One Lucky Lady!

This past weekend Kyle and I took off early Saturday and stayed out until Sunday around noon. It doesn't seem like that long but while we were gone we enjoyed eachother so much! We laughed, goofed off, cried (well maybe just I cried), prayed, read books and talked through a couple decisions we have been having a hard time with. Every time we go away like this we leave wondering why the heck we wait so long to make it happen again. Honestly I am so lucky to be married to such an awesome guy and spending time together like that reminded me again how much I love him!

Here is the man (after me begging to get a picture of him)

who makes me feel like such a lucky lady so often!

And here is a better view from the hotel room (with the huge parking area cut out of the bottom of it) in far off Sacramento. We used that priceline.com and gave it a shot to try and get a 4 star hotel at a 3 star price and it worked. We'll have to try that again.

Hopefully tomorrow as we celebrate his Birthday as a family we will be able to capture some more exciting pictures. ;)

9 years and counting

For our Anniversary this year the kids set up a romantic restaurant for us in the family room. Kyle picked enchiladas for dinner so I made that and they served us our dinner at "the restaurant". Before dinner they sent us out for some appetizers with Adison while they set up the final touches. Then when we got home (i mean back to "the restaurant") we waited in the lobby (play room) before the hostess (Avery & Adison) could seat us.

Here is what we walked into.

Lots of fresh picked flowers and petals covered our table.

The table was so cute!

Our waitress let us know about the drinks that were available.

(Kenyon wanted to dress up too)

And her assistant came to help her.

Dinner entertainment was our wedding video that we all had a blast watching. We totally forgot about all the goofballs in our wedding (Jill & Cindi, Adia thought you both were drunk at the reception) and how AMAZING Kyle's sister Leah sounded when she sang at the ceremony.
And Kyle's gifts to me were all over the fireplace adding decor to the room.

This pretty little waitress was super cute and really wanted to join us at our table.

It was a wonderful evening to celebrate 9 wonderful years married to my best friend!

Next year though, for our big 10, I expect a real romantic restaurant in another country (or at least a different state or city)!

Homeschool Convention/Beach Day

After being married to Kyle for 9 years I am starting to figure him out. So when I really want to go to a 2 day conference listening to homeschool speakers and checking out curriculum I have learned to speak his language. "Honey, do you want to go with me to a homeschool conference and then we can go to the beach the next day"? Of course, he said yes. We took classes on teaching children to serve, organization, Essays vs. Reports and so many other great topics. It was a refreshing time for us to rethink why we homeschool and get excited about the upcoming year. Oh and we got to go to El Burros for dinner!

Then the next day Kyle got his day in the sun and we went with both of my sister's families to the beach and had a great time! It was such a treat to be with them. Here are just a few of the many pictures of our day.

Adia has always LOVED the beach!
BFF's Avery and Lauren


Daddy enjoyed trying to teach Kenyon to skim board.

Princess Adison had a great time.


Kaden enjoyed it as long as he was next to me and far from the waves. He is our first kid to not totally LOVE the ocean! Bummer!

This picture was so cute I had to include it but really he had a great time and spent most of the day looking for food. I'm not sure if he ate more sand or food but regardless he loved it!

Lunch Time!

Auntie Tata was so fun and dug a big hole for the kids to play in!

Brookie has gone with me to the beach so many times in her life and she always spends the day wrapped in a towel complaining she is cold. For some reason though each time we go she thinks she is going to like it.

Little Erin belongs in my family. She LOVES the beach and isn't afraid of the water at all.

BFF's Erin and Adison

Hopefully someday these guys will be BFF's too.

DJ & Kenyon both had a great time but totally enjoy different things!

DJ was excited to learn how to "Buggie Board"

and some other cool tricks too.

And of course on our way home we stopped at Pizza my Heart for dinner and a to check out another beach. The kids looked so cute waiting for the pizza!


And this is my BEAUTIFUL Lauren on the way home with us. I snapped this picture in the car because sometimes her beauty catches me so off guard. Wow!

We did it!

Well, in our almost 8 years of marriage Kyle and I have managed to get away without kids now three times - once for the honeymoon, once for one night when Avery was about 18 months and once a couple weekends ago. I thought I would post the proof since I know that no one believes I really did it. We left our camera home so my sister could capture what she did with the kids (who all did really well - even better than I did) but when we decided to go to Universal Studios we had to buy a disposable so we could show the kids all the cool stuff we saw.

Here we are on the hotel balcony in Newport Beach

This is some dog from Beverly Hills Chihuahua and The Dog Hotel movie - I knew the kids would think this was cool.
Here is when I volunteered Kyle to be in a demonstration of how they make sound effects... he wasn't too happy with me - but I had so much fun watching him.

And here is our favorite picture of us with Kyle's hero!

I'm so lucky that I'm married to my best friend and even without tons of time for just us we are still in love and still very happy to be married to each other. Thanks Kyle for forcing me to go away with just you... I had fun and look forward to our next getaway! I promise next time I won't cry for the first day and a half (but you kind of asked for it by taking me to a total kid place this time).