7 year celebration

Billy and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary this last weekend! When we exchanged cards on our anniversary in between Christmas and New Years, Billy's card came with a paper showing a reservation at Avila Hot Springs. Then, after talking to some coworkers, he switched the reservation over to Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort. Both are in Avila Beach, just a little over an hour north, but the Sycamore resort was more of a fit for our occasion.
I made a phone call to our wonderful neighbors down the road, the Radelfingers, and they agreed to watch the boys over night! The boys were REALLY excited to spend the night at Asa's house and didn't mind being left there one bit. Scott took them out on the ranch on a quad, Felicia read them stories and they watched a movie. I know they felt right at home over there :)
We dropped them off after lunch on Thursday and drove to Avila. When we got there and got all checked into our room, we got ready for a run to the beach. There was a very convenient trail from the resort, through a golf coarse and over to the beach about 2 miles away. We walked on the beach for a bit and then ran back. We explored the grounds of the resort and checked out all the scattered mineral hot tubs and then went back to the room to clean up for dinner.

Billy made us a reservation for dinner at the restaurant there and they were so very nice and excited to help us celebrate our anniversary. The food was very much gourmet. They have a farm to table menu. We actually saw their garden when we went running earlier, so that was really neat. Apparently they even bottle their own water. Everything that we ordered was delicious and over the top with flavor, but, we could have eaten more. With gourmet comes small portions I suppose. Anyway, they brought us a complimentary dessert and wished us a happy anniversary and then brought us homemade chocolates too!
After dinner we went back to our room and got into our bathing suits and headed to the spa. Billy arranged for us to get a couples massage at the spa at 8pm! Before our treatment we got to soak in the hot mineral water for about 45 minutes, so nice. Then into our massage room for an hour long massage. We both left feeling really good.
Once we got back to our room, I thought we better make a run for a grocery store so that we had some breakfast for the morning. No need for a gourmet breakfast for $50 that won't fill you up. So we drove into San Luis Obispo and found a grocery store, grabbed some instant oatmeal and some bananas and called it good. Our room had a huge flat screen t.v. but no way to watch movies (other than what we could find on the t.v.) Bummer. We ended up watching a show about a guy who builds crazy awesome tree houses. Pretty amazing.
In the morning after our breakfast we headed out for a hike. There was a trail right out the back of the resort up to the top of a ridge that over looked Avila Beach. It was beautiful. Then back down and straight to the yoga dome for an hour of Yoga with this gnarly yogi! He was really good. We felt great again leaving that yoga room. Cleaned up once more and packed everything up. What a great place for a one night get away! Billy asked me if I could imagine staying there for a week.... umm, YES. Especially if I got the full treatment every day ;) Haha.

We met up with Scott and the kids in Solvang, his kids had piano lessons and the boys were just running around hanging out. When they saw us they hardly flinched. It was a good feeling to know that they had such a great time and felt so comfortable with our neighbors. They were actually bummed that we got back so early... they wanted to go back to their house and play more.
Happy Anniversary Billy. Thanks for marrying me and for planning such a wonderful day away. I love you.

New Years Eve Kids Party

Billy and I decided to throw a party on new years eve, for the kids. We have so many avenues of friends that it always makes for a big party when we have one. There are the church and playgroup friends, the canyon and forest service friends, the long time local friends and our good neighbors.
We cleared the driveway and front of the house to set everything up. Brought in a Santa Maria style BBQ, a fire pit and some tables. Set up pop up tents, balls of all kinds, games and crafts and the train table in the play room. Kids brought their bikes, kids were in trees and on swings and bouncing on the trampoline... it was great.
We barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers, had salad and a big pot of rice and beans as well as all the contributions from people who came. We invited the 3 missionaries to come join us as well :) I think I ended up counting 30 kids and at least 25 or so adults. It was a blast. The boys had a great time with so many playmates.
We had planned on celebrating with New York at 9 (the party started at 3) and streaming the ball drop via the Internet hooked up to our t.v. Turns out, we were the only ones left at the house by 9... which was a good thing I think ;) We were all wiped out from all the action. The few who made it to 8pm roasted marshmallows over the fire pit and ate smores. Then we played Headbanz, a new game we got for Christmas. There were 7 kids at this point, including our boys.
I had most everything cleaned up by 10 and my head on my pillow at 10:30. It was a terrific way to celebrate 2013 and ring in the new year. Maybe we will make it an annual tradition... hmmmm.

(of course I have no pictures. I put my camera next to the front door, so I would see it and remember to snap some.... yeah right.) Way to much going on to look that direction.

Christmas sewing and giving

I did a bit of sewing around the Christmas time. I found this cute pattern and tutorial on line for a gathered zipper clutch wallet and tried it out.... it was pretty easy. So, I made a few of them for gifts. I made one for my Christmas bunco gift exchange, one for Williams primary teacher, one for each of the two Christmas baskets I put together for my inactive sisters I visit, one for my "old neighbor" and one to go with the purse I made for my other "old neighbor"! Phew. I sewed a purse that is almost identical to the one I made myself for a friend. It was a request from her husband, who works with Billy, and a surprise for her. So cute. He saw my bag one day and was super impressed and said how much his wife, Katie, would be stoked on a bag just like it. I was happy to make it for him to give to her.
Last, I made a little diaper carrier and matching wipey case for my sister in law who is expecting a baby boy in April. I made one of these for my friend in Hawaii this last summer when she had her first and I thought it was so great that I made one for myself too. I love it and find it super useful. Especially now that the boys are older and I don't want to carry around a huge diaper bag anymore.
I really do enjoy sewing and I have quite the stash of fabric to just go for it, so why not, right. Now if I could just get motivated to conquer the mending pile! :)

Christmas 2013

Our Christmas was a stress free, sick free and quiet one. The most we traveled was an hour and 20 minutes north on Christmas Eve to Los Osos. Billy's brother Ian and his wife Stephanie planned a dinner in which our family came up and Nathan and Rich came down. It was a really wonderful evening spent with family. I really enjoyed watching Billy hang out with his brothers, he doesn't get to do it enough. Ian did a great job with the Prime rib and mashed potatoes. We brought up ceasar salad, asparagus and homemade rolls... dinner was excellent and the company even better. I was also able to bring up 3 bags of baby boy clothes for there expected son in April! They got half the clothes and I'm bringing the other half to Arizona for my sister Jamie who just had a baby boy on the 17th of December.
Christmas morning was nice and quiet. The boys didn't wake up too early and they weren't whining to open presents right away. They started with their stockings and we went from there. Billy and I were able to split up while shopping one day and this made it possible for William to pick a present for Zachary and vise versa. I wouldn't have been able to make that happen otherwise. It was fun to help William find a gift for his brothers :) I look forward to future Christmas's when we can do this more easily.

 Putting on the whole armor of God!

We spent the day playing outside, riding our bikes and going for a walk. It was a beautiful nearly 80 degree day. Around 4pm the missionaries came up to join us for a Christmas dinner. Billy cooked a beautiful turkey! I made homemade rolls, roasted sweet potatoes, asparagus, ceasar salad and fruit. We had chocolate haupia pie for dessert :) Something that I have not made or had in years! It turned out really good. The elders were happy too. The boys helped me pass out a few gifts to the elders and in turn the elders let them help with the unwrapping. Journals and pens, dress socks and a big bag of treats/ snacks. I think they were mostly stoked on the beef jerkey. A package got opened right then and there at the dinner table and they were all smiles. Who knew.
We shared a Christmas message around the fire and then packed up into the cars and drove down the street to carol and deliver treats to our neighbors. The missionaries left from there and then we were invited inside to hang out with our friends and neighbors the Radelfinger family. It was a perfect way to end such a sweet Christmas day. The Radelfingers had delivered treats to us a couple days before Christmas... they made our family out of gingerbread men! It was awesome and delicious. I don't normally care for gingerbread, but Felicia really knows how to make it good.

 

Billy gifted me/us a family membership to the YMCA for Christmas! I am really excited for this. We have talked about joining for years. With his schedule and me being alone as much as I am, it will be a really nice break to be able to drop the kids off in the kids corner and swim laps, run on the treadmill or simply soak in the hot tub! Merry Christmas!