Lake Powell 2009

This year at Lake Powell- It was a Hill Reunion.  It turned out to be a lot of fun, if only it were a few degree's cooler and the house boat was a lot bigger.

Every year I learn a new lesson, on what to do differently the next year. (Note to self: only bring Babies that are not mobile and kids that can swim )

We got on the House boat on Friday and Ben and My dad took some seadoos to find us a good place to park the boat.  The Boat ride to the parking spot was three hours.  Which was a nice leisurely cruise over to our place for us on the house boat.  For Ben on the Sea Doo he was pretty sore for four days-  

In the house boat on the way to our spot

Mike (sorry), Anna, Mario playing cards

Tina, Page, Lulu, little Tina 

Nanny loving the Puzzle

Papa loved to hangout outside and laugh at all the kids

*Favorite memory- Mike dropping Bang into the lake and frantically jumping in after it. (Bang is a very fun very expensive card game)

*Least Favorite - When CJ almost broke her ankle 

We got to hang out with the Bringhurst Family too- Which is always very relaxing and entertaining.

Ruby and Branson were so cute- each holding a kitten.

So Good to be home, and so glad I went,

Last Day of Swim Lessons

And I could not be happier!  Structure is definitely something I need to work on, but I feel it will happen once Ruby starts going to school.  I love to hang out in PJs for half the morning and make yummy breakfast, and tinker around the house.  Swim lessons was cramping my style a little, and I think Ruby's too- cause she was getting less motivated to get out the door, we were showing up later and later.

The last day Ruby "jumped off" the diving board- really she was tossed off, Ben came to watch her, she got a certificate and candy necklace.

Pictures with cool effect.

Ruby likes the towel wrapped around her then to be held like a baby

She is saying, "Pick me up dad."

Did you forget about the beard.

Yah for Graduating

Ruby, Brett, and Wyatt

Lulu

Big Sur Weekend Get Away

After getting a text message from my Brother in Law Myles a few sundays ago offering to let us borrow his Jayco- we decided to do a little last minute trip up the coast to Big Sur and Monterey.  It was a very last minute trip, Ben got reservations for our campsite the day before.

So Friday we set out for our 8 hour drive to Big Sur.  Both of us thought it would be A LOT closer.  But the drive was fun and Ruby and LuLu were super star travelers... on the way there.  Our snack of choice while driving to Big Sur is Crackers with cheese and Avocados, not an easy snack, but so yummy.

We pulled into our campsite at 11:00pm.  If was pretty stressful setting up Jayco and parking the car, not wanting to wake up the neighbors, but we finally did and had an awesome night sleep.  In the morning when Ruby and Ben stepped out of Jayco (Picture of Jayco below), Ben told Ruby to look at the trees, and her head slowly kept tilting back further and further, she had never seen trees that tall.

It is so cool to experience these firsts with Ruby, she is so excited about things I take for granted.

Ruby took these tree pictures

Yeah for Jayco!

Ben cooking amazing Breakfast Burritos

Morning Walk, you can see the brown Jayco in the back

Rubes being eaten by this tree

Lulu chillin - what she does best

We left Beautiful Big Sur at 12pm and headed out to our friends: Eric and Laurel's place in Monterey.

We went swimming, I went to a baby shower for one of Laurel's church friends, which was amazing, played on the play ground, played games, and had some good laughs.

They finally became friends as we were packing up to leave.

An unposed picture of us on the play ground

Cute kids, Allison and Stevie

On the way home we stopped off in Camarillo at the Steimle Bed and Breakfast, and bathed the kids, ate some awesome food and re-energized for the rest of our trip home.  

The trip was so much fun, thanks Nan and Myles for Jayco- he rocks!

1st harvest

I visited my garden today.  It has been awhile, and to my surprise there was a HUGE zucchini ready to pick, along with two carrots, tons of sweet snap peas, cucumberfew basil leaves, peppers, and spinachRuby loves to carry the vegetables around, trying to feed them to GusWelcome the newest addition to our family: TRAMPOLINEFound this bad boy on Craigslist, for $50 includes brand new replacement mat, and enclosure, and they threw in a pack in play for free.

Last weekend we found this guy on Craigslist for $5

Swim Lessons Session1

Ruby had her first day of swim lessons for summer 09:

Brett, her instructor, also happens to be Ben's best friend and the best instructor ever.  The thing about Brett, is he is all about tough love.  The first couple days is usually pretty rough for the kids, then they catch on to the program and grow a lot in two weeks.

The three musketeers.  Wyatt, Finn and Ruby 09

Swim Lessons 2008 with Wyatt, Ruby, Finn, & Porter

And to get Ruby into Swim lessons i had to wait in a VERY long line

Brea residents have the craziest tradition of camping out to get their kids enrolled in swim lessons. Some people sleep in line over night others just cruise over around 3am. This is the line, and I got there at 6ish: The line does a huge S.  From the from the front of the Building, around the side, in front of the blue gate, up the side walk and down the main street.

Us waiting in line.  Actually turned out to be a lot of fun, With Amber, Ruth, Jill, Sarah, Heather W., Kelley, few others

Heather's First Year to experience the madness

line down the main street... It just kept going.  We were 200th in line.  Worth the wait.

Happy Father's Day

TO BEN

I love you and your manly beard.

We celebrated at the Schultz House, and because my dad had a scout outing with his ward over the weekend, my mom came and celebrated with us.  

Max- Love this kid, he outlasted all the other cousins that wanted to play monopoly with the adults and he held his own.
Cute picture of some of the girl cousins, Clara, Ruby, Piper- I like the stop animation of Gail moving around the dining room too.

Empty Nest

Thursday I woke up a little early and thought to take a picture of the babies before they left the nest.  I snuck up under the nest and tried to get a good angle, when all of the sudden a baby bird gets spooked and jumps out of the nest and onto my lawn.  Gus was immediately on the little guy, sniffing him.  I tried to grab him, but I was too afraid and he flew over the fence to the neighbor's backyard.  I raced over there... just in time to see a cat run away.  I think the cat got the baby before me.  I am a monster! A bird murderer.

But then an hour later I made up for it by saving a different bird that jumped out of the nest and got stuck in a bush that Gus was trying to get at. I got him back into the tree with his nest and all the time the mom and dad were dive bombing me.

I saved another one yesterday from Gus.  But today they were not in the nest.