Preston's 4th Bithday Party

Today is the actual day our nephew Preston turned 4 years old(Autumn and Preston are only 9 months apart).We were able to celebrate this special day with him and his friends. There were lots of pools set up in his backyard where the kids were able to run and have a good time. The hit of the party was the huge pool with slide. My girls had a blast on it, until it obtained a giant tear in it and was shut down.All of the cousins were there and having a good time together. Preston had a good time trying to throw a cup of water on us too. I got some cool action shots from of my nephew Davis. He is defiantly not camera shy. We sang Happy Birthday not only to Preston, but Aunt Rachel too who is going to have a birthday next week.
Preston loved all his birthday gifts and really enjoyed his day. We are grateful to have spent it with him.

Marty Dread Concert

Ever since we went to Hawaii, Noah and I have really gotten into Hawaiian and Reggae Music. One of our favorite musicians is Marty Dread. He is often called Hawaii’s Reggae Ambassador. Last year we caught a concert at the Hard Rock Cafe in Maui staring Marty Dread. We really enjoyed his performance. So when we heard he was touring on the Mainland this summer we looked up his tour dates. He played in various places, but the concert we could make it to was in Sacramento. So last night we went to the Blue Lamp Lounge to see him perform. Marty Dread is really laid back he never starts his concerts on time, in fact he never even wears shoes just slippers(flip flops). He is mostly barefoot. He was supposed to perform at 10pm, but ended up starting at 11pm. Noah and I only made it through half the concert, because they were going to play until 2am. And as Noah says "We have to be responsible adults and go home already". It was an awesome concert. There was only about 40 people in the whole room. He danced through the crowd as he sang and even talked to us for a little bit. Noah bought a t-shirt and he signed it. We enjoyed ourselves a lot and will defiantly be going to see him again. We thought we would share one of our favorite songs with you off his greatest hits album called Pray For Them.

Playing at Cameron Park Lake

Thursday morning the girls and I headed over to Cameron Park for a couple of days. We planned on taking the kids to the lake to swim and play in the sand that afternoon. The kids had a blast swimming and playing in the sand. I helped Aubrey and her cousin Logan swim and dive for toys.Rachel tended to baby Kelsie and her needs. She loved the water and tried the sand, but decided it was not very good. After the fun time at the lake together we grabbed some Chinese take-out and headed back to grandmas for some rest and relaxation.

Black Diamond Mines Hike

This summer our ward has tried to come up with a weekly schedule of activities for us to do with our kids. We have been having a great time together. Today we planned to go to Black Diamond Mines in Antioch for a small paved 1/2 mile hike with the children. We packed our lunch and headed over to the beginning of the trail to meet with the rest of our group at 11:30. The kids all hung out and waited for the rest of the group. We ended up waiting for 30min or so for the other half of our group to arrive. Then we started the hike. The kids started off running up the hills and enjoying themselves. Then one by one the little ones broke down, including Aubrey(I ended up carrying her).So my friend Kathryn and I tried to play games along the way to keep them busy. The game where we all hold hands to form a train worked well.

Finally we made it to the top of the hill. The destination was called Rose Hill Cemetery. We ate lunch and took a group photo of the kids playing in this giant tree after the hike. Except for Aubrey she wanted nothing to do with climbing in trees or getting her picture taken. We had an opportunity to walk around the cemetery and learn that very little remains of the coal mining communities. This historic cemetery serves as a monument to the lives of the former residents. Buried here are children who died in epidemics, women who died in childbirth, and men who died in mining disasters and of other things. Although over 10 nationalities resided in the mining area, Rose Hill Cemetery was a protestant burial ground, and many of the people buried here were Welsh.

As we left Black Diamond Mines with very tired children I did manage to take a couple of pictures of the area. This would be lovely in the spring when everything is green.

A Fun Filled "Wicked" Day

Several months ago my brother-in-law wanted to surprise his wife for her birthday with tickets to see Wicked. He asked if her sister and mother, along with me would like to go for a girls day out. So we bought tickets and I have been waiting ever since, with much anticipation to see this musical. Yesterday that day finally came. We took the BART into San Fransisco and meet at the mall. We walked around the mall and over to Godiva Chocolates to pick up a little treat for later. We then headed to Cheesecake Factory for some delicious lunch. I ordered the Luau Chicken Salad and loved it. We then shared the 30th anniversary cheesecake. And sang Happy Birthday my sister-in-law Rachel. The cheesecake was heavenly. We then walked around San Fransisco taking in all the sights and sounds. At around 1:30 we started to walk to the Orpheum Theater were Wicked was playing. This older theater is pretty cool inside. We got settled in our seat with our goodies in our purses ready to watch the show. The show was Amazing! We all really enjoyed it. We had a fun filled day out. We can't wait to do something like this agian next year.