San Diego and babies

I left off the last post with Christmas, so I'll start this new one with New Year's.  Here's a pic of Rivers, Alissa, and I in our formal dresses to run the midnight race to ring in 2012.  Rivers wore my 8th grade dessert dance dress with the biggest shoulder pads I've ever seen.  This year we tried the race in Eugene instead of Portland.  I kind of missed running along the waterfront in Portland with thousands of other weirdo runners, but the smaller Eugene race was a fun change and went through a park in the dark along a raging river (plus we all appreciated the shorter drive).  I ran with Rivers and can't remember the last time I had so much fun running - love that girl.  Rivers won her age group and was so excited to be called up to get her medal:)  Tyler and Tanner wore tuxedo jackets, running tights and bow ties, and Jason is the only one that braved the 10K.   

Rivers showing the dress is stretchy enough to run in.

The twins playing in the hideout under the bushes that grew to the size of trees.

The look on Dre's face cracks me up. He just wrestled CD down and is quite proud of himself while he holds him down with one hand.  I keep telling CD he better be nice to Dreyton because he's a little toughie and in a couple of years their wrestling matches won't be so one-sided. 

We've gotten snow a couple of times this year too. 

One snow storm was followed by days of non-stop warm rain which melted all the snow and flooded the whole state like crazy.  This was a little ditch that flooded over my Mom's road.  Luckily this was the worst of it for us.  A lot of other people weren't so lucky and even the schools closed because so many roads and houses were flooded. 

Happy Birthday to me!  Carmel Apple Cheesecake from Jillicious......delicious!!!

We have been wanting to get away during the winter and found some great Southwest flights, so we flew the crew to San Diego for a week over my birthday. 

The kids (especially Rivers) LOVE staying in hotels.  Here's Dreyton enjoying the plush pillows.

We apparently went to San Diego during the best weather they had all winter, so we immediately took our white bodies to the swimming pool. 

Then it was off to Legoland, which was surprisingly a lot of fun.  I say surprisingly because we actually liked it more than Disneyland.  I think part of it was because we didn't have to wait in one line and even the little ones could go on almost every ride.  We just ran from one thing to the next and had so much fun.  Here's CD saying "whacka, whacka, what!" one of the 100 times that day.

Darth Vader made all out of Legos

All of those fun rides, and this is what we had to literally pull CD away from. 

Fried apple sticks

Our one group shot from the trip.

For our beach day we went to Coronado Beach

Dwight's face sums up how we all felt....although it wasn't as relaxing for Carlos and I with the twins near the water and always taking off running down the beach.  Dreyton wouldn't even look at the water he was so scared at first because during a quick trip to Pillbox beach by DelMar the day before, he, Reagan, CD, and Carlos got caught by a wave up against a cliff.  It's a narrow beach between the water and the cliffs with nowhere to run away to. 

Races on the beach....trying out the sport mode on the camera.

Pacific Beach

One morning we drove to Pacific Beach and rented bikes to cruise along the boardwalk.  It was one of the highlights of the trip for me (and it was one of the kid's favorite too).  The boardwalk goes right along the beach for miles and in the morning it wasn't too crowded and was the perfect temperature. 

Here I am trying to look as cool as I possibly can cruisin along with a toddler in the back and helmets in the front.  I forgot to bring my sunglasses on the trip but found these in our rental car....I'm old enough to remember when this style of sunglasses was popular the first time around. 

Rivers liked to look at all of the unique houses along the route.

Carlos took the kids for a hike at Torrey Pines Reserve while I ran on all the trails I could find there.  It was pretty, but I have to say it still doesn't come close to the majestic beauty of Pacific Northwest trails. 

I liked this little gem of a staircase through the rock down to the beach though!

Our afternoon at Pillbox beach

We stayed at the Morgan Run resort in the middle of horse country by Del Mar and had so much fun coming back each night around 7pm and going to the hot tub and pool and then using their great little fitness center together.  No one was ever there, so even the little ones got to join in. 

The kids thought it was exceptionally cool that we could order room service to the hot tub:)  Fun, fun little getaway.

After we got back, we signed CD up for TaeKwonDo Karate and it is so funny to watch.  He holds his arms so stiff in front of him that they are shaking.  He takes it all very seriously and I think Carlos is wondering if he did the right thing signing CD up because he is the target for all the new moves he learns.

Dreyton was being so whiny and clingy this day that I ended up digging out my sling and putting him in it so I could use my hands.  It worked like a charm even though he looks way too big for it. 

We had so many nice, sunny days this winter.  Here we are visiting the wetlands a few miles from the house where we sometimes see nutria (they look like a beaver with a rat's tail).

Sometimes I think winter is even prettier than Spring or Summer here because of all the bright green moss on everything.  This is a sidewalk that turned green with soft moss! 

This is why everyone should have a twin....

The girls visiting Jillicious Bakeshop for the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted and goodies.  Notice the two about to pop.  Whitney and Amber were actually due on the same day!

We kept waiting for the babies to arrive, but Valentines came before they did.  This year we melted crayon pieces in heart shape molds to make these heart crayons.  CD and Rivers had so much fun with it (okay I really liked seeing the designs the melted crayons made too). 

Rivers' heart hair on V-day!

Off to preschool with his Valentines.  Such a great kid.  His preschool teacher told me today that he has such a great spirit about him:)

Finally, Warren Tanner arrived to Whitney and Cody on February 15th.  Such a cute, good baby....and so fun to see how much my kids adore him.  CD could not stop smiling.

And a week later, big boy Riggins Baylor arrived and gave us even more to smile about!

Good job Tyler and Amber!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and fun in between

This Winter has reminded me more of Spring than Winter.  We had two days of snow followed by a week of flooding in January, and the rest of the time we've gotten to play around outside a lot.

Early November Rivers ran in the State Junior Olympics Cross-Country meet in Salem and here I am trying to coach her up on the starting line and she's thinkin' I'm crazy.

And off they go....Rivs actually slipped and fell down to her knees on her first step, but jumped back up and caught up to the pack.

The course was so hilly!  I ran it backwards to find a good cheering spot and couldn't believe the hills they had to run up. I should have gotten a picture of the big one.  Rivers was tough though and didn't walk on any of the hills.

Here she is kicking it in at the end of the 3000m course.  Woohoo!

For Thanksgiving we made the drive to Utah to spend time with the Nuno bunch and Tanner and Alissa.  CD and Salesi had fun getting into mischief together again.

I was trying to take a picture of Dwight's luscious lashes.  Carlos got me a nice camera as an early Christmas present so I tried it out on the kids.

I took the older cousins and CD on a hike to a waterfall one afternoon in the mountains by Ogden.

which turned out to be a frozen waterfall and was really pretty.  They were troopers.

We kind of got caught in the dark on the way down, but seeing this great sunset made the stumbling down the dark, icy trail worth it.

On our Thanksgiving trip I also made these cute little boots and hat for my friend's new arrival.

I took Rivs and CD to Wolf Mountain for opening day and met Tanner and Alissa there.  CD had a lesson and I loved the extremely proud and excited look on his face as he started getting it down.

Here's Carlos' sister Christina and Dre Dre.  We stayed at her house during the trip.

And here's the whole group out at pizza.

The kids favorite thing when Lito is around is trading collectibles.  I'm not very schooled in that world, but they love it.

Back in Oregon we enjoyed more sunny, nice weather in December.

And at least once a day the kids ride their little cars and big wheels down the grass hill on the front lawn. 

Cousin Cassidy staking her claim on the favorite climbing tree (and she is quite the climber).

Rivers entered the Christmas drawing contest put on by the newspaper here and took 2nd place

This was a Christmas dress my Mom made me when I was about Rivers age.  It's fun that Rivers likes to wear my vintage stuff ;)

I kept finding the twins with their chairs pulled up to the gingerbread house and taking little nibbles.

The scene every night as the twins climb the stairs to go to bed.

I finally made it out to Peavy Arboretum to run and Carlos brought the kids to hike around while I ran.  Reagan reminds me of a little red riding hood character skipping through the woods.

Rivs flying through the air....this place is magical...

Awwww...

CD and Carlos went clamming with the Young Men and brought home a pot full of fat clams, which meant I had to learn how to clean and cook them.

We filmed a nativity with the cousins this year that turned out so cute, I might make it a tradition

Christmas Eve

Oh yeah baby...look out!

 Funny Christmas Eve pajamas from Oma....and yes, they still like a bottle at bedtime.

I put this picture in because you can see my new ring that Carlos got me for Christmas - simple titanium with the kids names inscribed - good surprise gift.

 A few days after Christmas we went to the coast and went to the top of the Yaquina head lighthouse...

...checked out the best natural tidepools I've ever seen.

And were amazed by the black pebble beach.  It sounds cliche, but it seriously was soooo cool!  The rocks were all black, very dense, and perfectly smooth.  A must see.

 And of course the holidays would not be complete without a candycane bowl.  It looks like Tyler jumped up and snagged the ball, but...

...Carlos on the skins team came down with it:)   Fun, fun holidays in 2011.  I think Carlos and I were even more excited for Christmas than the kids this year.