What we've been up to....

Two weekends ago Nick and I were watching tv and saw that the CHP was having an Open House in Stockton so we decided to go and see what it was all about. They had a lot of the different cars that the CHP has used throughout the years and some other cool stuff including a helicopter landing which was our favorite part. After that Nick took me to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D! I'm now wondering what it would be like to jump around in a jello mold...



This last weekend was my nephew's birthday party at Fog Willow Pumpkin Patch. Since it wasn't until the late afternoon we headed down to Elk Grove early to check out the Giant Pumpkin Harvest Festival in Elk Grove Park. We saw some seriously giant pumpkins! It was a cool little festival. It had a bunch of fenders and fun stuff for kids to do including carnival games. Check out the size of the crazy pumpkins....



At Cale's party we saw some cool farm animals, took a hayride and got to play on a giant haystack as well as a cool play structure. Andi is getting creative and decorated her cupcakes to the theme of the party, they were very cute. Everyone had a great time and all the kids got to take home a perfectly size little pumpkin. We love the pumpkin patch AND we love Cale.

Nick had a birthday... Shout Hooray!

This past week has been Nick's birthday week. I wasn't sure how I was going to pull it off but I decided that I would get him a present everyday for seven days since he has spoiled me these last two birthdays. They ranged from silly little gifts like a diet pepsi to silly awesome ones like the first season of ChiPs. Yesterday was Nick's actual birthday and we celebrated over at the Langstraats house because our apartment doesn't really accommadate more than four people. (Thanks again guys!) We had dinner there, ate the experimental Snickers cake, and then opened presents including his last one from me.

The Cake...It has melted caramel, peanuts and chocolate chips in between two layers of chocolate cake with whipped butter cream frosting and snickers bars on top...it was pretty delicious but I felt like I ate five candy bars in one piece of cake...

Nick blowing out his candles Brianna style

Showing off the beautiful card that Bri made for him.

I knew that Chad and Erin were getting him the BYU hat so I saved the reversable BYU basketball shorts as his last gift.

Birthday weeks are hard work but I had a lot of fun trying to pick things out for him and I think that he had a lot of fun opening up his silly presents everyday.

Labor Day

For Labor Day Nick and I invited ourselves on a trip to Apple Hill with my parents. Everyone else had the same idea so it turned out to be almost the whole family. We went to our regular stop for chocolate caramel apples, hanging by the pond, apple juice and checking out the crafts. After that we stop by another place that had some farm animals that the nephews and niece really enjoyed at least until Jill got licked by a cow. We had a great lunch and then headed home to relax and have dinner with Megan and Bubba. We had an awesome time and I hope you enjoy some of the pictures of our day.

My Birthday Week

For my actually birthday Nick and I went to the River Cats baseball game with some friends of ours. One of our friends had a bunch to tickets and parking passes that needed to be used by that night so we were lucky that he invited to go along for FREE. We didn't win but I did get a chance to fill myself with ridiculous amounts of liquid cheese. It was a lot of fun.

Before the game (Check out our awesome sits. Thanks Sims!)

Nick and Chad (Erin was out of town.)

My friend Michelle's birthday is the day before mine and she had a 80s themed bowling party that weekend. I hadn't been bowling in a long time so it was fun to see how poorly I still played. The food was great, especially the desserts, (rubic cube cupcakes and a cake decorated like a cassette tape) and her one year daughter provided amazing entertainment with her dancing skills.

Michelle and I in our matching yellow.

On Sunday we had dessert with my family and just had a great time celebrating. My mom even made me a gift that had 25 little gifts of 25 things each. (25 dimes, 25 stickers, 25 cotton balls...that type of thing.) I had a great birthday this year!

Ratting out my big sister....

A conversation had with my nephew this afternoon...

Dax: That's a stoplight...

Me: You are correct.

D: Umm Mur green says go.

M: I know, but I have to wait for the cars in front of me to go too. What does red say?

D: Red says stop.... and... yellow says go faster!

M: Who told you yellow means go faster?

D: Just my mom.

M: Oh...you're mom is so busted.

D: No, Mur, you're busted.

Happy Early Birthday To Me!

For an early birthday present Nick planned a mini vacation for the two of us this weekend. I told him I wanted to be surprised but about a day before we left I changed my mind and he told me part of the plan but kept our finally destination a secret still.

First Stop: We went to Blondie's Pizza in Berkeley for lunch. That pizza is so delicious I can't even tell you. The crust is amazing and Nick tells me that the BBQ chicken pizza is just as good as the pepperoni. It's pretty much THE reason to go to Berkeley.

Second Stop: After lunch we went and spent the day in San Francisco. We hung out at Pier 39 where we saw all the crazy people and fulfilled my salt water taffy needs. Nick and I also went to the aquarium were we saw the silliest sting ray and got to touch sting rays and tiger sharks. We finished our time in San Francisco at Ghiradelli square were we had a delicious ice cream sundae. For your viewing pleasue here are some pictures of the day and a video of the silly sting ray.

Third and Final Stop: Our final stop was in Pacifica, which is about a half hour away from San Francisco, were our hotel was. The hotel was apparently not what Nick had expected when he made the reservation online but we laughed about it and made the best of it all. There was a beach right next to us that we hung out on after dinner at L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Nick was cracking me up with his Indiana Jones seaweed whips and singing to his new best pal Gully.

It was such a fun trip and I'm so glad that I have such an amazing husband that was willing to do all of it for me. It was a great way to start celebrating my birthday and now the only problem is how in the world am I going to top this for his birthday next month?

What do you do when your husband is out of town?

I invite cute boys over to my house to spend the night. Nick went out of town on Wednesday to Tahoe for the High Adventure trip with the scouts so I was own left on my for four days. In my never ending quest to be the best aunt ever I decided to invite my oldest nephews, Lucas and Mason, over to my apartment for a sleepover. I love those guys! We had a lot of fun eating McDonalds, swimming in my pool, making our own ice cream creations, building a fort, watching the Ant Bully, playing Wii and hanging out at the playground. I love having the opportunity to spend some special time with them and I can't wait until I have a bigger place so that Dax can come too.

Watching the Ant Bully in the fort.