BACK AGAIN ..... CALI TRIP: WEDDING & BEACH CITY

So I know I have said this before ... ok, probably a million times ... buuuut ... I'm gonna give this blogging thing a go once again and hope to keep up on it better this millionth go around!!! Even if it has been just under a year since I last posted!!! I already had all these pics uploaded and ready to post (last September of course) and just never posted them!! So I figured why not just post them now since they are already in here and ready to rock!! Besides some of them are just too dang cute not to share!! Last September, one of my most special friends in the world got married and it was oh so beautiful. We combo'ed our trip to her wedding with a trip to the beach into one and had a blast. Grandma joined us too and it made for a super extra fun time!!

THE ADVENTURES OF JUNE ...

FATHER'S DAY

We spent Fathers Day Skaintz Style at the Skagg's house by their pool and had a great day! We actually met up with the Skagg's crew the night before for a drive in movie, which was our first time ever and all our kids except for Charlotte zonked out in the back of the truck before the movie was even over!! It was fun and definitely something I would love to go do again! From there we had a sleepover and crashed at the Skaggs house!

Clay started the "shoot a gatorade bottle in the air while doing a cannon ball" trick and everyone joined in on the fun!!

SAN DIEGO

Clay and I made a mommy daddy trip to San Diego to get away for the weekend. We had been running and running between sports and school and work and decided it was time to get away and spend some quiet, quality time together. We spent the weekend hanging on the beach, fishing, eating and soaking in the silence!! We also got to see my friend Shannon and meet her fiancé Mark ... they came down from Fullerton and spent the day with us one day while we were down there!! It was so so so good to see her and meet this special man in her life!

The weather was pretty cloudy and gloomy the whole time we were there so we only got one sunset, if you can even call it that, but I was able to capture the little bit of a sunset we did get!! We went out on the pier to fish one day and Clay caught this big ol sting ray! It was quite the fight to get it in, took about 25 to 30 minutes! We really enjoyed this little escape from reality!!

We spent a few days out at the lake and Bubba even got to come with us, pretty sure he thought he died and went to doggy heaven getting to go to the lake again!!! Rilyn loves to help daddy drive the boat and almost always falls asleep at some point in the day while we are cruising the lake!

One Sunday morning I woke up and came out of my room to find Trey & Rilyn snuggled up together in the recliner watching cartoons! One of my favorite things is when the kids get all snuggled up together and times like this!

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS ....

Trey lost his other front tooth eating corn on the cobb ... he is now officially front toothless!!! 

HEBER

We made a trip to Heber with the Haines Family and the Sharp Family and had a great time ... totally eating up the beautiful weather. We spent the weekend relaxing at the cabin and even got in an afternoon of fishing.

One of Rilyn's most favorite things to do with her Momma is to color and craft so we colored pictures together one evening and anyone who knows Rilyn knows that she is a girl of many faces and very animated. So while we were coloring, she was cracking both herself and me up making all kinds of faces at me! I had no choice but to grab the camera!!

NEW BIKE

Trey has been saving his own money for quite a while and decided he wanted to buy himself a new bike.  So daddy took him to the store and this is the one he picked out!

Its funny because since he bought this bike himself he treats it like gold and always makes sure that it is parked in the garage ... he takes the best care of it!!

Rilyn loves to give her Momma foot massages and I'm not complaining one bit ... its heaven!!! I hook her up with some of my special lotion and she goes to town!! One night I talked her into letting me rub her feet but she just giggled and said it tickled!!

FUNNIES WITH RILYN

So I can't conclude this post without sharing some funny moments that we've had ... with Rilyn of course!! She really is the family comedian and totally keeps us on our toes and laughing daily!! So just to mention a few:

* One night Rilyn set the table (which is usually her job at dinner) and when we sat down to eat we realized she had given both her brothers girl plates, Trey Princess and Rhett Strawberry Shortcake and herself Spongebob. Rhett was not very happy about this at all!!

* One Sunday me and Rilyn got out of the shower and she asked me for lotion, make up, pee-fume and on and on!! Then she brought me a barette asking if I would put it in her hair. Finally I asked her who she was getting all puurrttied up for anyways and she gave me the duh mom look and replied "the mirror"!! 

* Rilyn's prayers these days go a little something like this "Good Lord, I hope Grandpa and Grandma get better, thank you for food, amen"!!

* So we had been talking about the "MiMi Fairy" coming to take away Rilyn's binky's when she turns 3 (compliments of the Creel Family who we got this idea from) for a couple of weeks and one night at bedtime we were looking and looking for a mimi when all the sudden Rilyn remembered ... she goes "Oh ya" lifted up her pillow and there it was .... I asked her why it was under there and she said "so the  mimi fairy won't find it"!!

FLASHBACK . . .

So after missing doing my blog so much and then one night going back and reading all my old posts, I decided that there is no way life can get too busy and documenting all these memories is too important for me to not take the time to keep up on it! So with that being said, here I sit trying to gather as many pictures as I can that are still on my memory cards (I only have like 5, heehee) and rackin the ol' brain (hopin it pulls thru for me, but not holding my breath!!) for as many details as I can to do a "flashback" post of our life since my last post (waayyy too long ago) thru May!! It may not be everything but not too shabby for the 3 - 4 months I have been m-i-a from blogger land!!

I didn't realize until it was too late that blogspot switched it up on me and now when you upload your photos it actually loads them in the order you choose them (top to bottom) rather than before when you had to load which ever picture you wanted a the bottom of your post 1st and go up from there. Soooo this post actually starts with the most recent pics and goes down to the older one's, a little annoying and backwards but is going to work for me this round, dispite my anal retentiveness (it is killing me)!! See what happens when you disappear for 3 - 4 months!

MEMORIAL WEEKEND IN VEGAS

For Memorial Weekend we made a trip to Vegas to see my family and celebrate my Grandma's 81st Birthday! We stayed at the Rubenstein's house and got in lots of pool time both the afternoon after Gma's party and all of Sunday before we headed home on Monday!! The kiddos had so much fun together and Colton just loves havin everyone to play with. Although by the end of the weekend I'm sure he is sick of Rilyn bossin him around like she does so well (little stink) perfect example is the picture of her putting his shoes on, because she refused to let him go outside without them!! Its super funny cause Colton call's both the boys "Trey" no matter if he is talking to Trey or Rhett ... haahaaa ... so he will be right up in Rhett's face going "Trey .. Trey .. Trey" and when Rhett doesn't answer he will be like "Treeeeeeyyyyyyy"!! We have to tell Rhett, dude he's talking to you answer him!! Lol, its pretty funny! But the topper of the weekend was when me and Ashley were sittin in the chairs by the pool bs'in and Rilyn just walks over to the rocks (right next to us), squats & pee's (bottom right corner) right there without skipping a beat! Haahaaa!  Me and Ashley both got a giggle attack out of this one!! The girl knows how to take care of business no doubt about that!!

We had Grandma's birthday party at the Assisted Living Place where they are living now and it was absolutely perfect. So awesome to get to see my family especially for an occasion as special as my Grandma's 81st birthday. She is the most amazing and beautiful lady in the world and I'm so glad we got to celebrate with her! Grandpa had my Aunt Judy pick up a card and a dozen yellow roses for her and Aunt Jud could not have found a more perfect card, when Grandpa was reading & signing it to give to Grandma he started crying because he said it couldn't be anymore true! Love them so much, they are such an inspiration and it is so incredible the true love that they have for each other even after 65 years!! Had to snap a picture of Rhett Man with Great Grandpa ... crazy to me how much Rhett resembles him, lucky little boy!

NORTH VALLEY VIKINGS

Both the boys played flag football for the Spring Season and we switched leagues (to one closer to home) so they were Vikings this go around. They ended up on an awesome team with a bunch of kids they go to school with which made it a lot of fun. Coach Kyle and Coach Jim did an amazing job with these boys and we ended up winning our league and going to state! At state we made it all the way to the championship game which we should have won but due to some very unfair decisions and favoratism the record dosen't reflect that. We could not have been any prouder (if thats a word) of our boys and seeing how far they came from the beginning of the season to the end was simply amazing!! 

Division Champs and off to the state tournament!!

TREY'S SCHOOL AWARD ...

At the end of the school year 1st Grade Assembly, Trey received the most special award out of the whole class for being the best all around student in every single area of academics and character!! We could not be any more proud of him and it was definitely a tear jerker for his Momma and his teacher Mrs. Tewers (who just absolutely adores him) .... and you didn't hear this from me, but I'm pretty sure I even saw some teary blue eyes on his daddy as well!! It was kinda funny because we got a flyer in his folder one day about the assembly and that he would be receivig an award. So we show up (Me, Clay, Grammy & Rilyn) for the assembly, find seats and when Mrs. Tewers got up to give out her awards, Trey was not called up. So then I start second guessing myself thinking I know I read that he was receiving an award on that flyer, I know it, I know it!! So the assembly goes on and all the rest of the teachers finish handing out their awards. Then at the very end all the teachers got up together and each handed out their one most special award of the year to one student in their class ... this is when Trey received his!!!

MOTHER'S DAY

We did a flip flop this year and spent Mothers Day at the Tapatio Resort (this is what we usually do for Fathers Day) and Mom & Norm, Lay & Cody and Bradley & Lorie all joined us!! It was a nice relaxing weekend by the pool with lots of cocktails and laughs, good family time and a very special day for all of us mom's!! This is my favorite pic of the weekend, my little love bug, Rilyn Kate!

Thanks to Pinterest (my latest OBSESSION!!) I got this idea to make thumbprint necklaces for myself and both our mom's (Grandma & Grammy). So the idea on pinterest was just one single silver thumb print on a necklace chain ... but you know me, I cant just take an idea and do it exactly the same I gotta switch it up and make it my own! So I decided to do each of the kids thumb prints, paint them each a different color and then put all 3 on one chain. They turned out sooooo awesome and mine has literally become my most favorite peice of jewelry I own. Both Grandma & Grammy loved their's as well!!

On the Friday before we went to the resort for Mothers Day, Me & Rilyn had a girls day and went and got Pedicures, which was Rilyn's very first time! Even though she has been saying she wants pink toes forever she picked orange for herself (I was shocked) and I let her pick my color and she insisted on the pink you see below! I would say overall she enjoyed it but after about 20 minutes or so she said "Ok momma let's go"!! Love girl time with my little beauty!!

GYMNASTICS OLYPMICS

Rilyn has been doing gymnastics for a while now and the place where she goes hosted an Olympic style event for all the kids who wanted to participate! She loves her gymnastic classes and for 2 she does a pretty amazing job, think we just might have a little gymnast on our hands!! Although things started off a little rocky at the olympics, with there being so many teachers, kids and the huge crowd I didn't know if she was ever going to let me get more than an inch away from her, but she eventually warmed up and had a great time ... showing off all her moves. At the very end all the kids got a medal!! 

EASTER

On Easter Sunday after the Easter Bunny came and we straightened up a little from the party the day before, we went for a Ranger ride into the Tonto with Mom & Norm and the Skaggs Crew. We went up to the Hohokam Indian ruins and checked that all out and of course did some shooting!!

Easter Party

The annual easter party was a success with lots and lots of good friends and family. I think this can go in the books as the biggest one yet in regards to how many people showed up! It was complete with a water balloon fight (while we hid all the eggs), easter egg hunt and of course the infamous adult egg toss!! Grandma & Grammy were partners again this year as always and made it all the way to the end!! I mixed it up a little bit this year with the egg hunt and filled around 100 of the eggs with raffle tickets ... so at the end of the egg hunt we had a raffle. I had gotten a bunch of different prizes that the kids could choose from if their raffle ticket was drawn and it was a huge hit!!

PRESIDENTS DAY

We spent Presidents Day weekend at the dunes for a long weekend of riding and sand sand and more sand! It was a blast and the boys got in a really good weekend of riding the dunes. They both actually ran "competition hill" for the first time and tore it up (I had to keep reminding myself to breathe)!! Rilyn has been talking about riding her quad in the dunes ever since she got it for Christmas and she finally got to on this trip. She rode all around camp!!

So this concludes my flashback post and I must say it is nice to be back in the blogger world ... keeping track of the many many memories in our lives!!!

PACKERS FOOTBALL . . .

Trey completed his 1st season of flag football as a Green Bay Packer and he loved every minute of it! Here are a few snapshots from his season ... for the most part he played Quarterback and by the end of the season everyone was telling us we need to call him Treyton ... lol!! His team ended up in 3rd place out of 4 teams and all the kids had a blast and learned alot.

Game Face!!





#1 FAN'S!!

We had the end of the season party/awards ceremony at Skunk Creek and all the kids got a shirt and a medal for such a great season!!

This whole experience was a ton of fun, thanks to the coaches, Bill & John for your dedication and PATIENCE!!