Girls night

Steve is out camping/fishing this weekend. So I told V. we could have a girls night and she was so excited!
We started with one of her favorite meals for dinner, Pasta a'la Nona. Named for Steve's sister who first made this for us. I'm sure I don't make it exactly the same as her, but I add what I remember!
Then V. had a bath while I cleaned up dinner.
Then we pulled out the sofa sleeper. V. was super excited to sleep on the sofa sleeper. I love how easily she is pleased!
I brought the t.v. into the living room and we stayed up late watching Gummi Bears episodes and eating popcorn.
Nothing fancy. But V. loved it and it was a nice evening for me as well! :)

V. didn't have soccer practice tonight and I actually had some energy so I went to the gym. I have a hard time finding the time to workout during the Summer so it was nice to go.
I got home to see that Steve and V. weren't home.
After a bit, they got home and V. came running into the house to tell me she had caught a fish! She was so excited!
Steve had taken her to get a happy meal for dinner then to Jensen's Grove for some fishing. It sounds like they had a fun evening together!
I love the relationship between these two!

Summertime

Enjoying a much needed Summer rainstorm!

{I LOVE when it rains!!}

 

 

Having cousins over to play in the mud.

{Isn't my nephew the cutest?}

More mud playing.

Watching Steve light off fireworks.

Grandpa Hammond and his 2 grand daughters watching the firework show.

Family barbeque's.

Summer sports!

V.'s first year playing soft ball and she loves it!

Third year playing soccer and still loves it! { Both Steve and V. stick their tongues out when concentrating or focusing on something. You can see her tongue sticking out in this photo!}

Lil' Slugger.

 

Confession

I may or may not have started listening to a little bit of Christmas music this weekend.
It happens every Summer!
{ While Steve was gone, V. and I may have watched Mickey's Christmas Carol last night as well. }

Milkshakes

Yesterday it was hot and we were out and about in town so we stopped at Artic Circle to get milkshakes. I asked V. what kind of milkshake she wanted. She was quiet a moment then asked," What's a milkshake?" What the????? How can my child not have had a milkshake in the 7 1/2 years she has been on this earth? She's had smoothies, and she's had a Wendy's frosty, but I realized she's never had a REA...L milkshake. After staring at options for over 10 minutes, she settled for plain, old chocolate. Needless to say, she loved it! She exclaimed," This tastes just like ice cream!"
I think this will be the summer of milkshakes. Time to go buy some ice cream and milkshake add ins and we'll make some yummy homemade ones this summer!

Yesterday it was hot and we were out and about in town so we stopped at Artic Circle to get milkshakes. I asked V. what kind of milkshake she wanted. She was quiet a moment then asked," What's a milkshake?" What the????? How can my child not have had a milkshake in the 7 1/2 years she has been on this earth? She's had smoothies, and she's had a Wendy's frosty, but I realized she's never had a REA...L milkshake. After staring at options for over 10 minutes, she settled for plain, old chocolate. Needless to say, she loved it! She exclaimed," This tastes just like ice cream!"
I think this will be the summer of milkshakes. Time to go buy some ice cream and milkshake add ins and we'll make some yummy homemade ones like my Mom used to make this summer!

Happy independance Day weekend!

Look at what I made!

{I'm so proud of myself}

Happy Independance Day weekend everyone!!!!

Independance celebration with my family

We went to my parents last night to celebrate the 4th of July. One of my younger brothers has been in Officer Training School for the Army for the last 5 1/2 months. He was finally home and so we had all of my siblings and their families meet at my parents for a bar-b-que.

 My grandpa came as well.

Here he is with his newest great~grand baby, my older brothers girl, C.

Here's my Grandpa, my brother, his baby and my dad.

My army brother and his lovely wife.

My baby sister and her new husband.

    My new niece!

V. and her cousin around the fire pit.

  Playing with sparklers.

Watching Steve set off some fireworks.

{my little nephew would tense all up and look like he was scared, but couldn't stop watching!}

My little niece was scared of the fireworks, but then would say,"Again! Again!"

    Riding down the slide off my parents patio.

     Steve and his fireworks show!

And here's the whole fam~damily!

{Minus one brother-in-law who was working}

My army brother is leaving next week for some schooling and then he and his family will go off to where ever he will be stationed at. It might be awhile before we all get together again. And it was so nice to have us all home at the same time!

{ And this photo does not include my step family. Add about 3 times as many people and that would be the entire family!}

Family reunion

The second weekend in June was Steve's Grandma's family reunion.

Here's V. with her cousin N. and J.

K., V., J,. Aunt Jo, N.

At the reunion they had an auction of some family memorabilia. A few of us pitched in and bought this for Steve's grandma. It's photos of her parents and siblings. As well as a sliver dollar from the year her parents were married. It was a fun weekend hanging out with family!

8 years.

Today's our anniversary!

You can read previous years post { and pictures} here, or here

THIS post is short and sweet!

We are so close to hitting the 10 year mark!

Us 8 years ago~

Us now~

Happy Anniversary, My Love!

I'm so thankful to have you in my life!

Our weekend in San Diego

Back to vacation photos...

After our time at Disneyland, we went to San Diego to stay with Steve's sister.

Unfortunately, she was sick and slept most the weekend, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

We spent alot of the time just hanging out on the back patio.

V. played in the little pond, stacked up rocks and kept herself entertained real well.

I sat in the sun reading and just relaxing. 

 Both of Steve's sisters set up a time for me, on Saturday, to get a facial done as a birthday gift to me. It was so nice and relaxing! We also went to the Fashion Valley Mall on Saturday and got some great deals on clothes and memory cards for our cells. The stores had all started their Memorial Day sales, so it was fun!

Here's some photos of V. on the back patio.

On Sunday we went to Mission Beach. It was too chilly to wear swimsuits and soak up the sun. But we had fun walking along the beach anyway.

So just a relaxing way to end our vacation!

V.'s first soccer game!

Alright, we'll take a break from the vacay posts for a moment.

The day after we got home from our trip, V. had her first soccer game. YAY!

She was way excited! We bought her shoes and shinguards while in Anahiem. The night of her game, Steve helped her get ready and was explaining some of the rules to her. And reminding her that it's all for fun!

Then they went out back to practice some.

Then it was time for the game!

She did really well. She came off the field at one point saying she needed some chap stick. Then she came off saying her shinguards were hurting her, so Steve fixed them for her. Then at the end she came off the field crying and saying she was done. So other than coming off the field 3 times during the game, she did well!

She even had a friend on the other team that she was trying to get the ball from in this next picture! 

Overall, it looks like she might be following in her dads footsteps afterall!

Disneyland~ Day 3, May 26th

Day three of our trip started at the normal park hours. No tickets to get in early this time!

This plaque says "Here you leave Today, and enter the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy."

This day we bought our souvenirs and gifts for family. I left my camera on the counter of the store at Toontown. Luckily, it was still sitting there 20 minutes later when we went back for it!

Steve took a pic. of V. and I on Main Street.

We walked around the park some more, just enjoying our last day and taking it easy.

We went to Tomorrow land and ran into Buzz Lightyear!

We walked around Fantasy land a little bit and rode the 'It's a Small World' ride again.

V. found a statue of the White Rabbit while we were walking around.

Just another pic Steve took of us.

We went back to Town Square and saw Pinocchio!

This is outside the Park. We took our purchases back to our hotel and had lunch before coming back into the Park.

They were having a parade at 2:00 that we wanted to see.

While we were waiting, Darth Vader walked by us and found a spot to stand a little ways from us. I guess he wanted to see the parade as well!

{ I love how the storm troopers were wearing Mickey Mouse ears!}

This is Mickey's Soundsational Parade . It is brand new and was supposed to start on Friday.

But they decided to have a preview on Thursday. We were excited that we were part of the first group to see it! It was awesome! They did it again at 4:00 and we stayed to watch it a second time!

Then we went to our hotel to grab some jackets and then went to California Adventure Land for dinner.

We had reservations at the Wine Country Trattoria. We also had reserved seating for the World of Color show that night at 8:45pm.

Again, an awesome show! This pic was while we were waiting for the show to start.

I took video of the show, but it's, like, 20 minutes. The only picture I took was at the end. The show is done with water, lights, and music. In this pic there is a mist of water. then they used a projector,{or something, I don't know how they do it}to shine on the water and make the words "World of Color". It is way awesome in person. I would highly recommend going to this show if you go to Disneyland!

It was an awesome way to end our Disneyland Adventure!