Day at the Beach

We went to Santa Barbara yesterday to pick up Paige and her friend Megan from EFY. Afterwards we went to Goleta Beach to ride the bike trails, which was so much fun. If we lived down there with those trails, and the perfect weather, we'd do that every day. Travis' cousin is here visiting from Kansas, and he's a cyclist, and after we finished riding, and loaded up to drive to Carpinteria to boogie board, he road his bike there. I was skeptical he could get there, but 20 miles later (give or take) he was there, and about the same time that we got there in the car! We spent the rest of the day boogie boarding at what is supposedly the safest beach in the world. There's little or no undertow. The waves were small, but the kids had a ball. I personally prefer bigger waves. The possibility of getting pounded and thrashed around by the waves is exhilerating. :) We saw a school of dolphins and a seal in the morning at Goleta, and that was really neat. I don't remember seeing dolphins in California, much less so close to shore. On the way home we randomly picked a Mexican restaurant off of Travis' GPS. It lists the names of restaurants with no information, so we just picked one. Travis thought "Jim and Rob's Fresh Grill" in Ventura sounded good. I thought a Mexican place with the names Jim and Rob couldn't be too authentic but we went anyway. When we arrived at this little shack of a place, Travis was skeptical I think, but little shacks are usually good. This place was excellent. I plan on finding a reason to back someday. All in all we had a great day. We were in 3 different cars so Travis and Steven stayed so Steven could see the sunset over the water (one of the goals of his trip), and Travis' parents and the kids and I came home earlier. Still, 4 am to 8 pm was a long day. Paige and Megan had to be picked up at 7am and it's about a 2 hour drive. (Ugh!)

You can see more pictures from our trip by clicking on our photo site link to the left.

We took a family picture today at the Prime Desert Woodland Reserve. We wanted to go before the sun was up too high, and leaving the house at 7:30 am, it may as well have been mid-day. Oh well, they turned out pretty good anyway. Once I get down to my goal weight, we're going to take another one where we do the whole matching clothes thing. We really only did this today as a dry run for the picture we're taking of the bishop's family on the fourth of july.

A Great Day at the Temple

We went to the temple on Tuesday with Travis' cousin Tracy as she went for the first time. We spent most of the day there, and did all kinds of work. What a great day we had!

Amanda's Graduation

My cousin Amanda graduated from CSUCI... Cal State University Channel Islands. She's the first Arthur to graduate from college. What a great day we had. She's so sweet and amazingly smart. She had her entire college paid for through grants and scholarships. Let's hope my kids learn a lesson from her!

Father's Day

I've been trying to think about what to get Travis, and our Dads for Father's Day. Whenever they want something, they get it, so what do we do for gifts? Fall back on the uncreative gift card? Travis loves electronic things, but he's very particular, and I can pretty much guarantee I'd get the wrong thing. Even though I can't think of what that "thing" might be. Maybe I'll leave Travis' dad's gift up to Travis, so I have 1/3 less to worry about. But who am I kidding? I'll still worry that it won't be a good enough gift. Good enough being thoughtful enough, useful enough, and appreciated enough. I want to give gifts that people are excited to get! I just have no clue what that would be. So, you know what I'll be thinking about the next 2 days. At least I know I can provide a great Father's Day dinner.

Mathletes

Madison made her school mathletes team. What a smarty! She must get it from her father. Math has never been my strong suit!

This was a neat picture, where Travis actually stitched together several pictures of the primary kids singing at the Memorial Day breakfast. When I posted it to the blog, it cut some of it off, but you get the idea. Stitching photos works best on stationary objects. Obviously these kids were far from stationary, so it was much harder. If you look carefully you'll see kids with multiple ears and stuff, so it's best not to look carefully. We really enjoy this Memorial Day tradition in our ward. There's always a flag ceremony, a military veteran speaker, and a pancake breakfast. It really makes the day seem special, and more than just a day off of work and school. This year I was asked to go buy my cub scout leader shirt, which I was procrastinating, because they wanted me in "uniform" to offer the closing prayer. Well, I've never spent $54 on a shirt for myself, much less an ugly shirt. That's what it end up costing after all the patches. I better be Cub Scout leader for a long time!

We went camping and motorcycle riding in Kennedy Meadows just before Travis and I went to Idaho. I don't know if I'd call it fun. I think it will be much more fun when Ty's a little older. At one point I looked over at him and he appeared to be doing snow angels in the soft dirt... face down. I'm feeling redundant, as I wrote about this in my camping food column for the newspaper, but most people looking at this blog are from out of town, and won't be reading my column anyway. Honestly, my main motivation on going on this campout to begin with was to get material, and photos, for the column. The pictures turned out pretty good. I've just never been a big nature girl. If the family wants to continue going camping and motorcycle riding for the next several years, maybe my good husband will take pity on me, and let us purchase a toy hauler, complete with beds, bathroom, and kitchenette. Of course, I won't be pushing it too hard because first I want wood floors, and new livingroom furniture. It never ends. Many of you know that I gave up my wood floors for the time being to pay for food storage. I tried to rationalize that in an emergency we could break up the floors for fuel, but that didn't satisfy my conscience. Surely I'll be blessed for my obedience, and get wood floors right? Well, I stray. Ty kept wanting to ride the motorcycles, and finally Travis gave in and gave him a short little ride in front of him on the girls motorcycle right before we left. Wouldn't you know that was when we saw the one and only park ranger that we saw the entire trip. Surprisingly he didn't say anything though. Apparently he could see how slow and careful he was being. I still hope my mom doesn't read this.

Our trip to Boise (Meridian)

Travis and I had a great time in Meridian with family and friends. We will post pictures of us on the river when we get them, but for now, here are pictures of our wonderful friends and family. We are so blessed to have so many people who were happy to welcome us into their homes, and lives. We had such a great time, and can't wait to do it again. Or... have them visit California, so we can reciprocate! Make sure to check out our photo website so that you can see all the pictures! http://picasaweb.google.com/travis93536/GeneralPics

Happy 6th Birthday Preston!

 

Christmas 2006

We had a great Christmas! Everyone was spoiled, and yes, there's training wheels on the motorcylce. I was skeptical, but the kids love it... of course.