Car Show / Birthday / Blue Angle's

Orinda has a car show to raise money for the senior citizens of the city. We went this year and saw some fabulous cars. These were my favorites. A back to the future 50's blue convertible Chevrolet

and a Lamborghini ( this car was gorgeous)!

I just love the way the doors open.

Emerson loved it too, I had to stop him from climbing inside.

this picture doesn't do justice to the beautiful evening scene of the bay and the golden gate bridge. I had my hand held camera on full zoom, the view was silver in the sunset, it was breath taking!

Yea!!! My little buddy turned 2. He is so much fun and just learning new things every day. He has transitioned during the last few weeks to become much more verbal about his wants. "No" is now a word I hear in response to about everything I ask or suggest. He is surprisingly affectionate and loving. When he was first born he didn't like to cuddle, but now we cuddle up with a blanket and a book. He will want to hug dad goodbye in the morning and hold my hand in the car. He is sooo precious! He's all boy though, trucks and cars and trains. His favorite part about his cake was the trucks. I couldn't even get him to eat a bite of cake he was so busy playing with the toys.

On Emerson's birthday dad took the afternoon off to play with Emerson. We went to the Berkeley Lawrence Science Center. There are fun roller coaster exhibits that are hands on and educational, a huge building block table and much more. Ever since we went there with dad, Emerson has been asking to go back.

Happy Birthday Little Emerson (no candles, last year he burnt his fingers, really I just didn't bother to buy any).

On Saturday James had a co-worker that invited us to enjoy the fleet week Blue Angles show from the rooftop of his apartment building in San Fransisco.

It was a great vantage point. Everyone was outside to watch the Angles fly. I have never seen so many sailboats in the bay.

The Blue Angles put on an amazing show. Emerson was in Ahh of the planes and scared. We were buzzed by one plane and it startled the whole group. Emerson was asking to go inside. I think he may like it a little more as he gets older. :)

General Conference

Wow, wasn't General Conference wonderful and inspiring!! I can't decide which talk and what theme I thought was most important and most meaningful to me. . . How about you??

For those of you privileged to attend the Relief Society Meeting the week prior I loved the Prophets message and story of the sister looking out her window at what appeared to be her neighbors dirty laundry when in reality it was the dirt on her window she was seeing. I also loved President Monson's message of Gratitude during his Sunday morning talk. Of course Elder Ochdorf's talk about simplifying life must have hit home to everyone in ear shot of his words. How true it is that we need to keep to the fundamental basics of life and not allow all the clutter to clutter out what is most important.

I also have to say after living in the bay area and being right in the middle of the gay right conflict with Proposition 8 for gay marriage I feel a deep sense of respect for Elder Packer. He doesn't mix words and although what he says may not be popular or feel good fussy, he is willing to step out and speak the word of God. To stand and speak words that are not easily accepted is something I don't really like to do, I respect the 12 apostles for their exemplary lives and examples that continue to motivate me to re-evaluation and improvement.

Isn't General Conference Great!! Truly I look forward to it, all year, twice a year.

Recent stuff

Here is a finished look at the kitchen. This house has come a long way.

adjacent family room.

Emerson and his buddy spent a morning going to the little farm near our house. Look at the cows. Moo. . .

It was recently my brother in law's 17'th birthday. I went over to have a little birthday fun. We ambushed his friend and made a great mess with shaving cream. (that's me on the right)

I also made him a duvet blanket cover jean and fleece.

Utah Trip in July

Mid -summer I took an unexpected trip to Utah. I have been meaning to get these pictures up. I also promised my nephew Asher I would post his jump/slid video. It is Emerson's favorite home video to watch. . . "Jump Jump Jump" he thinks it's so funny.

We visited his cousins one evening and enjoyed McDonald's chicken nuggets and trampoline time.

Emerson and his cousin Violet.

She is just couple of weeks younger than Emerson

We took a trip to the lake an jet skied. Emerson even got on the ski with me, but some how that picture didn't work out. He sure loved exploring with his Grandpa though.

A beautiful sunset!~!

I just went slow because of the prego thing, but could help but get out on the lake.

Some summer photo's

I took a trip to Eureka Ca. to have a last farewell to my wonderful Grandma Swiss's Eureka house.

She was moving to Utah to be closer to have kids.

This is the cousins hanging out in the front room .

Who knew a box could be so much fun!

The beautiful park down the road

Grandma's kids. My Dad on the far Left. Uncle Dale, Aunt Jeanette, and Uncle Jerry.

the last goodbye to Grandma's house.

Northern Cali is so beautiful . . . I had to stop for a picture!!

The drive was only 5 hours and it was heavenly

Emerson travels really well and was asleep for half of the trip.

James built a crazy computer that is housed in an aquarium .

Just hanging out

This kid is just getting too big. I love hanging with my little man.

His favorite things are TRAINS, TRUCKS, and CARS.

Sound like a boy to you?

We ripped out the false fire place and put a new one in just hours before a big party at our house, needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep that week and my hands were completely black, stained by grout for the party, but we finished it. . . a miracle.

The party was fun. . . looking back I was too preoccupied to take pictures at the party, should have done that.

The finished Product.

( I am dying to repaint this room now that we have the fire place in. I had envisioned a travertine tile with a white prefab wood surround, more blues colors when I picked a cooler tone for the room. . . now I really want to warm the walls up with a different color . . . Maybe in a year or two . . :) . . )

Before the summer ended we went to SF for some fun and enjoyed a walk through a tunnel aquarium . Emerson loved it.

Patience

What do you do when you are low on patience?

Room-ba; Scoo-ba

Are any of you looking to buy a new vacuum. . .??? Or does your husband not know what to get you for a special occasion. I highly recommend a roomba. . . the mechanical vacuum that cleans on it's own. James bought us one when we moved in. I don't think I will ever go back to a hand held vacuum. Seriously!!! I love it and it does a great job. We programed it to run every night at 4 am in the morning. I wake up to a vacuumed and swept floor every day. and if I feel a room needs a little sprucing up. I move the roomba into that room turn it on and walk away. Amazing. The other night when I was prepping for a mom's group gathering at our place I thought I don't want to run the Scooba (mechanical mop) because it does make noise. I used my Wet Jet for a little bit, thinking I could just it the really bad areas. . ., getting the job done was taking too much time. . . so I took the 1 minute it requires to fill the scooba with water put it on the floor and turn it on. I moved on to other things by the time I was done with that my floor was cleaned too. After the party the floor was totally dirty again. I just turned the Scooba on and walked away. I can't believe it!! For me I think this it just as useful and helpful as a dishwasher. With a dishwasher some dishes have to be cleaned by hand, but on a regular basis the dishwasher does the trick. Same with the Roomba and Scooba. Some messes require direct clean up with a vacuum but I don't have to hassel with the weight and pushing of a big vacuum on a regular basis. It is amazing. I totally recommend it to all women!!!