Tea Party

Leila was invited to a birthday party at a tea house. Leila and friends had a fabulous time.

There are Lucy and Mia peaking through the window.

Big Trees

Sam and I scored babysitters for the whole morning and afternoon the Saturday before our anniversary. We set out really early and headed to Big Trees to go for a nice hike. When I was a child in New York City I remember learning about the Redwood Forest and seeing pictures of these giant trees. I made a mental note that one day I would see them. A few years back I was filled with awe over these trees when we visited them with Nate and Heidi and family and have been looking for an excuse to go visit them again. So, that was what I planned for our 7th anniversary. It was neat to see them all still standing the same as when we were there a few years ago, almost like visiting an old friend. And amazing to think that some of these trees can go back 2,000 years. They've been slowly growing while we are all bustling around here and there and everywhere... they're just there, growing, growing, growing slow and steady.

Our anniversary stay at the Palace Hotel. A lot more rustic than I would expect from a Palace Hotel...

Can you see me? Look closely. I know that I am only 4'11", but even so, these trees are giant!

My Tree Hugging Husband... it was really one of the only ways to see how big these big trees really are.


I love the red color



If you can spot me in the green shirt in the bottom picture look behind me and you will see how tall the "stump" of this tree that fell over is and then it continues out to where Sam is and then there was a cliff at the end where the tree continued even more by about 1 1/2 times the size.

Music and Movement

The girls had a Music and Movement class at the library this Summer. Again Leila is still in UT, so no pics of her, but she went on the other weeks. She was probably on a crazy boatride during this.

Fountain and Sidewalk Chalk

at Cezar Chavez park downtown. We got to the library a bit too early, so good thing there was a downtown happenings booth set up that had sidewalk chalk for the girls. Leila was still in Utah, otherwise I am sure she would have created a masterpiece too.

Leila's Gone to Grandma and pa's

Here we are taking Leila to her aunt and uncle's house before they left for Utah.

Leila is growing up so fast! She went on a roadtrip with her aunt and uncle to go see her grandparents in Utah. She had such a great time going tubing behind grandpa's boat, she went to a water park and a playground, got her nails painted, saw her cousins and some aunts and uncles and ate lots of yummy treats and watched some fun movies. It was a 5 year old dream come true!

"Camping"

In no way can our camping story top Sam's sister Shelly's misadventure camping, but this is a quick overview- no campsites were available after driving around for hours looking for one. We had taken 2 cars and I was too worn out to make it all the way home so we ended up at a motel on the side of the rode. Although disappointed about not camping, the girls thought the motel was great. (In pic Leila and Lucy are eating ice cubes from the ice machine and it looks like Mia is wearing hers as a ring). To lighten things up, when we got home Sam found a steal of a deal for our "new" canoe on Craig's List. We took it out for a bit that afternoon... I can tell we are going to have some great times with that canoe.

Fairy Tale Town

We headed out to Fairy Tale Town again last week and met some friends there. Lucy was particularly excited about the animals. Mia was particularly excited about running around the park with friends and sisters and Leila was particularly excited about having a make believe adventure in the Sherwood Forest with her friends and sister.