Upgrades

We have a list forever long of things we want to do to our house (don't we all?). Well last weekend we tackled one! This was higher up on Dana's list than mine, but it was a cheap project, so I was happy to be on board.

This is the only "before" picture I could find. What a cute little baby Sadie! And a pretty haggard looking mom probably lacking in the sleep dept.
Anyway, we've had this one bookcase since we moved here and it's never fit all our books. We had our hearts set on having a bookcase built in this spot but eventually came to terms with the fact that it wasn't going to happen.


Thanks to Pinterest and Amy for doing this first, we found a great alternative for us. It started with a trip to Ikea for their $59 bookcases.

Next we came home and painted the MDF boards for the back that came white. I thought mustard would be a cute color. Dana agreed. So we started painting, excited about our project. As you can see, it was dark out and the kids were in bed.


By the time we let them dry, tried to slide them in the back, (trickier than expected without the glossy finish of the white), it was close to midnight. THEN we realized that was a bad color choice. I thought the yellow and our green walls would be cute together...but no. Kinda depressing when you've devoted your day to a project :(


Dana said gray would look nice. Then I said "Do we have any gray left from Emma's dresser we painted?" He thought so. I said "If we do, I'm painting it right now!" We did, and we did repaint right then. And it was worth it to go to bed feeling like we didn't throw away $180 +a Saturday.

Yesterday Dana finished it up by nail gunning wood pieces on the front and crown molding at the top to make it look like a one piece bookcase. Now to get the books in!


Project 2- repainting the main color of our house. During the week I bought the paint samples of the Benjamin Moore colors I've salivating over online and quickly set to work creating a grey/blue patchwork quilt all over the house.


I put this picture on Insta with the hashtag #50shadesofgrayonthewall. No one commented on the cleverness of the hashtag but I'm sure they chuckled at least. Maybe a silent chuckle...


Now we're FINALLY narrowing it down after a few somewhat heated "non-arguments":) We can both agree, however, on the fact that any choice will be an improvement on what we have. Goodbye "Dune" forever!

I'll keep you "post"ed!

Catalina 2013/ Holly's 8 yr. Old Trip

Back in January, when the weather was cold and I was longing for some sunny beach time, I saw a Groupon for a hotel in Catalina. I knew my in-laws would be taking Holly on her 8 yr old trip to Catalina this summer and I thought maybe they wouldn't mind all of us tagging along? In the past they have taken all their grandkids that turned 8 that year and chosen to be baptized to either Catalina or Disneyland. Our family is on the tail end of the grandkids so Holly doesn't have a cousin her age on that side of the family. I was SO happy when they agreed that it'd be fun if we all went. They have a great house there that they always rent and so we split the cost and it worked out perfectly.

What a treat to leave the scorching June heat and swap it out for beautiful beach weather! Here's the story of our trip- mainly in pictures.

We left after work on Friday around 6.
 


We slept a short night at my mom's and then she dropped us off at the "Catalina Flyer" boat dock on Balboa bright and early.

Of course grandma made them some of her fabulous matching "jams".
(Emma was technically Holly's "buddy" for the trip)
 
The boat ride was freezing but we loved getting bundled up for it:)

The traditional picture right when we get off the boat:
 

Our cute street "Descanso".
 

Our check-in time wasn't until 3 and we had some time kill so we went to the beach:)
 


We definitely have some beach loving kids! It's those California genes of theirs.





Then we got settled and made some dinner and then wasted no time in going to get some ice cream :)
We saw this awesome sand castle someone had made for a contest on our way there.
 


Thanks Big Olaf!
 


The next day was Sunday. Dana's mom is a convert to the church and grew up Lutheran. She thought it'd be fun to take the kids to the Lutheran church there. We agreed that it'd be a neat experience for the kids to see something new.


We did alot of singing and then we really enjoyed the pastor's message.
 

Afterward we talked about it with the kids- like similarities and differences between our church and theirs. It was great:).

Monday snorkeling was a big hit. In fact, that was I think, the kids favorite part of the trip.
 

As you can see, we had perfect weather that day. Sadie really wanted to go out but was just a little too small to really get it. Plus the water was cold and she didn't want a fish to touch her.
 

The fish fear is valid. Dana's family has snorkeling down: they get a few loaves of bread and once those fish realize there's food to be had, every single one of them comes swimming over as fast as they can. It's intimidating even for me. They can be aggressive too and have been known to grab whole bags from people. Dana took the kids around on a raft we brought and they got an awesome show.


I didn't want to miss out on the fun so he took me on a "tour" too...minus the bag of bread:)


Later that day we headed to "Antonio's" for dinner.
 



I'm not sure it'd be a trip to Catalina if we didn't go there!


Did I mention Dana and I went to Catalina for our Honeymoon? Almost 16 years ago! We sang karaoke at Antonio's and gave an ear-plugging version of "Strawberry Fields Forever". That seems like a million years ago. Ok so here's the exciting part and for sure one of my favorite parts of the trip- I ATE PIZZA! Full of gluten and lots of hot, stringy cheese that made me almost pass out when it hit my taste buds. It's been a full year since I've had cheese and yes, I have missed it. I figured since I'm taking this new awesome probiotic this could be a good time to test it. In fact, isn't my duty to test it out? Yes, yes I decided, and Dana agreed. I reveled in every bite of that first piece. Then the next 4 went down a little faster. Well the 5th piece was slow again because I was overflowing with pizza by then. Anyway...it will not become a regular thing. I felt my body handled it decently but I don't think it would appreciate being bombarded by gluten and dairy once again. I will keep it as a once every long while treat:)

Another of my favorite parts was walking around Catalina at night.
 

It was pretty romantic. Or as romantic as it can be with your four kids and in-laws next to you :)
 

The next day our boat didn't go back until 4:30 so we had most of another day there. Dana's brother Dean and his family came in the morning (they stayed the rest of the week) so we went back and snorkeled at "Pebbly Beach" again. The weather was cloudy and a little windy- so it was harder to snorkel in. For some reason I took ZERO pictures of the kids with their big cousins. I guess I enjoyed talking to Kris too much. Bummer.

 Finally, we packed back up, took the boat back over, and Sally was so kind to pick us up. Then we went back to my mom's where she was so nice to have a big dinner ready for us. My grandpa even went to 3 or 4 stores to find gluten-free buns for our hamburgers. We took a minute to walk around mom's glorious garden and enjoy not-so-baby James who's almost 2, then we had to drag ourselves back to the car and drive home because Dana had to work the next day.


I don't know how Dana did it, but he got us home without falling asleep once again. It was about 1 am when we finally pulled in the driveway. We basically just went from there and fell into bed. The kids were pretty confused when they woke up in the morning in their clothes and in their beds and they couldn't remember how they got there. :)

It was hard to come back to the heat and we felt pretty homesick this trip, but we really appreciate all the things we love about here too. Maybe one day we'll move back. But for now we'll enjoy visiting as much as possible.

Father's Day

I had a full heart yesterday. I was missing my dad- as I always do on Father's Day (as well as lots of regular days) but I also just had such a sense of gratitude because:

#1. I was blessed to have a wonderful dad. He was a very good man and seemed to get better and better the older he got. And he sure loved being a "papa" (grandpa) for the few years he got to be.

#2. I now have such an amazing husband. My children will honor his name forever. I don't think a man can get any better in the "dad" department. I put together a little collage. It took me awhile since I had to look through so many pictures but it makes me so happy to see so many great memories all mixed up together.:) He truly goes above and beyond for all of us.

#3. I'm very thankful for my father-in-law. He played a HUGE part in shaping Dana into the man he is. He still gets out and plays with his grandkids. He turns 80 this August. How many 80 years olds really play with kids? He loves to tease them and they just eat it up. He's one of the healthiest people I've met so I expect he'll be around for awhile. I'm so thankful for that since they don't have another grandpa. I kinda get the feeling my sweetheart might be a fun grandpa someday like he is :)

I love Father's Day because it's the chance to honor good men. The world would definitely benefit if we had more of them. It'd probably be a lot more like Heaven.

Our Special FHE #laterpost

Way back in April, I was struck with a good idea. Every once in awhile that happens. Although we talk to our kids plenty about goals and where they should be headed for their future, I thought maybe we needed to discuss the efforts it takes to achieve those goals. Like when your kid says "I want to go on a mission, get married, and be an archaeologist."  Well, what are the things you need to do to get there? Will that just happen on its' own? So we had a "special family home evening" (as I kept referring to it) where we talked to the kids not only about their goals, but the steps they will be taking along the road of life to get there. For example, we discussed the preparation required to go on a mission: being temple worthy, physically healthy, able to make your own food, (the kids added in- ride a bike:), have scripture knowledge, know how to work hard, etc.

For our culminating activity we wrote letters to ourselves to be opened in 10 years. The kids had to try and imagine where they will be at that point in their lives, what they might be doing, and hopefully consider the milestones they will be achieving to get to that place. I have to say, it was strange for Dana and I too, to imagine our kids between the ages of 16 and 23. Not to mention our ages- Dana will be 54!!! And the scary thing is knowing how fast the last 10 years went by!

We put our letters in an envelope that says "To be opened May 5, 2023" and to hopefully be all together when we open it. It was coincidence that it was on Cinco de Mayo, but I thought we could turn it into a Cinco de Mayo party when that day eventually arrives. I had written myself a letter back when I was a Beehive and just loved opening it and reading it when I was 21 (or thereabouts). Anyway, it really did turn out to be a special FHE :). 

Oh the kids also included a little memento from their lives now and I took and printed out a picture of ourselves all piled together. Now hopefully I can keep track of the envelope for that long!