Time

Ok, so it has been nearly six months since I updated this blog.  Where does the time go?  Life is busy; I can say that much.  We are doing well.  Emily is now in 5th grade and really enjoying school, her friends and life in general.  We still belong to the same wonderful church and love going there and being involved.  I still run, bike, swim.  I am training now for Grandma's marathon in Minnesota on June 16th, 2012.  It will be my birthday.
As for the last few months, I will summarize our events.  In July of 2011, we went to family camp with the church.  I borrowed Tony's camper and drove about an hour to the hills behind Irvine lake.  We had a great time.  In August, Emily and I drove up Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco, Davis and Sacremento.  We are such good traveling buddies.  Along the way we saw beautiful untouched coastline, 3 missions, the Hurst Mansion, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Pier 51, did a trolley tour of San Francisco (that was the way to go), stopped at several beaches, visited my friends Jim and Zora Fowler (love those two).  We then went to Sacremento to visit the capitol building and see a historical fort.  It was a great vacation.  I can't tell you the beauty my eyes have seen here.  God is so magnificent and to think this is nothing compared to what is to come - just blows me away.
I did my first marathon in about 12 years at St. George Utah.  It was great.  I remembered why I liked them so much.  I also did several organized bike rides.  One of them was an all girls bike ride (the Goldilocks Ride) in Las Vegas.  Greg and Emily worked one of the sag stations.  It was so cool seeing them there.  They got a free shirt and they both rocked at their station.  I was diagnosed in November 2011 with stage 0 breast cancer - went through all that.  All is well.  My parents came to see us and June flew in.  I even spoke with my sister in Reno.  We had a great Christmas.  Tony and his family, Greg, Cody, Ben, Chris and his family, Nick, Dan and family, Dave and family were all over my house to celebrate.  Good times.    We ended and began the year with a trip to the dunes near Yuma to visit with Dave and Barb and their extended camp family.  Tony and Rikki went with us and had a blast.  So much so, they wanted to go in Feb. and meet the group again.  This time, they bought Kru a four-wheeler and I rented Emily one.  It was a great trip.  I always have fun with that group.  I did a half marathon in Surf City - Huntington Beach with a very good friend and her husband.  Fun times.  So after all that, I am going to try to keep this updated a little better.  It is already March.  God bless!!

Laughter

Yesterday, Emily wanted me to go swimming with her.  She said she would teach me how to swim underwater.  I can swim fine.  I do triathlons. I just cannot swim underwater.  My body just won't sink.  Anyway, I went along with her just to spend time with her.  It was so funny!  I was so pathetic.  And she is a little mermaid.  She has this funny underwater swim she calls the 'otter swim'.  She swims underwater on her back and crawling.  At one time she had me hold on to her arm like you would a 3-legged race so she could show me how to use my arms.  I laughed so hard.  I haven't laughed like that since Jim was around.  She made me quit looking like a blow fish when I went under.  It was so funny how she would react when I just didn't get it.  Anyway, yeah!!!, I learned to swim on the bottom of the pool.  It is so much fun!  We went again today.  I love my little girl.

Gardening 7/11/2011

I love to garden, love to grow things.  I find it very relaxing and fascinating.  I love the way growing things displays God's power and tender touch.  This year I planted oregano, thyme, basil, tomatoes (only 2 plants), okra and artichokes.  The okra was overpowered by the tomatoes.  I planted one heirloom and one roma.  We had so many tomatoes and they were very yummy.  I also planted cucumbers.  I harvested a couple of artichokes but decided they are too much work so I let the rest turn into flowers - beautiful purple flowers.  Anyway, here are some pictures.

Legoland 6/29/2011

Emily's friend Jessica and her family visited relatives here in California so we met them at Legoland and spent the day.  Emily adores Jessica who babysat her sometimes.  Jessica is a senior now and such a beautiful soul.  We love her and her family.  Her and Emily really click.

Here Emily is standing by a Lego replica of a woman with a baby carriage.

Emily and Jessica copying the display.

Lego owls on a branch.  Emily is all about owls.

Legoland has a wonderful display of Starwars! 

Emily Tin Man Triathlon 6/26/2011

My little girl decided she wanted to do a triathlon so we found one just right for her.  It was a quarter mile run, a mile bike and a 50 yard swim.  She did it like a pro.  I was shocked.  All the kids were jumbled up at the start and they took off way too fast.  So did she.  But she hung in and then got on the bike, so serious.  It was not a very organized tri so kids and parents were everywhere.  When she got off the bike she was running to the pool putting her cap and goggles on at the same time.  She did so well in the pool.  When I went to meet her at the finish, she was overjoyed and saying she wanted to do this again.  My girl!

Here she is before the race.

Finishing the bike ride.

Coming out of the pool area.

All done!  She was so excited getting a medal.

Hotel Del Coronado and Race 6/19/2011

I love to do things in the summer while Emily is out of school.  One of the outings we did was to stay in the Hotel del Coronado for a night.  I scheduled it so I could do a 8.2 mile hard packed sand run along the beach.  It was so much fun and Greg and Emily were waiting and cheering for me at the end.  We then checked into the hotel.  It was beautiful.  The room, the hotel, the grounds, it was all good.  It was a great experience.  We got to do smores on the beach at night.  It was fun.  Well worth it!  Maybe this will become an annual thing. 

This was me finishing the race.  I was tired.  We got to run on a naval base that was closed to the public.

My Greg loves to travel and he loves architecture.

Emily and I making silly faces.

A view of the hotel.

Mmm... smores!

Having lunch on the beach!  The good life.

My sweet Emily.

Jax is 1 year old 6/18/2011

Our precious Baby Jax.  We call him 'Giant Baby' because when Emily, Kru and I are playing with trains or blocks on the floor.  He comes and either sits on everything or plows thru the middle of everything so we always say 'Watch out, here comes giant baby'.  Such a precious little boy, he is the spitting image of his mommy.  He also has her personality.  He is very quite but he doesn't miss a thing.  He is walking as of 10 months and loves to climb stairs.  He was born on Tony's (his Dad, my son) birthday.  What a nice present.  The boys really have everything so I bought a huge birthday bag and filled it up with every kind of ball imaginable.  Jax loves to play with balls.  He got such a thrill out of taking them all out of the bag.  So did I.  They had a really nice party at Tony and Rikki's house for him.  He had his own little cake.  This boy loves to eat so we thought he would just dive into his cake but he didn't.  After he figured out it was ok to have all that good stuff he got a little more excited about it.  I am so blessed to have my precious grandsons and a great daughter-in-law that takes very good care of them and lets me love on them as much as I want.

He got a time-out chair for his birthday.

Here he is opening gifts. 

Sweet little dumpling!

Tony and the boys!