Facepalm!

Well it seems that I'm off my game blogger wise.  I am officially behind on updating our blog!  I am going to have to sort some photos and get moving!

Santa Cruz 2011

 

 Our now annual vacation to New Brighton SB in Capitola was filled with fun. From Pizza My Heart on the beach front (above) to the boardwalk to Marianne's Ice Cream, the whole family had a great time.

On day two we strolled through downtown Capitola.  Many of the shops were fun, especially the candy shop where we bought salt water taffy, my favorite. Afterward we thought we'd try the classic Pizza My Heart location right on the beach front. 




At Marianne's Ice Cream we had dessert.  I was super excited because last year my morning sickness prevented me from tasting the local fare.

I had strawberries and cream... YUM!  I believe John had Pistachio something or other... ugh!  Half of the fun of Marianne's is that the kids get to pick their flavor.  The other half is laughing with friends. 

     Happy Birthday to Keira!  Turning 4 and as cute as can be!    Pancakes, strawberries and whipped cream were the special birthday breakfast.                                     

    The Wednesday night boardwalk trip is a tradition that everyone loves.  The unlimited ride wrist bands are only $10 per person after 5:00pm so we can get everyone one.  John takes the older kids to the coasters and I make the rounds to the kiddie rides.  Little Lucas spent a lot of time in the stroller, I think he still had a fun time.  Jonah and Katie John had a great time hanging out with their dad. 

 Sariah and Keira race in #24 Jeff Gordon's car!  As part of my crew, we hit all the fun rides at least twice! 



Lucas is just too darn cute in this picture!  Fresh from a good nights sleep he can't stop smiling. 

Katie John has been a wonderful helper this year.  When she wasn't off with her friends she and Lucas were good buddies.  I found that very helpful as I cooked all our in camp meals over the fire pit.  It was pretty neat to know I could do that.  I smelled like smoke all the time, but it was cool all the same. 

We went down to the beach several times this year.  The waves were great for body surfing, the sand was primed for sand castling and there was even a log semi-structure for the kids to dig and play under.  Of course John's head got sunburned, hence the hat. 

Lucas and my camera are pictured to remind me of the giant wave incident.  The tide was very high this year.  Even though we were up on a high sand spot, the waves kept getting closer and closer.  The kids tried to save us by building a sand wall to give Lucas time to finish his nap.  Alas... eventually a large wave came in faster than we could think and went over the "wall".  I only had time to grab Lucas and luckily my camera.  A friend grabbed up Keira who was also tuckered out and sleeping.  The wave soaked just about everything with water and sand about 25 feet past us. We had a good laugh about it after, knowing we should have moved our set up, but knowing if we had we surely would not have moved it far enough.

Our friend took this family photo on the beach on the second to last day.

 



 Katie John wave jumping !







Goodbye until next year Santa Cruz!

Toothfairy Time!

 Sariah is on a losing streak this week !  Tooth #3 and #4 came out with just a bit of effort. 

Sariah is super excited for the tooth fairy to come. 

Christy and Kelly

 I love getting together with my friends Christy and Kelly!  We always have a great time swapping stories and of course there is plenty of laughing!



This time around we met up at Christy's in Apple Hill.  There was plenty for our kids to do after the picnic lunch. 

Climbing trees, tire swinging and general shenanigans!  Katie John and Jonah are up in the play fort tree.  A giant pine with draping branches that hang to the ground creating a wonderful hide-away for the kids to play in.


Our best activity may have been the hike down and around to find a real section of the Pony Express Trail.  The weather was warm and the mosquito's were biting, but it was fun!  Thanks to Jake (Kelly's husband) Lucas was able to 4-wheel it and join in our adventure. Our kids are standing on the actual Pony Express Trail that runs along the back of the property.  

 Over the years our families sure have grown!  I am grateful for lasting friendships that continue through the good and hard of life.  I love you girls! 

Last Day of School AND New Oven

 I always try to take a first day of school picture each year.  Well, I thought it would be fun to take an end of year picture to see how the kids have grown!  Jonah's last day of 5th grade, Katie John 3rd, and Sariah 1st grade.  Keira has one more year at home with Mommy!

EMPTY SPACE

NEW OVEN

We've been saving our pennies for a while to buy a new range since our old one quick working about a month ago.  John is taking it for it's maiden voyage with a grilled fried egg sandwich!  For those of you with curiosity ... fry an egg, slap it between two slices of cheese and then buttered bread... grill it up and enjoy!

Myrick Family Reunion

 The 1st full day of the Myrick Family Reunion started off with a fun bike ride.  All were welcome to ride bikes from Grandma's to Aunt Christina's house, 8 miles away.  This is Grandma and Keira at the tail end of the pack.  Keira wanted so badly to ride the whole way, slow as she was.  Grandma stayed by her for about a mile. Keira then hitched a ride up to about 1/4 mile away from the finish.  What a trooper!

 Christina and I are modeling the cute little rings and clips she put together as trinkets for all the kids.  They were part of a treasure hunt that had them digging up the sand box.   

Can you see that carrot?  It's a double!  We had a good laugh about this oddball carrot. 

Keira loves horses.  She lets Ruby sniff her skirt.  I think Ruby thought there was a yummy treat mixed up in all those colors.  Keira was able to ride around by herself or with cousins.  

 We had a lot of fun activities going on all day.  Trampoline tricks, tug of war, treasure hunting, horse riding, water balloon toss, slip n'slide and of course visiting.  Grandma Betty and Grandma Dixie were out enjoying their family as well.  One of the best games required two teams to attempt getting their whole team on a piece of material.  Each stage of the game the material was folded smaller.  Stacking kids, one foot on and holding hands and leaning out were all tactics used by the winning team.  It was pretty entertaining!

All the kids slept in the tent city in Grandma's front yard.  The girls all bunked together with Dingo as their protector.  

In the boy tent we had to tickle the grumpies out of Jonah in order to get this cute picture.  He did not want to wake up for an early morning picture.  

Katie John mastered this cool trick and showed it off every chance she could.  Neat huh?  It's not as easy as it may seem.  

Other activities included red rover, more trampoline and jewelry making by Anna.  

A puzzle race was organized with two teams competing.  It was John, Julie, Sherry and Grandma against Angela, David, Shaun, Katie and Jennifer.  Each puzzle of was equal difficulty and 500 pieces.  Ready. Set. Go!  You're looking at the winning team!

One of the projects was to create a commercial for something.  Ours was about being prepared.  

Jonathan, Jonah, Mason and Justin depicted life on the farm as more than ideal.  

Giganta-Mellow

 

there is one more i'm trying to get uploaded....

Swim Splash

The kids really enjoy swimming and the swim splash program is a good refresher before the summer swim season starts. This year our swim lessons were only two days out of four. One of the days was thundered and lightening'd out. Too dangerous to swim, so they sent us home. The other missed day fell during our family reunion. So we did the best we could and enjoyed the sun while it was out.
Keira learned to put her face in the water and blow bubbles as well as kicking her feet to go places. Sariah is practicing strokes she learned last year and using the kick-board. Katie John is also working on strokes as well as swimming longer distances .

Jonah worked in the deep pool swimming and diving. I think everyone had fun, even Lucas who was probably a little bored sometimes.
This is our last day picture! Swim...swim... swim!

Helen Visits

A couple of weeks ago my oldest friend, Helen, emailed that she would be coming into town for Memorial Day weekend. We were happy to drive down to Elk Grove and meet for a long overdue visit. It has been two years since Helen moved to Utah, I can't believe it has been that long! The kids ran around trying to avoid the water, as I'd forgotten it was a water park and didn't bring their suits.
Katie John rolled up her pants and got a little wet in the spray. Lucas stayed near me most of the time, but all the other kids went to the playground. Helen and I got caught up with all the goings on with each of our families. It's amazing how lives can change in two short years. Hopefully it won't be two more years before we can get together again. Thank you Helen for the fun afternoon!

Back to School Night 2011

Sariah has been working on her 1st grade rainforest project all spring. This is the final outcome! We learned tons about the Red Ruffed Lemur. The inside of the project has the habitat and interesting facts.
Jonah's big 5th grade project was on the state of Utah. His big state project filled his 1/2" binder and he also made a tri-fold project for display at the big State show where the rest of the school comes to see all the projects. In 5th grade everyone learns state capitals, abbreviations, spelling and position on a map. It's quite an undertaking learning all that information. At dinner we've been quizzing all the kids so everyone is learning state capitals.
Katie John has been working hard all year. Recently she put together a very big poster about Lynxs. She researched, printed pictures and gave an oral presentation. On her desk you can see an art project with clay that the class did just last week.

John and I are very happy the kids are doing well in school and that they have a great school to attend. Yay back to school night!

Happy Mothers' Day INSTALLED!

This is the OLD faucet. Probably a 1959 original! I have been wanting a swan neck faucet for... well a long time. See how our faucet is coming out of the wall? Well that presents challenges when you are short on money and can't order a custom faucet. I've looked at many home improvement stores and finally found ONE option for a replacement that would fit my vision of what I wanted. I quickly went home and told John that's what I wanted for mother's day. No fancy candy... no fancy gadget... I wanted THAT faucet. This is the NEW faucet! I can now fill big pots with water, pile my sink high with dishes and still fill a cup with water. Sometimes the simplest things can really make your life easier. I love my new faucet!

As you can plainly see, Lucas and Katie John are also thrilled with my new faucet! Truly a gift for the whole family!

Bikes and School

Jonah and Katie John are riding their bikes to school for the first time today! ACK! Of course they are tagging along with our neighbor and her kids, but I feel a little scared inside anyway. I'm sure they will be fine... They prepared and checked their bikes last night. Got up extra early this morning and were out the door and ready almost 10 minutes before they needed to leave.

Teaching independence can be scary for the parents!!

All Hail May!

Wild and wacky weather! This cold snap that came through this weekend was a real thriller for the kids. This big storm swept through with lots of drenching rain and hail. While we were at church it began hailing in earnest. By the time we got home over an hour later we found piles of hail. It must have been coming down in an easterly angle because the piles were all up against the east side of things; the fence, the green bin, the neighbors chimney, my squash...
Last night we'd had a game night at Tiff and Ed's house (and a gaggle of other friends), and we inadvertently left our bag o' games there. John said, "I had the game bag, but then I got the baby instead." Anyway we went there after church to get the games. We waited in the driveway for a bit. While we waited we noticed the large amount of accumulated hail in the crevices of their roof. That's what initially caught our interest and thus a quick hunt for our 0wn piles of hail when we got home. As it turns out, we could have just walked right in to get our games, literally. Their front door had been neglectfully left open the whole time they were at church!
If we had gathered carefully, we probably could have made a miniature snowman! Ah, the things you think of later! After church we got another drenching rain and hail session. Jonah thought it quite funny that the hail seemed to be popping up from the grass, like little bouncing white peas. With the rain mixed in, you couldn't see the hail coming down just dancing in the grass. I hope my new garden plants don't get too chilly!

Two Wheeler

Keira has been wanting a bike with training wheels for a long time now. Finally with the sun shinning, John spruced up a bike and put training wheels on it for her. She has a cute helmet with fairies on it and she is riding around and around! I hear the happy sound of training wheels on cement quite often.