A Man's Man

Joseph went out to eat with the Pres. of NAHC and his regional boss, James. He got home late and brought some yummy steak. The girls were asleep, so dad and Aaron had a guys night. Aaron is a carnivore! He loved the steak! Joe took me back to the restaurant a couple weeks later. (He's always good about doing that.) YUMMY! I tried the salmon and he had steak again. It was sooooo good.

The servers have to go to "cow school" so they can learn about the different grades of beef. Our server gave us a long shpill all about her education. It was interesting! If you would like to know more about The Buckhorn Steak and Roadhouse click http://buckhornsteakhouse.com/

I felt like I had stepped back in time. Winters is the cutest little historical city. It looks and feels like an old cowboy town from the movies. If you ever find yourselves in Winters, California, which I doubt you will. You'll have to visit The Buckhorn!

"Forget that morsel, I'm going for the BIG piece Dad!"

Finishing up the day!

This is the END of the San Francisco trip. If you want to see all of the pictures, start with "Special of the Week" down below!



All tuckered out! The kids watched "Princess Diaries" to get them pumped up from the trip. They wanted to watch it after to see if they could see any of the same places. (It takes place in San Fran in case you were wondering!)

We were pleased with how quickly we were able to get there. It took us 1 hour 15 minutes from our house in Woodland, not bad! (and yes, we were driving the speed limit!) There were plenty of interesting things to see along the way, so that made the trip even quicker. We felt happy, tired, and dirty when we arrived home. I love coming home after a fun, but exhausting day, it's the best!

Oops we're a little out of order with the pictures again! We ended the day at the Boudin Cafe. We think they have the BEST sourdough bread! Emily wanted to try a nicer, upsacle, seafood resaurant, but I told her we better stick to street cafe's with three kids. I don't think they would have appreciated the 1 year old climbing on the freshly pressed linen at one of THOSE places.

Continued from below....Pier 39

Okay so things are a little out of order.

One of my favorite parts of Pier 39 is the fruit stand with all of the delicious fruit. The kids were fascinated by the smell of the homemade waffle cones, and donut shops nearby. Why are donuts so much cheaper than yummy fresh fruit? We each sampled a giant strawberry. They were charging $15 a pound! Whoa!

Brynn and Aunt Emily trying on hats!

Aaron kept playing peek-a-boo from underneath this hat. He would lift it...giggle uncontrollaby and then pull it over his eyes again. I think we have it on video. I'll have to see if Joe can help me post it! Baby laughter is really the BEST medicine!

Emily finally talked me into trying on a hat. I am very lice conscious! That hat was on my head for about 3 seconds. My head is still itching, just thinking about all of the other people who had tried it on.

I guess these two were trying to be kissing flamingos. You can see, I couldn't keep my children's heads out of the hats.

We finished the Pier, looking at the Sea Lions. I love watching them. Brynn and Abby loved the ones who fought for their spot on the dock. They giggled and giggled watching two Sea Lions who continually tormented each other, until one or the other dove or fell into the water. Who knows maybe they were sisters too?

Check out the post below first!

Aaron loved the ride for about the first 40 minutes. Then he started going crazy on us! I think he didn't like the idea of being cornered into one spot of the boat. I wrestled with him to no avail. Emily then took him to the lower deck and he started screaming (like a girl, as Joe would say) so she brought him back up. He was happy to see me for about 5 seconds and then the screaming started up again. The poor people around me....they watched me very carefully, I think they thought I might throw the boy overboard, he was being such a little turkey! The funny part....once he got off the boat, he immediately started running in circles, giggling like nothing had happened. Our funny little Aar-bear! Sometimes he really is a bear!


This was during the "wrestle." The way I look is pretty self explanatory...between the wind and the boy...this was the result!

Okay....more to come

Our Special of the Week!

What was your special of the week? Our's was having Emily, my sister, come visit us after her busy summer as an EFY Health Counselor in New York and Virginia. My kids were so excited to have her come. We were able squeeze in lots of fun while she was here. We went out to lunch, shopping, had a High School Music 2 party, went to the county fair, but the highlight of our long weekend was our trip to San Francisco. Emily was a trooper. We discovered it's a crazy place to take a 1 year old. But, even Aaron managed to get through any rough moments rather quickly.

We started out in San Fran with a ferry ride around the bay. The kids were patient waiting for the ferry to arrive. Luckily it didn't take too long!

We received our headsets to tell a little history about the area. It was fun to hear facts about the city of San Fran, The Golden Gate Bridge, Mt. Tam (I won't even attempt he sp of the real name), Angel Island, Alcatraz and a few other key points. We were at the front of the line, so we quickly snatched a corner of the boat as our territory. It was a good thing. . .the pictures of me at the end of the ride speak for themselves.

I'll post some more pics soon. The kids are waking up from naps, so we'll see how much I can get in. I can't seem to get the pictures in the right order after I post my first 5 so I may just start a new post until I can get it all figured out.

A typical one year old!

Mom, this is especially for you, since you requested more pictures. I think I can do up to five at a time. If anyone else knows differently, let me know. Can anyone tell me why the date still says the 21st. It's the 23rd today. Hmmm! I'll have to figure that one out. I'll post the day in San Francisco soon!

Eating. . .making us laugh. . .and making major messes! He makes life so interesting and fun!

Where are we now?

Most of you know that we started out in Rancho Cordova, a suburb of Sacramento. We loved being close to the Sacramento Temple (about 15 minutes) and we really loved our house, though it was a little too big for our family, we've NEVER had that problem before, and we probably never will. We quickly found it was too big for our liking when we couldn't find our kids for a while the day we moved in, we only used about half of the house, and we didn't have enough furniture for each room (you can only spread a love seat, sofa, and recliner so far) . Maybe when we have more children and more money! Ha!


We've loved the visitors we've had so far. My Mom and Dad came at the end of May with my sister Emily. Joe's mom and younger siblings at home came at the end of June. And Emily came again this last week on her way home from her summer in Maine, New York, and Virginia. (I 'll do another post about the fun we had while she was here!)

Now we are in Woodland, CA in much a smaller house. and we still don't have enough furniture to fill it! But we like the open spaces, and we don't lose our children. Woodland is about 20 minutes Northwest of Sacramento. It's not a suburb of Sacramento. It's a smaller town with about 60,000 people. All in all we are really enjoying it here. We were nervous about how hot the summer could be. It wasn't too bad this summer. We had a few days in the low 100's but mostly 90's which we are used to. Enough about the weather. The greater Sacramento area isn't as densely populated as other parts of California. We have lots of agriculture fields all around. They are mostly commerical agriculture, so they look very organized, green and beautiful. Not like the smelly Lake Shore farms. (Sorry Bev!) There are a couple of big rivers running through the area and lots of biking opportunities, Joseph is having fun with that. So. . .even though there are things we don't love about California, and amidst the everyday challenges we face, we are surrounded by a little bit of wonderful. We just need our families to complete the bliss! Any takers!

Welcome to CaLEEfornia!

Well, we finally did it! It's elementary right now, but we'll get better. Your tips would be graciously accepted. We hope this will be a better way to keep in touch with friends and family. We haven't been too great so far, so hopefully this will help. I will try to post a few pics and notes about the last few months of our time here in Cali. But for now, here goes nothin'!