More photos of the house

 

 

 

 

"After" photos

 

 

 

 

I do not have any "before" photos of my house...just imagine a 2800 sq ft college dorm and you'll have it. The pictures above are the "after" photos from when my folks came in July. My house looks amazing now - thanks, MOM & DAD!!!

Mon/Tues/Wed

 

 

I threw Caitlin a birthday party on Monday...she LOVED it, and all the kids were especially happy that a few of their friends got to stay and play until dinner time.

 

This is the temple where we stopped on our long drive yesterday. 896.4 miles baby. Are we good or what?

 

This is what we did today - fun times at the zoo and playing with more friends. YAY!

Another birthday celebration

On the drive from Fremont to Las Vegas, we stopped in Fresno to see Grandma Ackerman and Sara. We celebrated Kenneth's birthday and Caitlin's as well. They enjoyed the gifts and the party as well. It was a nice way to break up the drive.

Fremont

 

 

 

 

We spent one glorious day in Fremont with the Thompsons. We had a great time - Caitlin enjoyed holding her newest cousin, Keri Ann, who was born on Father's Day and weighed in at 10 lbs and 6 oz.

Birthday fun

 

 

 

 

The birthday celebration started in Fremont. Jaime's birthday is July 8th, so we had a joint party for the two of them. The picture of them in front of the computer just cracked me up - they were so engaged.

Happy Birthday, Caitlin

 

 

 

Happy Birthday! I can't believe my baby is 3!!!

In between

After our wonderful week of camping, it was so depressing to come back into the HEAT. As soon as we left Mendocino, the heat started rising....literally. We had a problem with our tires - one in particular - and we had to replace all 4 as soon as we got to Sacramento. So, thankfully we were able to swap Corinne for Steve and Pat & Nancy got Steve to the airport for me. We were sad to lose our daddy, but we enjoyed family dinner with the Hansens before we headed to Fremont.

Camping

 

 

 

 

We had a FANTASTIC 8 days camping in Mendocino. The weather was perfect, we loved the hikes, beaches and camping food. Daniel especially liked the FIRES!!! :)

Redwoods

 

 

 

 

This was our second stop - the Redwood Forest. Isn't it beautiful?

I love hair spray

I love hair spray. I have loved it for a long time. I grew up in the '80's and had the bangs to prove it. Hair spray has been good to me. Today, it did it again! Yay! I did a load of wash and a pen exploded. I was so ANNOYED!!! Thanks to a friend, Suz, who taught me that hair spray can take pen ink out - even after the clothes have gone through the drier! Is that totally amazing, or what? So - here are some "before" and "after" photos of my laundry experience this afternoon.

BEFORE!

 

 

AFTER!

 

 

Birthday Boy!!

Yesterday Kenneth turned 9! I can't believe it. He's such a good boy and such a help to me around the house. Today he did 2 loads of laundry and cleaned and vacuumed his room. He was going to mow the back yard, too, but we ran out of time. Since his birthday was on Sunday, it was pretty low-key, but he did have a few presents to open and I ordered him a coin sorter off of overstock.com with him watching. He's eagerly anticipating its arrival now. Today his new scout leader came over to welcome him to the Bear Den. I'm sad to be losing him out of my wolf group, but the bear leader is fantastic and I know he'll have a great time. They forgot to sing to him in church, that was a major bummer, but we celebrated extra at home to make up for it. We had waffles for breakfast and ate the rainbow trout he caught fishing on Saturday for our dinner on Sunday. He, however, only ate green bean casserole for dinner. 4 helpings. Wow. We had brownies and ice cream for dessert and watched a movie as a family.

This morning I registerd our vehicles in Washington. Then we went to get our Driver Licenses, and the office was closed. They're only open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. WHAT?!?!?! Craziness. I guess we'll be Nevada drivers for another day or so.

My sister is amazing!

Check this out - is this not totally incredible or what? Thanks, Ang. Check out her website at www.portraitartbyangela.com

We arrived home last night at 3:13am after 3,999 miles in 3 weeks and one day. We're wiped out, but we had a fantastic trip!!!

Newport Beach

 

 

 

 

We loaded up this morning and headed to LA. We met our cousin, Michelle, at this rockin' restaurant called Pat & Oscars. If you ever come to CA, I HIGHLY recommend it! The food was great and we got tons for the money! We met Michelle and her cute girls, Alicia & Amy. We went to the beach (Newport Beach) after lunch. The kids L-O-V-E-D it! The sand was awesome (although marred somewhat by tar), and the water was great. Kenneth & Johnathan had fun riding the waves. Daniel & Zach played in the waves for a while, then everyone played in the sand with Caitlin. What a FUN FUN FUN afternoon! Thanks, Michelle!

Tonight we are in Buttonwillow. Tomorrow we will part :( and Angela & her family will head to Paso Robles for a family reunion and my kids and I will head to Sacramento. We have had a wonderful vacation and made lots of awesome memories, but I must admit, we're ready to be heading home pretty soon....by the time we pull in our driveway we will have been gone 3 weeks and 1 day. Wowee. We've never had a vacation like this before - it just keeps going and going and going.