Laguna Beach, CA

We spent a great day at Laguna Beach during our trip.  The kids were SO excited when we got to the beach.  They sprinted straight for the water and spent the first 30 minutes running at the surf, then running from the waves and screaming with glee.

This was a typical June California beach day...high of 70 degrees and the water was c-h-i-l-l-y, but that didn't phase the boys!

Let the digging commence!

Does this make anyone else feel claustrophobic? No? Yes? Mom? Ok, moving on...

Lot's of frolicking in the sand...

We took a walk down the beach to the tide pools to look for crabs.

When I saw this next picture, it reminded me of the 70's for some reason.

So I made it into a little 70's nostalgic post card...

(For those who aren't familiar with Photoshop, all I did to create this look was run Pioneer Woman's Seventies Action on this picture (takes 5 seconds).  Then I added text (the font is called Fabulous, find it here) and decreased the opacity of the text to about 70% to give it a faded/dated look. Easy peasy!)

California Amusement Park: Scandia

On our first full day in California, our nephew CJ was having his 8th birthday party at Scandia Amusement Park.  Seth was really, really excited!!

The first thing Seth wanted to ride was this roller coaster.  He had been on a few fast rides at Disneyland last year, but this was his first true roller coaster with a big drop.

Oh my. Steve knows his picture is being taken so he is totally posing and smiling, but still has a protective arm around Seth.  Seth has a death grip on the rail and look as if he might be reconsidering his decision to ride this thing!  He was smiling when he got off, but he didn't ask to ride it again.

When I came across this next picture later that day, I could not stop laughing.  Steve's brother Chris and his son CJ are in the last car.  Chris is obviously having a blast.  But it is the faces of the kids on the right side of the cars, starting with the little boy in the 2nd row and all the way back to CJ, that crack me up.  They all look terrified/miserable!  This is supposed to be fun, right?!?

Click on image to enlarge!  Please, please click on this and have a good laugh. :-)

Grandpa and Caleb

Steve and his brother Chris

Caleb's first roller coaster!!

Steve & Caleb are in the front, and Steve's mom Terri (Grandma) and Seth are right behind them.  Caleb looks a little better in the middle shot...I think he liked going up the hills better than going down them!

Riding the Monster Trucks with Grammi.  Now, this is more Caleb's speed!  

The boys all LOVED these bumper boats, including the grown boys.  They had guns on the front that you could use to soak the other drivers.

This is Steve and Caleb vs. Chris and Seth.  Our other nephew Malachi is at the bottom right.

They got off these boats completely soaked but with big smiles all around!

The go-karts were a big hit, too!  Grandpa and Malachi are in first, then Grammi and Caleb in 2nd, and Chris' wife Aimie and one of CJ's friends are in 3rd.  None of the kids were old enough to drive, so an adult had to drive with each child.  As you can tell, the grown ups weren't having ANY fun at all...

What a fun day with Steve's family!

California Dreamin'

I am finally caught up with life and starting on our California photographs!  We had a truly wonderful family trip at the beginning of June.

First off, we drove...straight through...to California.  With two kids strapped into car seats the whole way.  In a very small Kia, which means the person in the passenger seat can't lean the seat back without squashing the child behind you.

And you know what?  It was GREAT!  The kids did so good, and Steve is always a rock star driver in the wee hours of the night.  And I discovered that books on CD help me stay awake when it is my turn to drive!

We left at around 7pm, the kids were asleep by 9 and slept all the way through the night.  By the time they wake up in the morning, 12 hours of the trip is gone and they feel like it is just starting.  Now, I won't lie.  By about noon'ish we are all ready to be done with the car.  But we take long meal breaks and always try to stop somewhere that has a playground.  We got to Steve's Dad's (Steve's :-) house by about 6pm that evening.  Yes, if you just did the math, taking into consideration that we gained two hours, that equals 25 hours.  Whew!

Steve's Dad and stepmom always make us feel super welcome.  They have two rooms we can take over, which makes it so nice not to have to share a room with the kids for 10 days.  We always have so much fun just hanging out, eating meals together and talking.  They have a pool and a chocolate lab named Shurman.  If you look out the front door, the mountains are right in front of you and you can get to the beach in less than an hour.  It is chilly in the mornings and evenings and sunny in the afternoon.

It is a rough place to take a vacation, let me tell you!

This photo was actually taken on our last day right before we left, but it was the only picture we got of Steve (Grandpa), Jacey (Grammi) and both our boys together.  And Shurman of course!

Next Up...our trip to Scandia!

Summer Salsa, Pioneer Woman Style

The Horvath's love chips and salsa.  I have been making my own pico de gallo for a couple years now, but I hadn't tried my hand at restaurant style salsa yet.

The Pioneer Woman is one of my go-to sites for recipes.  I love that she uses a ton of step-by-step photographs with the recipes that she posts.  I have attempted about a dozen of her recipes, and every single one has been good.

I also have her cookbook, which I waited in line for 6 hours at Border's in Dallas to have autographed.  Does that make me crazy?  Probably, but it was fun times waiting in that line with two other equally crazy girls.

You can go here for the step-by-step instructions (with photos!) for the salsa, and find her printable recipe for Restaurant Style Salsa here.

Some changes you can make to the recipe are to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned.  I cut this recipe in half because I wasn't sure we could eat it all before it went bad...no preservatives!  I also used 3 cloves of garlic instead of one, and added some chopped onions that I didn't process quite as much as the rest.

Yummy Summer Salsa!

Summertime Blog Makeover

I was inspired to makeover my blog yesterday.  Having fresh new family photographs will do that to you!


Sabrina Tubbs was our photographer, and we had a great time with her at a local park this past Tuesday.  She was very patient with our antsy four year old that doesn't particularly like to sit still in one spot for more than about 10 seconds.


Sabrina is raising money to attend a YWAM school in just a few weeks, so it was cool to be able to support her fundraising efforts.  She took the family photos in the blog banner I made above, and she also took the individual shots of us to the right.  We hadn't taken family photos in over 2 years, so it was time!

Here are a few more of my favorites from our session with Sabrina:

(Click on any image to see larger version)