So, so behind...

Okay, so I just posted 8 blogs below this one in the hopes of catching up....I know I have been a slacker on updating my blog lately. I put the date that they actually occurred next to the title solely for my journaling purposes.

The Purple Cast (August 20, 2009)

So here is the story: It was a Thursday morning and I was rushing around getting ready for work. I was getting Warren dressed and Georgia was next to me standing on a ride-along Tonka truck that 'should' be sat upon. All of a sudden the truck rolled from under her and she fell on her stomach on the carpet (thankfully it was carpet), the only problem was that her right hand was tucked under her when she fell. So she screamed bloody murder and basically I said, "You are fine, stop screaming." I didn't really believe that she was 'that' hurt. Well she kept on wailing and then told me that she needed to throw up...I gave her my full attention at that point!! I checked for swelling and bruising, but there was none. I had her lay down and gave her Tylenol for the pain. She calmed down after about 20 minutes. Well I decided that if her arm/wrist was broken, it would be swelling, so I dropped her off at Amy's house and went to work. Later that day I called Amy to see how Georgia was doing. Amy told me that Georgia had earlier in the day taken a misstep down the stairs and used her hurt arm to steady herself, at which point she screamed. So I knew that her arm was still hurting. That night she couldn't sleep and whimpered about her arm all night. The next day I called Kaiser and scheduled an appointment. She got x-rays, which she thought was pretty cool and the doctor determined that her right arm, below her wrist was fractured. So she got a little cast...of course she wanted it to be hot pink, but settled on purple when she found out there was no pink. Here is the cast after her cousins, uncle and Mimi wrote on it.



(So much time has gone by since she got the cast on to when I am actually posting the blog, that she wore it for 5 weeks and finally got it removed a few days ago. Yea!! That was one stinky cast. She was so happy to have it off, now she can really do well at writing her letters in preschool.)

California State Fair (August 24, 2009)

We went to the State Fair, but we didn't take many pictures. Mostly we wandered around the exhibits, took a look at the farm animals, ate corn dogs and cinnamon rolls. The kids didn't even ride any of the fair rides this year. So here are the only pics we took:

Primary Water Day (August 7, 2009)

The kids having fun at the Camino ward Primary water day.




Time for lunch!!

Georgia and the girls.

A True Boy (August 6, 2009)

So I noticed one night that Warren had strapped in a 'pink' bear into Georgia's 'pink' baby stroller....but before I started worrying about this, what did I see behind the bear but the shiny silver of his GUN!! Okay, so I don't really worry about him playing with girly toys at the age of 2 (maybe if he was 10) but I thought it was so funny that he had stuck his gun behind the bear, like a secret agent or something.

Baby #3

Yep it is true...I am pregnant with number 3. This is my excuse for falling so behind with my blog posts. Georgia is very excited, but doesn't quite understand that it takes about 9 months before the baby will be here. I will be posting more about the pregnancy later I am sure.

Swimming with the Stapp cousins (July 25, 2009)

My aunt Sharon invited us down to her house for some swimming fun. Georgia had fun playing with KaraLee, who is actually my cousin. Here's a look at our day:

Georgia with new found confidence as she jumps off the side of the pool with a pink tube.


Warren chillin'


Georgia and KaraLee with their feet in the waterfall.

Another jump off the side of the pool

Boating (July 24, 2009)

The kids and I went out on Sly Park Lake with Rob, Chelsea, Chris and Kirstin.


Rob and Warren driving the boat.


Georgia and Rob driving the boat.


Kirstin, Georgia and Chelsea on the tube.

Chels and I with the kids

Me trying the wake board

This is as high as I got out of the water...I wasn't very good and was too impatient to keep trying.

Coldplay!!! (July 14, 2009)

I saw Coldplay in concert!! I absolute love their music and the tickets were half off, so I jumped at the chance. I ended up taking my mom, even though she wasn't sure what they sang. We had a great time...it was a little hot, okay it was HOT, but when the sun went down it was perfect.

This is how far we are from the stage...we had lawn seats. Next time I will definitely spring for closer seats, just to have a chair with a back.


Here is my mom and I...that fence in the background is the back of the amphitheater...yep we were almost at the back.


It's about to start!!


Coldplay performing 'Viva La Vida'


Coldplay performed a few songs right at the edge of the lawn, so we got a closer look.
Here there are performing 'Billy Jean' a great tribute to Michael Jackson.

I love Coldplay even more now...the concert was great. Although we could have done without the couple next to us smoking pot, but I guess it is to be expected. Chris Martin really entertained the crowd with his humor, huge yellow balloons and canons that shot out paper butterflies. It was the best concert ever!!

The Mohawk

The other day Peter pulled out the hair clippers and this is what happened...


My sweet little boy has a mohawk!!

The Best of Prairie Creek 2009

About 8 years ago, I was introduced to the very best campground in Northern California. Nestled among the giant redwoods and where a small herd of Roosevelt Elk call home is my favorite place to camp: Prairie Creek Redwood State Park (or Elk Prairie Campground). Peter has been going there with his family since he was a boy and a few months after we were married, he introduced it to me. Now every year it has become a great tradition, one that I hope our kids will continue with their kids and so on!!

First off, two years ago we discovered a yummy place to eat (thank you Huell Howser!!) in Eureka called Samoa Cookhouse. They serve only three full meals a day; one for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner. It is served family style with their famous homemade bread, you can see it in the basket next to Georgia. So we made it in time for lunch and got to chow down on green salad, vegetable beef soup, three-bean salad, baked beans, scalloped potatoes, meat loaf, bread and of course strawberry-chocolate cake.

We like walking through the Historic Logging Museum inside the restaurant. This place has been around since 1890, they served food and provided rooms for the Lumbermen working in the area. Check out those saw blades behind us!!

Our truck was fully loaded!!

Yep, that is me baking cookies in our new camp stove. I also baked brownies, blueberry muffins and a bundt cake.

So we tried to do the Fourth of July on the beach in Crescent City. But it was freakin' cold and windy...even with the fire it was miserable. Even more so for the kids that went into the ocean!!

Georgia put on her suit, but never ventured into the water. There was no way I would let Warren put on his suit...that is him in the blue coat. The beach was littered with people flying kites. The nice people flying this kite let Georgia throw it back into the air each time it fell down to the sand.

Video of Georgia and the kite.


So we gave up on staying at the beach until dark for the firework show and ended up in a parking lot behind Safeway to do our own.

Sparklers...so nostalgic...except I remember them lasting so much longer and being so much more sparkly.


Video of everybody enjoying the sparklers!!

Georgia and Warren sitting on and posing in (see below) a few of the many trees along the hike to the visitor center.

Georgia and cousin Tenney in Fern Canyon. We do this hike every year...it is 5 miles from our campground and drops us off in Fern Canyon, a 1/2 mile hike over streams and with huge ferns growing up the canyon walls.

At the end of Fern Canyon is this path to the ocean.

Seeing Elk on the way to the ocean.

And last but not least, the kids favorite spot to ride their bike. This is Warren's second time down the hill, the first time he made it to the bottom. I am really not a bad mom, but I find this video quite amusing. Georgia is the classic sibling....

Pool Fun

So last year, we bought the kids a cute blow-up pool shaped liked an alligator complete with a little slide. After about 3 weeks, we noticed the pool kept losing air. Well upon closer inspection, we discovered that there were a whole bunch of little holes. Some darn animal, probably a cat or raccoon, had bitten the pool. And to make matters worse, the animal had chewed to pieces Georgia's pink noodle. So needless to say, this year we bought them a plastic pool.


Loving the built-in slide...


"Yes the water is freezing, but I don't care."


Happy girl


Takin' it easy!!

El Dorado County Fair

Yeah, I know the County Fair was forever ago, but I still wanted to document the fun that the kids had. Of course the rides are the first place they want to go...and I am always amazed how expensive the ride tickets are, especially for the kiddie rides. Fortunately, we got free tickets into the fair, which helped ease the expense. Although I freaked when I found out the big bag of cotton candy was 8 bucks!! So I settled for the $5 bag...and I must admit I ate most of the bag!! This year we even walked over to watch the rodeo and had a great time!!

So here are the kids on the rides...I was a little concerned that Warren was too small to ride, but he was so upset when he saw Georgia do it without him. "Warren do it", he kept saying over and over. And just look how happy he is....