Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Joel promised 6 yr old Gray that he would take her to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk if she let him pull out one of her loose front teeth... 6 yrs later he made good on that promise :)

Gray and Ridge posing in front of the 85 yr old roller coaster, that thing was a brutal ride for my old bones

Holdy taking in the aerial view of it all

Joel and the kids coming out of the scary ride, look at Holden's face! Classic!

Ridge was allowed to ride solo although he really was just shy of being tall enough.

Sleepover at Sam's

On our way in and out of the Bay area we were lucky enough to stay with our old friends Cari, Matt and Sam. The sleepover thing is still a novelty for our little guys so they had a blast rolling out the sleeping bags. Sam's cockroach went missing and I am pretty sure I snuggled up to it in the middle of the night, creeeepy.

Auburn Bridge

Rumor has it that people jump off this bridge with parachutes, thankfully there is a call box for those tempted to jump without a parachute... we were not tempted although I can't speak for Joel he might have been. We trekked to the bottom and played in the American River Confluence, what a great way to kick off our week in Nor Cal.

Park City Art's Festival

My mother's western hat fetish wore off on Sheridan and I as we cruised the shops at the festival, we ended up being the cowgirl hat triplets (well quadruplets if you count Marty Moose and I think we should)

Sheridan, Me, Gray and Elicia posing as artists... okay maybe one of us really is an artist, next year you better have your own booth Elicia

Me patiently waiting for my mother to shop for her western wear



Gray donning her fetching butterfly bouffant

Sheridan taking a bite out of the best caramel apple on the planet, seriously that thing alone is worth the trip up the canyon (you are welcome Sherd for posting this pic... I wouldn't have done it if I thought you ever looked at my blog) :)

Crazy storms

We have had some crazy storms lately which have made for some beautiful skies. The kids found themselves rolling in mud after one of the storms... not so easy to clean up but they had a lot of fun so I went with it.

Cari's visit

Cari, Matt and Sam came to visit and we visited Thanksgiving Point with them and hiked Stewart Falls (Joel and Matt biked the Alpine loop and were done well before we were done with our hike). The kids did so well on the hike I was impressed and so happy because their was no way I was going to be able to haul them down the mountain. I will admit I had the brilliant parenting skills to let my brood hike in their water shoes... they made it and it was fine but not my finest moment :)

Aus & Em's

While we were East we made the trip to VT to see Austin, Emily, Lucy and Gavin. It was great seeing them and spending time in their world. Austin's office bear was very welcoming, we played on the Dog River in their canoe, enjoyed blackberry syrup & pie made by Emily and watched the kids play with our iPods every chance they could (I think Santa knows what to bring those two).