Iron Man

Erin bought Pacen an Iron Man costume for his birthday, along with the cartoon Iron Man and Pacen has been wearing it at least one time a day for the past few weeks. He LOVES that thing. I mean, how hard is it to be a boy and have two sisters that dress up all the time and have nothing to wear with them??? He does have a cape and a pointy magician hat that I took from my mom's school stuff that he wears, but let's be honest....Iron Man is much cooler.

I really wish I would have taken out my camera every time he had the thing on because it's just funny. He even slept in it one night.

And the wear and tear is already starting to show. The poor thing has a rip in the sleeve and the stuffing is starting to come out of the chest part. But that just shows how loved it is.

Camry plays a girl named Julia or the sleep girl when Pacen is Iron Man. I'm not sure what sleep girl is, but I heard Camry say today, "I don't always want to be sleep girl," so maybe she's not that awesome. And Claira will call Pacen Iron Man when he has his costume on. What a supportive little sister!

We love our Iron Man.

Portola Redwoods

Friday I picked Than up from his office downtown and headed off to our first little camping trip as Californians. It was pretty awesome. You only have to drive about 45 minutes out of the city and you are in a place that is absolutely gorgeous and you would never ever guess that you were in the bay area. We had campsite 22!! I was all excited and Than said, "What...are you still in high school?" Yep, I still love that number, plus it was a great campsite. We got there by 6 and had everything set up, went for a little walk around the campgrounds, roasted hot dogs and smores and just had fun.

We decided that Pacen was the Dave Stutz of camping. EVERYTHING was awesome, cool, delicious and he was just super pumped for everything about camping. I love his enthusiasm. He was so happy to be there and that makes all the work of it all worth it.

This is what happens when your kids take over your camera. Every detail of camp caught on film.

Than is just such a good camper dad. He did everything so I didn't have to. I will do a lot on my own, but I don't think camping would ever be one of them. All of his scouting days have paid off in super efficient camping!

The next morning we cleaned everything up, ate scones for breakfast, and took a hike to a little waterfall. The kids were amazing. Claira was not a fan of the backpack but got used to it just about the time we were finished.

The best part.....BANANA SLUGS!!! The kids got pretty good at spotting them. And, of course, we headed home with a banana slug magnet. Claira saying 'nana sloook' was the cutest thing ever.

You forget how big the redwoods really are. Camry, in her ever dramatic way, said, "This is the tallest tree I have ever seen in my whole life." Yes, that is true.

And not crossing of a bridge would be complete without Pooh Sticks!

We camped for less than 24 hours, got so dirty you would have thought we were there for a week, and had a fabulous time. We drove along the coast on the way home. There are so many places to explore down there. It was so pretty and we plan to be back many, many times. Anyone wanna come?!?!?

Our Green Porch

This is on our backyard porch. She was just looking so cute in her little GAP shirt and jeans I couldn't stand it. And, our porch makes a pretty cool spot for pictures with the little sun room and the green cement. Claira wakes up early these days to come snuggle with me before anyone else wakes up. This morning she was obsessed with giving me kisses, my earrings, and the mole on my ear. She say, "What dat?" And I'd say, "A mole." And she'd say, "A mmmmooooolllleee." And touch it and that's pretty gross, I know. No grosser than Camry asking if she could peel the skin off my recovering shoulder.

I love the look on Claira's face in this one. And then the last one is when she put a 'baby', aka rock, in her mouth. That girl.

Today I've been a neglectful mom. I bought a buffet table off of craigslist and have been sanding and painting and staining all day. But, I think it's done. I'm now debating if it's worth it to go buy some knobs from Anthropologie to finish it off, and right now I'm leaning towards it because they are so dang cool, but a little expensive for knobs...probably more than I paid for the dang table! I have paint all over my leg and Pacen asked, "Why didn't you get dressed today, mom?" I'm officially 32 weeks pregnant today. I feel like I look big enough to deliver at any moment, but I really need the two more months to get ready for baby number 4. This baby is moving around like crazy and I woke up at 4 AM this morning because of it and had to read for an hour before I fell back asleep. We are going camping tomorrow, just our family. I really can't wait. It's just overnight but the kids are so excited. With Than being scoutmaster, it's not like he had any time (or desire, really) to go camping any more than his once a month camp out with his boys, so now we can take advantage of all the 'extra' time we have. I have to get the kids in the bath and I'm just putting it off. They play so well right before they know it's time to get ready for bed. They know. And they know if they start to fight I'll actually get up off my chair and start their bath. They are smart, those kids. Okay, motivation. It's sad how my legs and arms are actually sore from working on that table. That is how out of shape I am! But at least it's some sort of exercise.

Scary!

Last night we almost lost Penny!!!! Pacen really wanted to play baseball for FHE, so we found the Heber J. Grant persistent baseball story with pictures online and then headed off to walk to our little park (but there was a team playing on the field so he was a little disappointed but we found a nice grassy spot to play). The kid was so excited he wouldn't even eat dinner before we left. He said he had to 'warm up' and he was doing little stretches against the wall. Love that kid. So, anyway, we walked to the park and left Penny in our backyard and then came home, did the bedtime routine and finally sat down and Than says, "Where's Penny?" She's usually asleep with the kids, but we searched and searched and couldn't find her. Than got in the car and drove around and I put up an ad on craigslist hoping someone would see it. We make some "Lost" posters and as he was going out to put them up, he noticed a little note on our van. Both he and I had seen it but Camry puts notes on all of our things so we didn't think it was anything important, but it really was a note from someone who had seen Penny by our house and picked her up. So, Than calls, and luckily they have Penny. The unlucky part was that they had taken her to their home in Fremont, which is like 45 minutes away. They said she was filthy so they gave her a bath and fed her chicken all night. We noticed a new 'spot' in the fence where we are thinking she may have dug out to come and go on the walk with us because she was just groomed a few days ago and spends most of her time inside. That little stinker! Than got in the car and got her and today, I ordered a nice, shiny new name tag for her so hopefully this won't happen again. It was so scary thinking she was gone! She is just an easy going, super mellow dog that the we and the kids just love. She is the best little snuggler. Sometimes I think she is just lazy because she snuggles with anyone who is sitting or sleeping any time of day. So lesson learned for us.

And as a side note, Pacen is a baseball junkie these days. We just got back from the field and he just loves it. We probably would have stayed longer but Camry was getting hot and cranky and Claira was just about to fall asleep on the grass. Last night he didn't want to go to bed because the A's game was still on and he asked Than to record it so he could finish it in the morning. What a nut!

Beach Day.

We did get to have our beach day after all. After a fun night full of swimming and eating spent at Daddy's hotel, we headed back down to SD to go to the beach with Auntie Em. Let me just backtrack for a minute...we went up to meet Than. We swam for a while and then got dressed to go out to dinner. I chose Macaroni Grill and it was so great. The main problem...our kids found it so great as well. After eating tons of bread, we ordered the kids an adult size pizza. They brought it out a little early and by the time they were finishing their pizza, our food came. And you would have thought that we had been starving them all day and this was the first sight of food they had had. They kept asking for more and more bites and probably at at least half of both of our meals. Thank goodness we ordered salads, too! Then as we were waiting for our check, I look at Than and say, "Hey, we should find a rite-aid and get some ice cream." And he just smiles real big and says, "I was going to say the same thing but I didn't want to sound like a pig!" That's why were married, folks. We love to eat. :) And then when we were eating ice cream, Pacen says, "Hey I have a great idea. We should do this every monday for Family Home Evening!" Great idea, bud. We may just have to take him up on that.

So, anyway, the next day we head out to the beach. And I am the biggest hypocrite ever because I totally didn't put sunscreen on the kids, or even myself! It was overcast and a little windy and I just forgot and we surely paid the price. My skin feels better today, but it's been 4 days! Camry says, "Why does it look like Claira still has her swimsuit on?" Probably because your mom's an idiot. :)

Camry kept bringing us little shells to add to her 'collection' and wanted to use them as the windows on her sand castle. Aren't they beautiful???

We dug ourselves into the sand, but Pacen was quick to remind us that Uncle Marc is better at it because he digs bigger holes. I am in LOVE with this picture of Claira. Man I love that girl.

I don't know why but I love that picture of Em and the kids. You can't even see her face but it just capture what we were all doing. She is 24 weeks prego, and is just looking all cute and pregnant. They have a nursery all painted and said that they are already impatient for the little baby Roman to come. News flash...you're just barely half way done! :)

Pacen was a little disappointed in his sand castle when he looked at another beach go-er's castle. We had to amp it up a little bit and he was satisfied.

What a cute little Camry. I think we may have taken half of the sand on the beach home with us in our swimsuits.

So, a 7 hour drive is much better than a 10 hour one. If we leave at the right times, and miss all the LA traffic, it's not bad at all. We're back home now and it was funny because as we were driving up, I was telling Than that it still doesn't feel like we're coming 'home'. It's like we're still on some crazy extended vacation or something. It will get there, I'm sure. Than threatened the kids today that if they didn't go to Primary they would have toys taken away and a time out when they got home. Camry cried a little at first and Pacen tried to comfort her saying, "But Camry, do you remember what dad said?!?!" They both actually had a great time today and their 'best' of the day both had to do with Primary. Pacen was laying it on a little thick saying, I wish everyday was Sunday and we could go to Primary everyday! Yeah, right, Pacen boy. But I like how your little mind works. Now it's back to normal life. I have big plans to go to the doctor and spray paint the frame of a mirror that I got at a yard sale....so exciting.

San Diego

Than had to work in LA all week so on Saturday we loaded up the car and headed down the most boring road known to man...interstate 5...for our first 'new' road trip to San Diego to visit the fam. The trip is shorter but driving through LA is exhausting. Even though it was a few hours shorter, it seemed long. But always well worth the drive. The kids love coming up here. They love that they can watch TV and play wii all the time and most importantly, play on the rocks with uncle marc, erin and their new BFF, rick. Emily and I have taken the 'mom' role and take care of food while the others play with the kids. The last couple days I have been helping Loren clean out the garage. We had one large truck load to their local thrift shop and one even larger truck load to the dump. And we probably will have many, many more trips to clean out this house. It's always sad coming up here. We've only been here three time since mom died, and every time it's just sad knowing that she's not here, that things are just not the same. I think what I knew, but not really knew, was how much time she spent working on her house to make it beautiful. Their yard hasn't been worked on very much and it doesn't look awful, it just doesn't look the way that mom had it. She loved working outside and making the earth beautiful. Emily, Erin and I went through some old photos and decided who should take care of what. My mom saved every single newspaper sports article that we were in and they were all just saved, not like in a book or anything, just in a folder. What are we supposed to do with those?? I found my mom's birth announcement and my baby book and a bunch of other old stuff of her dad's. It's fun going through that but now I'm like, what in the heck am I going to do with it all?!!? Ideas are appreciated. :) But even as hard as it is to go through stuff, it just feels good like I'm helping her out or something. Getting her things in order so they aren't just in random boxes and cupboards strewn all across the house. And most of this stuff is just junk she should have thrown away like 10 years ago so you can't get too emotional over that stuff. But then sometimes I think that she would think, dude, who cares? It's just stuff. Go out and do something fun. Let's be honest, that's probably more what she's thinking. And your mind can't help but wander to, what would we have been doing if mom hadn't died? We'd be out riding the horses one day, she'd be making us yummy food, she would make cookies or pudding with the kids, she'd have some strange toy that she would have brought home from school that the kids would love, we'd wake up early and wait for her to wake up super late as usual and then crawl in her bed and hang out. Camry asked, "When is Grandma coming back from Heaven?" Things like that just break your heart. I know Camry thinks about mom a lot. At least she is more vocal about it and asks more questions. I know she misses her. They had a special little connection. Pacen has been excited to keep things that were grandma's for his 'collection.' And I'm proud of Claira for being able to point out Grandma is pictures.


This is the kids' favorite place. The rocks. They could play out here for hours. Erin has named the place in the picture on the left "Pacen Rock" and the picture on the left "Camry Village." They play tag and hide and go seek and throw water balloons and just use their imaginations and have a blast. Rick has taught Camry how to climb trees and even Claira can now manage herself on the rocks. I'm way too paranoid about snakes. It's like I'm always watching the little snake holes out there to make sure no one is coming out to make an appearance.

They just have fun and you can tell by the smiles on their faces and the dirt all over their body.


Everyone following Erin the leader. Luckily for us, it's a slow week for her at work so she's gotten to hang out with the kids the past few nights and they LOVE it!


There was one tragedy of the week. Erin, Rick and the kids were all playing frisbee and as soon as Pacen was getting brave and really catching and throwing the thing, the frisbee came at his face and instead of catching it, or even blocking it, he missed and it went straight for his eye. Now he has a little shiner that he's pretty proud of. Battle wounds. It's such a boy thing.

Another reason why it's super fun to have your Aunts around. They buy you crap food like this!

Who else would walk in a store and see a cake that is frosted like a hamburger and actually buy the thing? Erin. Just like when Emily bought 24 cupcakes just for kicks the last time we were here just because the kids' wanted them?!!? That is what aunts are for. Buy kids stuff that their mom won't.
Today we get to go see Than! We are going to stay with him in his hotel and let the kids swim and have some fun. At least we get to see him once this week! That is better than nothing. Then we get a beach day and a baseball game on Friday! We love this place.

Discovery Park 2.0

One night last week, we all ventured out exploring the area and wound up at Lafayette Reservoir. It's a pretty little lake that has a 2.7 mile paved walk all the way around the lake. We weren't going to do the whole walk, but we wanted to explore and we found Discovery Park 2.0. For any of you PGers that are reading this blog, I felt right at home. This one is not quite as big, which is a good thing and only has one in and out entrance. Another good thing. And has been upgraded to Trex instead of just plain wood. But has tons of spiders being out by a lake like that. The kids didn't seem to mind.

But you walk in and see the little bells.

And then all around the fence are the kids' hand prints. Could it be any more like the wood park!?!? There is no rocket ship, but there is a pretty cool boat thing and a good little kid area that Claira loves.

This is the only way Claira will go down the slide. But she loves it and always wants to 'lide." And notice her flip flops. It's all she'll wear without throwing a fit. "Fip fops" she calls them.

Meet my arch nemesis. The Monkey Bars. The kids totally want to be able to do these dang things, but they can't, so I'm lifting them and helping them swing and holding onto them and it's pretty exhausting. Why can't they make little kid ones where they are shorter where they can actually reach them?!!?!?

On this day I actually did go and walk the 2.7 with the kids. Pacen almost walked the entire way! I was impressed! We had many water breaks but he was a total trooper. And Claira sat nicely as long as she had a sucker in her mouth. Camry was on and off and REALLY did not like walking up the hills, but loved going down. It's really beautiful out there and there were lots and lots of people out and about. The only downfall, like most places out here, you have to pay for parking. But that is just life in the bay area! But at least we can feel a little at home with our own version of Discovery Park.

claira at 22 months.

This is my girl, Claira. She is just at one of my favorite ages right now. She is learning to communicate so well and is picking up new words every day. A few days ago she realized that there was a 'k' on the end of the of the word 'milk'. Now she really emphasizes that 'k' and it's like, "MaaaKKK peese, mama." The same with 'park' and 'nope'. She is just the biggest copy cat, too. If the kids say something like, "But, mom!" she will copy it exactly the way that they said it, tone and all. She's still a finicky eater, and it's strange because like the other night, we had chicken, red potatoes and broccoli for dinner and all she ate was the broccoli. She did not get that from me! And she has the biggest sweet tooth out of all my kids. But not so much with cookies and cake, but with candy. She must have inherited that from Grammy. She loves Penny, to read books, her Pay Pay, to give hugs and kisses, her daddy, flowers and butterflies, her B-belles (aka anything princess), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, to sing songs, to jump onto the love sac and snuggle. She is very independent. Her new thing is, "I do it." She really wanted to do a puzzle and she was bound and determined to fit two pieces together that didn't fit and ended up throwing a rather large fit because she wouldn't let me help her at all. But she does know how to say, 'Help, mama," and I love when she does that! It makes life so much easier. I love that this house has hardwood floors and I can hear her loud pounding feet whenever she is walking around. When we were at the Dr. office on Monday, they put the doppler on to hear the baby's heartbeat and as soon as it came on she screamed, "Baby! Baby!" She was so excited. Let's hope she's still excited when the baby really comes! Claira is just sweet. A sweet, sweet little girl that I just love with all my heart. And she is so friendly. At the baseball game, the people behind us were making faces at her and the lady says, "Are you cute?" And she just smiles and nods and gives a face like, "Of course I am!" And then the lady says, "And she knows it, too." She does but she is just dang cute so what are you gonna do?? I love you, sweet little Claira.