Happy Birthday David!

Today we celebrated David's 54th birthday. We grilled steaks for dinner and then we had the obligatory picture with the cake. {And no, I don't believe in putting 54 candles on a cake. After 13 years old, it's ridiculous.}

And the obligatory 'blowing out the candles' picture.

Then he opened presents. He got gift certificates to Cafe Rio, Outback, and Applebees, new wing-tip shoes, running shorts, and DVD's.
I don't think he's looking any older; in fact, he keeps getting even more handsome every year. And I'm not just saying that because he's the one holding the gift cards to yummy restaurants. No sir-ee bob. It is true! And I'm the lucky one. Happy Birthday to my favorite person in the whole world!

From David: I am married to the most wonderful girl in the world. She makes silly celebrations like birthdays amazingly fun, even for an old guy. And by the way, it was the best cake I have ever had.

Go Dodgers!

First of all, Adam is home for 7 weeks! We picked him up from the airport, went home to change clothes, and then back on the road to Dodger Stadium for Mormon Night. We have a friend in the ward that rents a suite for Mormon Night and we got invited. (She kept her regular seats right behind home plate.) So as far as I'm concerned, this is the only way to enjoy a MLB game.

The room consists of 7 television screens. You can sit in the "living room" on the couch to watch, sit up to the bar (above) and watch the game, or sit outside on the room's two rows of stadium seats. We pretty much played musical chairs all night.
We dined on Dodger dogs, chicken wings, potato salad, sandwiches, chips, caesar salad, popcorn, cookies, and peanuts and cracker jacks. And then there was an awesome fireworks show afterwards.

Oh, and then there was a game being played . . . .

Florida trip

I spent last week in Florida with these three little cuties. (and their parents too)

Jessica is such a good big sister to little Benjamin. She starts kindergarten next month and will be sorely missed by her brothers. She kept me entertained all week with her story telling (made up completely on the fly), dancing and singing in Spanish. Her version of Spanish. Hilarious!

Chandler is armed and dangerous. (We had way too much fun with those water guns.)

The boys.

Getting a picture of a newborn smiling was just random dumb luck.

Is that the cutest little face??

Jessica is more tech savvy than I am. (I can't even compete with kindergartners anymore!) I think Benjamin should just get used to being posed for pictures. With dolls.

Chandler was my little buddy. We read books and told stories all week. And the kid is a fish in the pool! {And the day I left, I found him unpacking my suitcase with a vengeance. How sweet is that??}

The week went by quickly and it was hard to leave. When you're with the kids 24/7, you get attached. And then it makes it so hard to leave and there are tears. Mostly mine. But thanks for letting me come and play!

Grandsons

Tanner -- 1st Birthday -- July 15th

Benjamin with Grandma. One week old

We took a quick two day mini vacation to Las Vegas to see family. Melody was able to shop, eat out, and swim. I, on the other hand did what I like which was work on a few handyman projects for my parents. I was also included in the dinner as shown in the photos.

Totally Me!

Dang -- they don't come in pink or purple? What is wrong with these people??

Fremont Weekend

I have plans to visit all my grandkids this summer, and the first stop was to see the Wirthlin's in Fremont. They had a lot going on, so it seemed the perfect time to go. The plan was to first go to Tyler's T-ball game and then Emma's dance recital on Saturday. Tyler's game got rained out, so it was off to the recital. Here's a picture of us playing with Tanner before the dancing began. (which was really good, by the way):

Emma's dance was way too cute. "The Codfish Ball." She, of course, was the best one.

Right before church.

Quiet time after church with Tanner and Tyler.

On Saturday, David helped Cheri and Spencer put up the back-splash behind the stove-top and then Monday morning, Cheri and I grouted it. Crown moulding was the next project and it went up in the kitchen and dining room. That took the rest of the day.

That evening we went to Tyler's rescheduled T-ball game and watched him for a couple of innings. (They also got their trophies.)

You gotta love this well-dressed coach that clearly came straight from work.

After he made an impressive hit (coach pitched, no less), David and I left, arriving home at 11:30 p.m. Fun trip.

Pet?

20 years ago we found a lizard in the yard. We named him Larry. We kept him in the house for awhile. Eventually he got out of his cage and lived in Carly and Cheri's room for a week. When we caught him we let him go in the yard. We would see him occasionally over the years, but haven't seen him for quite awhile. Last week Melody found a smaller version of Larry the Lizard. We have named him Larry Jr.

Hermosa Fair

"She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah . . ."

This is a Beatles tribute band called: Paperback Writer. They were awesome! The Beatles were a little ahead of my time, but of course I recognized almost all of their songs. After 10 or so songs, they would take a break and come back in different costumes to correspond with another album that the Beatles put out. And then they would sing all those songs off the album. They nailed it. They played for almost 3 hours.

Every Memorial and Labor Day weekends, Hermosa Beach puts on a fair. The Fiesta. Love it! David went down early to run and got the perfect parking space in the structure. I took the free shuttle down a couple of hours later and we met up. The shuttle pick-up is across the street from our home. Up and down the street we went checking out the vendors. Got some bling-y jewelry and enjoyed free food give-a-ways. After listening to the band for a little bit, we laid out on the sand within listening distance and enjoyed the rest of their concert. (It was nice to have the car so close so we could pick up and drop off our beach chairs.) Loved being outside in the sun. Loved the blue ocean. Love Southern California. Kids: come home!!

YW class

As you can see, the YW lesson last week was on Temple Marriage. Because I believe that this is the lesson of the year, I wanted it to be different and more special. So David helped me set up the "classroom" on the stage last Saturday. {Okay, he did all the lifting, chair set-up, and getting tables for me. I did all the girly stuff.} There was also another table in there with the leaders' wedding albums and pictures on it and the girls loved looking through those. The stake YW president came and briefly told her story about how grateful she is for temple blessings. Her husband died in 1989 and she was left with 5 young girls. As sad as that was (is), she is confident in her eternal perspective because they chose to marry in the right place. It was a powerful lesson for those girls.
Those wedding dresses hanging up are Carly's and mine. I thought mine was pretty white until I held it up next to Carly's. That's what 31 years will do! (It's actually not as yellow as this picture makes it out to be.)
Part two of this lesson continues this Sunday -- preparing to become an eternal companion -- but it won't be as "showy" as this one was. I have to say, it was fun preparing for.

Pinkalicious

Girls Weekend 2011

I had a full year to prepare for Girls Weekend. That could be either a good thing or a bad thing. I choose to believe it was an awesome thing. Since the theme was "pink," naturally anything in that hue caught my eye. I filled up a dresser (and more) with pink stuff. So here we go:

SUGAR!!!!!
(Click on the above image to see it up close. What you don't see are the pink lights around the entrance to the dining room. Or the pink chair bows. Or all the pink garland and decorations hanging from the chandelier.)

Kami, Michelle, me, Laura, Carly
(Carly and Laura are pregnant with boys. How cute are they??)
We always start the girlness off with pedicures at a salon. And we used every shade of pink possible. We did our own manicures later that night while we watched "Rat Race." (and laughed our heads off)

This was the breakfast table set up outside on the patio. We had to eat lunch out here too. (The dining room table was "occupied".) And yes, I had to buy new pink dishes for the occasion. Had to.

In our new pashmina scarves, thanks to Michelle.


Cheri wasn't able to join us this year, but she put together this subway art for us. We each had an 8x10 copy and decorated a pink frame to display it in. We also blinged out some pink flip flops during our Arts and Crafts night.

Saturday morning finds us out the door at 5:00 to drive to the Coliseum for the Revlon Run. We work the VIP check-in every year. We have that DOWN!

Here we are with Arjay . {Do you recognize him from the Snickers commercials?} We made friends with him last year and he seemed very pleased that we remembered him this year. His mom even talked to Michelle for a long time. They're best friends now.

Carly and Michael

Michael was lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of the days with us. I mean, with David mostly. Both guys helped us at the Revlon Run. (we need muscles) They were good sports with this totally "girl" weekend. Not to mention that the whole house was turned into a pink show. (The bathrooms and kitchen were redecorated to be pink.) We had way too much fun, ate great food at L.A. Food Show and Saigon Dish, listened to great music, laughed a TON, shopped, (oh my gosh -- we now own new way-too-cute purses {thanks Kami!} and shoes), and we consumed lots of sugar. We were all in our happy place. All weekend. And thank you, David, for putting up with this every year. I nominate you for "Husband of the Year"! Whoop whoop.
I'm thinking about a theme for next year. Don't know how to top this one. Ideas??