ssshhhhhh…….

shhh don’t tell Diesel I put this picture up. He might be mad that I have a picture of him snuggling a bear. But I have to say he was pretty darn amazing on all of our flights to Washington and back. More to come soon!!!

really?

Saturday Deric, Levi and I ran to Target to get some groceries and a travel crate for Diesel that will fit under an air plane seat. We put a lot of the groceries in the back seat of Levis truck with me, but put the water bottles that we had just bought in the back of the truck. We headed over to Baja Fresh for some lunch. We were inside the restaurant for like 10 minutes and then came outside to eat for like 10 more minutes. In that 20 minutes someone got into the back of Levi’s HUGE truck and stole my water! seriously?? there were TONS of other things back there and they STOLE my WATER!!!!!

Pismo Beach

My brother texted me Wednesday and said he wanted to play hookie from work on Friday and head down to Pismo Beach. Since neither Deric nor I can play hookie from work, we got up super early Saturday morning with Diesel and drove north 3 hours to Pismo beach. We got to Brians hotel before he was even awake!

He didn’t tell the kids we were coming to spend the day with them at the beach, so they were really excited to see us, and they had never met Diesel either. Jillian was the most excited to meet him! She kept telling the puppy to follow her, or let go of her stuff.

We headed down to the beach and started our fun day in the sun! – the sun screen for Deric and I. very bad decision. I should have taken pictures of our redness and peeling but of course I forgot!

Diesel absolutely LOVED the beach and the water and all the people that loved on him! Brooke learned how to body board and did a really good job! Deric was a very good teacher even though the water was VERY cold!

Everyone had a great time expect Natalie, who said she was FREEZING the whole time and wanted to go home. She was miserable until Uncle Deric started burying Nathan. She jumped off the chair she was FREEZING on and started helping! everyone was covered head to toe in sand! But that's what we get for being at the beach!

I love being able to see family! and its nice that we only had to drive 3 hours to see them!! We hopefully will be making more trips to Pismo beach to see family!!!

Funny little fact, my dad spent a lot of his summers in Pismo Beach as a child!!!!

 

Freedom

I don’t know why I am so Patriotic or why I tear up every time I hear the national anthem. I am sure that my parents instilled it into me at a young age.

My favorite holiday is the 4th of July. I love celebrating our independence and seeing everyone so full of pride for our wonderful country.

I get to see this every time I take the kids I nanny down to the beach. Its always a good reminder that I need to be more thankful for my freedom and for this amazing country.

 

On the 3rd of July we had our stake fun run and flag ceremony. Deric and our friend Levi dressed up to do the run. They did a very good job and Deric even came in 3rd in his age division!

 

They were the best dressed guys there, well the only ones dressed up!!!!

It was a very nice relaxing weekend. We just hung out at home and bbq’d. on the 4th we just went to our local high schools fireworks show. we got there about 20 minutes before they started! It was so nice to just have a relaxing weekend!

so so long

Back in June I was able to go to my niece Anna’s ballet recital. The program always has the 7 year old class dance with their Fathers at the recital! I can’t even begin to tell you how cute it was to see my brother dancing with his daughter to the song thank heaven for little girls. It was adorable.

here are some extra pictures from the day. Heidi and little miss Megan! I have super cute nieces!!!!

  

apple pie surprise

Found this awesome recipe on another blog! can’t wait to try!

www.gourmetmomonthego.com

Apple Surprise Mini Pies
makes 12

Ingredients:

1 3/4 C. (1 package) Graham Crackers
1/3 C. butter, melted
24 oz. (3 pkg) Philadelphia Cream Cheese
3/4 C. sweetened condensed milk
2/3 C. white sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cans apple pie filling

2 ready-made pie crusts (the kind that is just dough that you unwrap, or make your own)
12 half pint canning jars or ramekins
Drinking glass (a little larger than your jar lids), to cut out crust

Directions:
Place graham crackers in ziploc bag and crush.

Pour melted butter into baggie with graham crackers and shake to mix well. Place 2 heaping tablespoons of graham cracker mixture into bottom of a half pint jar and carefully spread around.
For cheesecake layer, beat cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice and mix well. Place 1/3 c. of cream cheese mixture into each jar.
Fill jars to the top with apple pie filling (about 1/2 C).

Unroll pie crust. Find a drinking glass or round cookie cutter that is about 1/2" larger than your jar lid and cut out 4 circles. Re-roll remaing dough and cut out 2 more circles. Repeat with other pie crust. If desired, cut small slits or a little shape in the middle of your crust.
Place one cutout crust on each jar and pinch edges to resemble a pie crust. Finish with a light dusting of white sugar.
Place on a cookie sheet (just in case any of them leak, you don't want to clean that out of your oven!) and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until pie crusts are browned.

Remove from oven. Tie a small ribbon around each jar, if desired, and serve. I can't wait to make these for our next sit-down dinner, they'd be adorable served to each guest for dessert!

San Francisco

For Deric’s birthday we decided to head to San Francisco for the weekend. We were up in Sacramento for my niece Natalie’s baptism!

I can not believe she is 8 already!!!! She was 4 when I lived in Sacramento with her.

  my favorite restaurant Boudin’s. They have the best sourdough bread bowls EVER! and their Clam Chowder is pretty good too!!! The Aquarium of the bay is awesome! Deric got to touch a bat ray and leopard shark and a sea cucumber and of course the start fish! he loved it! I didn’t touch anything!

Riding the CABLE CARS for the first time! they are not called trolleys! Deric was disgusted with me that in the 2 times I had been to San Francisco I had never gone on them! Its a lot of fun. Its a lot better to ride the cable car than to walk the hills! a lot faster too!

we did drive down Lombard street. I didn’t take any pictures because it gets over pretty fast! I could never imagine driving down that everyday to get to my house!

Alcatraz. awesome tour. totally worth the money! I learned a lot from the 3 hours we were there. It was freezing when we were there. But it was a pretty cool experience.

can you pick out which one is the “full house” house????

in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. I don’t remember who the guy is, he had something big to do with the golden gate bridge! Coit tower. some really rich lady had this building built in honor of the firemen who saved her from the huge fire of the early 1900’s. its pretty cool up top! you can see all of san Francisco! This is Deric up at the top. Alcatraz is the dot in the back! the bay bridge! its actually longer than the Golden Gate bridge and we did actually drive over this bridge!

we had a blast the two days in san Francisco!! such a fun city with a lot of interesting people!