Surprise Getaway

Last weekend, Mike surprised me on our anniversary with a getaway to Cambria. He arranged to have the two bigger kids go to my sister's house and then took Cole (can't be away from him for longer than 3 hours) and I to Cambria. Cambria is a tiny town on the central coast. GORGEOUS GORGEOUS GORGEOUS!!!! We went on a beautiful little hike.

We tried lots of delicious treats at the farmer's market.

My favorite adventure of the weekend was visiting this fascinating house called NitWit Ridge. Some crazy guy built it entirely of things that he salvaged from working as a trash man, and from items (driftwood, shells etc etc) that he found along the beach. Those of you who know me well can understand my level of awe and wonder at the thing.

How about a his and hers bathroom?Thanks Mike for such a wonderful weekend and 6 wonderful years.

What not to wear

Last week my sisters and I went to my Mom's house for a few days with our kids. My Mom asked us to help her go through her closet to get rid of clothes that were out of style/worn out etc etc. We had a hilarious hour or so going through and evicting certain items from her closet. Not everyone could agree on everything so we had to vote occasionally. Mom tried to veto certain items and so we told her she could keep them to use when she gardens but not wear in public.
She ended up with quite a stack to give away. I then coerced everyone to choose a shirt or vest from the give away stack to wear. Not only did we take the following picture but we walked down the road to Pinkberry (over a mile roundtrip) in our ugly shirts and then went shopping at TJMaxx wearing the item. It was a riot:) Which proves that fun is cheap:)
Now, can someone come and do the same thing in my closet. I know I am no fashion plate and I probably wear a lot of scary looking out of date things. Oh, and once you go through my closet and get rid of half my clothes could you take me shopping and pay for it all. please:)

Take me out to the ball game.....

Cole enjoyed his first Dodger game this past week.

The "big" kids had fun too.

But Laura had the most fun zipping Cole up in her jacket to keep him warm!

What could be better than: 4 wheeling with daddy,

Riding Buttermilk the horse,

Tractor rides with "Big" Grandpa, snuggling with Big Grandpa and little grandma,

Playing with cousins,

and eating of course!!!!!!

especially marshmallows and smores!!!

We had a great time visiting Mike's family in Southern Utah. Mike and I even ran a 5k race together-yes together. I think this was the first time in my whole like that I hve actually ran an entire race with someone. Let me say that running at 7,000ft above sea level nearly killed me but Mike was my cheerleader the whole time and it was fun.

We also enjoyed an amazing thuderstorm and beautiful evenings filled with giant stars.

Cole's Big Day

On Sunday, Cole was blessed at church. We are so appreciative to all of the family and friends who traveled from near and far to make the day a special one. Blake enjoyed playing with lots of cousins. I had to take a picture of the fruit and dessert table before it was destroyed. Don't the berries look divine.

All the kids love cousin Andi.

Mike's Mom and Aunt. Thanks for traveling so far to come!

My Mom and BOTH sisters. Hooray for Carol being home from Spain.

My Mom stayed up with me until 2am Saturday night/Sunday morning to get all the food ready for the "quesadilla bar".

I wish I could have taken pictures of everyone but I was so preoccupied with the food that I only got these few.

Fabric Fabric

I don't spend my money on nice shoes, purses, or expensive jewelry. But I am a total sucker for beautiful fabric. I love FABRIC. The possibilities are so endless and it's fun thinking about all the things I can make with this new stash. I went downtown last Saturday with a good friend and came back with yards and yards of heavily discounted designer fabric. They had a giant table full of half off stuff and I stocked up. You know you are addicted when you bought a lot but still want more.

3 years ago, my sister Carol offered to let me borrow her serger while she was in Spain for 3 years. For the first several months it just sat on my sewing desk, because I was kind of afraid of it. A serger can be overwhelming when you first learn how to use it because there are 3-5 different spools of thread all going at once. But once I got the hang of it, I used it ALL THE TIME. I really credit this machine to helping me become a much better seamstress. I'm very sad to part with it. Hopefully I can convince my husband to give me one for my birthday/Christmas this year. And I just can't resist posting a picture of Mr. Smiley.

Good Bye beloved piano

Tomorrow the piano movers are coming to take our beloved borrowed piano back to its rightful owners. Thank you dear sister for letting us enjoy your wonderful piano for the 3 years you lived in Spain. We loved it. It brought our family great joy. Mike loved playing it and I loved listening to him play it.
Hopefully our neighbors enjoyed Mike's impromptu recital at 11:oopm tonight.