Happy Birthday Daddy!

August 18th, 2013 we got to celebrate daddy's 37th birthday. Happy Happy Happy Birthday to my sweetheart! We love you so much. It was a good day to celebrate your life with yummy chocolatey goodness! It's a day that wouldn't be complete without video games and movies too! It was great that you were able to be home on this special day so we could celebrate all together as a family. It was really sweet to see Jaxen and Jaden give you snuggles when you opened their gifts to you. Jaxen was so excited to give you your very own skylander figure. Now you can play together! It truly was a special day and we wish for you to always remember how much you mean to us. Our wish for you is to have the happiest day ever. You deserve it! We love you!

Jaxen's First Day of Second Grade!

 July 18th, 2013 was Jaxen's first day of second grade. It was a morning of mixed emotions. He was so excited to see his friends again(even though it had only been a couple weeks) and thrilled to learn that all but a few of them were in the same class again.  But he was also a little nervous at the same time. Which is understandable. A new grade and a new year will bring new things. Sometimes change can be scary.

 But he kept his smile and jumped into the car ready to go. We met his teacher Mrs. Greenbaum. She was really nice. I think she will be a good teacher for Jaxen. She's been teaching for a long time and you can see that she really loves what she does and I believe she will do well and be understanding with Jaxen's special needs at this time.

I'm still amazed that Jaxen is in second grade already. It really wasn't that long ago that we were signing him up for kindergarten and here we are going into second grade. I'm excited for him and all that he will learn this year. I know that he can do great things and I'm so proud of him! We love you Jaxen! Good luck in second Grade!

Lassen Volcanic National Park

 July 13th, 2013 we took a day road trip up to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We've wanted to go up there for a long time and finally decided to do it. We realized it wasn't as far away as we previously thought. And although one day wasn't enough time to see all there is to see, what we did get to see was fun and beautiful. Hopefully at some point we'll be able to come back and stay for a few days. I would love to go on more of the hikes and explore further into the park.

The main feature of the park is Lassen peak. It's the largest plug dome volcano in the world. The park is also one of the few area's in the world where you can find all four types of volcano(plug dome, shield, cinder cone and strato). It was kind of an awesome and humbling feeling realizing what we were walking on.

Other fascinating and really neat things to see in the park are the hydrothermal features. The fumaroles (steam and volcanic-gas vents), thumping mud pots, boiling pools, and steaming ground. They were really cool. And smelly! The sulfur is definitely not hiding anywhere. Realizing that all these are signs of active volcanism was also humbling. You couldn't help but respect the mountain.

Some of the overlooks and view areas were just breath taking. Living in California the first thing that most people think of is the coastline and the famous big cities. It's easy to forget that a large portion of our state consists of dramatic mountain landscape as well. It's just as wonderful to see as the ocean.

There aren't any glaciers in the park that I'm aware of but there are areas that have some snow year round. That was a fun little surprise for the boys. They had fun playing and climbing around in the mounds of snow. Kaeryn didn't really want to play in the snow so she and daddy walked up a nearby trail instead. It was fun to see how Jaden reacted to the snow. He seemed to enjoy following the boys around but he wasn't so sure about touching it. I think he just liked being outside and free to run around. When we were near the sulfur pools we kept him in the hiking backpack with daddy. But around here there was plenty of space for him to run around and explore. 

After we were done playing in the snow and being watched by the eye of the mountain we decided to get back in the car and drive around more. We've talked about maybe coming up and having a camping trip here so we wanted to explore some of those possibilities. We found a picnic area that had a trail that followed a river. It was a beautiful area. I loved all the green and wild flowers. It was so pretty.

It was hard to come home. One day is never long enough. We definitely want to come back again. I can't wait!

Happy 14th Birthday Kaeryn!

 June 10th, 2013 was Kaeryn's 14th birthday! She was at her mom's that day so we celebrated it on the 12th. She asked me to make her a cake this year but didn't say what she wanted. So I surprised her with this. It was my first time making flowers. I think it turned out pretty cute. It was fun to make. I wasn't going for the realistic look. It was more of a cute/pretty look.  Either way, she really liked it and that is what's important.

Kaeryn was really excited to turn 14 because thirteen is not her favorite number. She was thrilled about her birthday dinner which was her favorite homemade macaroni and cheese. Pretty much the whole day she had a smile on her face and she could not wait to begin the celebration.  

It was a day filled with fun, surprises, smiles and yummy goodness!

It was a special day for her and we loved being able to share it with her. Happy 

Birthday Kaeryn! We love you!