California Cousins

Have I mentioned a time or two that we've been busy lately? Well, a lot of that has to do with the fact that we seem to be out of town more than in town these days. Which is crazy, but also a lot of fun.

Santa Maria is the first place we've ever lived where we haven't known a soul prior to moving. Luckily, we have lots of extended family just a few hours away in several directions, so we've really enjoyed spending time with them.

Back in April, we went up to Visalia for a couple days. Here are the cousins on Nana B's porch swing: Rylee and Aliyah (who were born 20 minutes apart!), Cailyn, Sadie, and baby Charlotte (with Alex.) We played bubbles
...and chalk.
And the boy cousin jumped in for a picture too. (Apparently I should have just taken pictures of Nathaniel, because he was the only one who really wanted to smile!)

We also went to the park and fed the ducks.

Then we decided to go through Bakersfield on our way home, and Rylee and Avery had a great time playing at Sonic...

...and later on, catching a frog!

Then, two weeks ago, we went out to Bakersfield again for the weekend. Rylee and Avery bounced around Avery's bed like a couple of monkeys!

That Sunday, we had a BBQ with a big group of family that was in the area.

I wish my camera had caught this about 1/2 a second later, but it's cute anyway (:

Things got a little wild when Quinn and Scott started the kids on a game of rugby (with a soccer ball)

I think this is my favorite picture I took that night - isn't miss Sadie just darling?

Alright, now get ready to play a little game of finding Rylee in the following picture Where's-Waldo-Style...

...yep, that would be her feet up at the very top above Quinn's head!

Thanks for the fun weekend, McDonalds!

And here's a little video from the park in Visalia (back in April)...

"Lots of Colors!"

I finally have a moment to sit down a catch up on my blogging for the first time in a couple weeks...so here we go!

A few weeks ago Rylee said she wanted to make cupcakes, so that's just what we did. When I asked her what color of frosting she wanted, she said "Lots of colors!"

So, lots of colors it was.

I will let the pictures do the talking from here...

(This was Rylee's "I LOVE cupcakes!" cheer.)

Didn't they turn out pretty? (: I think our girls are very talented in the cupcake decorating department.

Although, if we had a cake decorating contest, I think first prize would have gone to my Cailyn-Cake. Cupcakes would have come in second.

Quinn's 10 Year Reunion

We went to Mesa last week for Quinn's 10 year high school reunion - hard to believe that we're old enough to start having those! Anyway, it was the first time we'd been back to Arizona since right after we found out I was prego with Rylee, so the trip was long over due and we had a ball!

We stayed with Quinn's best friend since they were 10, Anthon, and his family. Anthon and Jennifer were so nice to let us invade their home! We made some good memories and all the kiddos had fun playing together. The only problem is that I realized after we left that I somehow neglected to take any pictures with the Ellsworths! I did at least get a few pictures of some of their kids with our kids, but I'm sad that I didn't get any of Quinn and his BFF. Oh well!

The funny thing is that this post won't have much about the reunion itself, even though that was the reason for the trip. But we (especially Quinn!) had a great time seeing his old friends, in spite of the fact that the reunion itself was over priced and pretty poorly planned. These pics are from the family day at the park before the actual reunion. Duck ponds are one of the girls' favorite things these days!

They had all kinds of snacks there, including snow cones (thank goodness, because it was HOT!) Cailyn's favorite snack was the popcorn...

...and Rylee's was the cotton candy.

(Cailyn didn't like the cotton candy...she was trying to play and I tried to get her to taste some, but she wasn't interested. I was so convinced, however, that she needed to try it that I forced it into her mouth thinking that once she tasted the sweet fluff she would love it! Instead, she got angry with me and would have nothing to do with it from that point on. Hopefully she won't be scarred for life.)

And, here's the closest we got to a picture of the McNamaras and Ellsworths...missing cute little Mason who is abouty a month younger than Cailyn, and obviously the parents. But we have McKay, Rylee, Makenna, and Cailyn to prove that we were, in fact, spending time together.

Makenna and Rylee had a lot of fun playing together - Rylee slept in Makenna's room while we were there and they got to be good little friends.

Rylee saw some people fishing and had a little meltdown when we wouldn't let her hold their fishing poles and gut the fish with them. Luckily, her daddy thought quick and found her this branch to "go fishing."

She was happy as could be!

And wound up having a whole gang of fishing buddies join in the fun!Can you tell that it was hot out?

Poor Cailyn was about as tired as I've ever seen her when we left - that sun just drained all the energy out of her little body!

We had dinner at one of Quinn's old mission buddies' house (and did manage to snap a picture of them!) It just so happens that Ben and Brittney are in Anthon and Jennifer's ward! What are the odds? Go figure! We'd been planning to get together with them all weekend and then when we went to get their address we found that they were just around the block from where we'd been staying all week!

These are the flowers that Rylee picked out for me for Mothers' Day. She was VERY proud of them and loved the "fluffy" purple flowers.

Late Sunday night, we drove down to Maricopa to see my good friend, Saralyn, and her family. Saralyn and I considered ourselves long lost twins back in the day, but we haven't seen each other in over 6 years! So we stayed the night and spent Monday with her family before we drove home Monday night. She and Eric made us lots of yummy food, we swam, went to the park, and our girls had lots of fun playing together!

Here are all the girls (if you count me since I was the one taking the picture...that counts, right?): Cayden, Cailyn, Saralyn, Courtney and RyleeCayden and Rylee played and played. They are 6 days apart (Cayden's birthday is on the same day as Quinn's!) and got along just fabulously!

Notice, Rylee may be 6 days older, but I think Cayden's about 6 inches taller! OK, maybe not quite, but still...

And a nice lady walking by with a stroller offered to take a picture of all of us together, so here we are!

It was a wonderful trip, even if it did wipe us all out (: