O-HI-O!

Eli, West and I are in Ohio visiting my family for a while. Man, there's nothing like it.

And the best part? My older and younger sisters are coming out too! We're going to live it up!!

Pictures and all that jazz to come, I promise.

While you're waiting, you may want to check out SewMamaSew's May giveaway! There are tons of participating websites that are giving away great handmade stuff. And I'm getting so much inspiration to make some things of my own when I get back! Awesome. :)

Aubree's Senior Photos

I had the opportunity to take some photos of Aubree, Nathan's cousin. I can't believe she's already graduating from high school! When Nathan and I got married, she was still in junior high. It sure makes me feel old, haha.

Aubree is just pure fun -- she has a quirky personality that I enjoy and is one of the most artistic people I know. Seriously, the things this girl can create with her hands would blow you away. She certainly got her dad's artistic talent, which is a great thing. And she's beautiful too! What a package. :) Enjoy this sneak peek!

I just *love* the way this one turned out, with her wisps of hair. :)


Thanks for letting me take these, Aubree! I hope you had as much fun as I did. :)

Let's Play Catch-up!

Warning: This is pretty long, so proceed at your own risk of boredom! :)

Hey there everyone! I hope you're all having a great start week. I thought I'd do a little re-cap of the last couple of weeks, since I've been MIA. Sorry! But we have been busy and I'm still recovering from our trip out to Utah to celebrate Renee's (Nathan's sister) graduation from the University of Utah. (I swear, the laundry never seems to be done!) So yeah, lots going on!

So a little while ago, Nathan's company got to have a huge bowling event put on by Junior Achievement. It was a fun opportunity for me and the kids to go meet some of Nathan's co-workers and Eli got to bowl too! He was so excited all day, he kept saying, "First is the store, second is pictures and third is the BOWLING STORE!" (Oh, and he loves for us to make a schedule for him about our day's events, so he knows what we're going to do that day. So we're always saying First is.... Second is.... Third is.... etc.) I don't think he really understood that bowling wasn't a 'store' until we actually got there. He had a lot of fun and loved all the attention. Plus, he loved hanging out with dad! So cute.




Then last weekend we were off on a whirlwind of a vacation (if you can call it that, lol). We left early Thursday morning and drove to Utah for Renee's graduation on Friday. It was fun to get to see a lot of Nathan's family and celebrate Renee and her great accomplishment. We're really proud of her!

The graduate:

Renee and her boyfriend Lewis:

The Lakeys:


This is how excited they are for Renee to graduate:


And this is how excited Renee is to graduate!


The whole fam (plus Lewis, lol):


Three generations:
(and don't worry, West is fine, just slipping down a little)

So all in all we had a great trip! On the way back (driving home on Mother's Day, which could be a whole other post on its own), we met up with my sister and her husband Jed and all road-tripped back to our house. Ali and Jed came to stay with us while they went to Disneyland for Jed's birthday on Tuesday. Did you know Disneyland lets you get in free on your bday? Ah, to be newlyweds again and have that kind of a life where you can just pick up and road trip to Disneyland for your birthday. These are your "good ol' " days, Ali and Jed, enjoy them! :)

So while they were here, we decided to go to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. We had a blast! It wasn't busy (being a Monday) and the weather was warm, but breezy. That's what I love about being down in San Diego, it's such beautiful weather!

Here's Eli at the petting zoo. He loved getting up close to the animals and kept talking to them. It was so funny!

In this one he's saying, "You're a handsome girl, aren't you? Aren't you? Yeah, you're a handsome girl." Jed, Ali and I were dying laughing.


Jed, Ali, Eli and the handsome deer. :)


Eli was really excited to be a worm and Nathan thought West would make a good one, too!


Some neat animals we saw on the tour, which I can't remember the name of now.


The cool lions snoozing in the shade.


They had the biggest, coolest paws!

Then the next day, while Ali and Jed were at Disneyland, Eli and I made him a birthday cake. Eli was so excited to help blow out the candles and couldn't wait until Jed and Ali got back to help celebrate. He was a little bummed that we didn't do balloons and streamers, but it just wasn't in the cards for that day. :)

Jed, Ali, West and Eli


Blowing out the candles

Thanks for coming out, you guys! We had a lot of fun! And to anyone else who is thinking about visiting Disneyland and needs a cheap (ie: FREE!) place to stay, just know you're always welcome at our house.

That pretty much wraps it up! I did have my very good friends come out to visit me from Mission Viejo but I was a dork and forgot to take pictures! I mean, come on, how did I do that?? But I suppose it was a crazy week and my mind was pretty much gone by that time, haha. But I loved getting to catch up with Tracy, Jessica and Marisol. And Eli was on cloud 9 getting to play with all his good buddies. So thanks to you guys for making the trip up to see us! We love you and miss you. :)

And I'm excited to post some pictures from a senior session I did while we were in Utah. Nathan's cousin Aubree is graduating from high school this year (Eeeek! I can't believe she's that old!) and so I got to take some fun photos for her. Be on the lookout for those soon!

Have a great night peeps!

Bah!

I know, I know, I'm in serious need of a new blog post. Well, this is going to have to tide you over for a while, and it's not going to be much. :) We've got family visiting (Happy Birthday Jed!), just got back from a mini-vacation to Utah for Renee's graduation (Nathan's sister) and I've got work up to my eyeballs for a little while.

SO, I promise to have a brand-spankin' new post coming soon, chocked full of pictures and laughs and fun stuff. So hang tight. That means you too, Summer, heehee. :)