Monday, August 29, 2011

Annie & Hoppy's Wedding

My beautiful step-sister Annie was married to her long time boyfriend, Brian Hopkins (Hoppy) on July 30th. We were happy to go and see their union as well as to see so many family members! It was absolutely beautiful!



Hoppy

Everyone taking their seats

Annie's father

Waiting for the bride

Gorgeous Annie!




They are so cute together!

Kiss, kiss

Mr. and Mrs.Hopkins



Jayne (my stepmom) and Papa Ken

Annie and our cousin Christine from Spain

Little Emily



Love Annie's face here


Papa & Jayne with the bride and groom

Danny loved the parasols...

Bride and Groom with Annie's dad and stepmom

Stepsisters Julie, Annie, Hoppy and stepbrother Charlie (Tony comes home from his mission next month!)

The Woodward clan who were able to come - Suzie, Jayne, Papa Ken, Mike and Linda





The reception was so much fun!


We had a wonderful meal, awesome toasts/song presentations from the wedding party, and then had some fun dancing!  Unfortunately we didn't get to stay too late because of the kids, but we had a blast regardless!  Congrats to Annie and Hoppy!!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Dome Rock

A few weeks ago we headed out to Dome Rock (in the middle of nowhere) and did some camping and climbing. It was a pretty short trip, but pretty fun overall. Here are some photos:

The Needles in the background - due to fires we couldn't hike over there...sad day!


Getting the kids ready for bed






The morning was gorgeous!




We very much appreciate this sign



Dome Rock - this is what we climbed



The population of this town: 1 1/2 - how does that even work??


Trying to hike...didn't make it very far





Monday, August 8, 2011

Climbing with Owls & Swimming with Lifeguards

We frequently go climbing at a place called the Riverside Quarry.  It isn't the most beautiful place - in fact it is a place where lots of people throw their junk - very sad - but the climbing is excellent for strength training and is close to us.  One Saturday morning (June 25th) we headed there and tackled this route.  It may look easy, but it is my nemesis...


Once at the top of the climb, we looked into the crevasse and saw these:



Three beautiful snowy owls!  It was kind of crazy, because I never knew that owls could hiss so loudly!!  Who said they go "Hoo hoo!"  They definitely were not happy to see us!  In fact, we got a video of them:


 

After our climbing we headed to San Clemente beach.  It was a beautiful day!  The water was warm and so was the sun!  Danny had an amazing time playing in the water, and was so mad when we finally took him away (he was shivering like mad in the end and still didn't want to leave!).  Here are some photos:





The problem with this beach - it is BEYOND rocky...I was getting pelted!



We love this beach because it also has a little swing set and slide - which of course Danny LOVES!  It's nice for him to have several things to do while we're out there.



She's getting so big! I don't know where the time is going!

Danny - always trying to work it with the ladies!  I think this was right before we were leaving...he was ticked.


While Danny was playing on this slide, Kenneth went out for a swim.  I was watching Kenneth and noticed he was drifting out a little bit.  I didn't panic or anything because I know he knows how to get himself out of a rip tide, but I still kept my eye on him just in case.  The lifeguard also saw this and obviously has no idea if a person knows how to get out of a rip tide or not, and went in after Kenneth.  I must say it was kind of interesting seeing a lifeguard run into the ocean and start out knowing he's headed for my husband!  Granted, Kenneth already made the appropriate corrections to his swimming direction and within 3 strokes was much closer to shore and met the lifeguard very quickly.  It was funny to see them both stand up and talk for a minute.  I could just hear Kenneth in my head saying, "Oh no.  I was fine. I realized once I was going out I would need to change my swimming direction to "x" angle and that would bring me back into shore..."  Yeah - this is exactly what he ended up telling me later! Ha! Anyway, so there's a first for Kenneth - an attempted rescue by a lifeguard!  ;)