Busy Busy, having fun is HARD work.

We have had a great week. Lots of fun things and hardly anytime to think... but in a good way. We took our first two hikes of the summer. This year was so EASY compared to last year. The girls had fun no crying about how hard it was, whining about how hot it was or anything negative at all. Cal had fun teasing them about snakes, racing up the mountain, and giving piggy back rides. It felt good to get out of the house and play. The weather was great and the trails were virtually empty, which is nice because if any of you have ever been up in the Ogden trails... they are always busy. Regan thought that she needed a bow in here hair the first time we went, now she thinks that is her hiking bow and has to wear it. I think it is cute in a funny way. She kept checking if it was still there, she is so prissy.





















We attempted on the second hike to make it to waterfall canyon... well that was after we had been hiking for over forty five minutes on another trail.... well after a half hour of walking towards the waterfall the girls wanted to be done... so we headed back. I think this week we will attempt it again, but start on that trail.

That was a fun start to our week. Wednesday Regan started PIANO lessons. She had been talking about it for about two weeks and was so happy to finally get to go ( word of advice do not tell your four year old about things until the day before or you will get bugged everyday until it happens) I was glad that she was so excited, I think she did a good job. It is hard to tell :) I had to leave because when I am around Regan acts silly, but alone she does better. She has been practicing all week and we are trying to get it to stick. Having a four year old practice is harder than I thought. Steph ( her teacher) got some great workbooks for her and they are fun to use. She also made her a super cute notebook that she wants to carry with her everywhere. We had a hard time a church yesterday so during sacrament meeting we went and played the piano in the primary room. Regan remembered where to put her hands and we reviewed again all the things she had learned... after a couple minutes she just started plunking around so... I hope this is not the trend. She hates doing things for me or around me. I understand I was the same way with my mom, but it is really annoying Sorry MOM!! I know I was a beast and now I know how hurt you can feel when your child doesn't want you there or won't do anything in your presence. Regan is really excited for this week and so am I, I love watching my children learn and grow. I cannot wait until she is really playing and making beautiful music in our home.

This week we had the first annual nerdfest... I mean podcast BBQ. Oh I love my husband but he is such a nerd and so are all of his nerdy podcast buddies... (Heidi I know you are reading this and just so you know Regan asked about Mark for like three days and really I think it can all be attributed to his muppetness... she really likes him) anyway... it was fun to hang out with the wives of all the nerds, I mean guys, wow that word just keeps slipping out. And they actually kept the cast short this week... hallelujah. For any of you that don't know what I am talking about refer to the side panal where it says Cal's pet project. They do an online radio show about comics every week and really Cally has never been so happy. It is nice for him to finally have an outlet to get out his love for all things nerdy. Because really for the last six years I have just been ignooring him and I think it feels nice for him to have someone care about what he is talking about. He loves the TPB guys so much it is almost sad.
We also had a blast at a primary activity... no picture... I know, but I was helping run the show and well, just kind of forgot. We had a little carnival ( or at least that is what we called it ) and a pool and water slide! The kids had a blast and my girls although cold and shivery had a fun time. Later that night we got to go to a mission reunion. Only two hours late... so we missed out on the really cool people, oh wait we are the cool people. Anyway it was nice to see Cal's mission buddies and catch up, plus we like going to his misssion pres. house because he has a couple GA's that live in his neighborhood and we always hope to spot them... still not yet but we have driven by their houses... that is not stalkery just curiousity.
We had some great walks with the girls from the ward, not to mention the rockin' pool party.. .I am really crappy this week with pictures. We have had a ton of fun.

This week will not be quite the same as I am starting tennis tomorrow. I know working two days a week is so hard.... :P well it is and it takes a chunk out of fun family time and other things we get to do. Regan starts her sports class tonight and I hope the weather gets better so she can have it.

I won't pick my nose never ever again.

We Shall see if she means it! Regan was diggin' a little today and sprung a leak!! I big leak. She bled for about twenty minutes. It pretty much scared her to death. I am hoping that her promise of never ever again will be followed through. This picture was too funny not to post. Feel free to show your kids and freak them out and show them that they will bleed A LOT if they keep picking their nose. HA!

Yeah we made it.

We finally made it home Early in the morning on Friday. It was a looong drive and guess who got a flippin' ticket!!??? Yeah me that is right, I always get tickets when I do long drives. I have Nevada and their stupid speed limits... hello we are in the desert with no one for miles I think I should be able to go ten over! It's stupid.

We did have tons of fun, don't let my complaining fool you. It just wasn't how I wanted it and sometimes I can be a baby when I don't get what I want. While we were waiting for then darn car to be fixed we decided to try and make the best of our time there. We didn't want to go too far so we looked up what there was to do in Folsom... other then the famous prison, there were actually some fun things near by.

We decided on our first day without car to go swimming. It was creeping up to nearly 100 degrees and water seemed perfect. Oh yeah we forgot that we had packed the car up before we dumped it at the dealership. Well at least all the girls stuff. So swimming suits were about a half hour away. We opted to go to the outlet mall to get them new swimsuits instead of driving an hour out of our way. I thought I would be nice and let the girls pick out their own. BAD IDEA!! Regan decided she wanted a two piece. I have yet to buy her one because I just don't want to start that fight so early. But she brought a good point that mommy got one for her cruise. So instead of being a hypocrite I choose the let my daughter win route. Well it was not the worst two piece I could have gotten it was a little longer top and an attached skirt so... not that bad. Well when Regan gets into she transforms into a DIVA. I told her to knock off the attitude or the suit is going back. She stopped quickly! Lauren picked out a rainbow suit with a flower ( very San Fran) They had a blast swimming with Daddy. Playing and laughing. Regan is such a priss and didn't want to swim as much, she wanted to strut around the pool.

The next day without our car... we went to a fish hatchery!! We walked down this really pretty trail, we came across some roosters, runners, butterflies, dogs, and bikers... it was a busy trail. We got to the ranger station and found some wonderfully informative things about salmon and trout! ( it might sound boring but it was pretty rad and FREE!) Did I mention it was a hundred degrees and seriously the station felt so good with the air conditioning I wanted to look at everything inside. After we cooled off we headed out to the trenches... unfortunately it is not salmon season, but there were millions
( OK maybe thousands) of rainbow trout. They started really small and got bigger as we went through the trenches. The girls liked looking at all the fish up around and swim over each other.

After being out in the blazing sun we headed to this old gold mining town! It was so awesome! But when the thermostat in the car says 102 we decided not to take the tour and to get Sasparillas instead. After that we went to a fun park in the middle of this old mining town and saw some really nonathletic people trying to play basketball. It was funny to watch as the girls played I laughed at the 2 shots that were made in the hour and a half I watched... wow... really that is all I can say. I thought Cally was bad at basketball. This fun town we were in was nestled right in the mountains and had the coolest old houses. The downtown part was the best. It had all of these great shops, bakeries, antique stores... I could have spent days just walking the main street and drooling in the shops.

More swimming in sued and a lot of Wii. We finally got a call Thursdays after noon that our car was done and that we could go home. We were bummed that it was so late and that we didn't have time to stop in Tahoe... maybe next time. All in all it was a fun time. Minus a few little headaches. We are glad to be home, but we do miss Grandpa Jerry.

Still in California

So I was supposed to be waking up in my bed this morning, but that didn't happen. It's ok I don't mind not being home, but Cal is missing work and well I didn't stop our mail because I didnt think I would be missing this much of it. So now when I get home I will have it spilling out of my mailbox... no bueno.

Anyway... we have been doing lots of fun things so here is more of our trip. Cal and the girls had never been to San Fransisco and we thought it would be fun to go. We came in on the bay bridge and the girls thought it was so cool... we crossed the town to go to the Golden Gate Brigde for our first stop. Regan was not having it. All she kept saying was, "I don't want to go on the gold brigde I don't want to go on the gold brigde" She was mortified. It took a while to calm her down. We parked at Vista point and started to walk across, she was not happy. Lauren on the other hand was loving every minute of it. She was looking over the side, looking down the holes in the sidewalk and giggling the whole time. It's funny how different they are. Regan finally calmed down once we got to the first big pillar. ( Ya know something to hold on to) It didn't help that it was cold windy and foggy ( don't forget we are in San Fransisco) We only walked about a third of it until Lolo was too cold to go on. We did see some funny things on the bridge. Ok maybe they are not funny, but I think that the jump hotline and phone are funny. There is always hope please call... don't jump... are you serious? I think it's comical.

After we left the bridge we went to Ghirardelli square. I forgot how crazy the hill were in San Fran until I was pushing a double stroller... ugh! Well even though I am not a real big fan of chocolate I cannot lie... this stuff is good. It's funny because in this little shopping center there are five different chocolate shops... they had fun little shops that didn't have chocolate, but pretty much if you want chocolate then this is your place.

Every where we went we saw cool things and fun people. The girls loved all the people on the streets selling jewlery and artwork They had fun watching the cable cars zip up the hills.. This guy here was an interesting guy. He kept yelling at us about how adorable our kids were... finally we went to talk to him. He was covered in crystals from head to toe, the picture does not do his bling justice. He proceeded to tell us how he could tell we did not beat our children because of their dispostion. WEIRD for sure. But they are great kids and well their parents aren't too shabby either.

We headed down to fisherman's warf. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe. We had never been there, and were surprised how fun it was. We got to sit by a big fish tank with some crazy fish that wouldn't stop staring at us. The girls got cool lightning cups which was basically a seizure in drink form. The girls loved the animals... ok I lied whenever there was a storm and the elephants start going crazy the girls freaked out a little. :) it was cute.

On the piers we saw big ships, Alcatraz out in the bay, fast boats, crazy performers, and mind blowing amounts of stinky people. We ran into an old museum with old (still working) arcade games. Hundred year old games all the way up to games like pong. It was really cool to see all these different games that people used to play back then they only cost a penny nothing like hour dollar games now. We saw old submarines, missiles, boats and anything and everything you could think of that goes along with boats.We headed down to pier 39 where the sea lions hang out.. man do they smell bad! Those big lazy beast have taken over the whole pier. Regan freaked out when she say them and was running around the pier barking and clapping. She did is so much I thought about putting a hat down and getting some tips. If I can figure out how to put videos on here I will put the video of her doing it.

After hours and hours of hiking around San Fran we decided to head home, while we are in the car we played one of our most favorite games... NAME THAT BAND. Having satellite radio makes it easy and fun because you have more channels and it tells you the artist right on the screen ( notice my hand) I rock at this game and Cal gets better every time. I took about 600 pictures on this trip so sorry I have a ton... ugh. More to come later... I really can only do some much at a time.

We think we might just stay here.... who needs Utah right?

Our California Adventure

So we decided to go out to California for the long weekend. We were supposed to leave today to go home, but our car decided that it didn't want to work properly so Cal is at the dealership attemping to get it fixed. So since I am packed up and ready to go with nothing to do, I thought I would update on here and show everyone what fun we had on our trip( that will never end whahahahah)

We got here on Friday and were tired from the long drive. Let me tell you that Nevada was not the most interesting drive I have ever taken, but it sure beats driving through Idaho... if we didn't love and miss everything in Oregon we probably would never go to Idaho. We are staying in Folsom right out side of Sacramento, it's nice and pretty the weather has been nice and there are lots of trees! Its funny because there is a mix of evergreen trees and palm trees the weather is just in the middle.
Our first full day here we went to FAIRYTALE TOWN and the Sacramento ZOO!!



Fairytale town was so much fun, the whole place is a giant park full of fairytaled themed toys. The girls had a blast. Lolo hated the old lady who lived in a shoe slide! She caused a traffice jam and we had to pull her down.

We took a trip down the rabbit hole and walked the crooked mile. Watered flowers in the alphabet garden ( there was a plant that started with every letter of the alphabet) Climbed the beanstalk, played in the Sherwood forest and tons of other really fun things. It was a really fun park.After a couple of hours at fairytale town we headed over to the zoo.

This zoo was fun but I still love Portland and Hogal zoos best. They did have some animals that I had never seen before. This guy with the cool horns is called a Bongo. We saw monkeys fighting they were really loud and drew a BIG crowd.

Lauren likes to pull her hair out of its bands and have a wild afro all the time, she looks like she belongs in the Zoo.

That was a long, but fun day out playing. The next day we decided to chill a little bit after doing so much the day before. We went to the park and played. I really think that was the first time they were in a playground with sand... they made a MESS! We love goofying around with grandpa and Daddy probably had more fun at the park then the girls did.

After that I took a little time alone for myself and hit the outlet mall. I was deeply disapointed in the variety of kids clothes... maybe I shop too much but I just was not that impressed by anything. Don't let me fool you I did bring home a few bags, it's probably better that only did a little... money doesnt grow on trees it gets sucked up by CARS!!

Ok this is all I can do right now... stayed tooned maybe tomorrow if we get home tomorrow I will put up the other fun adentures we had. Hopefully today will have nothing to note.... cross your fingers.... Coming soon... San Fransisco!!