Christmas Eve

Home Depo gingerbread house making!

 

Family!

Pork wellington!
Lots of food!

Visit by Santa on the fire truck!

Always eagerly anticipated by the neighborhood kids!

And lets not forget the present opening!!
Fun time, even with me and Loren coughing all night long!

Gingerbread houses

I had the neighbor kids over for a bit of gingerbread house making and decorating last week.

Im not sure what I was thinking...taking that on!

I am still finding little silver balls on the floor...

But they turned out really cute and the boys worked off the sugar high on the trampoline!

Christmas tree hunt 2012

It was a miserable Saturday...but the next day was going to be worse and I really, really wanted to get the tree... We went right by that little one but,

with in 1 minute of being at Crest Christmas tree ranch I found the perfect tree.

And it is a good thing, because just as we were paying for the tree it started to pour!

Loren tried to talk me out of it and we did look at one other tree...

But seriously, this was the prefect tree!

Nice Christmas tree shape with no bare spots.

And no brown needles like some of the other trees...tho in the rain that was hard to figure out!

The boys loved the tree carrier and it kept the tree from getting muddy...thought, Jack kept jumping on it to get a ride.

In the parking lot...what are the odds of 2 of the exact same 1997(i think that is the year) red dodge van parked next to each other.

Now I need to post a picture of the worlds most perfect tree...decorated!

 

Monterey Bay

We seriously live in an awesome place!

One hour at the most to the monterey bay aquarium and the tide pools!
It is a long hour when you are in the car with the fontinell brothers...
Truth be told, we live 10 minutes from the tide pools in SC, but there is much more on 17 mile drive!

We had lunch by the ocean...and climbed some rocks.

It was a great day to hang out with the family!

And Luke only got a little wet!

 

Im almost back

I had this really long training last week that continues to make me think that I should just be a stay at home mom...because working and mommying is too hard!
I say it every year, but maybe this is the one that put me over the edge!

I will be back with more blogging next week as I adjust!

And bring on all the Fall 2013 applicants...I am ready! (well, not really ready, but if I keep saying it, it will come true, right!!)

Mini golf play date

We were supposed to go bowling...we pick up Jack's friend Petey and headed out.
We were all very disappointed that the bowling alley was closed for a tournement.

However, we decided to go mini golfing...Petey wasnt sure he would like it...

but they had the best time...except for the cannons.  They were pretty loud and Luke did not like them at all. The Santa Cruz Boardwalk mini golf is a fun place to go, especiall on a rainy day because it is all inside!  They have an awesome black light area with 3 holes.

The crew!

And afterwards you get to play air hockey and old school pin ball!

The best thing about the pinball game Loren was playing was that for some miraculous reason it was free!
Thank you anonomous stranger who left tokens in the machine!

Afterwards we ate crappy boardwalk food and every one had a great time!
(on a side note, there is a marini's candy store at the boardwalk so I was able to score my beloved chocolate bacon)

WW: persimmon picking a few weeks ago

It was beautiful a few weeks ago...
Actually, up till today, it has been pretty beautiful in the Santa Cruz Mountains!

A few weeks ago, I took Luke and our neighbor to my Aunt and Uncles for fruit picking.

And the boys got sucked in to playing this game that my Uncle brought back from the Caribbean.

There were terrible at it! But had fun playing.
Jack is a whiz at it, but he wasn't there to show off!

Stanford vs Oregon State

Last weekend, Loren's principal gave us his tickets to the Stanford game.
I must admit, I am not a big Stanford fan...but they sure do know how to tailgate and the campus is beautiful.

And they have a dancing tree and pirate!
What is better then that!

 

I was feeling a bit under the weather, but decided to go anyway and it was fun...
and hot!  It was supposed to be 50 degrees and we all bundled up, but in the stands in the sun it was roasting! I actually took my uggs off during the game to cool down.

And Jack rolled up his pants.

We only stayed till half time, cuz the boys were restless and I wasn't feeling great
We listened to the rest of the game on the radio on the way home...and they won.
I think Stanford is pretty good this year.  They even beat the Ducks this weekend...sorry to all my OU fans.
Jack has now decided that he wants to go to Stanford and play football, so maybe some day I will actually cheer for Stanford!  I could see him at Stanford, but I'd prefer baseball.