MDO and Friends

We spent this morning hiking with friends at Montano De Oro or MDO if you want to speak like a local. We were almost a little preschool with all our kids in toe, 9 kids in total. The picture above is not an accurate view of our hike. The kids where out of their strollers running around after about 10 minutes. But they had fun!
This place is gorgeous with the ocean cliffs, huge waves, and beautiful wildflowers. I never get tired of coming here.
It was a little wet after the rains this past month. But the kids loved playing in the mud. They kept calling it the icky sticky mud. You can see my adventurous messy little girl jumping in the mud while her cleanly best friend Emma is knelt down, crying out in horror. I love how different their personalities are!!
Messy best friends!!

Check out the Video of the Beautiful Day CLICK HERE!!

Monterey

This past weekend we went up to Monterey to visit the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The best thing was having Matt and Lauren Thiede join us. They came all the way from Chico to spend time with our family. And we are so glad they did because it was a blast staying up way to last catching up on life and then exploring the aquarium the next day. The sad thing was I left the memory card for our camera at home. I am so bummed because we saw some amazing things. So we made do with Kevin's camera phone.
There was a touch and feel tide pool section.

There was an amazing kids section. We had to pry Abbey away from there so we could see some real fish. But doesn't she look cute is her fish outfit.
Dave joined in the fun and decided to be an octopus.
Abbey loves the scuba divers cleaning the tanks.

The jelly fish and the sea horses were my favorite. The jelly fish are so beautiful but scary. And the sea horses are so interesting; they can be supper tiny or look like crazy leaves. Did you know that sea horses are the only animal were the males carry the babies and give birth?

1st Food, Crafts and Pies, O My!

Yesterday was the best. Davey had his first bite of real food, smashed banana with milk. He loved it! I like making baby food and having them try new things but what I don't like is the extra time and mess involved. That is why I have held off as long as possible but with a week of him waking twice a night I thought we better get this show on the road.
The highlight of the day was making crafts with some friends and our kids in the morning. It was so fun but wild with 6 kids, hence no pictures of the actual craft making. I think it is better to enjoy the moment then capture it. At least that is what I tell myself.

We did start the morning off right with coffee and blueberry scones. yum!
Then we were off on an adventure with the kids to find colorful leaves. With our baskets full of leaves we headed back and made these beautiful turkeys. and of course we made colorful hands prints of turkeys too.
The kids had a blast! And I so enjoyed spending time with other moms. Our conversations don't get to go super deep. We are lucky if we can finish a sentence let alone a conversation without a little voice yelling; "I got to go potty", "she took my toy", "i want juice", "mom, Mom, MOM!". But there is something about going threw this crazy stage of life together that is encouraging.

Continuing on with the best day ever: the kids took a nap at the same time (first time in a month, yah!) so I made apple pies for Kevin's Bible study. That's right not one but two apple pies. You wish you were in Kevin's Bible study now don't you? Anyways,I had bought one of those apple peeler, slicing, coring gadgets after my friend Cara convinced me that it would change my world. Well, I loved it. You end up with all these pretty apple peels.
So, I tried sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar and baking. The result was a failure, oh well. If anyone has any tips on how to make them crispy just let me know. After cleaning the house, getting dinner on the table and kids into bed I felt like June Clever. Trust me that is not a typical day for us. I promise, I can prove it to you with my messy house today. But it did feel good to spend time with friends, be creative with the kids and be productive. What a good day.

Trick-or-Treat

We had a lot of treats this weekend and I am not just talking about our obscene candy consumption. Our good friends Ricky and Cara Williams came to visit this weekend with their adorable kids; Clair and little Ricky. It was also Kevin 34th birthday and Abbey went Trick or Treating for the first time. What a fun weekend!

Our wonderful friends the Williams who travel every year to come for Kevin's birthday. We love them!
Clair and Abbey playing at the park after the SLO kids costume parade at downtown farmers market.
Abbey twirling in her Dorothy costume. She LOVES her Dorothy costume. She literally lived in it all week, twirling where ever she went.
Carving pumkins.
Of course we had to have a Dora pumpkin.
And last night we went trick or treating with some friends.The kids had such great costumes: from left to right Steward is a monkey, Abbey is Dorothy, Davey is an elephant, Wyatt is a garbage man (don't you love his trash bin that his dad made for him:) and little Huck is a hamburger. Such cute kids!!
The first house: I think both Kevin and I had this moment as Abbey was walking up to the first door of, wow she is growing up fast.
Davey said if I can't have candy I'm gonna sleep.
brother and sister picture. We're thinking maybe next year we'll dress them up as lambs and we will be shepherds, since they are the little Lamb kids.
What did you dress up as for Halloween?

Throw and Walk

We now have a video of Abbey the flower girl. Thanks Kevin for your amazing editing job.

Isn't Abbey's dress the cutest, Lauren bought it off esty.

Thiede Wedding

Last Sunday students in our ministry who have become good friends got married. It has been so sweet to walk through life with them as Lauren interned with us and Kevin worked closely with Matt with the Cuesta ministry. They have loved Abbey like their own and we have so enjoyed their friendship. They are the kind of friends that it doesn't matter what your house looks like, you want them to come over and hang out because you know they wouldn't judge. Or you can try new recipes out on them because you don't have to impress them. They are the kind of friends were you always feel welcomed into their life every time you are around them. Oh Matt and Lauren we are so happy you.

Now about the wedding... It was a beautiful day on Lauren's parent's ranch. Abbey was the flower girl and sadly I don't have a good picture. The wedding had a simplicity about it but elegant personal details were everywhere. I think I held Davey on that shoulder for a good 5 hours.
Matt and Abbey dancing and laughing. Matt always gets Abbey laughing hysterically.
Abbey just adores Lauren. She always runs to hug her.
The food was beautiful and delicious!! It was so amazing that guests were taking pictures of it (including me). It will always be the best wedding food I have ever had and Kevin and I have been to a lot of wedding.
Matt and Lauren we love you and we will be visiting you in Chico!!

A Visit to Chico

This is long over due but I had to post about our trip to Chico were we visited our friends the Payne's. We were on staff at Cal Poly our first year with the Payne's and we have remained friends and now we both have two kids that are the same age. Abbey and Tobin are both two and a half and now David and Leona . We had so much fun, got little sleep, ate great food, and played in tons of water (as you can tell from the millions of pictures).

We went to the fountains in downtown Chico where Tobin and Abbey played and cooled off for the heat.
We went to the pool every night and had a blast. Abbey loved being thrown up by her daddy. I however was not as excited.
Abbey LOVED the water slide: she would go again and again.
Adrienne taught Abbey some beginner swimming lesson things. Thanks Adrienne!!
I love seeing Abbey having fun with other kids. Tobin is one of those kids that Abbey gets along with really well. I love these pictures of them all bundled together warming up after the evening swim.
Ok maybe they are getting a little too cosy.
Adrienne and I hanging out with the babies in the shade.
Thanks Josh and Adrienne for all the fun in Chico. We love spending time with you!!

Berries, Pumpkins and a Pool Party

Today we did something that I am so excited about. We went to your usually berry patch and while we did pick some berries and eat a lot more, we craved pumpkins! Not the Halloween craving with mushy squishy insides and seeds. We went into the pumpkin patch while they were still green and craved a personal message in them. So as they grow and ripen our message scares the pumpkin and it comes out looking so cool. I've seen this in fancy antique stores around here in the years past and was in love. So I am so excited to see how our personal pumpkins turned out. One says "Welcome" and it will sit at our front door to greet all our visitors. And our other pumpkin says "Lamb family". I will post the finally results in October.

After that wonderful outing we joined some really good friends for dinner and a pool party. Well, it was more of a pool party for the girls. Wow if that was Friday evening, what does the weekend hold?