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Avila Beach

Jeremy and I were able to go away this weekend and it was so great! We dropped the girls off at school where they would be picked up by Aunt Kirsten, then the boys went to my parents house. Then Jeremy's parents took them for the Saturday and Sunday. It was so nice to have them do that for us. Thank you everyone for your help!

We drove up to Oceano first where we went horseback riding out on the dunes. It was your typical walking the horse, not running ride, but we saw some beautiful scenes. It was just fun to do something different together as well. Jeremy and I like to try new things. After that, we went to our "resort" and checked in. It was nestled into the hillsides of Avila, among tons of Sycamore and scrub oak trees. It was pretty tranquil. Each room came with it's own hot tub that we filled up each time with stinky sulphur water, but it was very relaxing and warm. Especially since it was pretty cool up there. Saturday we took a Pilates class in the morning. I was so proud of Jeremy for doing it with me. :) We hiked up to the top of the hill which was about 1 1/2 miles up a pretty steep hill that overlooked the Avila Bay. It was really pretty. It was just so nice to not really have a schedule and to be able to read and just enjoy each other. We also got a massage later that day which was heavenly!

Sunday we went home and stopped by to see a good friend on our way. Monday we went to Disneyland with Jeremy's brother and his girlfriend. We went on all the rides we couldn't go on with little kids and it was fun to act like a big dork! We also got to eat at the Blue Bayou in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I would say eat there once for the experience. It was pretty good food and since we were right next to the water, I thought it'd be really mischievous to throw rolls at the passing boats, but we didn't!

I love Jeremy so much! He really is my best friend and so good to me. I'm so grateful to celebrate 11 years with him and look forward to many more.

Overlooking some really pretty coast line in Pismo.

Our anniversary dinner at the Garden's of Avila restaurant.
On our hike overlooking Avila.
Horses, horses, horses...

San Francisco

Cozette on her stead at the carousel.

Ben was such a good sport with Wyatt hanging all over him. I'm sure he had sore shoulders the next day!

All our yummy fruit! I love summer!

We went to San Francisco to visit my brother who is going to dental school. On the way up, we made a few stops on Santa Barbara to visit Ben and Alex and then to Pismo before going the rest of the way. We had a great time with our family and friends. They all made us feel so comfortable and well fed! Thanks you guys! Just wanted to post a few picture from the trip. Wyatt became Ben's best friend. He was so good to Wyatt and carried him around on his shoulders and played with him at the park. He even helped him hold a turtle at this park we went to!

Gracie and Cozette near the Bay

Atalie in front of the Aquatic park where people swim laps.

This is on top of the fort that is right under the Golden Gate bridge.

Our van jammed full of all of us while we drove around the city. Thank you tour guide Christian! Cool shot from Baker Beach! That bridge is just so cool!

Wow!

Cute Scotty at the park! His feet and hands are always moving and he is just so happy!

This one is for Erin and Tom. This was at California Adventure in line for the Toy Story 2 ride.

Beecroft reunion we had over Memorial Day. What a great reunion!

Wyatt petting a bat ray at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Atalie had a field trip there last month.

Atalie missing her two top teeth!

School's out and I haven't been on here in forever! I can't believe it! I have been gardening and we went out of town last weekend and had a great time with friends and family. I haven't even put our pictures on the computer yet. Boy am I out of touch.

Tomorrow is Jeremy's birthday and we are finally going to see "Up!" I can't wait to here our kids giggle and laugh at it!

Scotty is as cute as ever! He is army crawling right now and he's fast! Nothing is safe anymore on our house!

Random videos from the last two weeks

Just testing out our camera and getting Wyatt riding the bike with Jerm. I love his little voice.

Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break these last two weeks. I'm sad that the girls have to go back to school tomorrow, but it will be nice to have some sort of routine again. The first week we got to go to the Getty Museum in LA. I loved the architecture and the garden tour was very nice. Kirsten and her kids came, too, as well as Else and Haans, Tyson and Esther. It was great, but a little exhausting. Especially trying to keep tabs on Wyatt when we went into the West Pavilion to look at the impressionist artwork. What a burden it would be to have too much money!

Some "kangaroo pods" in the garden that I thought looked cool up against the roman stone in the background.

Easter was nice with a dinner and egg hunt at my parents home. Kirsten and I made these really cute cupcakes that had banana and crushed pineapple in them with cream cheese frosting, green died coconut on top and candy covered Hershey eggs that Kirsten decorated to look like little chicks. They were really yummy!

Wyatt is trying to make Luke look at the camera. Thanks, Luke, for putting up with Wyatt!Aunt Gayle wanted this picture of us since she, my mom and Aunt Anna had a similar one when Jacob, Candace and Christian were about this age or younger, I think.

The girls and I also got to see the Hannah Montana movie which I really enjoyed. It was not annoying like the TV show, but cute, clean, silly and fun. The music was great as well.

This last week we went camping in the desert and went dirt bike riding. Thanks to Cristin for watching our boys and Jerm's parents for taking the girls on a ride, Jeremy and I got to make a date out of a ride we went one. We took a trail that headed us north west of our camp towards a place called Jawbone. It took us through a flock of sheep and across some really cool sand dunes that were so clean, there were no other tracks on them. It was so interesting to see the sand drifted like that over the trail. It reminded me of snow. The only downer about this kind of date is that you don't really get to talk to each other unless you stop. But I had a good time and Jeremy is very patient with my riding. I even took this jump where I felt kind of like Miss Piggy as she jumped a motorcycle through a glass window in the Great Muppet Caper, except I went through a bush! I even had branches stuck in my goggle strap! It was pretty funny.

Cozette really took to riding her little 50 this trip. She asked Jerm to ride it and off she went. He taught her how to shift and she would frequent 2nd and 3rd gears. She's not afraid to turn or anything and even liked going over the whoops. Atalie had fun on the ATC and riding in her Nana's buggy. We had a little incident with that: Cozette was driving the buggy with her cousin Audrey in it. Atalie was riding a bicycle on the rode and got nervous as Cozette was coming up on her. Atalie turned around to tell Cozette to slow down, but somehow jerked the handle bars making herself fall right in the road, right in the way of the buggy. Sure enough, thump, thump, Cozette ran her over. When Hans came running back to tell me, I didn't believe it at first, you know how kids get dramatic, but Cozette lovingly had picked her up and put her in the buggy. I was pretty angry at Cozette because I didn't understand what had happened. I drove Atalie back and brought her in to the trailer where Brian was packing to go. Since he is a fireman, he was able to check her out and clean her scratches. We didn't really know the extent of her injuries because she had some scratches on her back and knee and her denim shorts were totally ripped in the back, to the point where I have to throw them away. She was so distraught and hysterical, but eventually she calmed down and we realized nothing was broken or squished. I'm going to take her to the chiropractor tomorrow just to be sure. She is acting just fine and I am so grateful for the guardian angels that surround my kids! I guess I go into survival mode because I don't dwell too much on what could have happened. I am so glad that it wasn't worse and there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage!

Kirsten on my bike. She did great! Jeremy was very impressed with how well she rode!
Cristin and her boys in the buggy.

Scotty on his first long ride. It's pretty scary riding through sand when you are alone, but put a baby or a child with you and it's even scarier! But we made it just fine. He even dropped his pacifier once, but Atalie and Jason stopped to pick it up, then his hat flew off and Jeremy and Wyatt picked it up.

So we are home now and trying to get through mounds of dirty laundry from the desert and eating off what we have in the house. Since I didn't make it to the store in time yesterday, we had to bust open some rice milk to eat with this morning. I would much rather have that than canned milk or dry milk.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and I'm going to see if the videos from my new camera work! Have a great week!

Shabby Shores

This is for Ari! The stuff on her shabby shores blog is so cute! I love the little kid shoes as well! Enjoy!