{Grandpa Scotty's House}

Well the vacation is officially O.V.E.R. We had such a good time we spent most of our time relaxing at my Dad's house and visiting family. the kids love swimming in the pool and rockin' out in the band room! Gabby loves to wake up early and feed Pancho the kitty, and help Grandpa make fresh fruit smoothies for breakfast. Grandpa even let the kids plant more strawberries so next time we come out they will have even more to pick. As most of you already know, Lance was able to take a vacation with us after all. yay!

My mom watching the kids going nuts in the pool...

The boys rockin' out with the old timers {Grandpa Scotty and his friend & drummer Ray}

...a little purple haze.

{Jelly Belly}

Why yes... that IS a portrait of George Clooney made entirely of Jelly Belly's, not to shabby huh?

okay so they have this game at the Jelly Belly factory called "bean-boozled"... they give you a jelly bean and you don't know what it is until its to late... it could be peach or VOMIT! that's so sick... the only ones i tried was toothpaste and a tiny nibble of skunk spray... it tasted just like you think it tasted. Bryant tried all of them he said the worst was the rotten egg... nasty.

I think this picture is so funny of Lance tasting BOOGER!

It was a fun day at the Jelly Belly factory we got to take a tour and see how Jelly Belly's are made. we got to test out all the new flavors, my favorite new flavor was pomegranate! the kids went nuts picking out flavors and sampling... Between my Dad and Uncle Keith we managed to buy around $80 dollars in jellybeans. can you believe that crap?!

I do kick myself now for not getting some of those nasty flavors though... Oh how i would love to bring a bag of jelly belly's into work to share with my co-workers... with just a few of those flavors mingled in for fun... Muh ha ha! the laughs I would have at their expense... I do mentally torture myself for not thinking of it sooner... I am usually so much more in tune with the practical joking... it must be that dang book preoccupying my mind. I'm just not on my game!

{Grandparents}

My Grandma, Nada Boatright

My Dad and his Dad, Grandpa Bob Boatright

This is my Mom's Dad, Grandpa Herb Bennetts {we call him poppa}

I had him do this trick for the kids... he can touch his tounge to his nose. i used to get a kick out of that...they sure did too! what a character that man is... and sharp as a tack, at 87! My Mom spent most her days down here with him. I sure wish we would have had a longer vacation this year! I miss all my family in California.

{The Oakland A's}

Me and Gabby with our boy Eric Chavez.

Here's our boy in action...what a superstar!

Uncle Keith with the kids...

Me and Lance...

Uncle Keith and Aunt MaryAnn... die hard fans!

This was a pretty exciting game they played the Florida Marlins and were kicking their butts till about the 9th inning then the Marlins caught up fast and they were tied up for a while until the A's finally finished them off in the 11th inning 7 to 6!

{shopping}

The girls all took a day trip to visit my Grandma Nada in Folsom, its just outside of Sacramento. Its a beautiful town, very lush and green. We went shopping in the little antique and specialty shops downtown... very cute! then had lunch at the Cliffhouse

This was the coolest chest, I loved it. It was at one of the antique shops we found {it was on sale for $120.00 so needless to say I didn't get it...but I got a picture of it so I can keep it fresh in my memory, for the next time I see a similar one}

This was our view from the Cliffhouse restaurant...

A nice day in Berkeley... if you look closely you can see, even the churches have graffiti.

Remy scored tons of baseball cards from my cousin Kenny, that just made his day, He got tons of 8x10 signed pictures too... I'm not sure how valuable they are but Remy thinks they are the greatest things in the world right now... He also got something really cool from my Dad, it's a certificate stating that he was at the A's game where Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's record for stolen bases. He has the certificate the ticket stubs for that game and some baseball cards with Rickey Henderson stats and one of him and Lou Brock together with the base. {the broken record was 939 stolen bases and Rickey Henderson still holds the record} I am going to have all that framed for him...it's pretty cool!

Gabby was also very happy that we took her to build-a-bear workshop in the Walnut Creek mall and got her some outfits for her animals... Bry stayed back at my Dad's so they could jam together and be loud while we were in Berkeley. and I'm sure they were!

I love how my kids are so easy to please.

{New Moon}

Well it is our last day in the Bay Area California...
It's cold today.
This weather is not unusual for here, its just like I remember from my childhood summers, one day can be perfectly warm not a cloud in the sky the next day cold and overcast. My Dad says its that Mediterranean climate that makes it easy to grow grapes here...
Whatever it is, it works because somehow it just seems so easy to grow everything here. Everywhere i look, it is all so lush and GREEN. the kids are enjoying picking strawberries every morning for our smoothies, just like i did when I was a kid.
I Love it. Being here brings a certain feeling of home to me.
I finished Twilight and of course was kicking myself for not bringing the second book "New Moon" with me too... but I picked up a copy while shopping in Berkeley yesterday, so I'm back on track, although I must say I'm not very happy with the direction this book is taking... I just finished the chapter called "the end" {it left a bitter taste in my mouth} so i anxiously thumbed through the book, scanning the pages for Edwards name. I finally saw it... towards the end! I guess that's better than nothing?.. can you tell I'm still in bitter sweet vampire mode?

{Twilight}

We are on vacation.

I know you miss us, but dont worry we will be back soon..

so far we have been taking in a lot of R & R, working on our tans, and swimming everyday. I finally caught up to the rest of the world and started reading "Twilight"

I AM SO IN LOVE WITH IT!!
Thank you Donna for letting me borrow it, I wish I would have taken the second book now too... dang it! I will post pictures later but for now all I can wrap my mind around is

"sweet, sweet vampire love"