Another month down

I am having a hard time swallowing the fact that summer is almost over. Next week I go back to girls camp for the second year in a row. I am very much looking forward to it. You spend months planning and grumbling and wondering why the heck you signed up....then suddenly something magical happens. It all starts to come together, you begin to see the fruits of your labor and their is an excitement in the air that is spectacular. I am glad that I get to be the 3rd years leader. I have learned a lot from this experience and very much look forward to this coming week :) Well, onto the last month.

Back in June we had a week of hot hot weather and we played it up. Luckily this was the week prior to leaving for our July 4th trip to Utah, so it helped pass the time nicely. Instead of sweating in Concord, we took the kids to Pacifica Beach in San Francisco. It was a beautiful 80 degrees. We ate Taco Bell with friends and had a good time!

Towards the end, the kids were building this massive water pit and it was fun to see all ages, spanning 1 year to 10 years, contributing to the effort. What a team! I almost didn't want to leave, but then I remembered traffic out of San Francisco on a weekday in the afternoon and yeah....we booked it out pretty quickly.
Reagan turned 5 on June 22nd!! What a precious daughter she is :) Some of my favorite things about Reagan at this age are her excitement over everything in life and how social she is. She is a little on the sensitive side, which can be bad at times, but she is one of the most compassionate kids I know. She was really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so we did a little pirate birthday party for her, but she has since moved onto Phineas and Ferb and other "big kid" shows. I actually love Phinease and Ferb, I usually sit and watch it with her. Makes me laugh :) We made little pirate booty bags for the kids that came.

We did a treasure hunt (pretty much signature pirate party game, right?) We celebrated after her party by heading out as a family to Chili's for lunch. She keeps asking when her birthday is again. I sure wish 5 year olds knew how long a year really was!

Our dear old civic hit the 100,000 mark last month. She has served us well. Here's to another 100,000!
We headed to Contra Loma with friends during our hot spell in June week. Wow, what a blast the kids had! They played all day and slept like a log till the next morning. I think I did too. This place wears you out! Here is Nolan with his buddy Josh.
Reagan and Addie with Trey (total crush) and JT.
Reagan and Justin. I also credit Contra Loma with teaching Reagan that it really is okay to put your head in the water and she has since swam underneath the water. Her nose is plugged, but still... I plug my nose :)
Laura and I took our kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito. This is a small town just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pouring rain that day, but we ended up having a really good time. I think the kids loved the painting the most.
This is a shot from our car in the parking lot of a fogged in Golden Gate Bridge.
We spent the first 9 days in Utah. We got to see almost all of our family (we missed you Jeff and Selly!) My family had a dutch oven cook off. It was really good and tasty to see all the creations each family contributed. My pizza wasn't as original as, say, Lindsey's mountain dew potatoes and chicken, but it didn't taste too bad :)

Here's the hoes, Newlywed Hoe on the left and Knocked-Up Hoe on the right.
The whole family chilling while the dutch oven cooks. Seeing the gorgeous flowers at my parents and at my in-laws has inspired me to someday landscape beyond our simple square of grass. Maybe this fall?
On the morning of the 4th, my parents cooked a big breakfast, per tradition.

Here is me and my mom, with Landen's youngest Finn.
Nolan and Chase.
Nolan, Emma, Reagan and Jane in front of the Roundy sign on the morning of the 4th. We had really nice weather! It was overcast and even rained later in the morning.
Mid-day, we headed over to the Rasmussen's. They had a huge ginormous water slide set up at the local elementary school and so Matt took the kids down it. Reagan actually went by herself, big girl growing up!
We lit lots of fireworks (love that they legalized the huge ones this year), had some amazing shishkabobs and watched the Kaysville fireworks from the hill at Burton Elementary. It was a low key day and we really enjoyed it!

Reagan, Austin, Avery and Whitney
We headed out to Park City again for a Rasmussen reunion. We stayed in the same vacation home. It was an exciting couple of days filled with canoe and boat rides, roller hockey, just dance 2 on the wii, a treasure hunt for the kids, swimming in the hot tub and of course, lots and lots of good food.

Here is Nolan with his Grandpa Rasmussen. Poor Nolan was sick most of our trip to Utah. When we pulled into Salt Lake City before the 4th, he was hoarse and coughing. Our last day there, we ended up taking him to urgent care because it had turned into croup. He took some steroids and seems all better now. But it really never fails....one of my kids ALWAYS ends up sick when we travel :)

Just Dance 2 was so much fun. I would buy a wii just to play (dance) that game. Reagan hears Katy Perry's "Firework" on the radio and immediately recognizes it from the dance. She even does the chest thump from it :)
Enjoying a popsicle at the lake, Reagan, Avery, Austin, Brooklyn and Whitney.
All the Rasmussen grandkids( minus Trae, who was sleeping) in front of the house. Notice Nolan's 2 suckers?? He lived on those here. Good times!On our way home from Park City we stopped in and visited my friend and roommate from college, Laura. She has an adorable little guy named Boston. It was so much fun to see her and catch up with her!
Matt took the kids to Hill Air Force Base museum with grandma, grandpa and cousins!
Oh yeah, cutest thing ever was some pics Matt took of Nolan and Lindsay at the cabin. (Not technically a cabin, but we like to call it that). Still got the sucker!
Life is good, it continues on and we are blessed. Love to all!

Running Club and Six Flags

What are the ingredients for getting your kids to run laps? A month ago I would have said nothing can get my children to do that unless you dangle a cookie or popsicle in front of them. However, now I know. Another mom in our stake has organized a running club. During the summer, they meet every Monday morning at a nice park and the kids run laps for an hour. Sounds fun, right?? Oh my goodness, the kids have such a blast. All you need is a punch card and your good. The punch card is key. Our first week I had no idea what to expect. I thought maybe Reagan would make it a lap or two before declaring she was done. I thought good thing they have a playground so Nolan doesn't get too bored because he will NEVER run a lap. Both my kids surprised me, though. Each lap is a quarter mile and each punch card is 20 punches or 5 miles. Reagan finished the entire card the first day! Not even joking, she ran 5 miles. She did get a big blister on her toe from it that has popped and bled all over, causing her extreme anxiety :) Nolan ran a mile and a half, which for a 2 year old, pretty much rocks. We love running club, it is a genius idea.

We went to Six Flags with the Berrett's last week. The kids have so much fun and we love going with friends. My battery died on the camera there, so thanks to Laura for supplying me with some darling pics of the kids. Unfortunately for readers, I am in some of them. Seriously, when did I start looking so old? I blame it on owning a house :)


We are loving summer!

Water Park

We went to this wonderful park in San Ramon that has sand, water feature, playground and a little rock river. The kids had such a fun time, we might have to go back there again this summer. The kids were so exhausted afterwards. This has been an exhausting couple of weeks to begin summer for them!

June Randoms

So......some random things that happened in June. Matt sprained his ankle (above) and was off of it for probably not long enough. I am hoping that he never injures his back or head, I am pretty sure he has injured every other part of his body playing church basketball. The brawl that begins with prayer :)

Reagan built more tall legos towers. Annnnnnddddd....precisely 3 seconds after I snapped this photo, little brother came and swiped that tower clean to the floor. Big sister was in tears! Totally inconsolable.

We had date nights with our kids this month. I took Reagan and Matt took Nolan. Reagan and I went to the mall and had burgers at Red Robin. I bought her this pink headband at Claire's. Man, that store is awesome if you have a little girl. We spent a LONG time in it. Matt and Nolan went to the park and ate chicken nuggets. Next month it is me and bubs. I wonder what we will do??? I don't think he will like Claire's like his sis :)
Nolan has been giving up his naps, but usually falls prey to his ZZZZZ's by 5pm. This is how we found him one evening. Pizza crust and all!

Spring Ballet Recital

Reagan has loved her ballet class this year! She would always show us her "moves" and surprisingly for a 4 year old, they were pretty good! We look forward to fall when it starts up again.

Here are some pre-recital obligatory pics! She likes to pose :)


It was hard to get a good pic in the studio where the recital was held, this is the best Matt got. The theme of the recital was spring and they danced to Beethoven's Fur Elise (I think). Reagan posing with some of her classmates at the end.

Fruit Picking

Just 30 minutes east of us is a little town called Brentwood which is home to a huge foreclosure crisis (what California city isn't, though) and also some of the world's most delicious fruit. We went up there last Friday to pick some of the fruit. We did Maggiore's Cherry Farm first, then picked strawberries at Chan's. Wow, both were so good. The kids loved picking the cherries, but I had to limit it, since we don't actually EAT that many cherries. I probably should have picked another entire box of strawberries, though. They were that good.





The kids each got their own big bucket to carry around. I ended up with Nolan's and he just carried around a bunch of cherries in his fist. Here he is with Zoey and Xander.
Some of the kids: Nolan, Josh, Reagan, Addie, Mia and Olivia.
The best strawberries were out in far left field. We trekked out there with our 25 cent cardboard box and it filled up pretty quickly. I had to remind the kids dozens of times to look for the ripe, RED fruit. Reagan got it, Nolan didn't. There was a sign at the front with a warning of $100 fine for eating the fruit before paying for it. I am pretty sure we owe somewhere in the thousands thanks to Nolan. Good thing we were in left field :)
Nolan licking his fingers.
He kept asking for more "num-nums" in the car, so I would give him berry after berry. He was a mess afterwards. We grabbed pizzas for lunch and headed to Erin's parents home in Brentwood to swim. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast! It wasn't very warm outside, but the jacuzzi was heated, so my kids hung out in there.
Thanks for wowing us, Brentwood! I am looking forward to peach season already :):)

Old Town Sac

Since Nolan is a lover of all things trains (or "choo-choo" as he affectionately calls them), we spend the Saturday of Memorial Day up in Old Town Sacramento at the train museum. This fun idea was originally born when I heard that we could take the Amtrak Zephyr from Martinez to Sacramento, visit the train museum, then ride it home. Then I discovered how much that round trip train ticket would cost for our family and we decided...road trippin instead! Which is fine because we actually made it quicker than we would have in the train. Trains are so old school :)

In the actual museum, Nolan was terrified of the big trains. I guess it is one thing to watch Chuggington or Thomas or play with your teeny fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand trains, but to see the actual thing tower over you is another. He kept asking to go "hoooommmmeee" (said in my best Nolan imitation). I think he may have calmed down a bit and Reagan loved them. When we got to the second level, his attitude changed completely. This is where they have the tiny model railroads and also 4 train tables completely decked out with everything Thomas the Tank Engine. They played for an hour and would have for several more, if it wasn't time to go. Matt and I watched, took photos and snuck in several pieces of salt water taffy from Candy Heaven. I think I had around 40 pieces that afternoon alone. If sugar really is a poison like that one guy says, then my liver surely is surrounded by fatty tissue by now.

There is a real steam engine train that you can ride that is about 40 minutes long and goes along Sacramento River. It was just okay, in my opinion, but much cheaper than the Zephyr. We passed the marina, which means we passed several boats, which means Nolan yelled out, "BOOOOAAAAATTTT" several times. He loves to really draw out his "oooo" sound.

Back in the museum, here is Reagan in front of what looks like Chuggington (their current favorite show). This weekend was actually the Jazz festival in Old Town, so we heard loud jazz music wherever we went. There were tons of old people. Jazz music = old people. Sorry, but its true.
Definitely not New Orleans here, but lots and lots of bead necklaces. Reagan grew obsessed with these things and of the 6 we took home, 3 were broken by nightfall.
Going around Old Town was fun, but not a really great kids venture. I remember the last time we went to Old Town, Reagan was about 8 weeks old and it was MUCH easier! This time, I had to have snacks 24-7 just to keep my kids in the stroller, which didn't fit in any store anyways. But really the best store is the candy shops. I bought a bunch of salt water taffy and Reagan got a huge candy necklace. Reagan loves to store her sweets in the bottom drawer of her dresser. Apparently, little brother found out because the next day that drawer was licked clean! And it wasn't Matt nor I, soooo....
We ate dinner with my BYU roommate Jamie and her family. Her daughter is around the same age as Reagan and they hit it off! So very cute. We loved seeing them and as I watched all 3 of their children down a veggie filled sandwich, I realized my kids eat way too much junk. :)The next day was Sunday and we had a blast at a block party that night with some friends, the Taylor's. They live in a cul-de-sac and have block parties a few times a year. There were tons of kids, so Reagan and Nolan ran around the entire time. We bbq'd steak and chicken and had a huge fire pit. The kids eyed the cupcakes the entire night and after almost zero bites of real food, they were given one of these. So spoiled. Next time, it is veggie sandwiches for them!


On Monday we went to another bbq with friends and had a really great lunch! We had such a fun weekend. Much better than last Memorial weekend, when we moved into our new place. This past 12 months is the only year of my life I would never re-live. Nah, it wasn't that bad. Well, actually yes, it kind of was. But life is really good now and we are living it up, homies :):)

Woohoo! Happy Memorial Day!