Polar Bear Plunge 2011

You can always find a bunch of crazy kids in our backyard on New Year's Day. This year was no exception. ALL the adults wised up and decided to forgo the traditional Polar Bear Plunge, but there were still several kids that were out to show off their wild side! These kids (minus the youngest girl) all took the plunge this year.

Looks like J was the brave one and went first!




Logan and Jake were right behind him. 3, 2, 1, JUMP!!









The girls went next:






Does that look on her face leave you breathless?! That water was COLD!

Jackson was so excited to put on his trunks and go swimming. The pool has been off limits since summer ended and he was ready to show of his swimming skills. Except that, hmmm... this water was kind of cold? It took him only seconds to realize that he would not be jumping in all the way. This picture shows how far he ventured into the water. Let's just say that he was quite disappointed with that water temperature - like we'd played a mean trick on him or something!

I've been looking through some old pictures this week and came across this one:

The photo is from one of our first Polar Bear Plunge days (January 1, 2008). Notice the large number of children that participated! And there were about 3 more adults (not pictured) that also jumped in on this day 3 years ago. I wonder why our numbers have dwindled since then??

We do this tradition because the kids love it. And because, truthfully, the adults get some good laughs and entertainment out of is as well. Next year, you can break out that bathing suit at Christmastime because it is guaranteed that we will be out there freezing our buns off every year on January 1.

Welcome Baby Clare!

My brother, Thomas, and his wife, Amy welcomed a new baby into their family on January 20th! Baby girl #2 for these guys. She is a most beautiful baby girl with tons of dark hair, cute chubby cheeks, lovely long fingers and toes, and rosy red lips.

Our kids were so excited to meet their new cousin baby Clare Elizabeth!

Baby Clare is grandchild #7 for my parents. It is so exciting to watch this family grow. 7 cousins in the Duran family! Here's the score so far:

Boys: 4 Girls: 3

Hiking the Hollywood Sign (or our hike to the entrance of the underworld)

We had a short sweet visit with Jeremy's sister Kristen and her family this weekend. It was a jam packed 24 hours we spent together full of lots of good times, good eats, and good memories. She has been wanting to take us on the hike up to see the HOLLLYWOOD sign and this visit was the perfect opportunity.

We watched the new Percy Jackson movie The Lightning Thief for several hours of our trip down to San Diego, back to LA, and then home. There is one scene in this movie that intrigued the kids the most. In the movie Percy and his gang must go to the underworld to talk to Hades and rescue Percy's mom. The entrance to the underworld is through the HOLLYWOOD sign. The scene in the movie shows Percy and his buddies entering a magical doorway in the letter "H". Trevor was especially thrilled to see this "entrance" to verify the reality of his new favorite movie. So, to say that Trevor was excited to take this hike is definitely an understatement. His energy and excitement were contagious as he helped the DVD player in the car play and replay the HOLLYWOOD sign scene over and over and over.

We began at the bottom of the hill. The beginning. A very good place to start.

The smaller children got to be carried for part of the journey.

We saw some wildlife on the way up and back.

After about an hour of hiking we made it to the top! You don't actually get to touch the sign because it's fenced off due to vandalism. You hike up to the backside of the letters. Check out this view from the top. Read from right to left - you can see the back of the H,O,L,L, and Y.

And check out this lovely view of the LA skyline. Mmmmm. Smog. It was worse than usual today because of a local fire - normally the smog wouldn't be this bad.

Family Pictures at the top of the hill

The children were proud of themselves for making the hike all the way up to the sign. They were not disappointed to find out that there wasn't really an entrance to the underworld at the base of the sign. (Although, they did a thorough search for it when we got there.) The kids are already enjoying telling everyone about their hike to the HOLLYWOOD sign.

It was a fun active way to spend the afternoon. Thanks to our great hosts and excellent LA traffic navigators, Kristen and Doug, for taking us on an adventure of a lifetime.

Bye-Bye Reids

Last week was great. Jeremy's sister came into town - well, to be fair, both of his sisters came into town, but Kristen ended up staying for a full week. They were here for the whirlwind that was last weekend. There was a baby shower, 2 birthday parties, a baptism, a dinner party, a wedding luncheon and reception, confirmation the following day, a baby blessing, and one final luncheon. Whew! What a weekend! Did you count? That was 10 activities in a 2 1/2 day period! Goodness!

Anyway, the point of this post was not to gawk at that crazy schedule, but to reminisce about the lovely week that followed the madness. Kristen's two boys are the same age as our Lizzie (5) and Jackson (3). These cousins had an absolute blast hanging out all week. Ryan and Lizzie were thick as thieves playing dress-up, Wii, and planning sleepovers.

Jackson and Tyler would also probably call the other their BFF (if they had any concept of the term). Those 2 boys were 2 peas in a pod. They played trains, watched Wall-E and Thomas the Train to their hearts' content! Kristen and I both commented on just how well they play together for 2 boys their age. They rarely fought and genuinely enjoyed the other's company.

It was great to visit with Kristen too. She's 8 months pregnant and you all know how I LOVE the pregnant belly! She looks so great pregnant - I just hope we get to see her pregnant belly several more times. And we can't wait to meet baby "Sally Sparkle" in another month or so. Here are some great shots from her family baby shower.

That evening was so fun to hang out with just the girls! Kristen got so many fun pink things - I think her head was swimming a bit from it all. That baby girl is already so loved.

It was great to have you guys at the houses for a week. We'll miss you guys!

The Many Faces of Bella

what up, cuz?

Well, we did it. We went to Thomas and Amy's apartment last night to show off baby Bella to our kids. They have been waiting and waiting to see her and it was all finally worth all that waiting. The kids were so full of awe when they saw her for the first time - it was such a precious moment.
They haven't seen a brand new baby like that since baby Lucy was born and that was almost 8 months ago. Thus, Jackson was thoroughly confused. He kept calling her Lucy instead of Bella. When he did say Bella it was so dang cute, "Bennuh" - he can't quite say those "l's" yet.


Bella's face looks like she might be in a bit of pain here, but really she was just sleeping. Check out her cute outfit! Raspberry striped hoodie coverall with the cutest matching shoes lined with soft fuzzy fur! Look closely and you can see her binky bling. It's clipped to her top and looks like a fancy jeweled bracelet. Oh, yeah, it was awesome.


The kids all got a turn to hold the baby. Logan was first.

Then Lizzie. These 2 girls are going to have to stick together for awhile - they are the only 2 girls cousins on the Duran side so far.
Trevor was last. He bashfully accepted his turn, but we could all see that he really wanted to hold her.
They all thought she was the sweetest thing ever.

I thought these shoes were pretty dang sweet as well! This girl is going to have the BEST shoe collection.

While we were there we figured out how many years it would be until Trevor and Logan would be old enough to babysit Bella. Only 3 years for Trevor and about 4ish for Logan. It blows my mind sometimes to think how old our children are - especially when looking at baby Bella and remembering that our kids used to be that small. Time really does fly as they grow up so fast.