Christmas Prep...

The buildup...

Finale to come!

"Oh the places you will...vacuum."

What's the last thing you swept? What's the last thing you vacuumed? 

One day long ago, I stopped in my tracks. This is a seriously odd stage in life. 

I was sweeping the carpet. 

Then I vacuumed the table.

How about vacuuming a baby doll. 

How about the fact that Ry was taking to a co-worker the other day and referred to his sore glutes as his "bummy" without even missing a beat... yet I digress.

I'll admit. I even vacuumed out the oven once. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Yes, it's odd, but beautiful. I do what I can to get the job done.

(Kaila putting baby powder on her baby-doll. She's such a good little mommy!)

Good Idea Bad Idea

Ryan and I couldn't decide. Is a top-heavy camo-camper, complete with map-print curtains and shutter-glass windows, built on a truck bed a good idea, or a bad idea?

  We spent a considerable amout of time freeway-stalking this beauty, trying to just absorb it's glory from every angle.   Where were we? You probably guessed it. Driving through Sacramento.

thanksgiving... A little late!

It's just been one fun thing after another around here! I can't complain of being too busy, it's just that I have to let things go by the wayside to keep from feeling too busy! Thus the lack of blog posts lately.

Here are some Thanksgiving hilights...

Spending time with the family and playing in the creek...

Chatting with our beautiful family, near and far (via skype)

Running a T-day 5 K with Ryan, who paced me and I got a great time!

Spending time with these amazing people...and good food of course (not pictured...pictures mysterously missing!)

Camping

I love that my man is a dreamer. He decided that he wanted to bike from San Luis to Santa Barbara, and then camp the night at El Capitan...and then he made it happen.

 It's only a short hour and a half away from us, and I totally want to go again and again now! Ry and a few of his friends did the ride together and they loved it. We had some great Mexican food and then camped with our friends for one night at El Cap. It turned out to be great weather and totally worth it.

Then, we headed back to SLO for coffee early the Sunday morning, had coffee in the Mission Plaza and lunch down at Shell Beach.

Tie it all up with dinner at a friend's house that night and it made for one particularly great weekend.  Now we're not going any where for a few weeks and it's time to rest in our hoome ; )

San Fran

A big "Thank You" to Andrea and Joey who watched our kids to make this weekend possible. 

First, we went to the Oregon vs Stanford football game with Mom and Dad Hayes and Lyndal. It was fun to be with them but Oregon lost so Ryan was depressed afterwards.

Next, we headed into the city for a weekend out. We went on a run at the Marina and saw some of these hilights...

 Japan Town

Chocolate Factory

Weird puppet-coin machines at a museum...

Toured a boat  that survived WWII, D-day.

We spent time sitting and talking, making spur of the moment decisions, cruising funky bookstores and coffee shops and eating exotic foods.  The only automobile we were in the whole weekend was the bus we took home after gorging ourselves on fine Italian seafood dishes and wine, late into the night. We slept in, finished our sentences and were out of the house at 2 pm (naptime).  It was awesome.

Thank you again Andrea and Joey. : )

Girls Camping Trip

We spent the weekend after the birthday party down in south county camping at the beach.

Actually, I camped and Ry just brought the kids all day Saturday, since we had overbooked our lives in general, at that point (we had another trip four days later, to be continued...)

The whole point of the trip was to spend some quality time with these three girls (my friends from high school/college roommates).  Thank's Ry for giving me the time and thanks girls for making it happen! Love you guys! xoxoxo