Califinia vacation

We just got back from our vacation to California. We had a wonderful time and the car ride there and back wasn't as bad as we expected it to be. We spent a lot of time with family and kept it all pretty low-key. We loved playing games and staying up late and hanging out. Here is a time line;

- Thurdsay we drove down in one trip. It went so well! Jacob had some tummy troubles, but otherwise the trip was near perfect and we made it in 13.5 hours.

- Friday was spent hanging out and recovering from our trip. That night most of the Turner family came over to the house for an evening of talking and getting to know you stuff whilst listing the The Number Fox give us an awesome personal concert. Colleen came, much to my delight, and I was able to meet gorgeous little Evaline. We had a really nice time. Jacob however, must have been bitten by the clumbsy bug or something and was falling and tripping over anything and everything! He even collided heads with Colleens son William - poor boys. We also discovered that Daniel doesn't like grass, really doesn't like it! we put a blanket down and even though he can crawl he never ventured off of that blanket.

- Saturday we went to Roaring Railroad camp. What a cool place! We had lunch with all the family and then ventured over to the general store. While on my way to our scheduled train ride I miscalculated the last step on a small staircase and I twisted my ankle pretty bad (pic below), I was holding Daniel and did whatever it took to not fall or hurt him in any way. I have the worst luck with my feet/ankles possible! It took everything in me to not spend the next 5 minutes cursing up a storm. I spend the train ride with my ankle propped up on the window covered with a large ice bag. I can just cry from the frustration I feel over this! We rested in the afternoon and then stayed up late playing games with JoManda and eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream, could there be anything better than that?!

- Sunday was Father's day and other than going to church we stayed in all day and rested. We thought it was really neat to spend that occasion with Brent's dad. More games were played while I continued to R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compress, elevate) my ankle and pop Advil like an addict.

- Monday we left the boys with Brent's parents and we went to Great America. Brent pushed me around in his mom's old wheelchair. It wasn't the best, but I'm glad we still went despite my bum foot. You know, we didn't have that ideal of walking around slowly, holding hands, talking while waiting in line.. all that mushy stuff I love. But we enjoyed ourselves none the less. We were bummed to find out it is no longer owned my Paramount but by the state now and they renamed Top Gun "Flight Deck".. how lame is that! Also, Drop Zone is now the Drop Tower. However, they did have a cool new ride based on the reality hit show Survivor. That night JoManda came over and yet more games were played.

- Tuesday my friend Rebecca came over and we hung out in the morning. Her daughter Brielle came along and played with Jacob for a while, then she went into the hot tub with Ann. I enjoyed our visit and was sad that Jacob was a mean little stinker for most of it. He hadn't slept well the night before which meant we didn't either. Then Amanda came over and we hung out all afternoon (love you Amanda). Then we went up to Fremont to spend the evening with our friends Tom and Angela and their son Alexander. Tom made some seriously delicious pizza and Angela sent us home with a few dozen of the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet. ::Sigh:: We love our friends and were so glad to have had some time with them. Then JoManda came over once more and yet even more games were played! You guys are freakin' awesome!! We love you tons. I called all choked up and teary-eyed after saying goodbye to them. I miss being around family tremendously and was sad to see it all end. We won't be able to come back to California for a year or more.

- Wednesday we drove home. Pretty uneventful thankfully, however we did listen to the entire book Twilight on cd. We liked it, especially the beginning and the end. The middle was a little too much like a romance novel for a teenage girl... poor Brent. He was getting tired of it after awhile, but I sure enjoyed it. :o) Jacob kept telling us he wanted grandma and had a much harder time with they day then he did last week. We got home a little after 11 and crashed a little after midnight.

This morning when we were on our way to playgroup and as I pulled out of our garage Jacob asked where the sun was.. I told him we left it in California. He looked out his window and said, "goodbye sun". I laughed a little at his cuteness but I felt pretty much the same as him... goodbye sun.

Here are some pictures;




- cleaning out the boiler -


- looking out the train car window -


- Jacob loved the train ride and was excited by just about everything he saw -


- the cousins -


- cute little rug rats! -


- Daniel looking silly with a green circle toy in his mouth - Xander was always close by to give him hugs -


- the boys with Grandma Turner -


- the boys with Grandpa Turner -


- My bummed up ankle, don't you just love the greenish sickly color? Ick. -

What I've been up to

The other day my friend Desire came over and we made jam, real bottled jam! I've only attempted freezer jam up until now. I made one batch of strawberry and one batch of raspberry (thinking of you Mom). I was surprised how easy it was and that I had all the tools to do it. I love my food processor, it chopped all my fruit into little bits in seconds. They turned out great and so so yummy!

- strawberry is on the left, the raspberry is on the right -

Other than that all my focus has been on potty training Jacob. He has been out of diapers during the day since Memorial Day weekend. It has been hard to find underwear that fits him and that he likes, but this week I did find some and he is wearing them. So I don't have a streak running around my house anymore.

I've also been walking on my treadmill again and trying to get ready for jogging. I'm scared of hurting my foot, it isn't better yet, but I'm "testing the waters" and seeing what I can and can't do. I worked out 6 out of 7 days last week and aim to repeat that this week. It feels so good to be exercising and doing cardio again.

This morning I decided to take some pictures of the boys;

My observation: Jacob is so white next to Daniel. I love the expression on Daniel's face...



And this is a good shot of Daniel's "orange nose" I guess I feed him too many carrots and yams;

The two of them... and my toe.

Memorial day weekend and Daniel's 10 month pictures

It has been a while and there is lots to update on. For Memorial day weekend we drove up to Oak Harbor Washington to spend the holiday with my brother John and his family. The boys did very well in the car and we made good time. We went to Chuck-E-Cheese when we arrived and Jacob and his cousin Cindy had loads of fun there. We made homemade ice cream, barbecued, went to a beach, roasted marshmallows, hung out and had just a wonderful time. I am so glad we went. Jacob was sick most of the time with a nasty cough but it never held him back. While we were there Daniel crawled for the first time. He has been scooting backwards for a while and rocking but never tried to actually crawl. Then he just started doing it!Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Also, I am way behind and never got Daniel's 9 month pictures taken.. so here he is 10 months and I finally got in to do it. I had a few taken of the two of them to give to Brent for Father's Day. My favorite is the close up of Daniel's face, such a handsome boy!

Jacob's first burn

Last Friday I was making Oatmeal like we often do. Jacob likes to help me and this time he decided to touch the stove just after I had taken the pot off of it. It wasn't red so he probably thought it would be ok.. well, here is his first burn. It is over his thumb and the top of his palm. Poor kid.

Daniel's first bike ride

This is from last week. Brent had been doing practice rides in preparation for bike to work day (last Friday). And on one of them he took Daniel out for his first ride and said he did great and had fun looking around. We had to document it.


- All geared up and ready to go -


- Not sure what he thinks about all this -


- looking worried -


- All ready to go with Dad -

For memories sake:
This is a picture of Jacob's first ride (they are both 9 months in these pictures (Jacob was quite a bit bigger than Daniel at this age))

Rhododendron Garden 2009

So I went to the garden last year and loved it. This year I got a group of ladies together and we all went early in the morning on Friday. Again, it was beautiful! Last year was there were more in bloom, probably because it was warmer this time last year than now.. but it was still beautiful. Here is a slide show for you:

We've had a very ruff couple of days. Jacob has been very sick. We had allergy testing done on him and I thought it was a result of that. Long story short, lots and lots of diarrhea and vomit. I took him to the doctor today and everything checked out fine, she said it wasn't viral and now I don't know what to think. Poor boy, he screams whenever we change him and put ointment on, it breaks my heart. Now Daniel is getting it... he doesn't have diarrhea yet, but had an explosive vomit session while in the check out stand at Lowe's Hardware store. Parenting is lovely isn't it?!

To end on a positive note, it has been one week since we put Daniel in Jacob's room (at night) and it has gone incredibly well. I couldn't have asked for it to have gone any better and I hope it continues to go well. Brent and I are so happy to have our room back to ourselves.

Last week

I'm trying to update so I'll do it by day:

Wednesday
I took Daniel in to check out how his feet are doing. They look great and we had no new instructions for him. While there I took advantage of having access to an orthopedic surgeon who is a bone and joint specialist and I asked him about my foot. He listened to me and asked that I make an appointment with him and bring the xrays that were taken and he will go over them and my MRI. His soonest appointment was May 19th so I took it and have to wait a few weeks and take it easy. My foot has been progressively getting worse and now I am back to not being able to walk on it normally.

This was a busy day as it was also my neighbor, and friend, Jenae's 30th birthday and I was helping her husband pull off a surprise birthday party for her. I gave her a make over before she went off to dinner so she would think that was the secret project her husband had been working on. While they were gone to dinner 40 people descended on their house and we successfully surprised her and had a wonderful party. I had a nice time and was thrilled to be a part of it all. I really enjoyed giving her a makeover, I haven't done one in so long and I just love playing with hair and makeup. I also painted her toe nails and put fun decals on them. She looked great! As if giving her a make over wasn't enough... I was also made her cake. I made a number 3 cake to go along with a round ice cream cake her husband made. I also made cupcakes and spelled out "THE BIG" on them. So it ended up saying "The big 3 - 0". It was really cute and they turned out well.


- This was the only picture we got before they arrived and then people dug in! -

Thursday
I took Daniel in for his 9 month well baby visit. He looks fantastic, healthy and just so darn cute. Here are his stats:

Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz. - 70%
Height: 29" - 75%
Head circumference: 46 cm (just over 18") - 75%

He has uniformly gone down a full 20% in each category but as you can see is still well above average.

Friday
Oh sheesh.. now I can't remember what I was happened! Umm.. we went to a little hole in the wall restaurant called "George's burgers" they were fantastic! That is going to be our new regular joint for burgers (over Red Robin). The other note worthy thing is that we put the boys in the same room friday night! I'll let you know how it went later.

Saterday
Rain and THUNDER storms! I love thunder and Jacob was very excited about it all. It was pouring so hard, I rarely see rain like that so it was nice. We bummed around all day and kept working on our gift for our mom's for mother's day.

Sunday
This was an odd day. Church was unusually good and the boys were unusually difficult. I was glad when it was over and I could take them back home. For dinner we had some friends join us, I made a pot roast that turned out delicious. This family is from our ward in California that have moved up here to Hillsboro (about 20 min from us). I had such a nice time catching up with Desiree and I'm looking forward to more visits with her (side note for mom and mary, she looks like a mix between Tricia and Emma (dark hair but tall) or like she could be a sibling in the Elliot family).