A Beachy Wedding Vacation Part 2

The day after the wedding Jon and Codee invited us over to the cottage they were staying in (by the beach) for breakfast. It was so nice of them. Our kids went and played in the rain with the banana slugs. Aysia acually cut one in half. They thought that was too mean, so they decided instead, to just poke their eyes in. Em, Ethan and Jonah at the cottage. They are standing in front of a huge redwood stump
Behind the cottage
The kids checking out the chickens that were nearby

We decided to go to show Jon and Codee Trinidad. A cute little fishing town near by where we usually see starfish and sealions. The weather was so bad! The wind was blowing rain right into our faces. The kids could not understand why we even got out of the car. There wasn't anything to see except one baby starfish if you looked really close. It was a little disappointing since it is one of our favorite places to go.
Trinidad

We then drove to the redwood trees. They are so beautiful, especially in the rain because it makes everything so much greener. The boys wouldn't get out of the car. Olivia wanted to brave the weather so we took her with us a little ways up a trail that was on the side of the road. It was worth it. My camera was having problems though, it wanted to focus on the raindrops instead of on the people.

The redwoods
After the redwoods we had to be on our way home. We first made a stop at Em's mom's grave again. Joel and Shaonna let us have some of the wedding flowers to put on it. When we got there about five dear were just hanging around staring at us. The land his family owns is amazing. I would say it is probably Ethan's very favorite place to be. We stayed a little too long and didn't arrive to our destination in Portola again until 2:00AM. We had to drive through all the pretty parts in the dark and the ugly Nevada desert in the day. We just didn't want to leave the pretty forest and great family.
The view from South Fork Road, Em's family's landThey planted a garden for Em's mom
Lynne's grave. It's unmarked until they find a river rock to engrave

The five staring deer
Em's family's land


It was a really fun time I only wish we could have stayed longer.

Note: If you ever visit northern California make sure you have a rain jacket, a hoodie, a coat, a t-shirt, and lots of extra clothes and shoes, and not your best ones either. You get very wet and very dirty!

A Beachy Wedding Vacation Part 1

So, just to let everyone know, Emmett passed his stone! All is well again.

We just returned from northern California. We were there for Emmett's brother's wedding. We traveled with one of Emmett and Joel's good friends, Jon, and his adorable family. We all stayed the night at Em's stepdad's house in Portola, California, just one hour outside of Reno. We stopped along the way to see Emmett's mother's grave. We arrived to the coast at about 4:00PM just in time for the wedding rehersal dinner. It was fun because Jon had never seen the ocean before. I could not believe the sun was shining. In the ten years I have been going there, I have never seen the sun shine while at the beach. It was so awsome and so beautiful. I was glad Jon got to see it that way first. Jon and Emmett
Our kids had such a fun time playing on the beach with their cousins and Jon's kids while everyone was getting things ready for the wedding.
Jon's wife Codee
Olivia

Jon and Codee's kids, Aysia and Dempsee
Codee and Jon
Shaonna and Joel
Erika saying the prayer
Dempsee, Aysia, Olivia, and Carina
Sara and Erika (little sisters)
Aaron, Ethan, Leon, Jonah and Joel's son, Rian
Mark (Em's stepdad), Eva (Em's stepmom), Joel, and Em's Dad
Em and May(big sister)
The wedding was cold and rainy. It wasn't too bad though. The real rain held out until the reception, which was indoors in a beach house. They had tons of abalone shells with candles in them. We got to keep and abalone shell because Olivia was a flower girl and they put petals in them for her to throw. They're so pretty! Em's sister Erika did a prayer before the ceremony in the Hoopa language. It was really neat. It was a nice wedding I really enjoyed it. It was especially fun being with all of Emmett's family in one place. That doesn't happen often enough. Congrats Joel and Shaonna!

To be continued.......

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I've always thought St. Patrick's Day was supposed to be a lucky day. Maybe, that's just for the Irish. Our day started out very unlucky. We returned hone from a vacation in northern California last night at about 10:00 PM and went to bed at about midnight. At 2:00 AM Emmett starts rolling around with major back pain. We were up all night. At 5:30 AM Em decided it was bad enough to go to the emergency room. We had to wake up our kids and take off to the hospital in our pajamas. They told us Emmett has a 3 millimeter kidney stone. Yay! We were at the hospital for 4 hours. They did a CATscan and gave him some pain meds.

I guess we were lucky in a way. This could have happened during his brother's wedding just two days earlier or even worse in the car on our way through Nevada. I'm glad he's OK. Poor Em!

Happy Birthday Mamacita!

I have such a wonderful mother. She is a very kind, generous person. She raised seven weird kids. On top of that, she is magic; everything she touches becomes a beautiful work of art!

I have always been proud to call her my mother. When I was little I wanted all the kids at school to see her because I thought she was the prettiest mom. The most embarassing thing she did was help me make my school projects too awsome or glittery and I didn't like the attention because I was shy. When I was a teenager I wanted all my friends to meet her because I thought she was the coolest mom. She let me set my own curfew. she trusted me which was nice. She would talk to my friends like they were real people. And now that I'm a mom I want her to know how much I appreciate the person she is because she showed me how to be a good mom.

I love you Mom,

Happy Birthday!

Thank Goodness He Believes!

Ethan: "Dad, I would do alot of really bad things if it just weren't for Santa."

What about God, Jesus, your PARENTS for heaven's sake!