Laguna With Moms

This week my brother Chris and his wife Kim have her mom out from Placerville. My mom is still here too, so we took them to our favorite beach in Laguna. It was one of those perfect days, water was great, not too many people, nice and relaxing. My kids, Tyler especially, are getting really good at swimming in the ocean. It's a little scary to watch. The rip tide at this beach is always strong, but they always have lots of life guards around.

Here is seaweed head Chris.

Kim headed back for a swim.

James, a football, and a jawbreaker?

Matt's going to boogie board. Or just stand there.

Oh! Now he's going to skim board.

Me, swimming in the waves. Which I never do. Sharks and seaweed normally prohibit such activity.

James, me, Kim, Chris and Patsy (Kim's mom) frolicking in the ocean.

Fourth of July

This year we had a bit of a shindig at our house for the fourth. We had Brett's sisters and families, his parents, our neighbors and lots of neighborhood kids. Oh, and my mom! The fireworks are done right across the street at our lake, so we just walked on over to watch. We also did a little of Tyler's birthday, which was the seventh, the same day. Lot's of fun!

Brett got us a spot on the lake, right behind a tree.All the boys of the neighborhood.

Michele, Brett's sister. Don't let the smile fool you, she's a tyrant. She's also the one who makes me run half marathons.

Our niece, Emily.

Cake pops.

Tyler opening presents. This year he wanted airsoft guns, he got some targets for them.

Priscilla, Alex Jr., Alex, and Erica.

Brett's sister Doris and her hubby Aaron.

Michele and Desiree.

Making cotton candy with my mom.

Big Bear

Last weekend we impromptu camped at Big Bear with Brett's sister Michele and her family. I know, wow. We are becoming campers. Although, Brett still can't seem to sleep at night and he would really rather have a trailer instead of a tent. Someday! Anyhow, it was cold, it was fun, it was dirty. Here are the photo's.

Little hike.Man with burro. Brett is throwing hatchets at a log, right behind him.

Tyler tossing hatchets.

James feeding a bear.

Matt sitting in his favorite chair, working on his 556th ice pop.

James is always in a good mood at seven in the morning.

The lake.

We are all for modern conveniences, we carpeted our tent!

See Brett's bathroom behind him?

Can you skateboard in the forest?

Michele, Alex and Master Alex.

Let's cap it all off with a silly Matt face.

Camp Pendleton 10k Mud Run 2009

Oh yeah. We just got home from Oceanside, Camp Pendleton home of the "original" world famous mud run. It was a 10k, 6.1 miles of hills, mud, wall climbs, tube crawls, and we even got to traverse through a river that was up to our necks. Fun and challenging! Brett did this race, as well as my trainer and friend from church, Andrea. Andrea's husband took pictures for us, which was really nice. Taking your trainer with you to run a race is crazy, tends to make you work harder. I have the blisters to show for it.

Here is a map of the course.Me, Brett and Andrea, pre-race.

And they are off....

See how happy and carefree we look in the beginning?

Brett is very focused, he finished waaaaay before us.

This was the home stretch.

The last mud crawl.

I got yelled at by a marine to stay on my knees instead of my forearms.

Done. Phew. Andrea is still really happy, me, not so much!

This is Tedd, Andrea's husband. People at church get he and Brett mixed up all the time. I don't know why.

Mom, Cousins, and Disneyland.

On Tuesday we met up with our Arizona cousins, Kym and her two kids, and Jessi, Kym's sister. Mom is in town, so we grabbed her and went to Disneyland. Chris and Kim joined us around lunch time, and we stayed all day. It was really fun. It wasn't busy and we did everything we wanted.

Here's Samantha, and half of James, in line for the matterhorn.Cousin Kym.

Kym was scared of the elephant on the Jungle Book Cruise.

James, Ty, Sam and Zach. Toon Town.

Chris picked a flower to put in Kim's hair. Pretty!

Tyler, Small World.

Me. We got bored on It's a Small World.

Chris is a heckler. Did you know that? We can't take him anywhere.

Mommy.

Zach and Matt, they could be brothers.

Yep.

Lunch and map plotting.

Kym and Jessi. This was Matt's first time on the matterhorn, he loved it.