July

24th of July

Last year I took just Roman to the Day of 47 parade and he did great. This year everybody was willing to give it a shot and so glad we all did! I picked up my mom and we drove down to try and secure our spot. A little different than my childhood when my uncle and cousins would sleep all night on main street to get us a good seat! We got a great spot and the girls showed up with the kids about starting time. The kids loved it and I loved being there with everyone. I had to leave a little early to get to work but it was a fun start to my day. Later we went to Ray's sister's house (Scheree) for a bbq with their family and finished up at our house with a few more fireworks later. Fun holiday!

4th of July!

The 4th of July was a Sunday this year so not a huge busy day. We had my mom and of course the girls and grandkids over for a BBQ and then Nicki had brought a bunch of fun fireworks for the kids to watch.

Roman's Birthday

I can't believe this little guy is 3! For his 3rd birthday his mom took him to Jungle Jim's along with Dani and his cousin Payton. This was his first time to go on any kind of rides and he loved it. Later that night we had dinner at our house - Roman's favorite spaghetti.

Do they look like they are having fun?

I think someone might be getting ready to bump them.

Roman's cute "Cars" cake made by his aunt Dani.

Mom and Roman.

His new two wheeler bike! We sure love this little boy!

Happy 30th Anniversary - CA trip

Ray and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on Saturday, June 29th. Wow - what a long time together! We actually got away this year for a few days (just to remind me why I work for JetBlue). We went to Long Beach Wednesday morning and came back Saturday morning. We stayed at a Marriott Hotel pretty much right next to Knottsberry Farm and we could hear the people screaming as the roller coasters were running at night. Kinda funny because we had absolutely no intention of going to Knottsberry. When I travel I am pretty much interested in only shopping and eating and Ray was very indulgent. Probably why we have been married so long. We went to a couple of amazing malls in Irvine and Newport Beach (and a couple of scarey ones) and had some very yummy food. If you are in southern Cal and enjoy artisan breads, soups, salads and sandwich places I highly recommend Panera Bread. We went to two different locations - delicious! After two days of non-stop mall wandering, Ray said he was tired of that and we went to Universal Studios for the afternoon. Lots of fun, really relaxing, but we both missed the grandkids so much! Here's to the next 30 years!

Newport Beach - obviously we did not go swimming, just walked along the beach, sidewalk and piers for awhile. I got really wet when Ray took my pictures because I wasn't watching the waves come in from behind me.

Universal Studios - I couldn't talk Ray into Disneyland because he said he didn't want to ride rides. So we went to Universal instead and this is after the Mummy's Tomb rollercoaster, which I thought was one of those simulator things - not. A high-speed roller coaster in the dark, and at the end, you stop and go backwards. Haha.

Fathers Day

t We had our girls and grandbabies for dinner on father's day. We had yummy bbq steaks and Dani made a cake from a recipe I saw on tv and on a blog. Ray loves ice cream sandwiches and the bottom layer was that, then homemade caramel, bananas, more ice cream and strawberries. So yummy! After dinner I asked Nicki to snap a quick picture of Ray and I with the kids. This is the progression of everybody when we ask them to sit still and look at the camera. Oh well. Ray is a great father and grandpa.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo this week with the moms and kiddos. We picked a very windy and overcast day, but made it through before the rain and cold weather hit. Whew! What kind of June is this anyway? My pictures are once again in a silly order but I can't figure this thing out. It was still a lot of fun. Oh, and you may notice we took no pictures of animals, but we did look at them.


Akasha waiting patiently while Roman and Payton rode the carousel. She just liked the music and lights.

The girls look really interested in the fences but both of them were pretty excited to watch the animals. I think it was maybe because of the threatening storm, but the animals were pretty active and wound up. Roman and Payton were particularly excited about the baby elephant.

Train ride!

Easter

If I only update my blog on major holidays does that make me a slacker? Oh well. Because it was conference Sunday of course no church to attend, but I still had my long broken up shift to work. We had family over for a yummy ham dinner. Everybody was nice enough to help with the food so it was not stressful for us and such a yummy variety of food. My mom, brother and his family, and our girls and cute grandbabies were all here. I cannot get these pictures in the right order and I have started over twice. Oh well.

My two happy girls!

Roman with his Easter basket. He was the only one to really appreciate the goodies.

No fancy table settings this year, I used paper plates and a throw away plastic cloth. Oh well.

I tried to get all the kids to come sit on my lap with their new bunnies and this is how it went. And I know this picture is in here twice but I couldn't get it out without starting over (again).