Take me out to the ball game!

It was Mormon Night at the Padre game. We got tickets through Chip and Annelise who now live in the Ward we used to live in. Thank you both! The kids were so excited for the first time to go to a game. That definitly made Daddy's day. He loved taking them to the ball park.

They thought it was so cool to have a hot dog in the stands.

Madison and Abby keep saying, "Can you call for the box guy to bring us another treat?" If they only new how overpriced the box guy really was. We did let them get hot dog and frozen lemonade.

Our boys!

These two girls loved all the cheering. Abby would get a huge grin whenever there was clapping or the wave. I loved sitting by Hailey at the game she was so full of spirit. She made it such a good time.

We went with Brittani and the girls. Our seats were a little spread out but no one seemed to mind.

We were in the nose bleed section but I thought they were great seats because they were behind home plate and you could see everything.

It is an amazing stadium! It was a really fun night. We thought for sure we would leave a little early but we ended up staying past the end of the game. The Padres of course were basically done after the first two innings though.

The Beach Spa

We went to to hang out with some good friends we have not seen in a little while this weekend. We went to La Jolla and kicked back during the day at the beach. The girls spent most of the day giving each other mud pedicures. Abby kicking back and enjoying her foot bath.
What a life!

I thought this picture was funny because the guy in the background looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Blake and his long time friend Sarah chatting away.

Those two spend hours talking and catching up.

The kids always love hanging out with Emma and Sara. They are just like family!

Uncle Chip and the girls also came to hang out at the beach for awhile.

It was nice to hang out at our old beach again.

Happy Anniversary, Love Birds!

Todd and I were able to share get a weekend away. Thank you Grandma Di for having the kids. They loved being able to have a sleepover weekend at Di's house. They were counting down the days and so were Todd and I. We decided to stay in San Diego so we did not have to spend most of our time traveling. We stayed down on the Bay at Shelter Island. It was perfect! The hotel had a bunch of these birds around the grounds. It was fun to just be the two of us again. We loved being able to do what ever we wanted to.

The hotel was so pretty. We thought it was a great spot for a wedding reception if we lived closer. Everything was very tropical.

Happy Annivery! I am so blessed to have the best guy!

Who did it?

We got toilet paper. I wonder who did it? Todd was away at a young men hike and cam pout in the area. I was watching TV late at night. I heard something in the backyard and turned around and Todd was leaning his face against the back sliding glass door. SO MEAN!!! He came home that night instead of staying over because a bunch of boys went home and they had plenty of leaders. He thought it would be funny to scare me. When he got home he said we had been toilet papered. I had no clue. We thought for sure it was some of those boys. Come to find out a few days it was some friends in the ward with their Grandparents and decided we would be a fun target. We are ready for revenge :)
We decided to leave some in trees for the next morning so the kids could see it.
They thought it was pretty funny.

Mini Olympics

Madison has been in gymnastics for the last year. She loves going each week and really likes her coach this year. At the end of the the year the gym put on a Mini Olympics, Mardi Gras style. She was so excited to participate. She did a bar routine.
The balance beam. Her favorite.

They also did a running jump and floor routine.

For the finale they did a little routine to The Princes and the Frog song.

She is definitely coming out of her shell. She was very proud to perform and was even in the front row in front of all the people.

At the end they all received gold metals for participating in the events.Here she is with Coach Robert. She really loved being in his class this year.

He did a great job!

Grandma Di came to watch her perform. Madison was so excited to have her there!

Great job Madison, we are so proud of you!

Here is the video of the finale.

Scout Camp

This year for scout camp the troop did a day camp with another ward at the Clawson's Ranch just up the road. They were able to pan for gold like a part of our state's history, earn the ultimate frisbee belt loop, fish and get their swimming belt loop. The boys loved fishing and spent most of their time at the pond. It was really nice to see how well they cooperated with each other and encouraged each other. Blake just got some of the scum off the bottom of the pond. He didn't seem to mind though.

The ranch was an amazing piece of property. They have horses on the property, campsites, their own airplane strip, and much more. The boys all got their swimming belt loop that day.

They also learned how to do some outdoor cooking.

For dinner they had hot dogs, dutch oven peach cobbler and solar oven cookies. Our troop of boys

All the boys together.

Cooling off before driving off into the sunset. Well almost!

After the house tour we drove over to Senator's Wash to take a swim in the river and cool off. Blake and Jackson loved being thrown around by Uncle Chip.
Good times!

After that we were all headed home. When we went to Gas up in Yuma before heading home, a radiator hose burst in our car. There was steam and radiator fluid everywhere. Luckily Uncle Jamey and Aunt Lisa had not gotten on the freeway yet and saved us. Todd was able to find the parts and fix it. I waited it out with Aunt Lisa and the kids in the hotel lobby we had checked out of earlier that day. Todd fixed it, but just in case we overheated again, we decided to caravan home with Jamey and Lisa. Thank goodness someone was around to keep us company, and Uncle Jamey could drive Todd to the auto parts store. It would have been a long hot walk for him. We were super grateful and were happy to be driving off into the sunset!! Thank goodness Daddy spent all those years playing around old cars so he can fix almost any car problem!

These are the sand dunes where they filmed part of Star Wars.

Daddy is ready to plan a trip back to play on them.

I think it sounds a lot funner in the wintertime!
I am so grateful our kids were able to experience a weekend of memories!

A trip down memory lane

The last day Todd took us around some of the old family homes. First we went to the house that Grandma Di lived in. We knocked on the door and asked the new owner if we could take a picture. I am sure he thought we were crazy when a group of us piled out of suvs and mini vans. Next we were off to Bard where Granny Ryan's home was. It is now Todd's Uncle Ed's place. It really is in the middle of nowhere. Todd loves to tell stories of the things his brothers and he did out there. He was shocked how small it was. His stories did make it seem adventurous. There were lots of salvaged cars and apparently they were alowed to climb all over them.

My favorite story is when one time they were there and went Bruce Lee on a camper shell they thought was junk, knocking out windows and jumping on the roof. Well come to find out it is one Todd's Uncle had just purchased to fix up and camp in. Granny Ryan must have been very patient. He used to talk about climbing all the fruit trees. Here is Blake by one of them.

It was fun to see where all the stories came from.

Todd also talked about always riding their bikes to Ross's Corner store for root beers. We had to check it out and get a drink to cool off.

The next generation of Ryan boys hanging in front of the store by Granny's house.

Todd was really happy to see some of these things. It was pretty fun to see him so excited.

Grandpa Ryan

The kids always love being around Grandpa Ryan. He is always a lot of fun and likes to be silly with them. We are glad we could be there with him.

Granny's Funeral

Today was the funeral for Granny Ryan, Grandpa Ryan's mother. She was 85 years old and lived in Yuma, Arizona. She has 6 children, 20 grandchildren, 35 great grandchildren, and 1 great great grandchild. Grandpa Ryan was always going to stay with her and take care of her. Her children are all very close and were so good to her. We are so glad we could go to celebrate her life with them.

You can't help thinking about her brightly painted fingernails and card playing. She loved to play cards, and the few times we did see her it was around a game of cards. Todd has many fond memories of taking trips out to stay with her as a child. He said she would always make them breakfast and send them out to play all day, exploring the open fields and "project" cars on her property. These are some of Todd's cousins, his Dad, and Uncle Goerge.

Here are some of the great grandchildren at the service.

More of the cousins together.

Grandpa Ryan, some of his kids, and grandchildren.

Some of the women from a club Granny was a part of had a dinner for the family. They went with a Hawaiian theme in the Mexican funeral home. You got to love a small town. It was very thoughtful of them, and it gave Todd a chance to catch up with his Aunts, Uncles, and cousins he has not seen in years.

The ladies told Madison to take home some Leis.

I am not sure they meant all of them, but she was determined to have a good collection going.

After digging into the endless snacks provided, Blake and Jackson were showing their boredom or the fact that they were stuffed!

The little kids did not care where they were; they were just glad to be together.