I wouldn't be able to start it again on my own.  $75 and 20 minutes of mechanical work later, I was back on the road.

130 miles of white-knuckled driving later, we made it to Vacaville, where we drove straight to the dealership and parked my soon-to-be-broken-down-car in the service parking area.  It was late on a Friday night, so I left a note with it and we transferred all our stuff to my parents cars and headed back to their house to crash.  (I must insert a big shout-out to Elise for suggesting that idea to me... I was too stressed to think through the solution logically at that point, and I was trying to figure out how to avoid paying for a tow across town on Monday morning.)

The next day, rested and relaxed once more, we headed over to Elise's house for my mother-in-law's birthday party.  She didn't know we were coming so it was a big surprise for her.  None of the kids knew we were coming either, so I had fun freaking them out when I, not Elise, opened the front door.  And although I took my camera everywhere with me, I somehow didn't take any pictures of my nieces or nephews that day.  I honestly don't know how that happened.  But, we got Jon.  So all is not lost, right?

Cousin Reunion, Part One: The Lake

Thus begins the long awaited cousin reunion... 3 out of 4 of my kids were born within 3 weeks of 3 out of four of their kids.  Those are some pretty scary stats considering we never consulted each other in advance or hinted to each other a pregnancy was coming.   I now present:  (left to right, top to bottom):  Dallyn, Ashlyn, Taylor, Ian, Ethan, Brayden, Megan and Lyndi. 

The very first item on the agenda was a couple days at the lake.  The first day we went to Bartlett Lake.  Not our favorite, but parking isn't an issue if you get a late start on a Saturday, which we did.  The second day we went to Saguaro Lake... our favorite lake to visit.  We went on Monday and had the whole lake to ourselves... it was awesome!

Megan and Lyndi... sometimes I think they wish they had been born twins. 

This picture cracks me up every time I look at it.  Poor Ashlyn was the brunt of A LOT of teasing that day, which doesn't happen often, so we were milking it for all it was worth.  To her credit, she was a really good sport about it, and I won't even disclose what she did that brought the teasing on in the first place, but it would be a really fun story to tell!

This shot took about 15 "takes" to get... but they were having such a good time doing it.   We call these four the "little boys"... although poor Ian... he's anything but little right now.  But he is a good sport about it all, even when he has 3 obsessed younger boys following him around all day long!

Everyone knows that Jeff and Eric are brothers.... you can't help but tell when they walk into a room together.  I think they look very different, but out of the corner of my eye, I have gotten them mixed up... and when I was looking at a picture from the lake trip, I thought it was Jeff, but when I zoomed in, it really was Eric!

We call these four "the teenagers"... they were hardly ever apart from each other the entire visit.  I am so glad they have stayed close, especially in the years since we've moved away.  I seriously think I can thank Facebook and Cell Phones for that.  They do have their purposes!

Stay Tuned for more cousin adventures...

13 Days in 13 Photos

So after I blogged on endlessly about our summer road trip, I've decided to go short and sweet on this last vacation. Mostly because the primary people I write this blog for were with us the entire two weeks. So, I decided to pick out 13 photos (one to represent each day we were gone, even though I didn't take any photos on travel days.) These are the pictures I liked the best from our trip...

This one happened by accident, but I loved the blur effect mixed with the genuine smiles they were giving someone else...Grandmas can NEVER get enough hugs from their grandkids!Burger King Knights, UNITE! What absolutely amazes me about this photo is that Dallyn ISN'T holding a weapon. This must be the only time he didn't have one in his hand.I am so glad that these four have stayed so tight growing up. They are lucky to have each other. Lyndi, can I have your hair? I love it! Dear friends who we miss so much from our Dublin days... Brayden wasn't too happy about this photo, but to his credit, he wasn't even born when we moved away from these friends, so he doesn't get the importance of it all!A family photo with my Grandma. Who knows how soon we'd get another chance to all be together for this photo!?!We considered ourselves VERY lucky to get a visit from the big man in red... Brayden was so cute, when he saw him. Excited, but shy too. Not his normal self at all!My mom has carried on the tradition of making felt ornaments for the grandkids... do you see a recurring theme here?I don't think any of the adults were expecting to get ornaments too. Adam and Delia's were made from two of their favorite pets. (Yes, they have more than 2 pets....)

Ours were copied from some photos taken of us wakeboarding while out on the boat. We all got a kick out of watching Dad open his gift from mom and the family. We ordered him a new lawn mower, but it was out of stock until after Christmas. This was the "loaner" he got to open up and use until the real thing arrived!What gift did Ian get that could possibly cause this reaction when he saw the box? I will give you three guesses, but I know you won't get it. So, I'll just tell you... a Snuggie. No joke. He has wanted one really bad for a long time, so my brother got to be the lucky one to be the hero of the holiday for Ian. He LOVES it.

All the little kids playing on some truck toys outside our favorite ice cream place at the Nut Tree. They played and played on these trucks for at least an hour and never got tired of them.

All in all, it was a great trip. We were there almost 2 weeks and we were always going, going, going. There's no resting when there is so much family and good friends to visit. It seems that we never get enough time to spend with anyone, but we do the best we can. Hopefully we'll get some more visitors heading south this year... one great thing about people coming to see us... they get our "undivided" attention!

April, part 2

Part two of our April adventures:

Elise and I snuck away for lunch and a pedicure...The night before the big "run" the adults went to Joe's for some great BBQ... kinda like a "protien load"....

On Saturday morning, the big boys ran in the Pat Tillman Run - Taylor beat both of the men and was rubbing it in all day!

We all went to watch Eric's Ian's car in the pinewood derby. The car qualified to come back in the afternoon for the Stake Competition, in which we didn't do so well...

We played at the park, we had dinner with Don and Tiffany (and family) and we stayed up late talking and watching the Office. Eric and Alan went to the Phoenix International Raceway (affectionately known as Redneck Alley) to watch Eric's first ever Nascar race.

On Monday, when our guests went home, we ran errands and then took naps on the couch! We can't wait for family to come again!

The End.