Thursday, August 20, 2009

Camping with the Darts

THE CAMPERS


Dallan and Ryan had such a great time playing together. They were constantly asking everyone to go on adventures with them. One of the adventures was hiking up a steep hill. Another adventure was on the moon, with the occasional stop on Mars. Each person who came back from that adventure had a little different experience as their imaginations worked!


Because we weren't able to get together for all of the July/August birthdays, we decided to celebrate them on the camping trip. The boys got roller skates and loved riding around on their own set of wheels!

There were some great campfires with tinfoil dinners, roasted hot dogs, s'mores, and a VERY delicious dutch oven dinner. YUM!


Mom bought the little kids magnifying glasses to play with. Who knew that the adults would have more fun playing with them than the kids! Nick and Jenn got especially interested in starting a fire. Joseph became master at burning names into wood.




Relaxing in the hammock


The M&M game
Jenn & Joe brought this very enjoyable game. You have regular and large M&Ms in a bowl, then you take turns rolling the dice. If you get doubles, a 7 or an 11, you get to take the bowl and start using your straw to suck M&Ms out of the bowl and into your cup. You play until the M&Ms are gone, then add up who has the most points (small are worth 1, large are worth 2). We had a great time, plus eating the M&Ms afterward is tasty.


More pictures of our fun an our adorable niece and nephews!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Seattle & California Trips

While Nick drove to California, I was able to spend the weekend in Seattle with my good friend from BYU! She is from Seattle and I'd never been there before. We had a great time exploring the city, looking at old restored homes, walking on the beach, riding a ferry, taking a road trip, and just being silly together. Thanks again, Megan, for such a great trip!

After Seattle, I flew to San Francisco to join Nick while he took the Bar exam. While there Marisa and I went window shopping in Stanford. Then it was back to San Jose for a few days with the family. Here are lots of pictures - I kept the captions short, you can click on any pictures you want to see bigger.

The Space Needle
Needs no explanation


Pike's Market
Lots of fish, lots of souvenirs, lots of people, beautiful flowers


Seattle Public Library
Crazy modern architecture, crazy paint job, weird shape, fun to explore



Antique Shop
The biggest I've ever seen, packed with interesting things


Volunteer Park
Megan's favorite flower, the Dahlia

Maharaja Restaurant
Megan's favorite Indian restaurant, great food, beautiful atmosphere (not that you can tell from the alley-way picture)

Alki Beach
The most amazing sunset ever, peeping into homes with lights on and no curtains to see the cool beach apartments

Snoqualmie Falls

Amazing waterfall with mist and a double rainbow, steep hike back, hiking nuns


Dinner with the Family
Yummy steak dinner with Megan's parents, great conversation, food for our road trip, atlas, binoculars


Riding a Ferry
Large boat, lots of cars, windy, jelly fish, gorgeous views - my first ferry ride




Road Trip
Took a road trip to Forks, drove on fir-lined highways, saw beautiful lakes, ate a yummy picnic at Port Angeles, took pictures of 'possible' filming sites from Twilight, bought matching Cullen's baseball shirts, ate yummy Sundaes, got lost finding a place to eat on the way home, watched Twilight until after 1am while eating pizza






Crazy Stanford Plants & Cupcakes
Popcorn popping on some kind of tree, plus some famous Sprinkles Cupcakes, yum



Karaoke


Jepsen Boys Track Meet
It was Peter by a long shot in all events
"ON YOUR MARK . . . GET SET . . . GO!"

Bowling
Finally shoes that Nick doesn't have to squish his feet into