How we celebrated the end of summer . . . Labor Day

Kevin and Brandi decided to just have a stay-cation this year, they usually go to Utah for this weekend. But instead they had a pool party barbecue for friends and family. This is where Kevin and Brandi and their kids live, at the Romberg Estate. Not a bad set up, wish we had this sweet of a spot to call our home.

Cute Dane and Ella showing how comfortable they are in this beautiful back yard, swimming pool. Ella, 4, is a great little swimmer this year and it makes it so they only really have to watch Abby.

Cutie-pie Abby, trying to talk me into getting into the Jacuzzi with her, it wasn't very hard. Who could tell that cute little face no?

Dane-o challenging Ema, something that he does best. really he's a great kid.

Here he was doing his best not to let his dad get him.

Since I'm stealing pictures . . . Here's more of our Blond babies

I decided that since I was stealing pictures from the Romberg's blog I'd go ahead and steal some more from Greg and Jessica's. This is what's happening in Utah with their cute little boys.
Soccer has begun and Dylan is participating this year. He's learning the basics with his daddy and trying to decide how much he really likes it.

Adam is only about 20 months old but he is going to love soccor! He love's anything having to do with balls, throwing them, kicking them and tryiing to hold all of them at once!

Here is a cute picture of Dylan stealing the attention away from his little cheerleader cousin. Doesn't he have a pleased look on his face?

Good-bye Summer 2009

Where has summer gone? Well when you walk outside, or as I think about it, if I linger in my bed past 8 a.m. I wouldn't say it's gone at all. It's still in the serious 80 degree range here but the kiddies are back in school. Nothing says fall to me more than school starting. We have had a beautiful summer, I love where I live and those whom I spend my days with. I didn't go to the beach many times and as I look at this beautiful scene I say, "why?" There's not much better way to spend a hot summer day than at the beach.

I did meet Brandi and her darling kids one day and it was so fun.

I stole both of these pictures from Brandi and Kevin's blog and the caption they had was, "More trees please" so cute. Being a grandma is sweet!

Everything is new when you have a baby!

This time when we went to Dianeyland it was a brand new experience for Wade. Last year he was only one year old and still quite confined to his stroller, not able to go on many rides. But on this day every thing was new to him. He was so cute. I love that baby!

We Love Disneyland

I'm just playing around to see what else I can do with Picasa. I'm still not very good at getting the posts to go in as I plan, but blogging is fun. It's crazy how strangers can view your blog, it's kinda creepy. I see why some people decide to to private!

We hadn't realized until we got to Disneyland on this day that Wade was having a NEW experience. Last year he was only just over 1 year old and very confined to his stroller. Mostly he had to stay off the rides because he was so small. On this day, he was enthralled and excited, everything was new and made just for him. It was so cute.

Our Happy Place

Our summer has been so crazy, imagine being too busy to go to Disneyland. Well, the out of state crowds have a lot to do with it too. Jenny and I finally just went, even though she wasn't feeling very well. It was a fun day, not crowded and not awfully hot. I love being a yearly pass holder, but I really need to go more often.

Paytie and I got to ride in the rocket ship together and Kylie and Wes got to go it alone for is first time. Wes told the guy that he could be trusted to be on his best behavior, and he was! Wade went with his mommy and it was probably his first time.

Because it wasn't very crowded, we even finally got in to see Tinkerbell and her friends. This fairy is Irridessa.

Tinkerbell

And this was BEFORE the mad tea party!

Finally time for Disneyland

When we first got there we decided to get a few autographs. This is always a touchy activity, because you can stand in line for your turn and if the people in front of you take to long the characters might just up and walk away. (they are on a tight schedule and time frame) It's very hard to explain to the little ones.

So here we are with Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts

Next we went on the rocket ships.

Someone in line offered to take a picture for us so I could be in it too, yeah . . .

Here's Wade and Jenn, for probably his first ride in the rocket.

Funny, funny Pattie-pie!

Jenny already posted about this funny story on her facebook page but I wanted to share it too.

The other day I as with Jenny and her kids and she had a lot of errands to run. In between those errands we had a little down time before we needed to get Wade to speech. We were close to the OC fair grounds and re-counting the sad fact that we had missed it again this year, we were all just too busy. They have a little farm there that is open to the public for free. So we decided to go and see if it was open. It was and we went in. There were lambs, chickens, rabbits, brand new baby calves and cows and goats and mama and baby pigs. When we were by the goat pens Payton and Wade wanted to touch the noses that the goats were poking out through the spaces in the fence, probably only 4 or 5 inch spaces. If the goat tried to get his head through the space straight on it would be impossible but one wise goat with horns twisted his head to the side and maneuvered his head horns and all, through the space. Then he proceeded to stretch his neck out and sniff the little ones. Kylie freaked out, but Payton and Wade petted him a little. We were worried that the goat would be stuck now, but no, he just twisted his head again and got back into the pen the way he was supposed to be. We got a real kick out of that smart goat.

Now here's the funny part. At least 30 minutes later I heard Payton kinda talking to her self and saying, "If that goat was a real boy, I would marry him!" I said, "Payton, why would you marry him?" She said, "because he is so smart!"

Smart is a very important quality for a prospective husband!!!

Fun day at the Splash Pad in Westminster, Thanks Jenny!

First of all Dane was my photographer. He's so good at it, but consequently no pictures of him and Wes is spending his birthday at Disneyland with his dad.....

Kylie had a summer basketball camp ball game today at Siglar Park. This has been a sketchy park in a sad neighborhood in the past. But lately the area is really been cleaned up and new homes have been built. The park has this really great new water park that is free. The kids always want to go there so when Jenny had to take Kylie there for her ball game she extended the invitation for a group gathering at the "Splash Pad" I was just going to the park mostly to watch Kylie play ball.

I met her there for Kylie's game and first we were joined by Vauri and her cute kids. When the game was over, we walked over to the Splash Pad. We stacked out a shady spot and I looked into the parking lot and Brandi and her kids were getting out of their car to join us.

I've taken Ema and Dane to this park once or twice when they have been spending the day with me and they always want to go again, and take the little girls. Brandi's only recollection of the park is the bad neighborhood, and never wanted to go. So we were so surprised when they showed up. I think they had a fun time.

Cute Patie-pie
Ema is the best big sister, she doesn't let those little ones very far from her reach.

Waders, Ellie-smellie, and Paytie-pie

My sweet Emmy

Kylie and her all day sucker

Posing Ella

Happy grandma and Abby, my sweetie-pie, she always acts so excited to see me, it always makes my day!

Youth Conf. Cont.

I took pictures on Thursday but they are all oriented wrong to use here on my blog. We went to an ocean water lagoon in Carlsbad, down towards San Diego. That is the place that we had the most "fun". We rented two ski boats that came with a certified ski instructors/drivers, equipment for wake boarding, vests and gas, two sea doos and a big tube for pulling behind the boats. The kids really loved this day, most of them had not had the opportunity to do this kind of activity before and all want to become "River Rats" now!

We went back to the church for a big Pizza feast, and more volleyball and dodge ball and two more speakers. Once again the kids were so wiped out from all the sun, water fun & exertion but they were so respectful and attentive. We had a seminary teacher from our Stake and also the Stake Patriarch. There was something for everyone and I think they all heard something that will stick with them. Then back to the Davis's pool for one last dunk. At about 10p.m. we all gathered together and had a kneeling prayer, beginning our fast before our special day at the temple.

Our concluding day was spent at the LA temple. Two more Young Men joined us on this last day, they had been on vacation with their family. This brought our total to 31 youths. We needed 10 Priesthood holders for the temple, too. It was a large group that day. We got to do over 200 family file names for a family in our ward. The temple workers in the baptistery separated the names into batches of 20 and clipped them together. They handed the sets of names to the kids to hold while they waited for their turn in the font. They also told us to show the kids how to read the cards and see when and where the people were born, to look at the names and think about the individuals that they were going to baptized for. It was a very special experience. The kids really got a grasp of this being an individual ordinance for a real person. It was really effective. At one point I was standing by the bench where the kids were waiting to enter the font and Kenny and Paige said, "Sister Wilson look, what we found;" showing me their cards, "here's the father and his son, and Paige has 4 of his daughters!" They were really excited!

Tito's Tacos

Then we took them to a place called Tito's Tacos in Culver City, not far from the temple. This is a LA temple trip tradition of our ward. 150 tacos and 30 burritos later they were full and recuperated from fasting "all day!" Then we took them to the Pantages Theater in Hollywood to see "Fiddler on the Roof" which I loved. These kids saw "Wicked" last year and it's hard to top that one.

Then we took them all to their individual homes

for a good night's rest!