"Knott" going there!

Luke and Elizabeth being silly

A Dodger Car in the parking lot

Ok, only me, Reed and Haley didn't go there, but D took Chad, Luke, Macy, and Luke's friend, Elizabeth, to Knott's Berry Farm and they had a GREAT time! And they brought me back a Funnel Cake Kit so that now I can have Funnel Cake ANY TIME I want it! Gotta love that!!!

The best part about grandma and grandpa's house...

Besides them, of course, is just hanging out there! We love to swim and play at their house and enjoy all their backyard sun!

A true hole in one!

Golfing at Grandpa's house.

This is really how you play golf. Get your ball. Carry it around for a while. Hit it, just for the sake of hitting it. Then pick it up and put it in the hole you want it to go in.

California or Bust! We're in the movies!

Bubba Gump's on Citywalk
Haley and Aunt Sherri playing in one of the fountains

Cody, friend Jack, Austin, Dakota, Macy, Luke, Hunter, Chad and Reed

in front of the big Universal sign

Nicole, Hunter, Reed, Haley and I in "Hollywood, baby"!

Shannon and I being "wimps" (as claimed by all the kids!), preparing for Jurassic Park

Luke, Aunt Sherri, Nicole, Macy and Uncle Curtis

Chad, Christopher and Brandon

Grandma Helen and Macy after Jurassic Park. Now Shannon, Grandma and I are looking pretty smart for wearing the ponchos, aren't we????

Aunt Sherri, Hunter, Chad and Austin

Hunter, Haley and Chad showing off their muscles

All of us, after dinner at Bubba Gump's

Ok, so I've been a bad blogger (AGAIN!) lately. Time to do a little catch up! We recently spent some time in Cali, so here's some pics from our trip to Universal Studios, a place that we haven't been to since Macy was a baby. Brought back memories of the Warner Bros. and Disney lots for me.

Another freebie!

RedBox. Have you heard of it? The great RedBox at the front of most WalMarts, McDonald's and other places where you can rent a movie for $1.

One of the great things about RedBox is that you can rent a movie at one location, and return it to another location. We do this when we travel. We will stop at one WalMart, pick a movie for the kids to rent, watch it as we drive, and then swap it for another movie at a different WalMart. It's great!

I get codes sometimes to rent movies for free, so last night we rented "InkHeart" for free, invited a few friends over, made some "movie theatre" popcorn, and just had a great time! Gotta love a free movie... and it was a great one!

Free activities!

Gotta love all the free summertime activities going on. Home Depot (and Lowe's) both offer free kids' projects every month. On the 4th, D and Aaron took the kids over to Home Depot to build some picnic caddies. They loved it... and now they have some great boxes to keep all their little treasures!

You can tell it's summer when...

there's kids in cages (not sure who put them in there or who took the picture... but it's funny... and no children were harmed in the process - that I know of, at least!)

You can tell it's summer when...

there's lots of crafts being done.

You can tell it's summer when...

there's lots of shoes at your front door.

Happy Birthday America!

Getting ready for the parade.

Climbing to the top.

This scared me so much! I kept trying to stop in the middle, and D kept telling me that I was a pioneer, and that I could handle anything! Scariest part I think... getting down!

Water balloon tosses.

Just sporting some red, white, blue.... and a bit of water from the balloons!

Learning the ropes. Scary.... but I liked the pic!

Part of the giant mess at the end!

Hula-hooping with all our strength! Hey... you got a coupon for free ice cream at Yo Cream just for participating! Totally worth it if you ask me!

And you can't forget the limbo contest!

And all the goodies! At least 4 sno-cones had by all!

For those of you that don't know, I LOVE the 4th of July! I LOVE what it stands for - our freedom, our liberty, all that we have! I LOVE how we celebrate it - red, white and blue; fireworks; BBQs; parties; friends. What's not to love?

Like all other 4th of Julys, this one was TONS of fun! Our friend, Aaron, came to spend the weekend with us, and he was able to partake of all of our (normal) craziness! We started in Bob & Susie's neighborhood with their parade, which led to the lake for potluck lunch and games, and then of course, fireworks to finish the day off. Where we live, fireworks are totally legal. And not only are they legal, but you can shoot them off for the whole week leading up to the 4th, so it's quite crazy here. Luckily, no injuries... but lots of show!

Hope you all had a great (and safe) 4th also! Thanks Bob and Susie for a great day! Sus... hope you're feeling better! Love you!

Yippy Skippy!

I got a job!!! Granted... it's not a "real" job... well, it is... but not like 40 hours, in an office, making lots of money. It's just a couple of hours a week, working at home typing insurance transcriptions, making just a tiny bit of money... but it's something I can do at home, with the kids around, and make something to contribute. Now... we just gotta get D that job! Something is looking promising though... so keep your fingers crossed and us in your prayers!

It's "jamming" time!

Macy, Sierra and Reed mashing up all the raspberries.
Look at that ratio. Works out to 3 cups mashed raspberries to 5 1/4 cups sugar. The healthy outweighs all the sugar... right?

The finished product. Now, we can take some to our brand new neighbors as a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift. The glass jar is definately prettier, but the plastic ones were cheaper. Going for cheaper here.

So last week, some of our friends', the Allens, made raspberry jam. I was totally jealous. I know nothing about making jam, very not up my alley, but I desperately wanted to do it anyway (I really want to make salsa with my own home-grown tomatoes too... now... if only the tomatoes would cooperate and grow! Grow, tomatoes, grow!!!). So, I bought some raspberries, got some jars and some pectin (what the heck is "pectin" anyway???), gathered my team, and off we went to make some raspberry freezer jam. Oh my gosh! I think it is one of the best things I've ever tasted! So few ingredients, so much sugar, and so, so yummy!!! Chad keeps asking me why we need to let it set up and use it as jam... why we can't just drink it out of the containers??? I'm really not sure... I'm almost tempted to drink it myself! Now, we have some blackberries to try... and then on to strawberries. Just gotta get some more of that pectin stuff!

Going Ape!

Inside the cave, with a giant "meatball" overhead.

At the mouth of the cave.

Picnicing at Yale Lake afterwards.

Derrick, Macy, Luke and I headed up to the Ape Caves the other day to go hiking. Chad was still tired from the trek, so he opted to stay home with Reed and Haley (the hike wasn't hard, but it was dark, slippery and very uneven. Not the best for the little people). The Ape Caves are one of the lava tunnels from Mt. St. Helens. It's about 3/4 of a mile in and 42 degrees cold. Pretty cool... dark... and a bit on the scary side! I kept watching out for the Sleezestacks!

What a view!

We may not have the best or biggest backyard... but we sure do have a nice view! Sunset off our check... always breathtaking!