July Fourth

Last year's Fourth of July party was such a success, that we decided to do everything the same this year.  It started with a bike ride to the beach for those of us who could handle it.  Some people were a little too wimpy.  Though, they would probably say they just couldn't fit their bikes in their cars.  But, I know the truth.

We love celebrating our anniversary with everyone!

Then we rode back to the house, played some games, and barbequed.

We had tons of fireworks to play with out front with all of our neighbors.

Then we climbed up on the roof and watched the real fireworks.

 Another Fun Filled Fourth!

Tweet

Turlock

After our camping trip last week, we headed to Turlock to visit our Kinnier family, where there was lots of wedding talk, wedding planning, and wedding showering for the upcoming nuptials of these two.

We also did some blueberry picking.  This too was wedding related, since most of these blueberries are being used to make jam favors for the wedding.

We had Molly's shower while we were up there.  I so enjoyed helping with some of the preparations for the shower and getting to know some of Molly's friends.

We made cake toppers out of edible play dough.  Grandma Helen's group was chosen as the winner.



There was of course some time for playing with the granddoodle.

And then we headed home.

But we will be back in no time for the wedding!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I just want to give a little belated birthday shout out to my Uncle George.  I did not forget that his birthday was on the fourth of July, along with Independence Day, along with Esther's birthday, and along with my anniversary.  I had actually written a special happy birthday message to him in the blog post, but then erased it when I realized that I have not done a birthday post for any other aunts and uncles.  I did not want to seem like I was playing favorites, after all.  Hopefully that explains the situation to my anonymous commenter.  But, from here on out, I am going to do my best to acknowledge the birthdays of my aunts and uncles on the blog, with Uncle George being the first one.

So,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE GEORGE!

Tweet

Big Day

Today we have been married
FIVE YEARS!

Happy Anniversary Nick Kinnier!
I love you, and I love being married to you!


And today, Esther is
THIRTY!
Happy Birthday Esther...I'm glad you have joined me.

We are going to be celebrating these events (as well as our country's independence, obviously) all day today!

Happy Fourth to you all!

Tweet

Monterey

We were awakened nice and early by a big fluffy mound of fur in our faces on our last day of camping.  We have a 2 person tent, and since Brontie is almost the size of a person, we were a little cramped in there.  Plus, that guy loves to move and he loves to cuddle, which equaled not a lot of sleep for us.  So, when morning came, we were not feeling up to cooking ourselves breakfast.  We decided to just pack up and head to Carmel and let someone else make breakfast for us.

Since we were right by the Carmel Mission, and I LOVE visiting the missions, we decided to take a little tour.  It's the 4th grade teacher in me.  I will even let you watch the little video I made to introduce this mission to my kids.  I have done this for every Mission I have visited.
Don't you wish I was YOUR 4th grade teacher?
And here are some of the pictures that my kids will see.

Don't you feel so educated now?
But, to be honest, I was not all that impressed with this mission.  The other missions I have visited have done a much better job of showing the history of their missions.  And, personally, if I were Father Serra, I would have definitely chosen Mission San Juan Capistrano to be my home.  Not that I am biased or anything.

Okay, so moving right along....
We headed over to Cannery Row.  I had never heard of this place before, but Nick insisted it was cool, so we went. And it was cool.  Very cool.

We both started feeling like our throats were a little sore, and there is only one good cure for a sore throat.

Another perfect day.  Then, we headed to Turlock, where Nick's parents got to meet their "grand-doodle", as they like to call him.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
On another note, Brittney had her little baby girl!
I stole this picture of her off of facebook.

Isn't she so cute!

Tweet

Camping Part Two....Big Sur State Park

From Plaskett Creek, we headed up to Big Sur State Park and found ourselves a campsite.

This campground is awesome.  The Big Sur river runs right through it, and tons of people were inner tubing down it.  Next time, we will remember to bring our inner tubes.

We went on a hike in the morning.

We couldn't hike too terribly far because it was a little too hard for Brontie and his wimpy ways.  But, we did see some really great views, and Brontie was a lot of fun to have along.

After the hike, we went to Pfeiffer Beach for a bit to relax.

And we took a couple incomplete family shots (Belle was missing, obviously).

It was pretty much a perfect day, and we could have stayed another week. But, come the next day, we were headed to Turlock, with some fun stops along the way.

Tweet

Camping...First Stop...Plaskett Creek

On our way up to Plaskett Creek, we saw this cute little restaurant from the freeway and knew we had to stop to eat there.  We couldn't resist a restaurant with a huge "dog friendly" sign.

The drive up the coast is the best.  Unfortunately, the further north we got on that first day, the foggier it got. By the time we got to Plaskett Creek, it was so foggy, you couldn't even see the ocean, and it stayed foggy the rest of that night.

We decided to walk down to Sand Dollar Beach, which was right across the street from our campground.

Brontie wouldn't do the stairs.  He is such a wimp.

But he did LOVE running all around the beach. The water....not so much.  He is still figuring out what water is. Nick kept trying to get him to go in the ocean, but he kept running away from it.

But, he sure did love the sand.

    

We woke up the next day and ate a delicious breakfast.

Then we packed everything up in the car and headed further north on Highway 1.  The weather the rest of the time was absolutely perfect and fog free, so I have much more to come.

Tweet

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Yesterday was Grandpa's 87th birthday.

I was thinking about him all day, but didn't get a chance to post until now.

Oh, how I wish he was still here so that we could celebrate with him.

I miss his smile.

I miss how he could make me laugh like no one else.

I miss his little smirk and wink when he'd make a joke.

I miss hearing "Hi-a Min" when I walk through the door or "Oh no! I was hoping you weren't coming!"

And sometimes, when life feels really crappy, I ache for him so bad, because he could somehow always make things feel better. 

I love you forever Grandpa!

Happy Birthday in heaven!

Tweet

High School Graduation

I have 3 super cute cousins who are all the same age, and who all graduated from high school this year.

So, of course that calls for a big celebration party.

My cousin John and his wife Michelle hosted the party since one of the graduates was their son, Andrew.

This takes a small amount of explaining with my complicated family.

Scott, Holly, and Andrew were the graduates.

Scott and Holly are my first cousins.

Andrew is my first cousin once removed, because his dad (John) is my first cousin.

So, yes, I have cousins who had kids at the same time and even before some of my aunts and uncles.  We have a pretty wide age span in this group of cousins.

Anyways, back to the party.

Sean and Amy..........Aunt Cindy, Aunt Vicki, Kim, Kristina, and Aunt Debbie

My mom and moi............Aunt Becky, Uncle Bill, and my mom again.

The highlight of every high school graduation in this family is seeing the quilts Grandma made for the graduates.

Always amazing!

Gotta love my Grandma!

Congratulations Holly, Andrew, and Scott!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I will be posting some pictures from our trip soon, and hopefully Belle will write Brontie back....we shall see. (hint, hint Aunt Amy)

Tweet