HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!

We celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday on July 9th. Where has the time gone?!?  We love this spunky, silly, sassy and smart girlie.

• She is her brother's biggest fan and tormenter. 
• She loves being in the middle of any action and trying to keep up with the big kids. 
• Her favorite meal would be pizza, chicken nuggets or mac and cheese. 
• She loves to play "kitchen". 
• She wants to pet any, any dog that we come across. 
• Has the most contagious laugh and smile-love those dimples.
• Surprises me daily with her vocabulary and her ability to correct mine.
• LOVES her blanky and binki (I know, I know, it's time for it to go, but all of us are just so happy with the relationship!)

Emma felt very spoiled and in a sharing mood with her fun birthday presents from family members and friends.

She was now outfitted to help me in the kitchen-especially with making the birthday cupcakes and frosting.

After birthday dinner, we busted out the piñata. Lesson learned: explain to the 2-year-old ahead of time what a piñata is. When Emma saw it, she only wanted to love it and hug it. Okay, now that the hugs are out of the way-give her something to hit it really hard with until that perfect, pink pony busts open! For some crazy reason, she didn't take to the idea and couldn't grasp why we were letting others beat the tar out of her pony…and laughing! Poor girl.

Charlotte is ready for any sudden movements.

Hana is ready for softball.

…and Luke is ready for anger management. 

Emma did find forgiveness in each piece of candy she picked up.

Next,  it was on to birthday cupcakes!

(love that helpful older brother in the top right)

We love these crazies!

Wandering Van

My cousin, Jess, and her husband, Aaron, are touring the western part of the country in their van that they've "doctored up" to meet the needs of their adventures. We happened to be located between two of their stops, The Redwoods and Yosemite. Jess has always been like a sister to me. I can't believe how quickly we can start laughing/crying about nothing-leaving our poor husbands to tolerate us and try to have their own side conversation. We were roommates in college and someone told us, "I'm sure both of you would date a lot more if you weren't with each other so much." Hmmm…both of us did finally marry when we were living in separate cities. :)

We laughed that within 5 minutes of the van pulling up, Jess innocently asked Luke and Emma if they wanted to get in the van and check things out (while I was inside getting dinner ready). She didn't even mention candy and my kids were all over it! Uhh…so much for that talk of "don't ever get in a car with a stranger," let alone a white van! 

Safe travels on your way back to Wisconsin! 

Keepin' Cool

This summer has been HOT! HOT! HOT! I think the highest we reached was 109-felt like the surface of the sun. Typically, it is mid to upper 90s. When it's this hot, we spend lots of time in the water (pools, lakes, backyard water fun) trying to keep cool. When that fails, we buy 3 box fans that tend to make our home sound like we're ready for take off any second! :) While it has been hot, we've still had a lot of fun. Luke is becoming quite the fish and gaining lots of confidence learning to swim-he puts his head under water and kicks 3-4 times. The evenings cool down and are extremely pleasant with a consistent breeze. They call it the "Delta Breeze."

Folsom Lake

These 4 are quite the crew. They have grown to be great buddies in a short amount of time. 

We love the Lee family!

Sacramento

…Or actually, Lincoln. Lincoln is a suburb of Sacramento where we bought our home. The drive was long, especially with sick kids, but all things considered-I won't ever do it again. I joke. Hopefully, we won't need to drive that distance for awhile. We crashed that night at 'The Holiday Inn' where it sounded like our neighbors were having quite the illegal holiday, but the kids slept through everything, hallelujah. Making memories. The next day we closed on our house. Our realtor brought donuts, drinks and toys for our kids to play with while we signed the bajillion papers. It gets better, she then proceeded to play and entertain our children during the entire thing. Realtors will do anything to get that check! :)

As we're discovering, things are done "differently" in California at times. Closing on a home is one of those things. Once all the papers are signed and money is in the account, you still don't get the key. There's a bunch of legal shtuff that happens and then you receive your key in the next few days. Cue the slight problem that the semi-truck with all of our boxes and furniture is currently outside our home. Luckily, Bryan is an amazing guy and we received the key a few hours later (bot-a-boom, bot-a-bing). He is good.

Precious cargo!

I think all of our boxes are unpacked. We're starting to get pictures on the wall. I'm feeling more and more settled. I really like our home-I never saw it in person prior to buying it. Bryan chose wisely. I joked around about the word "adventure" being used with us moving to California. Well, it couldn't be more true.  I saw this quote and thought it was very timely,  "The only difference between an ordeal and an adventure is your attitude." For the most part, life has been an adventure the past few months. :)

More to come from California!

Stop #2

We made it to Boise, just in time for my antibiotics to kick in with some bronchitis/sinusitis junk and another member of the family to get sick! Don't ya just love when family comes to visit (with all of our germs)?!? Despite half of us being under the weather, we still had a nice visit. Luke and Emma are still talking about playing with their cousins.

Enjoyed (well, for the most part) on free-fishing Saturday. I was impressed with the fish and game guys-they had fishing poles, bait and lots of pointers for everyone to use.

However, who needs the fish and game "experts" when you have lady luck on your side? 

We enjoyed a delicious dinner and great company on Father's Day. 

4 generations. What great examples Luke has to follow.

Fun grandpa taking kids on 4-wheeler rides.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Emma some extra snuggles with her double ear infection to help her feel better. That is the ONE perk of a sick kid, extra snuggle time.

We had an amazing time visiting family. After dealing with quite a bit of sickness, we thought it might be best to take our germs and hit the road!

Sacramento or bust!

1st STOP

We got in to my parents' place at 2 AM.  Other than a really late night, the road trip went great. It's helpful when the kids sleep for more than 50% of total time in the car.

We went up to a nearby campground one evening. We played in the creek, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, went on nature hikes and had a great time!

Ben, Mindi, Chan, Peyt and Madi joined in on the fun. We were glad they made it, especially after their busy day filled with baseball games!

Went to a Dinosaur Park in Ogden. I was really impressed with this park.

If dinosaurs were still around, we discovered what would cause them to go extinct.

Fed the ducks and fish.

They gave out cute dinosaur field books that Emma used to keep track of her dino adventures.

Probably the biggest hit was becoming paleontologists for the morning.

We visited "the farm" and said hello to Grandma Munns. We managed to use the butterfly nets and actually caught a few. Have you tried to catch a butterfly? It's harder than I thought! Luke and Emma found a few of their favorite things while visiting the farm. Luke-tractor rides with Uncle Monte.

Emma LOVES dogs-and this dog is one of the best. I love the farm.

 
Checked out the train car at the Brigham City Depot. We couldn't figure out a way around the steel locks so we checked things out from the outside.

Bryan spent most of the week in California working. He flew back Thursday night, and we drove up Friday to Boise for more fun there.

That's All Folks!

June 6th was the big moving day. They packed everything the day before and on the 6th, they loaded it. No, we didn't fill the entire truck, but it does give me something to aim for.

Elizabeth watched Luke and Emma for hours to help us out (even when they had pink eye!). I can't thank her enough! You can send me your  medical bills if anyone caught it. 

As we pulled away that evening to begin our "adventure" to California via Utah and Idaho, this kid didn't last 10 minutes. It was emotionally and physically exhausting for all involved. :)