newport beach

the last few days we've had a mini-vaca....russ and i came down to newport beach and kelly, jeff and kids joined us...we've been staying at the beautiful pelican hill resort...we weren't able to go to italy, so this is the closest we could come...the resort and villas are fashioned after beautiful italian villas...they have a gorgeous circular pool which is the largest in the world...at the villa pool, they have a pool that's a quarter the size, but still huge...the kids have been swimming every day...even charlie loves the water...gavin and owen went to the kids club on saturday and loved it...we went to the 'kids' club for adults...the spa...it was fantastic...on friday night we had dinner at the hotel, saturday jeff suggested this fun jamacaiian restaurant...the owner, eva, took great care of us...it was delicious..on sunday night adam and ashley met us and we ate at the grill at the golf course..on monday we had delicious indian food...and topped off the week with 'despicable me'....it's been a fun few days...i could stay here looking at the ocean for alot longer...

yummmm

start off with a few bunches of bananas....slice, put into
food dehydrator...cook about 18 hours...and......



you get delicous dried bananas!!!! not like those gross banana
chips...these are a little chewy and really addictive!!!

domestic goddess

last night i made strawberry jam....in the process i found out that my two youngest children (who aren't that young) don't remember that i did this...guess i've been 'off the domestic' wagon for toooooooo long...it made me think...as the kids got older, i stopped doing things that i did alot when they were little...probably the biggest one would be cooking!  i guess i figure...why cook, when half the time no one is home?  i used to do alot of things, i guess because i was home all day with young children and i had to keep busy or i'd probably kill them!  not really, but, you know what i mean....let's see...what did i used to do....cook, bake, can fruits, make jams, dry foods, sew, make crafts, paint, decorate and refurbish furniture, read, try to garden or at least keep the flowers from dying... i used to drive, drive, drive, it seems like i wouldl get home and then a child would call and i'm ready to be picked up!  loved it when cell phones came around!! saved me alot of trips, back and forth....i love to decorate and make things for my house...then, i'd clean, clean and a little more cleaning...so, that's a bit of what i used to do you guys (k and r), then, we'd go to the park, the beach, the tennis club, or friends for you guys to play and have fun......back in the day that's what we'd do...i felt like we had family night--all day and night..we were always together...and i loved it...sooo...what did you other moms do?  what don't your kids remember?  i swear, kerry doesn't remember half the places we've been or done...sometimes i wonder 'why did i do this?'...i'm finding mine don't remember much...so, i'll just  have to keep reminding them! that will keep me busy...

jam

start with these
clean 'em up nice
end with this!!! yummmm!

celebrations

(bearded guy was in the video they had to watch)

birthday presents
4th of july


the last few weeks have been really busy...we celebrated russ' birthday at the sky diving company, waiting until the sky cleared....it didn't, so then we came back last friday and they were able to celebrate russ and kristen's b-days by doing the big sky dive!! they loved it and want to go again...a couple of days later we celebrated kelly's birthday with the family....and then to top it off...it was the 4th! we had a really fun barbecue with my family, the meru's, the lefevre's, the pollocks, seek and his fiancee bree, aaron...and even our old neighbors wes and lisa showed up...it's always fun to get together, to watch the fireworks, see the kids run around...it's fun to see everyone grow up, but still love to be together...it's a great sight!