2009 Thanksgiving

What a fantastic Thanksgiving it was this year.....I might even say the best yet and Aron would agree. Aron deep fried a turkey and I prepared all the fixin's. Irene made great pies as usual and Kathy brought the appetizers. It was great to visit with Cory and Diana. You would have thought it was Christmas Eve with all the giddy excitement the boys had in anticipation of his arrival.

Cory did the honors carving the turkey.
The boys helped set the table and decorate it. Jacob did a wonderful job folding the napkins in a rose pattern.

Friday we left for our usual trip to anywhere, anywhere along the coast. The park was great. We had an ocean front view, a pool and spa. During the day, we went on long, long hikes and stopped to see what we could find in the tide pools. At night we went in the spa and pool. Well, I stayed in the spay, the boys and Aron are more adventurous and hopped between the two.

Oh yeah, and it was some one's birthday.....Jacob turned 9. After dinner we opened gifts. As you can see from the photo below, it was not easy for Jacob to wait. He had a birthday pumpkin pie and we sang him a song.

Jackson's Birthday

Birthday boy! Jacks We had a party with family at Grandma's house and a red velvet cake with seven candles.

Then he had a Halloween themed birthday party with kids from school, soccer and Del Norte. There were about 16 kids in all. Jackson and Jacob were blood sucking vampires again this year. We had a pumpkin piniata, bounce house, swamp juice, eye ball cupcakes, monster trial mix and apples with goblin snot. Sounds good right?

(Don't eat the food the zombies offer you.)

This and that

What have we been up to you wonder...Oh, this and tha

projects for school such as this one for Jacob's "All About Me" report,

cooking,

goofing around, reading with the cat "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".

And carving pumpkins.

(left is Jackson's, right is Jacobs and center is Monkey mama.)

Our visit with Dane

This summer we got to spend a little quality time with Dane. He's the sweetest kid. The boys just love playing with him. First they played hide-and-seek. Uncle Aron helped Dane hide in a hat box but apparently that wasn't a good spot because Jacob found him rather quickly.



Then they all cooked in the kitchen and made a delicous meal of wooden veggies, cheerios, and raisins.

After that, they did a little demolition.

Then we had a sad moment when the boys went to take a bath and Dane didn't know where they went. Aahhhh!

First Day of School

I thought it would never get here, but it finally did, on August 17th the boys went back to school.

Sutter's Mill

For a break, the kids, Aron and I went to Coloma Resort for an overnight stay. We visited Sutter's Fort and showed the kids how to pan for gold. Here's a few pics of our visit.

Swim Team

So swim team wrapped up a while ago, about a month ago now. The boys did fantastic! Aron and I are very proud of them. We challenged the boys to improve their swim times and they achieved their goals. They each receive a Nintendo DS. Of course, the games have already been in long recoveries due to the boys inability to turn the games off and put them down. I'd say we have reached somewhat of a equilibrium now with them.

But, back to swim team....Jacob did great at Championships and went to the finals with a time of 26.86 seconds for the 25 yard breast stroke. He won several medals at Finals. For our team awards he received a Dolphin award for being the swimmer with the best attitude and who worked the hardest. For the candy awards, he received a Crunch bar because he needs to make more noise. (Our team gives out candy awards as a way to recognize every child's uniqueness. It's pretty funny to see how the coaches relate candy to a personality or characteristic.)

Jackson went to the finals with a time of 21.4 in the 25 yard freestyle and a time of 28.62 in the 25 yard backstroke. Jackson came on strong half way through the season. He showed up at the meet with a determined attitude and a new hair do. I think the hair made all the difference...the boys talked me into using a #1 on the clippers. I wish you all could have been their. It was so exciting, he exploded across the pool. His arms whipped around with each stroke. He was a machine. At finals, Jackson won several medals. He, too, won the Dolphin award for always wanting to improve and asking the coaches what he could do better on. For him, his candy award was the LOOK candy bar because when he got on the deck everyone would look since he was lightening fast.

And for us we have come to have a very close group of friends, several of whom have boys Jacob's age. We all sit under our pop up tent and waste the afternoon talking about nothing and everything and just enjoying doing nothing for a change.

Skate Night

Not a lot going on here these days. It's summer time and the boys are on the swim team and going to summer camp. Here's some photos of Skate Night with the swim team last night that should bring back some memories. It seems that bowling alleys and roller skate rinks are the land that time has forgot. Nothing has changed from the skates to the disco lights and lava rock.

See the skates, I think they are the same we wore as kids.

And off they go!

I love you wall. You always "support" me even when I fall down again, and again, and again.

Wow-ww-ow!

Strike a pose!

Jacob and his friend Jason.

Jackson and his friend Evan.

Mother's Day

That's what Jackson had to say. At least I now know what food he likes.

Mother's Day

This is what Jacob made for me in art class for Mother's Day. Hope you can read it:)