Camping

 2 weekends ago we braved camping with my college girlfriends and their families at Lopez Lake in Arroyo Grande. In total, I we had 15 adults, 11 kids, and 1 dog. Despite the obnoxiously loud campers in other sites on our first night, we had a blast! The kids slept pretty well at night, we divided up the meals and ate well and enjoyed catching up and watching the kids play together. Here's the girls and some of the kids at the lake.

 

Blast from the past- here's us at the same spot of the lake in college. 

The girls and the kiddos minus Debra and Mia. From left to right (Evie, Me, Cody, Kylie, Kelly, Autumn, Bennett, Julie, Carter, Landon, Monique, Luke, Katelyn, Kristen, Sydney, Jess, and Riley). 

We even got to celebrate Debra's birthday while we were there.

Sunday morning breakfast- feeling much better after a quiet night

Here's Kylie with some of her buds- coloring with Landon

and Riley

After loading up all the camping gear, we drove the short drive to SLO to enjoy some yummy Firestones with the Brazeltons and Szabos before driving home.

Such a fun weekend! Excited that we're making it an annual trip!!

Disneyland

We celebrated my parent's 40th Anniversary by going to the happiest place on Earth! With no expectations and wanting the kids to have fun, we all had a blast. We didn't go on super popular rides so we had pretty short lines for the most part (I think our longest line was for Who Framed Roger Rabbit in Toon Town- totally not worth it) but everything else was great.  We took a bunch of pictures, here's some of my favorite.

The gang

Kylie and Jadon hadn't seen each other in a while and it was so fun to see them interact and play together.

Kylie's first ride ever- the carousel 

2nd ride Dumbo with Daddy

Boat ride with Grandpa

Small World 

Fun times in Toon Town

"Let us out!"

We had great timing and seats for the parade- it was fantastic!

When can we go back?!

Lately...

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to lately.

 Gardening- Matt and our friend Brian built us an awesome raised bed. We planted strawberries, tomatoes, basil, red bell pepper, green beans, and zucchini. Ky and I have fun watering and watching it grow each morning during Evie's nap

 More Gardening- We've been working on the landscaping in the front and back so here's a shot at a nursery where we got some new plants

Playing Dress Up- Here's Baby Evie and Baby Casey in matching headbands and bows

Dressing as Twins

Turning 7 months old- Evie is a great baby. She's sitting up pretty well and loves to laugh and watch her big sis.

Trying new foods- Evie seems to love all the solids we've tried except peaches which seems strange to me

Mastering new skills at the park- Ky has become a lot braver when it comes to climbing and going down big slides- so fun to watch her grow in this area

Weekend Getaway

Matt and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Healdsberg (in Sonoma County) for Matt's friend, Nicholai's wedding weekend. We flew to Sac, dropped the girls off in Davis with my parents (huge thank you to them!!) and spent 2 nights away in charming Healdsberg. It was wonderful!

 Here's the girls surviving the flight- thankfully they did great both ways

 It truly was a wedding weekend. They got married at Nicholai's family vineyard (Arbor Bench) which is actually very special to us because it's where we got engaged, 8 1/2 years ago. There were shuttles taking the guests to all the different events. Here we are riding home from the Friday night "rehearsal dinner"- which was more like a mini casual reception with delicious Mexican food and a DJ and dance floor in the barn.

We enjoyed sleeping in Saturday morning and a delicious breakfast at our darling hotel on the plaza in downtown Healdsberg. Then we rented bikes, picked up sandwiches, and did a nice 12 mile ride through wine country. We stopped at Dry Creek to wine taste and enjoyed our lunch.

As we walked to the ceremony site, we enjoyed delicious hor douvres and wine.

It was a fun, nontraditional wedding. The groom and groomsmen entered the site by floating across the lake on a motorized raft with a giant wave in the background.

 We popped our toy guns when they kissed

 Heidi and Nicholai- the happy couple

Inside the tent where the reception was- a live band and delicious food- I tried goat for the first time

 On Sunday we slept in again and enjoyed walking through a flea market right outside our hotel in the plaza. Then we headed back to the vineyard for a brunch/lunch of amazing Cajun style cooking and swimming in the lake. I seriously felt like we ate our way through the entire weekend. It was fun to get to hang out with John too.

Here's the exact spot we got engaged.

And the view from the other side.

It was such a wonderful trip for Matt and I. It was a nice break from the girls (thankfully they slept 12 hours both nights we were gone) but we missed them too and were ready to get back to them.

Happy Monday

I had a wonderful day yesterday, with a great start. Breakfast in bed with muffins and a vanilla latte from Tammie's and eggs made by Matt. Kylie loved getting to eat in bed with me (we definitely had to wash the sheets afterwards:)

And this little one turned 6 months last week! The time has flown by, so much faster the second time around. She is a happy, easy going baby and is interacting more and more. She's not sitting up yet but is getting really close- she can for short bursts. I'm excited to go to the dr tomorrow to learn all her newest stats. She's totally sleeping through the night- normally wakes up around 6:30, although there is the occasional 5:30 wake up. Although she totally still looks like her big sis, I think she's developing her own look too.

Smart Family Fun

We have gotten to spend lots of fun time with Matt's family recently. 2 weeks ago they came by on Saturday for a nice visit. They took Kylie to the park while Matt and I weeded in the front yard- super helpful. Here's Kylie and Grandma going down the slide.

 Uncle John stopped by too. John got a job at Matt's company doing filming and editing, so it's been fun for Matt to get to see his bro at work...I'm sure they'll figure out how to sneak in a surf session at lunch soon.

 Grandma with sweet Evie


Last weekend we went to Idyllwild. Here we are enjoying a family hike in beautiful Humber Park.

Family shot- I think you can just make out Evie's arm coming out of my back- she conked out the entire hike

We had a great time except our girls slept horribly Sat night which meant so did we- boo. Everyone enjoyed a nice walk Sunday morning around the house, except me- I got to sleep in:)

Grandpa Jim and Evie

"Try and catch me Grandma."

Gosh, I love this little girl. So grown up!