Hiking

We love inviting the kids over the spend the weekend with thier favorite Aunt and Uncle (for clarification purposes...that would be myself and Whitney)! This weekend we decided to go hiking so we packed up some water, snacks, and the kids and headed for North Mountain. We feel like the trip was overall a success...

We did get a few looks when Kamee kept pointing to the guys hiking without thier shirts on and saying, rather loudly, "Hey, he's immodest". Naturally, our response was "oh honey, they're going swimming!"

Baseball is a family affair

Dad always made Jayce's little league games a matter of high priority. I would always get a call from him on the day of the big game asking if we were going to come support Jayce or if we had found more important things to do! (he was never afraid to use the guilt tactics!) So of course we came and always had a good time.

The Jones family fans!

Note to self: Keep Hana and Broc seperated. They always get in screaming competitions!

Grandma and Grandpa watching the game from the executive suite!

San Francisco Remembered

For Whitney's birthday we planned a trip to SF to hang out with Aunt Martha and do all the fun things everyone claims there is to do there...

Is there a better way to start off a trip than by eating lunch at a haunted restaurant? We took a the long drive to Moss Beach Distillery hoping to have an encounter with the Lady in Blue...but we had no such luck. We did, however, have a GREAT meal and an even better view of the ocean cliffs.

Whitney and I got adventurous and went out climbing on the clifs overlooking the ocean.

Aunt Martha got us tickets to go see Wicked. It was awesome!!

Don't we look like the typical tourists? On the boat out to Alcatraz.

As we walked down Pier 39 we saw a little shop with a huge sign that said "BIKE THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE". We asked about the ride and the lady said the trip is a about 8 miles one way and takes about 1 1/2 hours.

so we said "Sure, that's not bad"

(note: we are usually pretty honest with ourselves about what we can and can't do..not today!)

As we left the shop, I swear they just laughed and mumbled "SUCKERS"!

Items the shop attendent failed to mention:

We are biking into a 50 MPH headwind.

The seat is only comfortable for about the first 3 minutes.

With few exceptions, the trail is almost all uphill

and

freezing cold temperatures + sweating profusely = an irritable woman who can't figure out whether to keep her jacket on or off.

We were quite the travelling duo. Okay, if we are being honest, we looked pathetic! Even the runners were passing us at a high rate of speed. I probably could have walked my bike faster than I rode it. Well again, if we're being honest, that's what I did!

Too bad this isn't our victory photo...only 4 more miles to go!

Ahh, the bridge! Why does it have to be so long?

3 hours later... We finally made it to Sausalito. This is more like our victory photo! As much "fun" as the ride was, we decided to take the ferry back across the bay. Whew! I don't know how much more these bunns of mine could take!

After a well deserved good night's rest, we headed to an amusement park. The animal shows were awesome and we even got to ride an elephant. The extra passenger was a little girl in front of us, who at the last minute, started crying because she was scared to ride alone. We invited her to ride with us and she did!

We headed up to wine country (northern cal) to check out the grape vinyards. They are beautiful! While there, I had one goal in mind...to find a non-alcoholic grape juice. Talk about finding a needle in a hay stack. We went to 2 or 3 winery's with no luck. On our way out of town, we stopped at a little store and we found...VINJUS the all natural grape juice!

What is a vacation without a visit to the temple? The Oakland temple is beautiful. Well worth the trip across town.

We polished off the trip with a visit to the chocolate capital of the world and we came back with plenty to share!

Thank you Aunt Martha for such a fun visit!

Family Vacations

I have been doing some organizing lately and found some pics of a vacations that we took earlier in the year, but have not yet shared. We hope you enjoy!!

The whole family took a trip to Safford in April to get Dad out of town and ride the golf carts for a weekend. The campground we stayed at was surprisingly pleasant, aside from the gigantic roach that climbed up through the drain as I was washing dishes!

We met up with the Claridges' at the dunes. Dad sure enjoyed his adventures with Ron

Every one took turns playing on Ron's new toy.

Thanks Ron... now all the boys, instigated by Dad, are conspiring to buy their own Ranger!

Flowers for Dad

We wanted to place flowers on Dad's grave, but couldn't decide what to get...and then it came to us! After a quick trip to the hospital gift shop with the kids, we had them...3 beautiful plush flowers (Jayce, Kamee, and Broc each picked one). These flowers had been so comforting to dad and had witnessed many miracles. Every admit to the hospital, without fail, one of the grandkids would make a trip to the "hostible" gift shop to buy a flower for grandpa. We would wrap the flower on his bed and it went everywhere with him.

I like to imagine that Dad is smiling just as big as these flowers!

Go D-backs!!

As in years past, we scored some great D-backs tickets from Delta Dental! This year we got to enjoy the event with Noelle and Andrew. You can blame them for the matching t-shirt fiasco!

The game was awesome...and we'll take the credit for it! (okay...maybe it was the t-shirts)
After a somewhat disappointing season thus far, we were excited to have attended a winning game (4-3 final score).

Go D-backs!!

Treasured Moments

We love great friends who treasure our finer moments as much as we do!

You got us on this one! Thanks for the gift Noelle & Andrew!

Fun in Flagstaff

Camping with the family is always entertaining! It is never without good food, lots of laughs, and a little drama. Here is the visual recap of the weekends events:

It all began early one morning on the 3rd day of July at the Cinder hills....ahhhh..I'll just get to the point. Notice the chair Margayle is sitting in (it is still in one piece...that will be relevant in a second).

Mom!! What are you doing down there?

...and yes that would be Margayle's chair that is now in pieces. Notice how quick we were to help. Sorry mom, we couldn't miss this Kodak moment!

I guess it serves us right...our trip to the hills was cut short by a massive thunderstorm, but even that was entertaining.

Where are you going with those things? The truck is the opposite direction!!

Our family spirit squad!! Aren't they cute?

We thought it would be a great idea to watch the Independence Day parade downtown. And it was!! Despite the mile walk to get there, the swealtering heat, and the hoards of people, we had a great time. Just for the record, you can thank my loud mouth for the free popsicles and Margayle's new pajamas!

The adoring fans!

(our umbrellas sure came in handy AGAIN)

The not-so-adoring fan!

Who goes to a parade and doesn't watch it? WHITNEY. I hope you found the article you were reading on stained concrete more entertaining!

Thanks for the great meal Mindee!

I just have one thing to say as your little sis... the rag on the head went out of style years ago!

Some people are cut out for banana bikes and others are not. How do you find out if you are? You gotta try one...so we did! This was definetely the most enjoyable 1/2 hour of the trip! Thank you Mom for letting us discover with you that you may be in the latter category! However, to mom's credit, I don't think any of us made the cut, but we sure had fun trying!

I think he may be on to something here!

Free hayrides and popcorn! We couldn't resist!

Is it obvious that mom teaches nursery? She brought up holiday pinwheels for us to make. Thank you mom for thinking ahead. It was the perfect rainy day activity!

The girls...don't you love the matching shirts? Just in case you are thinking, we are good, but we're not that good...it was planned!

This year is the first year I can remember actually enjoying a fireworks show! It is always so hot in the valley that the show is almost not worth the 3 hours you have to sit in the heat waiting for it. We had a great view of the show in Flagstaff. I have never watched people actually lighting the fireworks....but I must say it was almost as amazing as the fireworks themselves. I think this may become a family tradition. It was sure fun!