San Diego vacation

The one day it didn't rain during our trip, we went decided to take the kids to the San Diego Zoo.

We saw the real gorillas while at the zoo. The boys were very intrigued by them because one of the gorillas had a very cute little baby gorilla.

We saw all the animals that we could during the day, including these camels.


I parked Holly in her stroller in front of the glass near the orangutan. This orangutan came over and sat right in front of Holly and they just looked at each other for awhile! They each seemed to find the other very interesting.

Carson thought it was very cool to be so close to this lion as he walked toward us.

The boys let me take their picture with this elephant after seeing the real elephants. The zoo keeper was feeding the elephants tree branches while we visited. Carson liked it when he was told that one of the elephants that we were watching is named "Cookie".

The last day of our trip we went to the Birch Aquarium. It gave the kids the brief opportunity to run around with and visit with our friends who live in San Diego.

I got the chance to spend some time with my closest friend since high school. She lives now in San Diego with her family and is expecting her third daughter in January.

Sunset at the beach was so beautiful

Though it was too cold to get into the ocean, we took a walk along the water and found a fun place to stop for lunch. Carson's shirt says "king of the sandcastle", but he didn't get the chance to prove it on this trip.

Apple Hill

We took the kids to Apple Hill on this early October weekend. It was a really beautiful day and was a great day to spend outside. Holly likes to have her picture taken and pumpkins make a perfect background.

Carson loves Halloween and can't wait to have pumpkins decorating our house.

Tate is such a great big brother! He is always entertaining Holly and loves to help take care of her. On the car ride to Apple Hill today, he helped hold her bottle for her while she drank it in her car seat, and then played with her and her baby toys.

We stopped at a few different orchards, but the last stop was at Willow Pond Organic orchard. There was a paddle boat and a row boat that visitors can take out into the pond. We didn't take the opportunity, but maybe next year.

The boys had to sample what they were going to be picking!

The orchard was "you pick".....so the boys got right to work!

Carson loves to pick apples and he still talks about our visit to Apple Hill from last year.

We filled up our baskets so we could head home and make and apple pie.... or two.

Tate's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Tate's 5th birthday this weekend with a "superhero" birthday party at the park.

Most of the party guests wore their favorite superhero t-shirt and each kid got a superhero cape to wear also.

Tate loves Iron Man right now. He's never seen the movies or the cartoon, but loves it anyway. Our neighbor so generously offered to make Tate's cake and she did such a great job. It was chocolate cake with chocolate filling and frosting. It looked fantastic and tasted just as good!

Tate invited just a few close friends and neighbors. Mason, Tate, Carson, Owen, and Reiss lined up for cake.

The kids played a superhero "kryptonite hunt"party game. Just like an Easter egg hunt, the kids looked for neon green kryptonite rocks hidden all over the playgrounds and grass.

Carson got into character after the party in his new Spider man costume. He loved it and showed off his muscle flex pose.

Eric and I joined in with the superhero theme also, me with a superman shirt and Eric with " The Flash" t-shirt. We all had a fun day and Tate had a great birthday!

Our Colorado cabin

This is our Colorado trip that we took this year. Our cabin is in the southern part of the state, close to New Mexico. Eric's grandad built it in the early 70's, and it has been in the family ever since.

The cabin is set on 1 acre at the base of the National Forest. There is a river within walking distance and all of beautiful scenery you could ever want.

The boys loved having RahRah and Papa on the trip with us this year.

Every night we had dinner here at the kitchen table, and then they boys would move outside to the campfire. Tate and Carson were happy to have another opportunity to roast marshmallows!

Tate looks very happy that his dinner is almost ready!

We walked with the kids down to the river near the cabin. The boys liked to throw rocks off of the bridge, but that made me too nervous because they liked to get way too close to the edge. Eric has had lots of luck fishing here in previous years, but this year it didn't seem to be a good spot for any fishermen.

It's not easy to get little boys to pose nicely for a photo while really wanting to climb the tree.

Just a few months ago, Carson hated to have his picture taken, now he loves it!!

Dad and his boys

Eric was dying to go out to his favorite fishing lake. This year, the area surrounding the lake was really muddy and difficult to even get to the waters edge. We finally made it there, and the kids ate our picnic lunch while Eric threw out some casts.

After no luck catching any fish, the defeated fishermen made their way home.

Elk are all over in Colorado, however, this was the only Elk that we saw.

Brothers are great!!

The Conejos Ranch is just down the road from the cabin. It has a restaurant, cabins to rent, and one night while we were there, even hosted an evening wedding.

The kids love animals, and these 3 little goats at the ranch were really cute to look at.

The donkeys also lived at the ranch and were sooo friendly. Tate liked to feed them blades of grass because we kept forgetting to bring them carrots.

Even Holly thought the donkey was great!!!

This is Holly's excited face that she makes when she is extra happy. She sticks her tongue out too when she is happy.

We drove up to Denver and took the boys to the Denver Museum of Natural Science. The really had fun, but were most excited about seeing the dinosaurs.

The highlight of the museum visit was seeing all the dinosaurs. Tate's favorite was the "long neck" dinosaur. Carson said that he liked them all.

It was a great day to enjoy the Denver skyline, and was an unusually warm 90 degrees there that day. However, since it was 107 back in Roseville, 90 degrees didn't seem so bad.

Eric, being the huge Atlanta Braves fan that he is, took us to a Rockies/Braves game at Coors Stadium in Denver. Carson was delighted because dad bought him a gigantic thing of cotton candy.

Ah, sugar bliss!! What more can a kid ask for????

The kids had a fun time at the game!

Eric was so happy to be at the game even though his beloved Brave didn't win.

Tate's first day of School

Tate started his first day at Rock Creek Elementary school on August 17th. He is in the Foundations kindergarten (pre K) class and was so excited to go to his new "big kid" school. The school is right at the end of our street, so it is really convenient to just walk him to school each day.

Tate lined up with his new classmates to go into their classroom.