Our weekend really started Thursday night. We got to attend Christine’s (a former young woman from our ward I got to know when I was secretary a few years back) wedding! It had been quite a long time since we have been to a wedding and I have to say it was a lot of fun. We got to dine with some good friends from church and witness a glorious event. I LOVE weddings there is so much love and joy. Its hard to believe it’s almost been 10 yrs since ours. (scary). Christine is seriously one of the happiest girls I have ever met. She lights up a room.

The gorgeous bride and her new man!

Marc and I

Summer and I

The Wights, Gutierrez, Marshalls, Thackers, & us

mmmm delicious
Friday night was a pirate party at the Thurmans. Marc and I last minute dug through our halloween bin lucky to find some asian wear and we become oriental trading pirates which surprisingly worked out nicely! We probably went a bit to over the top with the makeup etc because there were a lot of people not dressed up! (come on guys this is your annual pirate party is it not) O’well it’s an excuse to get dressed up anway! We got to chat with friends take fun pictures, feast on finger foods, and watch the 2nd Pirates movie. Fun times!

Marc and John pose in front of the display

Wade and Sara

Brad and Jenny

Candy “wenches” Christy and Jessica tempting us!

What good looking pirates! Nice…. Summer & Bryan

Um yeah we are supposed to be pirates!

The guys

Double pirates. Whomp checking out his photo on his phone.

Saturday we went to the  beach for our church activity corn roast put on by Brian and the activities commitee but mostly Brian! Vaughn even got his little feet wet. The kids could all go out into the little waves pretty far because of the sand bar.  It was awesome! Maren did some boogie boarding with her friend Grace and all the kids played in the ocean for hours.  The corn was delicious and then we had smores!  I had been craving smores the entire summer.  We all had a great time with our friends and got to know some more people from church.  

  Heres Bryan cooking away the afternoon!

  Maren catches a great wave

  The next one was a little rough

  Vaughn likes the water too

Kaili and Haven got pretty brave in the ocean

  Kai sure loves her daddy.  She wants me to work instead!

Marc and I together (no kids??)

The “I love you picture” (Summer says)

Vaughns asleep yipee!

Maren Cate Claire Kate and Keri

yum yum

Packing up (now Marc knows what I do)

Thanks for the invite Zimmerman’s we really had a great time at your cabin! So this is how it all went down: We arrived about 10pm Friday night to meet up with our friends the Zimmerman’s and the Barbers. We were all excited to get out of the car after the twisty turning roads on the way up the mountains. Both Marc and I got queezy but luckily the girls were plugged into their movie and didn’t notice! We unloaded the kids ran around and played while the guys went to get some groceries. Then war broke out between Logan and Owen! At least it looked that way as they wresled and hit each other. Before I knew it the time was past midnight Maren, and Jayne were still awake in their sleeping bags. Kaili fell asleep around 11:30 and Vaughn was passed out so we played a few rounds of Blokus staying up past 1am. The next morning the kids were up early we had pancakes and went on a nature hike/walk to the wilderness discovery center. The kids got to pet some donkeys and feel a ton of animal furs. Then we went to the alpine slide and drove the race cars. The kids LOVED it. Kaili screamed the whole way down the mountain on my lap. I took her down pretty fast too!

Only half the day was gone and we had already done so much so we went back to the cabin to chill and make lunch. John (”the cookie monster”) broke out the cookie dough I had made for the trip and cooked a couple batches. They went fast! When Brad and Marc woke from their naps in the living room they asked for cookies but —-you snooze you lose! Right? I snuck 1 even though I am supposed to be dairy free for Vaughn still. We decided to pack the day with 1 last outing to the bowling barn. But this proved to be too much at least for Kaili and some of the younger kids. We bailed out early and took Kaili home for a nap. She was a wreck. The girl gets exhausted by 7 everyday. She really needs her sleep! All the parents agreed the kids needed to go to bed earlier so we ate an early dinner and cleaned up for bed then Haley found the Hannah Montana concert on the Disney channel which proved challenging getting the girls away from the TV and into bed. I think it was after 9 and I was feeling the exhaustion from lack of sleep the day before etc. But we finally got the kids to bed and spent some adult time playing card games and the name game– We haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. The guys regressed back to their pre-teen years and laughed till they fell over and cried!

Sunday we took it easy and played at the park then cleaned up and loaded up our cars! The kids all loved swinging on the bench outside, riding bikes, playing makeover etc. Even though I get irritated with the mess and the noise I really did enjoy watching the kids have so much fun together….. I learned my lesson this weekend that I need my sleep or I turn into mean mom and I just can not function well. I must have passed out just a few minutes after getting into the car to drive home. We had planned to walk around the Village but Maren and I were pooped. Marc told me we slept the whole way home. He had some great bonding time with Kaili as she talked the whole way home!

All of us at the Discovery Center

Jayne, Maren, Haley, Paige, Owen, & Kaili

The lazy kids, Reagan doesn’t count of course.

Owen with the donkey! The kids loved these “mini horses”

The kids touching the animal fur and listening to the bizarre wilderness dude

Marc tried putting this on Maren. Haley didn’t mind it at all.

This is all too fitting. LOOSE THOSE HANDLE BARS PLEASE!!

Kai finds a soft place to rest!

The kids discover

Paige and Maren find butterflies

Paige and little Brock

Kaili pretty much always complain of being tired so here’s the soulution

Logan’s an undercover bear, ROAR!

Vaughn is the cutest!!

Owen, Logan, Jayne, Kai, Haley, Maren, and Paige (when our babies grow up they’ll have to muscle their way on the swing)

Maren loved going fast with her dad

Brad & Logan. The Zimm’s behind

Kaili and I in our attempt to race Marc and Maren (the only bummer was “no racing aloud”)

Maren awaits her victory!

I wish you could see his Chopper hat…. he fit the stereotype.

Brad doesn’t know his own strength!

Laughing till we cry. Some fun adult game time.

Jessica joins in the kids circus!

yippeee!

We spent Christmas Eve with all the Hemeon’s at Grandma Jo’s house.  All Marc’s sibling were in town to celebrate.  The girls and I went down in the afternoon and took a bike ride around the neighborhood to see the horses and then Maren and Kaili played in the leaves in the front yard.  When everyone arrived, grandma Jo prepared dinner and the girls had a blast jumping on the blow up beds in the living room.  Marc could not resist the steamroller temptation.  Then Uncle Michael joined in throwing the girls from bed to bed!  We all got the traditional Christmas eve jamies and then each opened a gift from the sibling who drew your name.  The evening was mostly fun times except for the dishes incident!  I wont go into detail here but lets just say towels were whipping and a pot lid got thrown.  Only minor injuries!  Sibling will have their occasional quarrels!  Thanks Grandma Jo Mama for Making the evening special for us all.

Christmas Jamies.                                        Maren squished between blowup beds.

Kaili adored grandma’s mini tree and was thrilled about her new cozy robe!

Maren gives a big thank you hug to uncle Michael

My Tutu (hawaiian for grandma) has recently been diagnosed with Altzheimers though the Dr.’s say she has had it for 10 years. After my grandfather passed away a year ago she has continued to decline and now lives in an assisted living facility.

My brother Micheal flew in from Texas for a visit and the plan was to drive up to Northern California to spend some time with our dear Tutu. Marc stayed home with Kaili and Maren, Micheal, and I went on our road trip. LONG LONG hours in the car but well worth our visit! We got to take Tutu out to Bodega Bay and get the best clam chowder on the planet!

Growing up we would go visit our Grandpa and Tutu at the Russian River during the summer and we would always drive out to the coast and stop by Bodega Bay for lunch. I have so many wonderful memories of my grandparents and time spent with cousins and extended family at the river. It’s so sad to watch my Tutu loose her husband and “normal life”. She was always such a busy body cleaning, cooking, scratching someones back, basically taking care of everyone and keeping the peace. She has always been such a loving selfless woman. I am so greatful for the opportunity to spend a day with her, although dropping her off at her new temporary and quite unfamiliar home was heart breaking! She thinks she works there and is helping others in the home!

Maren was her little spunky self on the trip. Thank goodness Uncle Micheal surprised her with the movie parent trap. She must have watched it 7 times on the road! The drive through the Russian River and out to the coast was absolutely breathtaking. There was a thick fog in the air and it drizzled off and on. The leaves of the grape vineyards were radiant yellows and oranges and the redwoods towered over the small windy road. I do miss the autumn season and gloomy weather especially this time of year! My Uncle Brad and Aunty Val provided a bed a breakfast where Maren had 3 or 4 breakfasts. Maren quickly felt at home with Uncle Brad as he swung her up high enough to touch her feet on the ceiling. We also got to visit Uncle Wes and Aunty Mary. They took us to dinner and Maren got to play with Leilani, her second cousin who is also 6. It was wonderful to see all of our family.

Micheal Maren Tutu and I at her new home

One with Uncle Brad

The beautiful chilly coast

not a great shot but the best clam chowder on the planet!

Maren wants to play guitar like her uncle

Breakfast for champions

dinner at Applebees with cousin Leilani

My mom and brother surprised us last Thursday and flew in for a few days!  I have to same the timing could not have been more perfect.  Marc was going out of town for the weekend to play in a BYU alumni Lacrosse game.  I did not tell the girls what the surprise was and they were killing my ears with their 100 questions about where we were going.  We drove into John Wayne airport and Maren says to me “mom you can’t just let us play in this city we will get lost”.  She was concerned that for some odd reason we were getting out to play hide and seek or something??  who knows how her mind works.  Any how I told her to look outside the window and she was screaming with joy as she saw her Uncle Connor and Grandma Tanya!   We all had a wonderful weekend together.  Of course we tried to cram it all in; Disneyland, site seeing, surf shops, sushi, Baja fish tacos, golden spoon, bike riding, and more hunting through the mall etc for “hoodies” (as my brothers call sweatshirts).  I was very appreciative to have helping hands and distractions for the girls over the weekend!  I never look forward to Marc’s extended absence, especially with this pregnancy wiping me out!

fun at fashion Island

Yummy Golden spoon.                                                        Kaili would not leave Jacks without these slippers!

Udon noodles with tofu “our favorite”!  Maren and Kaili love chopsticks trainers.

Usually we will head out to Laguna sushi but ran out of time so we had to settle for Good Choice!