I have neglected the blog...

But don't feel bad...it's not the only thing I have neglected...my house, my morning run, my sugar free diet, etc. etc. We had been home, I mean in Fresno, for two weeks and it was time to GET OUT again. So, we left last thursday for Nana's house. Elizabeth and I made a trip down to the Fashion District in L.A. accompanied by Carrie and beautiful little Elise. We had such fun touching all the fabrics and deciding what we wanted. It was great fun. Friday, we lounged around and swam at Nana's. Rick joined us on Saturday. He spent most of the day working on crown molding at his mom's, but we did finish off the evening with a nice dinner at Claim Jumper. Sunday was Carter's birthday. We got to celebrate with Nana and Papa, Mark and Carrie, Allegra and Aurora, Judy and her kids and Elise and Alexis. It was quite a gathering...Salmon for dinner cooked by Papa OUTSIDE (for my benefit) and cheesecake for dessert. Yummy. i can't believe Carter's 8!

Monday was filled with playdates with the Phans and packing and shopping for the camping trip on Tuesday. We (Judy and her kids and me and my kids) left Tuesday at about 1:00 or so in the afternoon and arrived at Refugio Beach. We met Dionne Liddiard and Tami Hill and set up camp in a very crowded campground close to the beach. As soon as we figured out how to get the dumb rainfly on the tent (which may or may not have taken a really long time), we headed to the beach. Little did we know what was lurking...TAR. EVERYWHERE!!! The kids loved the beach and the sand but they all came back covered in tar. Their swimsuits were ruined as were their shoes and let's not even talk about their feet. Well, I guess we should.. . They were black with sticky tar covering them. Judy had brought some petroleum jelly to help remove it, but we went through the tube in no time! We tried mayonaise and that didn't work too well...Baby wipes were somewhat successful but it was seriously DISGUSTING! It's four days later and I found tar in Malia's hair and on the boys' faces that was pretending to be freckles. The kids enjoyed the campfire and smores and actually went to bed by about 10:00. However...the night was less than restful. It could be the TRAIN that drove through the campground or the fact that we were adjacent to Highway 101 which was full of semi trucks putting on their LOUD brakes all night. Or, the fact that we were HOT all night. I don't know, but it made for a very sleepless night.

The next day, the kids enjoyed the waves again...only this time, there was some chaffing involved. The boys had a blast boogie boarding, but their bellies were all red from the sand and the board rubbing them. Walking around in a wet swimsuit all day...well, that causes some chaffing too. Anyway, you get the idea. However, I did successfully cook foil dinners all by myself for the first time. They turned out pretty good and we ate when it was still light outside. Who knew? The kids got a kick out of making jiffy pop on the stove. They had never seen that before and loved it...We finally headed to bed around 11:00 after listening to scary stories courtesy of Dionne. The kids crashed almost immediately, but Judy and I...not so much. After we finally fell asleep, the wind kicked up to tornado levels. Malia woke up crying because she was sure the tent was going to blow away. Dionne ended up holding up her tent (which wasn't staked) for like an hour or something so it didn't blow over. David woke up and cried for awhile too. The wind didn't die down until morning..when it completely stopped. RUDE! You could not get me out of that place fast enough! We packed up in record speeds and headed for nana's house. We were so exhausted that all of us took a long nap (mine was like 4 hours) and got up just in time to head to dodger night! Once I got up from my nap, the horrible night's sleep we had had the night before didn't seem so bad. We were pumped and ready to go to Dodger stadium.

Dodger night rocked! It happened to be Mormon night so Elder Ballard threw out the first pitch. The guy who sang the national anthem was a BYU vocal performance major. He was excellent. We had great seats in the left field pavilion. We got there before the gates even opened and had time to watch batting practice. Brett actually caught a ball, but it went through his glove and somebody snagged it. So close. It was a great game. Jake liked watching the game and Carter enjoyed playing 3,000 questions with Brett and, of course the snacks and Dodger Dog. The Dodgers were losing the entire game until the bottom of the ninth inning when Ethier hit a three run home run to win the game. What a finish!!!! Brett and Papa and I were going crazy! I wish we could've seen Mark's face...he was there but in different seats...

Friday, we slept in, packed up and headed home so I could teach an enrichment class that night. Saturday morning, I helped at a young single adult conference speed dating activity for a few hours. I had enough of a break in between to come home, read my R.S. lesson for Sunday and return to help run the Wii gaming room for the YSA conference. By the time we got home at 10:30, I was EXHAUSTED! My prep. for my R.S. lesson was limited to the hour during Sacrament meeting! Whew. What a whirlwind of a week (or so). I am thrilled that I do not have any responsibilities (besides my kids, and the house, and my work for Elise of course) for a week! And...the countdown begins...14 days until the kids start school again! Yippee for public school.

So, that's where I've been. Now somebody start commenting or I'm going to quit posting...ever. Tell me where you've been and why you haven't posted either. Ready, go.