Some Grace-isms Worth Remembering

Grace (age 4 1/2) has a good friend, Emily Siler, who just recently turned 4. This was an overheard conversation:

Grace: Santa's going to bring me lots of presents for Christmas.
Emily: I don't really like Santa.
Grace: Do you know who Satan is? Because if you say you don't like Santa, that's like following Satan!

Then tonight, Grace was melting down because Emily (her 11 year old sister) had broken her shell. Grace was screaming and crying about this as I took her up to her room to discover what shell she was talking about. Turns out, her shell was her blanket which she had folded a certain way, and Emily had moved it. I decide I just need to get Grace settled down and in bed, so I tell her a story and then she says her prayer, which includes "Please bless that my shell will turn into a real shell while I'm sleeping, a nice hard shiny long one. And please bless that I will turn all yucky and sluggy in my new shell." At which point I can not control myself and I burst out laughing. In fact, I start laughing so hard I'm crying. It's all to my demise, though, because then she starts crying uncontrollably again saying that it's not nice to laugh at people, etc. etc. But how can I explain to a 4 year old that I'm actually not laughing at her, I'm just laughing at the idea of someone praying to be turned into a snail?
I turned her bedtime over to Sarah, who Grace always says tells way better stories than me, and finally Grace went to sleep, snuggled into her shell.

Our LA trip - First Stop - the LA temple

OK, so I'm still having trouble with blogger. This picture was supposed to go in the middle. Oh well.
Here's the girls under the tree where we had our little lesson on temple marriage!

September 12, 2010 we began our LA adventures. Our first stop was the LA temple. They have a great new visitors center. I'll never forget Levi, after taking his first "run-through" ran to get me. He grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the Christus saying "Look, Mom, Jesus! It Jesus, Mom! Jesus!"
This is part of the kids area at the visitors center.

Outside the visitors center is the little statue garden. Sarah liked this one.

And here's Grace...
Everyone by the fountain where Papa and Grandma threw pennies in and wished to marry each other! My girls were amazed that I knew Papa and Grandma's "story" so well. I told them I heard it at least 100 times as a kids - every time we had company for dinner it was the table conversation. They thought that was funny. I was surprised that the girls didn't really know my story with Kenny. Of course we had to act that out and promised that next time we're in Portland we'll take them to the exact location of the proposal!

Dad and Claire
Here's everyone under THE TREE where Papa proposed to Grandma.
The girls by the reflecting pool
Our best try for a family photo.
Here's the pennies we threw into the fountain and wished for temple marriage!


And...my Eternal Companion!

Yosemite with the Hughes cousins!

Grace found some dirt to play in while we were busy taking pictures...Then of course she wiped her face, and later her eyes...
One of views from Glacier Point.
The family - except Emily is off with Heidi in the gift shop!

My sweet little girls - overlooking Yosemite Valley and Half Dome.
Sarah and Anna had loads of fun together!

A Big Birthday Surprise

Kenny went all-out for my birthday this year - he got me a new road bike! I've been wanting a road bike for awhile - I like to exercise outside but the more I run the more I realize it's just not my thing. We went looking at road bikes a few weeks ago and tried a few out, but after seeing how expensive they are I thought I'd never get one - or if I did it would be from Craigslist.




After the big surprise Saturday afternoon we had Emily babysit and Kenny and I rode our bikes up to Lincoln (the next town up) and found a little place for a snack and rode home. It was about a 12 mile ride, and so fun! Part of the ride was through a nature preserve where we surprisingly saw deer right off the trail.
Emily and Sarah are both needing new bikes, so instead of both of them getting new bikes and me keeping my really old bike, we decided one of them can have my old bike and this time I will get the new bike! Hooray for me!!!

Our Non-Hike to Salmon Lake

OK, I wanted this picture last, but...oh well. This is Levi upon returning home. Doesn't look too comfy to me.
I had this great idea to check out a 2 mile hike to Salmon Lake on our way home - it was only 2 exits down the freeway, and only 5 miles once you exited. Surprise - the 5 miles quickly turned to a dirt road heading up the mountain...and then the road ended in a snow drift! It was not a total loss, though. We know right where it is for next time, and all the kids got to play in the snow. Stay tuned for my next post - a video of me learning to do G.I. Joe rolls in the snow!


Although we didn't get a hike in, we had lunch at a huge reservoir - it had a great picnic area.

Levi throwing pinecones in the water.
The pinecone throwing contest, and Levi with the biggest stick he could find.

The Reason for my Blogging Famine

I haven't been blogging too much lately although it hasn't been long since I made the commitment to blog regularly. I have a good excuse, though. I started guitar lessons 3 weeks ago, and I'm having so much fun. My guitar teacher, Mike Hogan, is a guitar master. When I go to my lesson, I play his guitar and he plays mine and sings along. It's so fun - you see, I always had dreams of being in a band, and just taking lessons is pretty darn close for a beginner. At the last lesson Mike helped me change my guitar strings, and then he let me play his 12 string. I have so much to learn but I'm having so much fun.

So...my evenings when I thought I'd be blogging or exercising (another goal I'm trying to squeeze in!) I end up looking for new songs to try out or just strumming away, having fun, playing songs the kids know, or serenading Kenny.

More Shinneyboo

One day we hiked up the river to the falls, I found this nice picture spot. Too bad no one's looking at the camera!

Sarah and her friend Kate Johnson help with the foil dinners. Yummy!


The kids had tons of fun catching lizards. They had about 8 pets before they set them all free, and everyone got to name one - Smores, Marshmallow, Emma, etc.



Kenny sporting the shirt I gave him for Father's Day. The first night Kenny got MAJOR points by surprising me with warm rocks (in a sock) for my sleeping bag! I LOVE warm feet when I'm camping!

Sisters- Sarah and Emily forded some very cold water to climb on the rock.


Grace and Claire having fun throwing rocks.


A message from sweet Claire. She is the most loving, sweet, angel girl.


Dad with his girls just relaxing...

Everyone's favorite time of the day - Smores!

Emily and Sarah are growing up so fast!




Everyone's happy sitting around the campfire!

Camping at Shinneyboo

Here's a few pictures from our trip to Shinneyboo. We love camping there. There's a lot of great things about it, starting with that it's less than an hour drive from our door to the campfire. It has TONS of room to explore the river and the mountains, and it's VERY private. This year we went with our friends the Johnsons, and although twice we saw other campers, we never really knew where their tents were. We don't have to worry about trying to keep our kids quiet or close by - we just play.


One bummer about this year was that the water level of the Yuba River was high and moving very fast. Also it was colder than last year - but last year we went in August. We didn't want the kids to go in the blow-up raft we brought, and they were sad because it's so fun for them, but we couldn't risk hypothermia. As you can see Levi had plenty of fun just throwing rocks in the water.

My Mother's Day Hike to Horsetail Falls

I told Kenny I wanted to go on a hike for Mother's Day, so Saturday May 8 we headed off in search of Horsetail Falls. The first thing we found was Bridalveil Falls, just off the freeway, so of course we had to pull over and check it out.
This is Horsetail Falls. (Sorry it's sideways - anyone know how to fix that?) It is HUGE. We never actually made it to the top because of the snowmelt, but we got some awesome views.
Here's a family snow-ball fight. The snow was an unexpected surprise that everyone LOVED. The kids were in heaven!
This is the "cascade." It's also a much cooler picture right-side up, you'll just have to imagine it. This was one of my favorite parts of the hike.
Here's the river we followed most of the hike. You can see how crystal-clear the water is.
A great picnic spot by the water.
Grace striking a pose.


Emily and Sarah have graduated to carrying daypacks with the snacks and water. Hooray!