We didn't have to go to the zoo

We didn't have to go to the zoo while we were visiting my parents. We could have just gone to the back yard all day long. This duck made herself a home there a few weeks ago, and her babies hatched the day after we got back from the beach. They were so cute. We had a fun time watching them trying to jump in and out of the pool. Lucky for my mom and dad, they ended up leaving pretty soon after.

Look at them go!! Me and mom where wondering if the momma duck was so sick and tired of her seven baby chicks following her around all day. I would imagine she would just want a break, and to sit around with her other momma duck friends and complain about all she had to do for them all day long! Poor thing. Here's to all the hard working momma's out there.

So, anyway, we didn't have to go to the zoo, but we did anyway. We wanted to cheer up Logan, so we took her to the zoo. I MEAN FOLSOM STATE PRISON. We were really sick of her and told her we were going to drop her off if she didn't stop being naughty.


Just kidding! James just wanted to drive by the prison after we had already been to the zoo, but the girls were hungry for lunch, so I told him we needed to get going. We seriously needed to cheer Logan though. While we were in Bodega Bay, she had wanted to get into the hot tubs and play with all my cousins kids. Well, turns out there really are yucky things in hot tubs. Poor thing got a horrible staph infection, and we spent almost the entire day on friday, at the dr's and trying to go from pharmacy to pharmacy to fill a prescription. What a nightmare for both of us. Here face was so bumpy and spotty. I cried when I was watching her sleep on friday night. We took her to the zoo to try to make her forget. We also went miniature golfing the day before that. Luckily she was able to swim in my parents pool a few times too.




If you zoom in, you can see her poor little spots. She said she was a leopard with all her spots! Way to be upbeat about it.



Autumn enjoying the zoo.



We took a little train ride that when next to the zoo. The engineer took our picture for us. This one shows Logan's spots the most, I think.

Autumn loved playing peek-a-boo whenever we were driving home from anywhere! What a happy baby she is. Course the 11 hour drive was a little more rough on both the poor dears!

Autumn WALKS!

For those of you keeping track, she finally started walking this week! She started out on monday with 4-5 steps (she started the very first time in CA at my mom's with 1-2 steps, and wasn't interested in it again for a week or so), but this week she has full on mastered it. She walked all the way across our living room. Today she was so excited to walk! You could just see it in her face. The wheels were turning in her head, and I could tell she was thinking, "hum, maybe this isn't so hard after all. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!" She must have stood up and down at least 50 times when we were at James' parents tonight. She was walking in circles, and just walking all over the place. We couldn't figure out what got her so hyped up about it, but she was unstoppable! Maybe it was all the cousins around her, showing her how to do it. Anyway, we are very glad about it. She's ONLY 16 and a half months. Ha ha. Now do you see why we celebrate this with you all?!! Sorry, no pics of it yet, but soon!

Some more fun beach pics

What a beautiful beach it is! Full of......

starfish

sea anemone

crabs

more starfish

seagulls

pirate ships.....and the lovely................

sea lions!!! Looks like fun to me!

Next stop......Jelly Belly factory

Fairfield, Ca, was the Jelly Belly factory where we got a free tour of the factory, and a small bag of you guessed it, jelly beans! The girls really loved it! It was pretty interesting to watch and the factory smelled so good!! Of course no cameras were allowed inside the tour part of the factory. And we could not make it out without visiting the candy shop to indulge in our favorite flavors. I knew one of my girls was going to be one of those kids to go and pull on the release levers and let jelly beans fly everywhere, sure enough, Logan did not disappoint us! I felt so bad, but they had it swept up and thrown away in no time. Apparently it happens all the time, I found out when I offered to pay a little extra for her spilled beans. I tried to keep an eye on her, but she's a fast one!! And the candy is so darn distracting! Logan got to spin the "bean boozled" wheel and her jelly bean she landed on would either taste like juicy pear or boogers. She said it was like a pear....hope she wouldn't admit to recognizing the booger flavor! She got a fun sticker for that, and we all enjoyed free samples at the sample bar. If you are ever in the area, we would highly recommend this fun activity for your little ones!





Ronald Regan jelly bean mosaic

George Clooney moasic

Buffalo nickel mosaic (these were all so neat) they had many more inside the factory tour that we couldn't get pictures of. They said it takes about 6 months or so to make one.

San Fransisco here we come

After having to check out of our lovely beach houses at Bodega Bay, we decided to venture down to SF for a little part of the day. Here we are on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco. We walked not quite half way across the golden gate bridge and then went to one little shop, and we were done. We didn't want it to be too much for the girls, so we decided to start making our way towards Sacramento. It was fun to go back for me and James. It's probably been about 8 years, and the girls haven't ever been. The weather was pretty nice, and we had a great time. Logan was very impressed by the bridge. We even saw warning signs on the bridge and the crisis phone attached to the bridge for those who were thinking of doing the "tragic and fatal" jump. Course we did not point that out to Logan. I don't think anyone that little ought to know about sad stuff like that! We did point out to her lovely old Alcatraz, "where really naughty people go to jail." I really wanted to leave after that because, truthfully, I was a little afraid of what Logan might see, and I was not in the mood to try and explain why two guys might be holding hands. Or why one might look at daddy in that way. Best just left alone for a LONG time. I cannot even imagine having to have those conversations yet. Isn't she still a baby? We'll me made it through without any explaining of the sort. PHEWWW!!

Sacramento Temple at night

Saturday night before we went to Bodega Bay, James and I took a quick drive up to the temple to see it at night. James had never been. We were there so late, they finally kicked us out! They told us that they had to lock up the gates and that we needed to leave. We explained that we were from out of town, but were just here to take a few pictures at night. We told them how my mom worked there on wednesday afternoons washing laundry, and then they were a little nicer!! It is a beautiful temple and brings back a lot of sentimental memories for me, of me and my friends going to dances and other activities that were held at the stake center that was there before. It was really fun to see, and to take James there for the first time!

Bodega Bay!! What a day!!

Part of our vacation from June 6th-15th was spent at Bodega Bay, Ca with my dad's family for a reunion. We rented out four beach houses and had a blast. Here are some pics from that part of the trip. Here is Autum enjoying the sand and sun!

here is logan enjoying the beach


our beautiful ocean views and our beach house



We had so much fun. We did not want to come home to reality. We have many more photos we'll be posting soon!!