goodbye for now california...

after great america, we spent the next day relaxing, packing, getting haircuts from my mom and i got to visit lots of my friends.

hmmm...his expression is the same getting his haircut by mom or by grandma

man...those clippers must be torture!

kaylee got her hair chopped off!

and claire kept us company with her smiles!

that afternoon my friend kristie and her mom cooked us lunch. it was quite the feat to keep the kids from destroying her smithsonian-like house!

kristie at the grill

dallin taking a breather

me and kristie

kristie and her mom

then we stopped by my friend rene's house

after that we stopped by the clarke's house and i visited with lynda for a while, but again i forgot to take pictures...apparently emma didn't...

more ca/ut trip

where did i leave off...oh, yes...

that sunday we went to church and then had a ginormous japanese gyoza dinner with the watkins side of my family (forgot to take pictures...grrr!) and then that night i got to visit with my friend andi and see her gorgeous home and cute boys - they were supposed to be in bed *hehe* (i forgot to take pictures again, dang it!)

the next day we made a day trip to the bay area to have breakfast with aaron's grandma in san jose and then headed over to great america for a day in the sun!

aaron and the kids with grandma collins

aaron and his grandma at breakfast

the girls on the famous double decker carousel

dallin on his horse

daddy and dallin

here's the girls
(did i mention i was left to calm a hysterical tanner who wasn't tall enough for the ride?)

here's tanner working on his...um...tan

we go to great america and what do the kids want to do? swim! (i like aaron's face in the background...kinda makes up for emma looking like she just got a whiff of something stinky!)

dallin's loving the driving thing...

cute kids!

emma all by her lonesome

these were only a fraction of the pictures we took, but i thought i would spare you a shot of every kid on every ride and with every walking cartoon character. we had lots of fun and needless to say the kids slept very well that night!

i'm baaaaack!!!

okay, so i fell off the blogging wagon several months ago...but i'm done with finals as of last friday (got a 92 in nutrition, a 98 in psych, and a 96 in anatomy, thank you very much!) and my training at the ymca has slowed down a bit (i will start teaching water aerobics and pilates in january), so I am determined to get caught up on blogging amid the hectic holiday craziness!

um, first let me get these cards sent off...

day #9 of ca/ut trip

i will get these trip posts done eventually...

this one is the one that's been my hangup, so hopefully i can get them done a little faster now. on day 9 of our trip we went out to the farm to spend the day with my grandparents and my mom's side of the family. we had hundreds of pictures from that day so it was really hard to decide what to post. we had a great day eating good food, 4-wheeling, kite-flying, rope-swinging, bottle rocket launching, and catching up with our west coast family.

here's me, aaron and chubbs on the atv

my parents - isn't my mom so cute in her hat?

uncle sam taking the kids for a ride

kaylee on the rope swing in the barn

all the watkins grandkids

my parents and sibs - peter, me, pop, mom, betsy, alec and sam. peter never smiles...all our family pics have his grumpy non-smile - maybe he was born to be a marine. ephraim is missing because he was in basic training (he, too, is a marine)

the whole fam-damnly (sans ephraim and peter's wife, jenny, who is also a marine and was doing some sort of weapons training - i think)

the girls getting carted out of the barn

cute pic of tanner sneaking into the shed

the kids having fun with bottle rocket launching

cute emma-cheeks

tanner up to some sort of mischief

kaylee and her cousin claire

dallin got to ride in grandpa's truck and even got to be in charge of the stick shift - he was in heaven!

needless to say we had so much fun, ate too much food, and slept very well that night. Y

day #8 of ca/ut trip

well, we couldn't visit home without making a trip to old sacramento. lots of fun memories there! we walked along the cobblestone street, went to one of the many candy stores (that was probably the kids favorite part) and stopped by the kite store to pick up some kites for our trip to see my grandparents out on the farm. here are some pics from the old schoolhouse.

rare occurrence - dallin sitting still

cute girls

emma's artwork

tanner looking a little rough...

a wagon is as good as playground equipment

riding the carriage (he doesn't look like it here, but dallin was terrified to get in the carriage)

kaylee was in horsey heaven

again, kaylee is on cloud nine

after that, we went back to my parents' house. they are re-doing their whole front yard - sprinklers and all - so they wasted no time putting the kids to work. actually they were begging to help. why can't they do that with their chores?!?

later that night, one of my best friends, janicca, threw a get together so we could see everyone from high school. of course i was so caught up in talking and visiting with everyone that this was the only pic i got...two of my best high school friends - kristie, me, janicca - has it really been 11 years since graduation?!?!?Y

day #7 of ca/ut trip

so the next day, alec and lauren arrived from utah. then we went to betsy's apt. complex and swam. we always have fun swimming! if my kids have access to a pool, i won't hear the end of it until we go. here are some fun pics that day.

chubbs taking a dip

dallin - for him it was jump in, climb out, ad nauseum...

cousin anjulee basking in the sun

kaylee-girl

tanner getting ready to jump to daddy (you can see alec and his wife lauren in the background)

tanner and daddy

emma the fish

after the pool, we went back to grandma and grandpa's house to relax.

the kids went to the park with uncle sam. the shade is the best place at a california park!

can you see dallin peeking up over the beans? my parents have a great garden for exploringY