Nate's First Communion

Recently we celebrated Nate's First Communion at our church, Our Lady of Guadalupe. He made his communion with a small group of kids, and two of them are old friends. Here he is with Isabelle Akker, who we first met in the Mom's Club, and Logan Lines, son to our old pal Rob. Nate looked so handsome in his suit!

At the end of mass, the kids got to go up front and sing the closing song, "Lift it up to the Lord."

Father Joe is our awesome priest. He sings a large portion of the mass, and exudes a living joyfulness.

Many of our family and friends came to celebrate Nate's big day. Below, Bumpa is holding the banner that Nate made to hang in the church. 

All of our BBQ Crew was there, too! Everyone came over afterwards for a fun pool party!

Ralph and Kiki brought this snorkel and mask as a gift go Nate- he was anxious to break it in at the party! 

We are so proud of our sweet Nate! Congratulations, my love, on your First Communion! 

Mother's Day

This weekend to celebrate Mother's Day we went on and adventure to San Diego. We started driving south, but then the boys and I jumped on the train in San Juan Capistrano while Scott braved the traffic. 

The train was super fun, even though we originally took the wrong train and got on the metro, which resulted in us changing to Amtrak in Oceanside. We disembarked at old town, and met Scott at our hotel. We stumbled into a Cinco de Mayo festival in old town, so we wandered around, had chips and salsa, and toured the Whaley house, which is the most haunted house in America.

As evening approached, we jumped on the trolley and headed to Petco Park to watch the Padres versus the Mets. Julie, Chris, Reese, Lindsey, and Rod all met us at the game. We had terrific infield seats, but the boys enjoyed playing baseball out on the Parkland. 

After the game, we got to go to Julie and Chris's house for a bit.  It was fun for Luke and neat to see what that city living looks like, and it was great to spend time with my Cuzzie, Luke's godmother. 

On Sunday morning, we had a delicious breakfast buffet at the hotel, and then headed to sea world for the day. See world is always really fun! This time, Luke tried all the roller coasters- Manta and Atlantis! We had fun at the shark exhibit, watching the sea turtles, walruses, beluga whales, penguins, Pirhana, octopi, etc. 

It was a terrific Mother's Day adventure! When we got home, the boys all gave me their cards, and Nate gave me a beautiful candle he made. I truly am really blessed to be a mom. I feel so lucky that God has given me this chance to build this amazing family. My boys are my life.

Halloween 2015

This year Halloween fell on a Saturday, so we were lucky enough to go party at the Ormsby house at a raging Halloween party. The couples tried to dress in a Disney theme, well the kids planned their own costumes. Some highlights of the party included the bush costumes that the Ormsby's, that people would wear to freak out pedestrians. Also, members of our barbecue crew would hold Misty's very real looking doll,  and then drop it suddenly to terrify people! 

To prepare, the week before Halloween, we hosted a pumpkin carving party at our house, which has become somewhat of a tradition.

Mammoth 2016

For the past couple years, we've been heading to our cabin at the 1849 in Mammoth on two separate occasions; once with the Ciampas, and once with the Masseys. Our trips are filled with skiing (the boys are both black diamond skiers this year!), corn-hole and Woolly parades at the Village, inter-tubing at the Woolly Mammoth Snow-park, Jacuzzi time, and family games. Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Our New Pool

After 4 months, our pool is ready!!!! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming! 🎶🎶🎶.  A new chapter has begun!

Family Love Circle

Is there anything better than the love of a cousin?

We love our whole family.  This week we said goodbye to Grandma Aileen's house, at the last Palm Springs reunion on Hudson St. Grandma Aileen was an awesome lady, full of spunk and spirit, who unified our family in a circle and love.

Nate is 8!!!!!

We celebrated Nate's birthday with a bowling party at Gable House, some arcade play, pizza, cupcakes, and a small sleepover. It was a great celebration of a great kid!!!!

Nate's best buddies were there, including Trevor M., Luke S., Garrett W., and Andreas S.. 

Florida

Once again, Scott was invited to coach the Under Armour All American game n Orlando, Florida over New Year's. This year our family went solo, and we had an incredible time playing carnival games and football by the pool, exploring the Disney parks in the evening, and relaxing or visitying with our friends the D'Nelly's at the beautiful Marriott World Center. The highlight is going to the game- this year it was at the Citrus Bowl:

But we love Disney World, too! We got to visit the Hollywood Studios, the Animal Kingdom, and the Magic Kingdom:

Above, Nate and I race through Autopia, and below, the boys meet Belle and the Beauty and the Beast experience:

Here we are waiting with Jackson D'Nelly for the Tiki Room:

Enjoying the Star Wars Experience:

Posing in the incredibly decorated street of the Americas:

We rang in 2016 with a delicious Italian dinner at Siro's atbour hotel, followed by a poolside firework show:

And we spent the first days of 2016 just chilling by the pool, playing football, and peeling the skin off of turf blisters (yuck)!

Another great family adventure- one of the best ones yet!!!