Jelly Belly

Time is quickly running out for us in Cali and I still have activities on my to do list. Jelly belly is no longer one of them. Last Sunday we happened to be in Fairfield so I made Shawn stop at the Jelly Belly Factory to take the free tour of how Jelly Belly Beans are made. It was a lot of fun, and very insightful! :)

Bry was super excited about her hat...for about 2 minutes.

One of my main reasons for going was to get my sister a bag of belly flops (those are the jelly beans that don't look perfect, but still very tasty.) I am a very thoughtful sister and I know she has a sweet spot for Jelly Belly's, however they went up to $9 dollars a bag, and I'm NOT that thoughtful. But don't worry Lis we did manage to save you a free sample bag. :)

This Ronald Reagan picture is entirely made out of Jelly Beans, I thought it was so impressive!
(F.Y.I. He also had a sweet spot for the Belly Beans, and was the one who helped to make them famous. His favorite being blueberry,...i think. :)

Probably Brylie's favorite part of the afternoon was that Daddy let her have a picnic in the back of our car. She thought it was the coolest thing ever, and I was just super excited to find an Arbys, which are harder to come by out here...but I do love the curly fries. :)

Lake Tahoe-Part 2

Scenic Overlook at Emerald Bay...

Ahhh...breathtaking :)



Bridger & Brylie worked REALLY hard trying to move this rock, they even recruited Kyle and I to help, but despite my astounding strength, it still wouldn't budge. :)


Fun at the Beach...

The beach was right across the street from our hotel, and even though the sand was not Cancun smooth it was still awesome to play in, the water on the other hand was FREEZING! Only the big boys were not bright enough to stay out. They risked the cold and dove right in.

Shawn finally convinced Brylie to join him, but as you can tell I think it was much too cold for both of them and Bry did not last long.

Lauryn & I were the only smart ones who decided to stay on dry land.


Evening walk...

Jen & I

I thought this bench was awesome and had to have a picture of it.

Later that night we had the kids sleeping soundly, but were not quite ready to end our fun for the evening. Shawn and Kyle came up with the brilliant idea to put a picnic table directly outside of our hotel room, close enough to hear the kids if they needed us but far enough we wouldn't disturb them. Great isn't it! I think the other residents may have thought we were a bit nuts, but it worked out perfect. With the exception of the guys beating us at cards it was such a fun day!

And of course a road trip, is not officially a road trip unless someone gets car sick. Luckily for me it was not in our car but of course when I saw Jen's panicked face my immediate response was to find anything to help...Shawn's on the other had was to grab the camera in time to snap one of Kyle heaving over the ledge, unfortunately he was a little too slow and missed his true moment of pain. This was just after as we were trying to clean up the mess. Poor Jen :( oh and poor Bridger who was the one who actually got sick.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend! I absolutely loved Lake Tahoe, and had such a great time. Thanks again to Jen & Kyle for letting us tag along.

Lake Tahoe-Morning Hike

A little behind posting these but here they are...
Two weekends ago we were able to take a weekend getaway with our friends (also Shawn's cousin) the Allens to Lake Tahoe. I had never been before and seeing as it's only about 3 hours away from where we live, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to check it out, and I'm sooo glad we did. Luckily we had Kyle with us to be our guide to all the hot spots and pretty places. These pictures our from our morning hike to "Fallen Leaf Lake"

It actually wasn't so much a hike, more of a leisurely walk. Perfect for the kids.

The baby bjorn belongs to Jen, but what a cool contraption! I was so glad she had it for me to steal. I loved having free hands and Lauryn though it was pretty great too; definatly on my must haves for the next baby. :)



Bridger and Brylie loved playing with these dogs, but I think the dogs enjoyed it even more. Their two "moms" kept calling for them to come, but they were ready for some kid interaction.

And of course we had to stop so they could play on the giant log.

I honestly could have sat there all day. It was so quiet, peaceful, and GORGEOUS!



Bry was quite the little mountain goat she wanted to climb everywhere the big boys went and would not accept help from anyone!

Beautiful hike, Beautiful place!!!

There are many more good times and great pics from our Lake Tahoe adventure but I will save those for another day. :)

Family Photos

We have been needing to do a family picture well ever since Brylie was born, but I am not much for pictures and kept finding reasons to put it off. Luckily I have a friend out here that takes amazing pictures and made sure we were able to get it done. These are just a few we took this morning that she already edited and sent to me. I was so impressed and thought they turned out great, despite my non-photogenic-ness , and my sassy, squirmy children!















Thanks again Liz, I love them and you are so amazingly talented!

Just Makes Sense.

Brylie and I's conversation while we were chaotically getting ready this morning...

Me: Bry why are you pulling out all of the drawers?"
Bry: "Because I just love it."
Response: "Ok, I guess that makes sense."
Bry: "That's right mom"

Later that afternoon...
(In the Kitchen getting out all dishes, pots, utensils.)

Me: "Brylie what are you doing, your making a mess!"
Response: "No mom, I'm just making some sense."

I think she understood the concept perfectly :)

Painted Princess

I should have realized she went to bed much to easily, but once again I wasn't about to argue when for once nap time was not a major battle.

I pulled down the covers to reveal Sleeping Beauty still in her dress up, covered in orange and markers leaking on the sheets.

At least their washable this time. :)

Six Flags with Daddy

Because the Apx office was able to hit their goal they gave all of the guys a ticket to Six Flags. I of course have my season pass, but Bry was thrilled to have daddy get to go on the rides with her dad.


Here we are with Melly & Max patiently waiting for the dolphin show to begin.

These animals amaze me! Next time I want to try swimming with them.

Brylie & Lauryn both were quite excited about the dolphins, and Bry had to keep demonstrating how high in the sky they could jump.

And thanks to our good friends Ashley & Danny Cope who watched our kids, we were even able to go on a grown up ride! "The Medusa" I must admit, I almost peed my pants a little bit, but LOVED IT!!! (I didn't think to take a picture of this so had to steal Hollie's. Thanks Hollie :)

Brylie was pretty upset she couldn't go on the big yellow ride so Shawn had to find her, her own "toller toatser."

Lauryn was a pretty good sport getting dragged around from ride to ride but by the end she was plum wore out. (thanks again to Ashley C. for getting her to sleep.)

Picnic in the Park

The only major flaw to our house in the sky is there's no play area. We do have the rock park, but we recently got kicked out due to ornery neighbors and it's rising popularity of noisy kids. Luckily, we have a really nice park right across the street with lots of grass to run and play on.

We spread out our blanket or Jen's awesome GIANT towel...

enjoy our many snacks, (Lauryn's new favorite happens to be cheese.)...



play with friends...

meet new friends...

and get all our restless energy out!