55 and Still Beautiful!

Today is my Mom's 55th birthday!! As is well known we all gather 'round and celebrate...but my mom refused that this year. Even though us girls always take care of the dinner and dessert so that she doesn't have to do anything...what she really wanted was to get out of the house and away from the work!!

So today I took her out to lunch. We ate at the Red Robyn at The District and enjoyed yummy salads. Then we did some some shopping!!! Yay - I haven't been fun shopping in months and months - only dumb shopping. We found super cute clothes that I am determined to own. Mom really wanted a new workout outfit, so we went to Ross and Target and scored her some cute duds and then we went to Hobby Lobby for some yarn and found some super cute knitting projects - my favorite is the Yoga Socks. She loves to knit -it's her stress reliever - so she's going to make me a pair...Yay!!

And of course I didn't get pictures of us doing the fun stuff, but only of the not-so-fun stuff: Canning. Yes, she wanted to can on her birthday. But then my dad came home and took her out so she did other fun stuff, too.

It was a fun day, just me and my dear mum. Happy Birthday Mom!

Wait...What?? You Just Got....Married???

Tuesday August 18th I headed on over to me padres' home to ride my horse as I do now several times a week. This particular morning I planned on riding and then scooting on home to get things done. But when I came in the house to take my boots off, my Grandma Fox had just walked in. Well, I don't get to chat with her very much so I stuck around.

In the meantime, Gaven was getting ready to go somewhere...I asked him where...he said "Gotta go help Morgan with something"...wouldn't specify further. Gaven, Morgan, and Sam (Morgan's girlfriend) walked out the house in jeans, t-shirts, and flip flops. Okay - normal. So me, my mom, and my grandma hang out for awhile cuz my mom was helping my grandma with a little sewing project.

About an hour and half later, Grandma was getting ready to go and we were saying good-byes and walking her to the door when the three of them walked in with big cheesy smiles. I'm thinking..."Am I missing something here??" Asked again...no answer. Okay - not so normal. Something is definately going on. Grandma can't back out of our gargantuously long driveway all that well so as Gaven was walking in he grabbed her keys and went and turned her Mustang around. Asked Gaven "WHAT IN THE SAN HELL IS GOING ON???" Answer: "Can't tell you." Grrrrrrrrrrgh!!!

We all walk in the house after Grandma had left and Morgan and Sam are still smiling like there is some huge inside joke going on. I wanted in - real real bad. Morgan hands Mom a big white envelope and from across the kitchen I ask: "What IS that??" She shows it to me...from across the kitchen...which is of no help since I have horrible eyesight even WITH my contacts in. Every one laughs. Ha Ha very funny. GRRRRRRRGGGGHH! I go and grab that stupid envelope so I can see for myself. I pull out....a Marriage License?? What the.....??? First thought was that it had to be fake. Why would they have a Marriage License...with real signatures on it...in an envelope that has Sherrie Swenson's name on it? I start freaking out - just a little bit - cuz I am still confused. I mean, they left only an hour and a half ago in street clothes and come back with a Marriage License...and they didn't tell anybody?? Such are my thoughts.

Apparently I gave the best reaction to my brother's elopement. I guess I am pretty funny. Once I figured out that they actually did get married, I freaked out - a lot. Then I cried - a little. There were only a few people that knew, mainly the parents of the bride and groom, and the witnesses. They didn't want any big productions or drama. They just wanted to be married and it kinda suits the crazy kids. Gaven was Morgan's witness and he only found out about the whole thing the night before!! I only found out so soon cuz I happened to be there. My sisters soon followed suit so by the time the lovebirds came back from their Park City getaway, we all knew. And now, they've given the go-ahead to spread the news beyond.

So my little brother is married and our family has welcomed our first sister/daughter-in-law. She is a really great girl and we are really happy for them. They are now going to work to be sealed on the exact same date in one year - where we will get to be in attendance this time, in the place that really matters to them to have their families surrounding them.

Birthday Volleyball

The eldest sibling, Amanda, turned 33 on the 21st. We all gathered 'round the following Sunday and celebrated her increasing age - she gets teased a lot cuz she's the oldest and she's hitting all the old ages first....and then she'll say 'Yeah but every year I get older, so do you and you will be here before you know it!'...and then I say 'Yeah but you will always be older than me, therefore, you will always be older!! Older is another weird word I just added to my list of weird words.

So anyway, we busted out the volleyball net and a soccerball (cuz one of their previous dogs apparently chewed up our volleyball) and we played eight rounds. So fun. It's another summer favorite of ours.

Halfway through, Morgan (aka The Jolly Green Giant...however, he will argue that he is 'neither Jolly nor Green') went up for a spike and took the net down with him, snapping one pole in half. Nice. Don't worry though...the game went on after some repair with red duct tape and two knives. Yeah...we're creative. Even my mom played several games.

By the time it got dark, the homemade ice cream was done and we went inside to scarf that down along with peach poke cake. We sang our very best...really...we should be some sort of choir. Good Times!

San Diego: Day 1

So as I mentioned, Paul had planned out our entire anniversary trip and kept it a secret from me for months! I didn't have a single clue as to where we were going until we checked our bags at the airport - I was very excited when I learned we would be going to San Diego!! I have never even been to California before so everything was going to be a first for me.

After an hour and a half flight (which was pure torture - I don't know how I ever made it all the way to Maui), and stopping by the bathroom to expell my guts, we were shuttled to Enterprise and then soon on our way to our home for the next four days - Paradise Point. It's a pretty cool place that has little garden homes all over the property and five pools, miniature golf, restaurants, a gym, and dock where you can rent sailboats, waverunners, kayaks, and more. It's very pretty there.

After settling in, we walked to the restaurant on the property to grub down since we hadn't eaten in eight hours...little bit hungry we were. The patio of the restaurant faces the ocean and there is a little moat that surrounds it where there are the biggest fish I have ever seen and sting rays that float around.

After that we went to Coronado Beach. It's very pretty there and crammed with people. I didn't have a desire to get into the ocean...it's just not as compelling as the water in Hawaii.

We walked the beach and a little bit of the city before we got back to the car and headed for a some monuement that I can't remember the name of and we didn't even see it because we didn't have cash on us to get into but I wasn't weeping about that at all. We did find this graveyard for fallen soldiers...extremely humbling (there had to be thousands of them)...and took pictures of all the views:


Returning to the hotel, we went to the main pool and sat in the hot tub and then laid out for awhile. The weather is unbelievable there and it felt so good to just lay there in perfect weather.

For dinner, we headed Downtown and went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I am always happy to go to a new Hard Rock and get my souvenier glass:

Afterwards, we walked around the giant mall which is just like the Gateway but it has three or four levels and it's ginormous. Then we drove around Downtown - it is so busy there!! There are pedicabs everywhere and all the bars and clubs have open windows and patios so music just blasts through the air down the entire avenue. I freaking loved it! After some exploring, we finally went home and crashed (I have to drug up to fly and so I am always a walking zombie for the first day of any vacation).

San Diego: Day 2

Friday morning we woke up and Paul went out to hunt and gather for me. While he did that I went out and scouted where all the pools were located. When he came back we decided to hit the Adult Lagoon pool. It was strangely freezing in the water, and so we spent most of the time in the hot tub by ourselves (;P) and the hot tub was not hot. WTF? Anyhoo, we then went and got ready to go explore.

First on our agenda for the day was visiting La Jolla Cove. After driving ten minutes just to find a place to park the effin car (seriously parking is AW.FUL.) we got out and just started walking and we walked the entire thing. It is super pretty and has gorgeous views.

I was super stoked that we were able to see some seals just chillin' in this one little cove by the Lifeguard station (I wouldn't have minded to scout me some lifeguards, either. They were smokin'. Paul who??? :):

After that we drove back to Downtown and went to this amusement park where a Wave House is located. It's a restaurant with one of those wave machines so we just chilled for an hour or so and watched people surf. It was awesome:

And after that we went back to the hotel to get ready for....Sea World!!! Wooohoooooooooo!!

The first thing we ended up doing after we trekked through the miles of parking lot was head back to the Sea Lions. We just ended up walking aimlessly and happened upon the most obnoxious noise I have ever heard, except of course, whiny kids. It made me laugh so hard.

We spent about ten minutes at the feeding area and then it was time for the Sea Lions show to start. They are super cute:

We rushed from the Sea Lions to Shamu. It was the first show of three that we watched! It was P.A.C.K.E.D. and we had to stand but we caught the show and that's all that I cared about!! I absolutely loved watching these animals. I am sure everyone does. It was amazing. I was so much more in love with my husband for him bringing me here. Strangely, I had this urge to go home and watch Free Willy.

And this little girl got picked out of the crowd to go down and meet and touch Shamu...I hate her:

Before we went to catch the dolphin show, we went to the Arctic and saw the Baluga whale, the walrus and polar bear...who was sleeping (duh, doesn't he know that we are there to see something exciting happen? Who hired him?):

The dolphins were so fun! I loved watching them jump up so high. The show was cute too especially the little stunt they pull on the audience by 'accidentally' bumping a lady from the audience into the tank when she's really a trainer. She was pretty good with the hysterics and the screaming though.

We pretty much saw everything at Sea World minus Sesame Land (just didn't meet my fancy for some reason). So we checked out the sharks:

and the Manatees:

played with the Starfish:

....and the Sting Ray's, and the turtles, and the penguins, and etc....

And Then!! It was time for....Shamu Rocks!!!!! So. Excited. We went to both shows actually and caught the fireworks afterward.

All in all I believe we walked about twenty miles. Or a hundred. Who knows exactly. We literally crashed when we finally got back to the hotel at midnight.