Sunday Funday

This has been a pretty lazy holiday weekend for our family, so far, but it has been really nice to spend a little time doing whatever we want and not having any kind of agenda or itinerary for once. Sawyer spent the night with Gigi and Granddad on Friday night, so Mitch got to spend some special one-on-one time with Sutton while I went to a Mom’s Night Out with a few of the girls from my mom’s group (the best part was definitely dinner at Cabo’s – thanks for going with me, Holly!).

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and took Sutton out to breakfast at Awful Annie’s (which, despite the name, is actually pretty delicious) – it was so nice and sooo much easier going out to eat with only one of the little guys! Unfortunately, we also got news on Saturday morning that Mitch’s grandfather passed away, so Mitch will be flying down to southern California Thursday morning for the funeral and flying back that same night. I really wish that I could go there with him, but especially with it being on Thursday (my biggest work/payroll processing day) I won’t be able to get away.

My parents brought Sawyer back home on Saturday around lunch time, and my dad (and Grandma Ardy) finally had a chance to see the new backyard and playhouse. We all hung out on the back patio for awhile, and my dad spent such a long time pushing the boys on the swings that I wouldn’t be surprised if his arm muscles were sore today. Not that I’m calling him a wimp or anything, but seriously, our kids are rather, well, huge. At the daily weigh-in today, Sutton weighs 30.2 pounds, and Sawyer was tipping the scale at 33.6 pounds. Sutton is starting to catch up to Sawyer weight-wise, but he’s still a good few inches shorter, which seems to make a difference in the good old sport of brotherly wrestling. I have no doubt that Sutton will eventually overtake Sawyer in both height and weight one day (Sutton is already 3 inches taller than Sawyer was at the same age!), and it probably won’t actually take too long for it to happen. Some day the little guy will get his payback!

We spent the rest of the day Saturday playing with the kids around the house, and in the evening we took them down to the pool to go swimming. It had dropped in temperature quite a bit from the previous few days, so the water felt really nice, but it was pretty darn cold when you stood up and caught the breeze while soaking wet. We stayed about an hour, and then came home, grilled up some hot dogs, gave the boys a quick bath, and then we all went into Mommy & Daddy’s room (which the boys promptly tore through like a hurricane…excuse the whirlwind of destruction in the pictures) for some bedtime stories.



With Daddy & a truck book...this is heaven


Sawyer took this picture of Mommy & Sutton


It's Funny Face Time!


Sawyer took this one too :)


Sunday morning started with some more playing in the backyard, followed by a trip to Trader Joe’s and Costco for a ridiculous amount of groceries. I absolutely hate grocery shopping, especially on crowded weekends, and I also hate dragging the boys on long errand runs when Sutton wants a nap in the morning, but the trip actually went pretty smoothly (despite the fact that Sawyer wants to walk everywhere now instead of ride in the cart, which can be frustrating on a busy Sunday at the most crowded Costco ever!). I’m just glad that I know the answer to “what’s for dinner?” for at least the next 2 weeks now.

After the boys woke up from their naps we took them to Joiner Park, yet another park that we’ve never been to before. It’s an older park, but there still isn’t much shade there, which is kind of strange, nor were there any baby swings or much of anything for Sutton to do there. What they certainly did have, however, was a rather large abundance of trash. I had to stop Sutton from trying to eat an old half full bag of Cheetos from under the swings, a partially full water bottle from under the slide, and about four random water bottle caps scattered around. There was so much trash overflowing from the trash can that I had to stop him from grabbing a Sprite as we walked into the park. Yuck.

Sawyer had a blast at the park though. He is always really confident and brave when it comes to trying new playground equipment. I certainly wouldn’t have charged full speed ahead at some of the things that he did. The slide he loved the most today was a fully enclosed tunnel slide with the steepest stairs I’ve ever seen at a park! He probably went down that thing like 10 times before we finally convinced him that it was time to come home and eat some dinner. “What’s for dinner?” Chicken pitas for the kids and carne asada tacos for Mommy & Daddy. Yay for Trader Joe’s :)

Tomorrow we may head back to the State Fair because we have 2 more free admission tickets that we haven’t used yet. We’ll see how cooperative and enthusiastic the kids are in the morning!



Joiner Park



It's across from Pacific Whatchamacallit Industries...Sawyer wanted me to take a picture of all the "HUGE logs!"


Charging on up to the big slide


He was having a blast!



Sutton liked the tunnel the best

The Wedding Weekend

Mitch and I just got back from the wedding adventure in Lake Tahoe, and I can say that it was truly one of the most beautiful weddings that I’ve ever been to. Jessica looked absolutely gorgeous, and the wedding site with the lake in the background was truly breath taking. There were lots of happy tears, especially when the best man, Shawn, gave his toast and recalled a story of Erik telling him how he had met Jessica years ago, and how he felt like he had been given a second chance with “the one that got away.” It was really sweet and it all got pulled off perfectly. Unfortunately, my camera decided to choose that exact moment to act up, so I really didn’t get any great pictures, but luckily Erik’s dad got a TON of really amazing pictures that he has promised to send to all of us, so I will post those in awhile when they finally make their way into my hands. Until then, my funky shots will have to tide you over…




Mitch & I under the wedding arch


Mitch, Krista, Kari & Joe waiting for Jessi to arrive


Ball & chain cake topper - too cute!


Introducing...Mr. & Mrs. Erik & Jessica Finnestead!

Erik, Jess & Stella Finnestead


Us & Them


All of Us


We spent most of Saturday shopping at a few little Tahoe craft fairs and hanging out with my family, and Mitch and I finally got to see the Batman movie (which was awesome and definitely worth the wait, by the way!). On Sunday we took the jet ski out on the lake for awhile and then went out to dinner without any screaming kids in tow (a rare treat for the two of us!). We played a lot of foosball in the cabin, and slept in nicely decorated but hard-as-a-rock beds, so we all ended the weekend a little sore and rather exhausted from the lack of sleep.

All-in-all it was a really nice weekend, and even though the boys probably would have had a fun time there with us, it was nice to get away for some grown up time for a change. The boys had fun staying at home with Grandma and Grandpa, but it seems that Sawyer took the opportunity to show them how he’s finally entered the “terrible twos” stage by testing all the limits while we were gone. Oh well, I suppose that’s to be expected! Grandma and Grandpa are going back home tomorrow, and I will have both of the boys home with me from Wednesday through the following Monday because Traci is taking some time off of daycare to bond with her new baby boy, Hunter. It’s going to be a looooong week!



Sutton in the sprinklers


Rachel, Aunt Jolie & the boys


Grandpa's Boys

Big Fun at the State Fair

What a fun (and exhausting!) day we’ve had today! This morning was cool and breezy, so we packed a diaper bag full of snacks, loaded the boys into the car and headed down to spend the day at the California State Fair. This year the theme is “Hollywood,” and there are a bunch of different flats and backdrops that you can play in/around and take your picture with. (This is the part where I should both warn you and apologize for the fact that this is going to be a very long and image-heavy blog today!). Mitch had gotten the boys dressed this morning, and although I initially groaned when I saw they were both wearing extremely similar orange shirts, it ended up being SUCH a great thing, and I could instantly find both of them whenever they started to wander. It did prompt one especially lame vendor to yell out at me that he’d give us a discount for having twins…um, we don’t, thanks.



The "Twins" (and their big feet!)


I just love this picture


We started out in the kids’ carnival area, and Sawyer kept telling me that he wanted to ride almost every little kiddy ride, but we decided to skip it for the time being, and headed instead to the free petting zoo area. The petting zoo was SO cool (and stinky, naturally). There were all kinds of animals – the usual goats, sheep, and chickens, but there were also deer, llamas and even little miniature kangaroos! Sawyer happily pet a baby goat, but once he saw one of the deer trying to eat the whole back off of Mitch’s shirt, he got a little nervous and wasn’t all that into the animals anymore. We did wander through the livestock barns though, and Sutton was pretty impressed with the baby pigs.




Eyeing the deer that just ate his Daddy's shirt



How the boys spent the rest of their time in the petting zoo



Sawyer digging in a giant play bin of corn


Sutton peeking over at some exotic fuzzy chickens


Making animal tracks in the sand with Mommy


This is the "ride" he wanted to go on the most!

Since Sutton hadn’t had a morning nap before we left, we wanted to hit up all the cool kids stuff first in case he pooped out and turned into Mr. Cranky Pants, so we headed over to “The Farm.” We wandered around and collected stamps in our farm passports (which we then turned in to the rewards center for a nice healthy snack of carrots, an apple and an orange). Sawyer spun the Kaiser prize wheel and won himself a squeezy orange stress toy (which Sutton promptly tried to eat). We stopped at a bunch of the little displays at the back of the fair, checked out at all kinds of bugs, saw some waterfalls and a snake in homage to Indiana Jones, and posed by some of the cheesy Hollywood backdrops. Sawyer attempted to do the Smokey the Bear fire safety school, but he lost his patience and didn’t really care about how or why a fireman might use an axe. Luckily for him, they gave him his Smokey the Bear bandana prize anyway. Really, I think all he wanted to do was ride the fire engine anyway.


Checking out a python...he was almost as freaked out as I was



Sitting near the waterfalls waiting for the other boys


The old fashioned fire engine was a big hit


Signs said "Keep Off," but Mr. Fireman said it was okay :)


Peeking out of Spongebob's Pineapple House



Sutton about to get eaten by a triceratops in Jurrasic Park


We didn’t go through any of the exhibit buildings, with the exception of the “Bats, Rats, & Cats” (fur and feathers) room. They liked to look at all of the fuzzy animals, but Sutton got the most enjoyment out of trying to take a piece of food from the feeding dish of practically every rabbit cage in the room. Sawyer quickly discovered that he could open all of the rabbit cages, and he thought that was the most hysterical thing ever. Yikes! I had to gently remind him in front of a dozen people that just because we CAN do something, it doesn’t mean that we’re ALLOWED to. I could just picture the giant liberation spree as he would run around the room freeing all of the caged animals. Luckily he was distracted by the kittens, so I didn’t have to worry about the rabbits for too long. All-in-all we managed to keep the kids happy with snacks and ice cream long enough for us to get a pretty full day in before the kids were completely wasted, and we wrapped it up and headed home for naptime.


Sutton having a staring contest with the White Rabbit


The boys checking out some brand new baby quail


Sawyer living out his dream of "I ride a motorcycle when I get big" at the police booth, lights flashing and all. He also got fingerprinted for free, which was nice, but Sutton didn't have the patience.

'Sgusting Messes

From time to time I like to change things up a bit, so tonight I decided to let Mitch write the family blog for once. Besides, I have NO idea how the kids got this way...I just got to see the amazingly filthy aftermath when Mitch passed me a camera full of these wonderfully messy pictures. Enjoy...

Today the kids discovered the other side of the house. The side that is all dirt. This will be future RV parking, but for now it is over 600sq feet of dirt, dirt, and more dirt. Sutton started the mess by finding the empty swimming pool and proceeding to put handfulls of dirt in it. He then climed in and had a good old time dumping more handfuls of dirt all over himself. By this time all I could do was to get the camera and watch. Sawyer joined in a few minutes later with his scoop tractor. I guess now it's time to build the fence!


This pool was clean a few minutes ago. So was this kid.



A large group of honking geese flew directly overhead about 20-25 feet off the ground.



Joining in the fun with my scoop tractor.


I'm having fun daddy!


Bath time!

Yum, Yum, Strawberries!

Yesterday I mentioned to Mitch that Holly and I might go take the kids strawberry picking next week, and he was intrigued and wanted to go check the place out with the kids too. So this morning we packed up the kids and went to High Hand Nursery in Loomis to pick some strawberries. I'd never been to this place before, and I'm really glad that I had a chance to go there and check it out. The nursery is absolutely gorgeous (some day when the boys don't need all that grass to play football on, those lovely winding pathways will be in my backyard too!), and before we even picked any berries the boys had fun running around all the paths and looking at all the different kinds of flowers and water features.

In the back of the nursery they have a good sized area where they let the kids pick little buckets of strawberries for free. There was no one there when we got there (although there were quite a few people there by the time we left), and there were plenty of strawberries to be had. Sawyer got the hang of picking the berries rather quickly, and he'd pick one or two, put them in his basket and then eat them. Two more in the bucket and then time to eat again, over and over again. Once Sutton realized there were strawberries growing on the plants, he pretty much just decided to eat his way down the row, ripe or not, green stuff and all. The kid was definitely in his element! Later on we stopped to look at the nursery's impressive koi pond, and all the fish gathered right underneath where the boys were looking down on them just a short distance away...and then one HUGE fish jumped out of the water and got really close to Sawyer's face and splashed him a little bit. He jumped back about a mile and was pretty much leery of any more koi for the rest of the time we were there. It was actually pretty hysterical to watch. We all had some really nice family-time there, so two thumbs up to Holly for mentioning it to me, and now it's time to plan another day to go back there!