Here's a photo dump for you. We've been busy! Good busy though. My parents were here visiting last week. They rented a cabin up in Idyllwild for all of us and we went up there 2 weekends ago. It's so beautiful up there. We did a little exploring, there was a wine and art walk that my parents did a little of, and we just hung out. It was nice and relaxing. But anyways, here are some pictures from the past couple weeks, in no particular order...

So we went on a small hike around a lake up by Idyllwild and I just happened to look down at one point and saw a couple lady bugs...and then I kept seeing them, this was the most lady bugs I had ever seen!!! they were just clumped everywhere, on the fence, on the ground and on plants and bushes. It was really cool!


My little model? and hunter? haha, I dunno...


My little family on top of a mountain


My wonderful parents! Thank y'all for everything mom and dad!!! We love you!!!


Yeah, this was on Monday after my parents left...and pretty much sums up her attitude for the day...she needed her Grammy and Pots back!!

Ben got new LEGO crocs from Grammy and Pots!

Wow, the quality of this is awful! But, it was dark and taken with my phone, but still pretty cute!

One of the projects my dad started for me. My straw bale garden (just do a search on Google or wherever for "straw bale garden") I'm soo excited about this, I hope it's successful. This was taken right after I planted my seeds.

Abby got her ears pierced again! She got them pierced back in February, but I guess one night one earring fell out and we didn't realize it until too late. It had already started to grow in and when I tried to put an earring back in it hurt her, so it wasn't worth it, we just let them grown in. She has been asking for awhile to get them pierced again, but we wanted Grammy to be with her when she did it, so that was one of the first things we did with Grammy.

i'm sooo excited about this. There's an antique shop on Main street that I've been to like once before, but awhile ago. My parent's and I went in and browsed for awhile. They have some great finds, I will definitely be going in there regularly. Anyways, I've been wanting a new side table/console table for by my couch and front door. When I saw this tea table and the price, I knew I had to have it...so I got it! Love it!

Some more gardening. Flowers that Abby picked out and some cilantro and basil! Yumm!!

Yeah...this happened. David parked his car on the street one night (not an unusual occurance on our street) and someone decided to steal the tires and wheels off of just the one side, they must have gotten scared off or something because they left their jacks and the other 2 tires and wheels. Good grief, so ridiculous! And he had just gotten new tires!!!

My boy working hard on homework. I'm sooo proud of him! He's doing so well in school and is starting to read, so fun to see things clicking in that little mind of his!

So, on Saturday evening we went to this Harvest Market (or something, can't remember the name) in Imperial. It was fun, lots of booths and stuff. I got some fresh veggis, the kids got to play on one of those huge blow up slides, live music, food and other booths. Afterwards we decided to drive out to the country a bit and try and see the meteor shower. We got out there and it was windy...and it got chilly...so the kids and I sat in the car and took pictures and watched some of the videos I've taken of them doing stuff that I had on my phone and we laughed, it was sweet.

Kids being kids!

So I'm an awesome blogger, I know, not. I'm actually the kind of blogger that drives me crazy! The kind of blogger that goes like a month between posts! Sorry, I've just been lazy/boring/busy! So anyways...

So I started running this week...I decided to just do it 3 days a week to see how my body handles it (knees, shins) so far so good. I did feel like I was going to puke and or pass out on Monday because I was pushing myself and it was my first run/real exercise in a week or 2, but it felt good when I was done. Today seemed much better, had a little more endurance, didn't feel like I was going to puke or pass out. In other healthiness, I've been making the tastiest smoothies in the mornings and this is about how it goes...1/2 cup or so of plain non-fat greek yogurt, 1/2 C of frozen strawberries or other frozen fruit I might have, 1/2 - 1 fresh banana, squirt of honey, Flax Pack (found these at Marshalls, just individual packs of flax that I'm loving! I used to use chia but I believe I have converted!) and then 1 cup of water. Blend it all up in my Magic Bullet and yumm!!! Sooo good and filling and healthy and all that stuff. I've also been trying to eat several small meals throughout the day instead of stuffing myself at breakfast lunch and dinner. I'm pretty much hating the scales right now too, it's just not showing me the numbers I want to see, BUT...my clothes are fitting good and I have to confess, I bought some jeans the other day without trying them on just because I didn't want to be disapointed when they didn't fit (because I was having a fat day I guess) but was soooo pleasantly surprised when I tried them on at home and they fit like a glove! And, I saw a picture of myself and thought I looked pretty dang good. So, yeah, that's my feelings on all that.

Last weekend I had an Awana conference in San Diego on Saturday so David and I decided to make it a little weekend just for us. I got us a killer deal on Priceline and we stayed right on the harbor in downtown San D. It was very nice except for the people being super loud and slamming doors all night Saturday night, people are soo dumb sometimes, I mean seriously, you're in a hotel!! Where lots of other people are staying and trying to sleep in the middle of the night, geeze louise!! K, end of rant. The conference was ok, not quite what we expected, but it was fun hanging out with fun friends! It was nice getting away with my hubby though.

My parents are coming tomorrow!!! WOO!!! We're all excited! I thing the last time my dad was out here was last October and he was only at our house for a couple days and then we spend the rest of the time at the beach, and then my mom was here for just a couple days over the summer, so we're really looking forward to having them here.

Here are a couple pictures from my phone...

Me and my girl, she's soo funny! She was cracking up at herself after she saw the picture

Abby's self portrait of her foots...

My view Saturday morning after getting my coffee in San Diego

Haha, I don't even remember why she put that on her nose, I guess because she had a boo boo, funny stuff!