Winter Beach Trip 2010

The week after Christmas 2010 we headed over to the Central Coast for a short beach trip. Jeremy's parents had been there for the first part of the week staying in an RV resort. They went further south for the 2nd half of the week and they offered their tent trailer to us for those days. What a treat for our family!

My mom has a theory...

"Our city and Pismo Beach have opposite weather experiences at all times.
Every time it is cold and foggy where we live - it will be warm and sunny at the beach.
When it is cold and foggy at Pismo - it will be warm and sunny back home. "

Most of the time she is right. Truly! This week was the exception. It was cold, windy, and rainy at home and guess what we got while we were at the beach? Yep. Cold, wind, and rain! So, we changed our plan from the "usuals" and instead of playing in the water, boogie boarding, and building sand castles we:


Cliff Jumped

Took a leisurely walk along the beach as we watched the clouds roll in.

Went for a family bike ride (yes, every one of those bikes was part of our group!)...

...to see the butterflies in the eucalyptus grove at Pismo Beach!

The kids went swimming in the resort heated pool - they were dying to get in the water, but didn't stay in for too long. It was super chilly when they got out! We met up with Kelly & Julio and went to Woodstock's for a pizza dinner.


We did some pier fishing

Look! I missed one more family picture!

We had a fun time hanging out with Matt & Aimee and Kelly & Julio and their kids. The night time sleeping-in-the-tent-trailer was also an adventure as it stormed and poured rain all night long!

Girl's Weekend to Solvang

As a final hurrah for the summer, the Ward family girls decided to take a weekend for some relaxing rejuvenation time. Our destination of choice - Solvang, CA.

We had one full day to do whatever our hearts desired. And what did we do? What do girls LOVE to do? We shopped! Solvang is a sweet shop-filled town. The Christmas store had us enamored for a good hour or so. It was jam-packed with ornament after ornament in every shape and style.

Kaleigh and Kelly enjoying some glass blown under the sea ornaments

Meg thought the rodent tree was cute while I enjoyed the music tree...

Of course we had to stop at the cupcake shoppe. This window display was soooo cute! And those cupcakes were as delicious as they look.

Here's proof that we were actually in Solvang. What a cute bunch of girls!

The building style and charm of this town feels almost like walking the streets of Disneyland. The streets are clean. The shops are quaint. The people are kind and friendly. Although, we didn't see anyone wearing those Dutch wooden clog shoes...

We ate a yummy lunch at a small outdoor cafe and then decided to catch a girly movie that afternoon. - Eat, Pray, Love. This movie had just come out and we are all Julia Roberts fans.

It's always fun to see your favorites on the big screen. We were all entertained by this show. It was neat to travel the world with Julia's character and see her eat all of the great foods. I read one review of this movie and thought it was spot on: Of the three (Eat, Pray, Love) verbs in the title, it was the "Eat" portion of the movie that the viewers enjoyed most. We got to see Julia EAT and EAT and EAT! And what was she eating? CARBS!! Pizza. and pasta. and gelato. Oh, it was fabulous. If the movie stars can do it then so can we!

Here are some of the favorite quotes from the show:

"Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it's what you want before you commit."

"I'm having a relationship with my pizza... I have no interest in being obese - I'm just through with the guilt." Tomorrow we're going to go buy some bigger jeans!"

I give this movie 2 1/2 Thanksgiving turkey breakfasts out of 5. My low rating is because of the overall message/moral of the movie. It just wasn't in line with my own personal values. Surely a rental, but still entertaining.


After the movie we had another fun adventure...car trouble! All of us ladies put our heads together under the hood and tried to figure out the problem. (How many women does it take to fix a car? Uh huh.) After calling all of our husbands we finally figured out the problem. The battery in Aimee's car decided it was time to pass on. One phone call to AAA, one run to the automotive store, and one hour later we were back in business.

Kristen, this is for you!

As I said before, we did our fair share of shopping this weekend. After our car repair fun we finished off our evening at Ross. Everyone found something sweet to take home. Kristen especially enjoyed this muumuu. She had no problem trying it on and modeling down the middle of the store. LOVE that inhibition!!





All in all it was a great trip. Hubby, thanks for urging me to go and convincing me to leave you at home with the kiddies. Ladies, thanks for the fun and the memories.

Baby Gaby's Blessing Day

Last Sunday, on our trip down to the Central Coast, we got to see baby Gaby's blessing. This event was the entire reason for our trip (and a great excuse to have some fun while we were down there!)

Almost all of Kelly and Julio's sides of the family were there. It was like their wedding reception all over again! The person conducting the meeting even commented, "Due to the blessing of baby Gaby, Kelly & Julio's family have doubled the size of our congregation." And he was right! We took up the entire overflow area and then the back curtain had to be opened into the cultural hall to make more room!

I counted 11 people in the circle for the blessing. That's a lot of love right there. Julio pronounced a lovely blessing on his baby girl #2 and she never made a peep. That's saying something for Ms. Gaby!

She is a beautiful baby and a sweet new addition to the family. Kelly and Julio make some fine-lookin' babies! We were so happy to be there for Gaby's special day.

Bonfire @ the beach

Our weekend away at the coast had many events all smooshed into our 24 hours we were there. One of the favorite activities was the bonfire @ Avila Beach. After a full day of fun in the Hot hot sun we headed down the road to the bonfire spot. We cooked the entire meal over the fire.

#1 roasted weenies

#2 roasted corn in a can (this was delicious!)
*see recipe below

*Here is the recipe for all of you skeptics:

Corn in a Trash Can
1 brand new/clean metal trash can
fresh husked corn
sea water

Optional toppings:
butter
salt & pepper
chili powder
Parmesan cheese

Fill can with enough sea water to cover the amount of corn you wish to cook. Place can over hot coals. Bring water to a rolling boil. Add corn and cook for 5 minutes. Remove can from heat and serve.

The sea water salted the corn perfectly. The flavor was perfect with or without any of the fancy toppings Kelly brought for us to try. I have to admit that the chili powder was quite tasty and a new alternative to our same ol' boring butter, salt, pepper routine.

#3 And for dessert... smores!!

The coals were just right for marshmallow roasting after we finished with the hot dogs - the flame was gone and the embers were glowing red hot. Then, an adult (who will go unnamed - *cough, cough*) threw all of the leftover wood onto the fire! Note Lizzie's stance away from the fire. FAR far away from the fire. None of the kids could get close enough to properly roast their marshmallows. Oh well. Live and learn.

The kids did love watching the big tall flames that put off enough light to illuminate the beach all the way down to the water. There's something about fire that is so magical and brings out the kid in all of us. It was a fun way to end our day at the beach.

*HOT* Avila Beach *HOT*

We spent all day Saturday at Avila Beach. Our bellies were full of delicious Splash Cafe food and we were ready to play! It was the busiest weekend we'd ever seen at this beach! The parking lot was entirely full and the shore was equally packed. We had a theory that all the people at the beach were from the Central Valley trying to escape the heat, but unfortunately the heat came to the beach too!

We unloaded all of our gear and made our way across the sand only to discover that the sand was hotter than any sand we'd ever encountered! It was like LAVA! Jeremy and Trevor both had red blistered feet from the burns we all got from the hot hot sand. We were all sweating buckets by the time we made it to our beach spot. The temperature outside was a warm 95 degrees - that's hotter than we've had at home! As soon as we dropped all of our chairs and junk everyone made a mad dash across the hot sand to the freezing cold water.

The hot sun and hot sand made for an enjoyable time splashing in the waves and hanging out at the water's edge all day. (No one wanted to cross the lava sand anyway.) Lizzie was a boogieboarding animal! She was out there ALL day enjoying herself to pieces. Trevor, Logan, and Jackson all did their time in the frigid water, but spent most of their day playing in the wet sand.
.
Jackson was just happy to be with his best buds. Tyler and Sierra (or, as he calls them "Tyner and Sera").
As we left the beach for our hotel Jackson says, "Tyner go to the hotel too?!" (Because he only speaks in exclamation points.)
Mom answers, "Yes, Tyler's coming to the hotel too."
Jackson excitedly replies, "Dats ridiclous!"

Apparently Jackson does not know what ridiculous means, but we got his meaning - he was EXCITED!

Logan enjoyed some ball time with daddy towards the end of the day. He's a ball catching fool these days. Thank you baseball season for giving our boy a new hobby that he enjoys!

It was definitely the hottest beach day of our lives, but it was a great time nonetheless.

Christmas Eve highlights

Christmas Eve was a rollercoaster of fun family time. We spent most of the afternoon/evening doing a progressive dinner with my side of the family. It was fun to see everyone and their Christmas decorations at each house.

Marcos and Melody (left) started us off with some yummy appetizers at their place. They made those pinwheel sandwich things - you know, the ones you eat at weddings. They were so tasty! And apparently they're easy to assemble - never tried to make them myself. I'm going to need a recipe for those.

We made our way back to our house for the main course - Jeremy was craving some tacos so we decided to roll with it. I liked calling them "Christmas tacos" even though they were just regular tacos - it made them seem more festive that way. A little red tomato and green lettuce on top = some Christmas colors anyway, right? My family thought it was great. They commented that Mexican food tastes like Christmas because that's what we always had when we were kids growing up. So maybe we'll have Christmas tacos again next year?

We finished off our evening at Thomas & Amy's house for dessert. Amy made her fabulous old family recipe for chocolate fondue. Mmmm! It was delicious. They had all kinds of chopped fruit and angel food cake for us to dip. Although, we did not dip our fondue in the traditional dipping fashion. You see, we are all slightly paranoid of germs. Especially with children around, yes, even my OWN children! So, we each served our plate and then poured a scoop of fondue over the top of our goodies and everyone was happy.

These are the babies of the year. Ms. Bella and Mr. Mason (being held by Uncle Jordan). Aren't they cute?! And check out their blue BLUE eyes!

My favorite part of the evening, besides the food, was singing with my family. We haven't done that for a long time and it felt great to get us all singing together. We practiced a song to sing for Dad's YSA ward the following Sunday and it turned out so nice.

Here's a small taste of the enthusiasm that flowed through our car on the way home. It was 8PM. The kids knew Santa was already on his way (Norad Santa tracker said that Santa had already finished in NYC by this time). Check out those faces. Were they excited or what?!

We raced home to open our Christmas Eve gifts - new jammies!

Then ran next door to take a quick pic with all the Ward family cousins.

Sang a quick song

And then finally headed home eager for visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

We checked the Norad Santa Tracker one last time before heading up the stairs. Santa was still in Wisconson at 9PM so we'd have to wait a little bit longer, but knew he'd be there soon.

And guess what... he came!

Happy Blessing Day Baby Kathryn

Last weekend was the baby blessing for the newest member of Kristen & Doug's family - Baby Kathryn. She is such a good baby, so sweet, and princessy already! She looked so beautiful in her flowing white dress and super cute bow to match. It was a lovely blessing by Doug.


The day before the blessing we headed down to Newport Beach for hours of the best beach time we've ever had! The sun was out, with a nice warm breeze, (which made it comfortable to hang out in your swimsuit instead of chilly in a sweatshirt), and the best part was the WARM OCEAN WATER! The kids played like they were in the pool for hours without taking a break. After the beach we headed back to Kristen & Doug's pool to rinse off all the sand. It was a day full of family and good times.

The day of the blessing we got to feast on a delicious luncheon - delicious is not a strong enough word to describe it's tastiness. Yummy pulled pork/coleslaw sandwiches, awesome potato salad, fruit, green salad, guacamole and homemade salsa, and desserts like crazy! (We are going to need those recipes Kristen.) We all walked out of there stuffed to the brim!


We were so happy we got to be there to share this special day with them. Kristen, Doug, and his family made us feel so welcome.

Family Camp 2009 "By the numbers"

This one picture is a preview of what was the greatest moment of an incredibly long week. It started out great, but quickly went downhill. Here's the breakdown:

THE GOOD:
32 children
18 adults
15 fish caught
10+ fishing poles
7 kayaks
7 fabulous home cooked dinners
6 equally delicious breakfasts (mmmm.... ebelskivers....)
3 easy ups
2 cooking stoves
2 nights of Smores
1 boat, raft, & knee board
1 water trampoline
1 karaoke night - complete with 4 dads singing YMCA
1 glorious night of fireworks on the lake
500 waterballoons + 2 launchers = a great fight

THE BAD:
11 sick children
6 sick adults
6 COLD nights
3 doctor visits

THE UGLY:
5+ sleepless nights
1 case of pneumonia
1 car accident
1 set of keys locked in the car
1 flat tire

The video will be posted next week - wait for it.... (it will surely look like we all had a GREAT time - which, for the most part, the non-sick people DID have a great time).

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!

Yosemite Trip May 2009

Disneyland 2008