Eat Your Lettuce and Be Sad!

I love these cards, but so far this one has had me laughing the hardest!

A Warrior

 For those of you who have followed my posts about my friend Brandi, I thought I'd give you an update.

After being home from the hospital for a few weeks she went home to Michigan.  She was without her kids for most of that time, but as soon as school was out they joined her.  She was in and out of the hospital in Michigan but has finally found a doctor that she likes and will continue to see.

 As soon as she was up to it she returned to Clovis where she slowly has started resuming regular activities.  She goes to baseball games and practices and has even traveled out of town.  She even came out on the boat with us the first week of July!

 Last week a few of us girls got together to celebrate her birthday since she was in a coma on her birthday this year.   She is doing so much better, but still feels pretty crummy after meals.  She is able to eat again though, and the nausea is gone so she can start working on gaining weight. 

She just went back to Michigan last week with the kids where she has gone to a Tigers game, a warrior dash that several friends and family ran in, celebrated her mom's birthday, will be attending a party next weekend where all of her family and friends will celebrate her health and continued healing.

She'll be back to Clovis before school starts, where she will continue to call home for at least the foreseeable future, but we all know her heart will remain in Michigan.  She recently opened up a Shutterfly site where she shared pictures and explains her journey in a video.  Click here to watch.  She has fought hard to be here. She's fought to be with her kids. She is still fighting to regain her strength and resume her old routine.  She will get there though, this girl is a real warrior!

Move love and thanks to all of you who have donated to her medical costs, kept her in your prayers, and offered you love and support! 

Awkwardddd...

Everybody has at least one of them burried in a box of old photos or with current technology, in an event somewhere in one of your iPhoto folders. But some of them are just way better than others.  Awkward family photos.  There are the lame ones, the silly ones, and then there are those that deserve to be printed en masse so that the rest of the population can laugh along with you, or at you. Either way, there are some that really are too good not to be shared.  Last summer we had the best day in Yosemite with some friends, riding bikes all over the valley.   I did blog about it, but if you missed it and want to see what a perfect day in Yosemite looks like click here, otherwise I ll just give you a little refresher of part of the day.  Brynne was going through a phase where she didn't want to have her picture taken.  In fact she learned a really "great" trick that day where she requested payment for actually looking at the camera and smiling.  The other tactic she used for picture taking was requiring the rest of us to follow her directions for the picture set up.  Needless to say, I have a few ridiculous shots from the day.  One of them prompted the comment that it could even be entered in to the makers of Awkward Family Photos.

 Really?!!! Straddling a post?!  Well two weeks later cute Kylie texted me a picture from a card at Target, someone had already entered their own version of that picture.

 and then I found a few more..

Now I know these pictures are just a bit awkward and maybe ours isn't quite as bad since we aren't wearing coordinating denim, and since Brynne did opt out of the awkward pose she insisted upon, but some of the pictures I've seen from this company have had me in tears!

 I absolutely love seeing the ridiculous settings, outfits, staging, and total seriousness that go into these pictures!  Tonight as I was killing time while downloading new iPhone software onto one of the kids phones, I came across this gem.  I had to share, click on the link below.

Awkward family vacation photos...

Anyway if these don't make you smile, then good luck with the rest of your day!

*IF YOU HAVE ANY OF YOUR OWN FAMILY GEMS, PLEASE SHARE!!

Happy Birthday, Beach Day, Anniversary!

 July 6th is kind of a big deal.

Not only is it the day we got married, it's my moms birthday.  It's also Jeff's mom's birthday.  

So there was no way we were going to be sitting around doing nothin' on that date this year! 

We decided to go to the beach. I've been dying to go since  spring break

Through FB I found out that our friends the Salway's were planning to go to the beach that day too, just trying to decide which one to go to.

So I suggested they go to the same one as us so we could hang out together!

Wes brought Connor to sub for Garrett who was spending the week in Pismo with a friend.

When we got there the Salway's had already done a little digging

okay maybe a lot of digging!

Sterling and Katie came with Katie's brother and their two kiddos

little Cedric gave us some cute smiles

and had ALL of Brynnes attention

Amanda and Kyla

The Salways just layin around

Their cute little man watching the waves

Love that I caught a moment of my dad and Emily's conversation. 

I like this kid. And I think he's pretty cute. I think I'll keep him.

Me just hanging out with Brynne

Jeff serving up hot dogs on the mini BBQ I picked up just before the trip.  

Warm easy food in minutes with pretty much no prep was awesome and totally hit the spot.

By the time we headed out it was a little chilly as usual at our central coast beaches, but we weren't complaining.

It was a great relaxing day and fun to spend it with family and friends

and of course my sugar daddy. Seventeen years of marital bliss. Sweet!

Fourth Festivities

Our 4th of July started with the annual breakfast and flag raising ceremony at the church and then moved out to the lake. the only reasonable place to be when it's muggy and 109* outside! 

My parents and Sterling and Katie and family decided to stay at the house with babies and naps, so we had room for some friends to come play with us.

Most of the day looked a little like this shot below. Whenever we would stop to switch riders or change from tube to surf, to wake boarding, everyone jumped in to cool off.

Tubing was fun with two tubes out there. The kids love jumping back and forth.

or showing off building pyramids

or planking into the other tube

Since everyone assumes that the lake will be crowded on the 4th, no one was there, which meant that there was actually decent water for wake boarding.  We had fun working on our jumping skills.

Jeff had fun creating his own version of wake surfing

There was lots of wrestling and king/queen of the deck going on

And some people got the 5 star treatment! Ouch! I'm not a fan of that game!

When we finally had enough we made it back to my parents house for some awesome BBQ and desserts before we walked over to the stadium for fireworks.

Somehow we all got separated on the walk over and had different ideas about where we wanted to go.  I watched the fireworks with my Drew

my niece Emily and her sweet glow in the dark glasses

and Brynne with her glow in the dark wand and anti picture pose.  But since she decided to stay home and swim at my parents while we were at the lake, this was the only picture I have of her for the whole day!

Still the fireworks were awesome as usual and it was a perfect end to a great holiday!