Blessed Beyond Belief

Today

I really wanted to take you through our whole trip down south, but I am falling way behind.  Besides - by now you are probably thinking - that's OLD news!  So maybe I'll get a couple of photo albums on here that you can look through if you'd like.  For now I'll tell you what's been happening since we've been home.

• We had to be back home by August 2 so the kids could jump right back into school stuff.
• Autumn is going to be on the middle school student council team and went to a day long retreat to get the scoop.
• Russell started football practice last week.  He's gone from 3 days of 1/2 hour intense workouts to two a day practice, then three a day, now he's down to one a day. 
• I've put in a good amount of time preparing healthy, nutrient dense food for him and driving him back and forth to the high school.
• Autumn is playing volleyball for the middle school. There were 5 days of instruction and now the regular practices have started - at 6 am.
• Will's birthday was on the 9th and we let him pick a bunch of activities for the day. Including Wahzooz, McDonald's and the mall.
• Our 12th anniversary was a week later.  We were tired, low on cash and time so we spent a day at home after going out to lunch and buying a fridge from the 50's off of craigs list - cheap.
• Went to two different registration days - one high school, one middle school.
• Have spent some time over at the barn chasing big pigs.  I think Tim has a video on his channel of him running after an escapee. 

I think that's all my scattered brain can remember right now.

Not true - I can remember yesterday.  We took Will and Autumn to Roaring Springs.  Thursdays are half price after 3pm.  It was the last chance before school starts.  I guess everyone else had the same idea.  It was PACKED.  We still had fun.  I must be getting old though. I kept having to push bad thoughts out of my brain.  

Thoughts like: I bet most of the kids in this pool still don't properly wipe their butts. Oh my gawd I'm gonna puke, I just saw a kid with a huge hanger booger wash it into the water.  Oh no, that person's butt is hanging out of their suit. Oh please fix your clothing! Lord help me not die from some horrible sickness caught from the germs here.

Yeah. It must be better to be young and not care what you are swimming in.

Sunday

Sunday afternoon we headed over to Kim and Jordan's new home for a dip in the pool.  What lucky ducks to have this awesome set up!

Couldn't resist taking Snoopy in and watching his little arms paddle around.

Of course all he wanted to do was paddle to the edge and get out.

Then it was over to Jacob and Jenny's house for dinner.

Emma enjoyed an ice cream cone.

It's always a bummer when you get ice cream up your nose.

Russell with Grandma and Grandpa.  Their first grandchild - mom likes to call him her 'fourth' kid.

Isn't it amazing how Jaxon feet spend more time OFF the ground than ON the ground?  That boy is always going somewhere!

Emma determined to get her car INSIDE the house.

Funny face kids - they all got along so well.

William just loves babies.  He was always wanting to make Stella laugh and smile.  Then he would come and beg me and Tim to have another baby.  Um... no.

Getting to Simi

After we left Grandma and Grandpa's house on Friday morning we drove to Fresno to tour a raw milk dairy farm.  You can read all about it here.

Will was pretty spend after that and took a snooze in the car on the way to Sanger.

Bob and Linda Pearson were kind enough to host us for a night.  We were excited to visit with them and hear about their trip to Italy.  

Before we even went in the house Will changed into his suit and RAN down to the creek.  Before I knew it he was showing his appreciation of their hospitality by peeing in the creek.  Oy.  Good thing it's fast moving water.

They already had the tubes blown up for us so we headed up the street to float the creek.  Will sat on Tim's lap and did really great.  I thought he enjoyed it, but when we tried to get him to go again he refused.  It might have something to do with the us going through a fast part that scared him.  He kept screaming, 'ABANDON SHIP! MAN OVERBOARD! ABANDON SHIP!'  

So Tim and I went by ourselves.  I have to admit that I mostly wanted to go again because I had spotted beautiful blackberry bushes and wanted a chance to pick some.  Of course that requires you to stop yourself mid flow by grabbing onto thorny bushes.  Luckily I have a man who will swim through shark infested waters for me and when he doesn't have to do that then he's courageously stopping and diving into prickly blackberry bushes for his fruit obsessed wife.

Will's job was to wait with Linda in their backyard and film us as we came by to get out.  Well I TRIED to stop us, but failed miserably.  As we floated away Will nearly had a heart attack.  We only had to go to the next little area to get out, but I think he thought we were lost forever.

Ugh. McDonald's.  The thorn in our side our whole trip.  These stupid happy meal toys is what he was after.  Damn you Ronald and your horrible propaganda on our youth.

We made it to Simi by late afternoon and mom and dad had planned a bbq with everyone to come say hello.  It just so happened that Maggie was visiting family in CA and was able to come hang out that day.  

Here's Will trying to convince her to let him be her 'second' boyfriend.

Autumn and baby Stella.  We hadn't seen her since she was a newborn last year.  Such a pretty baby!

Will could NOT wait to start playing with his cousins and I think Jaxon was a little excited too.  They really did well together through our trip.  Since they are both now talking so well it was fun to listen to their back and forth little boy conversations.

How nice to be back to big trays of rice and delicious bbq.

Everyone was there and it was a blast to see how all the little kids had grown.  Bradon and Hudson are such fun little boys.

Nothing like making a big change in hairstyle in front of your WHOLE family!

Here's the video, if you are so inclined to watch several people get pleasure out of shaving a mop of hair off of a sixteen year old.

Actually, go ahead and watch.  Nearly 1500 people have. That's what happens when you label your videos for apparently often searched things on youtube.

Grass Valley with Grandma and Grandpa

I apologize for the lack of blog posts.  We were gone for about a week and a half and I'm just getting back to catching up on everything.

Russell and Autumn were in Simi since the end of June.  Instead of putting them on a plane back home we decided to do like last year and go get them.  Gives us a chance for a visit and to have Will celebrate his birthday with family.

We can make the trip in one day, but we broke it into three days.  So we left Wednesday morning and drove to Grass Valley, CA.  Will does really well on long trips.  He just keeps himself busy with his toys, ipod and gameboy.  At one point I handed him the map to show him where we were and where we were going.

About 7 pm we rolled on to Rattlesnake Rd.  Grandma and Grandpa have lived here for about 25 years now.  I remember when Grandpa retired from the LA county fire dept. and they decided to move from Simi Valley to Grass Valley.  They bought 2.5 acres and built their house in the middle of it.

 

After the house was built Grandpa went to work building the deck along the outside of the house.  It's a beautiful spot to sit and have a meal.

There are two extra bedrooms upstairs.  One is Grandpa's office and the other is the 'doll room'.  Grandma's doll collection is substantial and has been her passion since she was a little girl.  This is just a small portion of them.  When I was 15 I lived here for a little while. This was my room.  It hasn't changed much (at all?) and this is where we stayed for two nights.

The following day we had plans to visit the Empire Mine where Grandpa has been a volunteer for years.  Tim and I have been there before, but we were excited to take Will to a real gold mine.

This is the area that Grandpa does his wood working projects for the mine.  He showed us window frames in the park that he had done, along with many other improvements and projects.

Grandma has always been so wonderful with young kids.  Always getting down to their level to listen closely and pay special attention. I have the best memories of her when I was child - she made me feel very loved and special.

Down in the mine shaft.  It's hard to believe that men spent their days going down into the earth to retrieve gold.

Will was a little freaked out by this and I think he thought that they were going to take him down the shaft.  Immediately after I took this he said, 'ok, that's enough'.

He was getting a bit out of sorts and impatient.  I handed him the camera to take of photo of Grandma and I.  His form of protest at the moment was to turn the camera upside down to take the picture. He's quite good with the camera and knew full well that this wasn't right.

I threw a threat his way (can't even remember what it was now!) and he turned the camera around to take a proper photo.

Then we took the long trek up to the cottage.  It's beautiful and worth the hike.

We left the mine and drove to Nevada City to look around and have lunch.  We got through lunch at a mexican place by promising Will ice cream afterwards.  Tim found a frozen piece of cheesecake dipped in chocolate on stick that he fell in love with.  In fact he talked about it for a couple of days.

That night Grandpa grilled hamburgers for us and we had another nice dinner out on the deck.

It was a great visit and I was happy to bring Will there.  He got to spend some time with his Great Grandparents and see where they live.  If you ever find yourself in northern CA you should stop in Grass Valley and say hi to grandma and grandpa!