The Beach with Friends

There is almost nothing better for my spirit than going to spend time at the beach. Just hearing the waves crash and feeling the wind through my hair makes me take a big sigh and forget much of the stress of life. A couple weekends ago, we rented a beach house and took some friends of ours with us to go enjoy a respite. Lucky for us, the friends we took owned a camera and Lacressa, my friend, is a photographer. Yeah! Not only did we have a great weekend, but we have pictures to prove it. Thank you Lacressa!
We took Ross, Rylee, and Sarah with us and left the teenagers at home to hold down the fort. Allison had homework and Cameron had a boy scout camp. Our kids are growing up!
Anyway, here are some of the sights we enjoyed while we were away

This is the beach and I can't tell you how beautiful it is and the sounds the waves make. Ah makes me want to go back right now!
See the Sea Lion? We were so close to them They just slept and ignored us. Combined with the fun of the tide pools, having good friends with us, and meeting up with Jeannine and Don and their kids made for a fantastic trip. Even the weather cooperated. Yeah!
This cliff was right on the beach. See how huge it is and I think the picture only captured half of it.
This is my friend Lacressa and me. We have decided she is a triplet to Jeannine and I. She and I took seperate trips to the beach to walk and upon returning, we found we had collected two items. Each of us brought home a grey rock and a white shell. They were identical. Funny huh?

The Beach

Jainey and Sarah play in the sand. They were so happy to be there.
Rylee and Mommy look at different sea animals in the tide pools. I love getting close up views of sea life.
All the kids got to bring home sea shells. Yeah! Ross was extremely happy about that.
We got this present at the end of an amazing day at the beach. What a beautiful sunset!
This is called Devil's Punchbowl. It's a popular destination at the coast.

Disney Summer 2010

Look! Tinkerbell is in our hands! Ah the magic of Disney. Actually, this had meaning to us because Rylee was convinced that he was going to see Tinkerbell so she could give him a magic wand. Then he said we could do "whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted!" Sounds good to me but alas, thanks to Ally's knowledge of "fairy rules" we learned that Tinkerbell cannot make real magic wands for others. Good thing we have Ally for such good information. Thanks, Ally!

Cinderella's Castle was one of the first places the little kids wanted to visit. But then they wanted to do all the cool rides. We have great memories of Splash Mountain, the Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, and all sorts of other great rides. What a fun vacation.
Belle is Ally's favorite princess because she reads books, is very smart, and wants more than the provincial life. Sounds like another 16 year old princess I know. he he

Taylor being in boot camp had us all feeling pretty military, but none more than Rylee. He was so excited to meet the green army guy. Rylee back talked the army guy and the army guy said "Front and center!" Well, Rylee dropped to the group and began push ups right in front of him. The entire line of people gathered began to laugh and Rylee hammed it up. It was probably one of the highlights of the trip. Way to go, Rylee!

Sarah and Cameron were in their element here at Disneyland. They both love fast and fun rides and they couldn't get enough. Sarah's favorite was Tower of Terror and I think Cam's was the California Screamer. Sarah was just barely to short to ride it and one other cool ride. Platform shoes next time, huh Sarah. Ross was a brave guy. He was scared to death on the Tower of Terror but once he'd survived the experience he wanted to do it over and over. We had a wonderful vacation. Even Scott, who dreaded the trip and the long lines, surprised himself and had a great time.

Disneyland Pictures

Ooh Disneyland is sooo fun! We saw so many fun characters and rode great rides! Thanks to Grandma Charlene for being a kid at heart and enjoying the time with us. I just love her smile. Thanks Mom!

I think Tigger was in love! Cute pic Ally!

Mom and I love Winnie the Pooh. We got to see Pooh Bear and Tigger at the same time. And the lines weren't that long. Score for us.

My cute kids. They were so great at Disneyland. All we had to do is step into the park and their faces lit up. Even if they tried not to smile, they couldn't help it.

It was Ross, Rylee, and Sarah's first visit to Disneyland. They all got first time visitor buttons and they were so happy.

We may not look like much, but we raised a Marine!

We had so many people come to support Taylor as he graduated from Boot Camp. Here is Grandpa Ted and Grandma Pam. Thanks so much! We have so many people who did so much to help support us and Taylor so THANK YOU!

Here's Grandma Charlene and next to her is Grandpa Art (he is invisible here but his presence was felt and we wished he felt well enough to come). We love you!

Here are Grandpa Bob and Grandma Peggy. It was such a long trip and we appreciate the dedication of all who made the sacrifice to be there.

Here are his parents. I don't think we look at all proud and happy to have arrived at this time in history, do you? Tay is still shell-shocked in this picture as I don't think he had been allowed to smile for three months. We have seen many smiles since the first day we got him back:)

This is Taylor with the other recruits in his platoon who attended church services with him on Sunday. We are so grateful for the LDS service missionaries who loved our boys and fed them contraband brownies and candy bars every Sunday. They also called to say he arrived safely and then took pics of our boys.

Thanks to all who support us and love our kids! Another post will be coming with more pics and also pics from our Disneyland vacation. Yeah!

Sarah's baptism

Isn't she lovely. She was so happy to be baptised. I just wanted to document the pic and she is so happy. I love you Sarah and I am so proud of your decision to follow Jesus Christ.

Sometimes you've just got to be silly. We were at Target the other day and the kids were being so cute. I took pics. We called this one Rylee in danger.

This one was where Ross and Sarah kept falling off as they tried to share the top of the ball.

And this one we labeled, "These kids are really on the ball." I know it's silly but I think humor is what gets you through life. Have a great day everyone!