Swimwear required, sombrero's..... optional

This summer has been some serious fun in the sun around here. It started out with a great trip to Cabo and from there has evolved into trips to the beach, Hurricane Harbor (the Six Flags water park in Valencia) and many, many trips to the pool. Riley has taken to living in her swimming suit, and must have it on within seconds of getting out of bed. Isn't that what summers all about anyway? 

Our trip to Cabo was so much fun. We headed down with some great friends and had a fantastic trip. We spent a lot of time lounging on the beach, shopping, drinking Pina Coladas, (virgin of course) eating, eating and more eating. The guys did some golfing and fishing, the girls did the spa and swam with the dolphins and we did an America's Cup race together (Ill post about our excursions later) It was a great success of a trip and Cabo, as usual, did not disappoint. 

You can tell the next few pictures are not Cabo because the kids were not invited on that trip. This is us at Hurricane Harbor (giving my underwater camera its first initial test run). By the way, I love Hurricane Harbor, I can let the kids run around, get wet, cruise the lazy river and theres no sand to clean up or get in my food. Its a win-win for all!

Last but not least, our first trip to the beach so far this summer. Mason doesnt even need a shovel to do some heavy digging. 

This is how we do it

This is how we shake our groove thing.......

This is how we entertain ourselves at church.......

This is how we teach our kids to stay our of jail under the guise of a "field trip"......

This is how we show them the wrong end of a cop car to ride in.......

And this is how we show them what cop car they really want to hold out for......

"At all times, and in all things, and in all places"

And with lots of pictures! The activities we have 

been involved in with our Young Women as of late, 

have been wide, varying and quite numerous. 

So in an effort to consolidate all that excitement 

into one manageable blog size post I have created

 a tidy little slideshow for you. Enjoy. 

Happiness.......GDC

Do you ever find that you have to be in a certain mood to get that perfect blog post from the confines of your brain through to your fingertips and on to your computer where it will be saved and archived and read by possible generations of people? Me neither. Ok, I do, and Im sad to say to the throngs of readers out there, past, present and future, today is not one of those days. However, since its been a month and the pictures are continuing to pile up, Im posting them now. Even if Im not so good with the saying of the things with the words right now. 

First and foremost, the title of this post and the following two pictures: our Ginger run. A group of family and friends of Ginger Dee Zierenberg Clinton ran the Agoura Great Race in memory of our great friend. She ran it last year and was so happy to have finished it and especially under her goal time. I was so lucky to have been able to run it this year and as you can see from the second picture it was a beautiful sea of red for Ginger, her favorite color. Thanks to my running buddies who made it very fun and very memorable.  

On to Easter-

Which was very low key this year but still and always a lot of fun. There was the Ward Easter egg hunt, our family egg hunt, and the cousins egg hunt. Dont worry I decided to spare my kids the cavities and sugar high by eating a lot of the candy myself. That's me, always so self sacrificing. 

Now the part of this blog post I have been dreading the most. And although it still bring me to tears and my heart still hurts its a good way for me to tell those of you who dont know her all about a very good friend of mine. Natalie Paxman was one of the most wonderful women you could ever meet, she was kind and sincere, loving and sweet, thoughtful and caring. She was without a doubt in my mind, the most incredible mother. I visit taught Natalie every month for 2 years and whenever I would leave her home I was the one who had been uplifted with a resolve to be better, to be like Natalie was. I know she had her struggles but she rarely showed it, what she showed was concern for others. She would lose herself and her troubles in service and love to others. I also played Bunco with her every month for the last 3 years, and as you watched her you saw that everyone in that room was her best friend. She made everyone feel wanted, needed and loved. We had been out on dates with she and her husband Todd, and she was an amazing wife who cared for her husband and family above all else. I miss her so much, I wish I had been able to see her and talk to her and tell her how inspirational she was, and is, to me.  I love you Natalie.  

He's driving and striving and hugging the turns

Well I tried to talk Darren into the good old classic Chuck-E-Cheese for his birthday this year but those dancing singing animals still freak him out, so we opted for this place.....

We invited a bunch of friends to join us for dinner and a night at the track. Dinner was fantastic and the track was, lets just say a thousand times better than any Chuck-E-Cheese ride. It was 14 laps on an indoor track in a very fast go kart, he (or she) with the fastest lap wins. The girls all did a race together and the guys did one together, then a few of us went out for a second race, one was just not enough. It was so much fun and if you've never been to one of these places I highly recommend it. I think a few of the guys are already planning a day long "learn to drive your go kart" class, and then of course another trip to the track. (and yes, I wanna go to!)

So here is the group, minus a few who had to leave after dinner......

The track and a few of our contestants....
I think this is Kenny, but its all a bit of a blur....(although this was the clearest picture)

And this is for sure me, you want to know how you can tell? Its my "signature" thumbs up. 

40 is the new 30

For Darren's 40th birthday I stole Jamie's idea and came up with 40 things (among thousands)

I love about Darren. Here they are (in no particular order).

1. He is clean (I promise they are in no particular order)

2. He is always willing to help

3. He loves his Wife and kids (if there were an order this would be #1)

4. He is very supportive

5. He honors his Priesthood

6. He loves to be social

7. He will eat whatever I make for him (even if it takes 10 drinks to wash it down)

8. He will eat Ramen and Mac & Cheese (see #7)

9. He loves to do anything if its with his family

10. With the exception being cars, he can fix anything

11. He loves to play just about any sport, he says he better at some than others, I think he's being modest

12. He loves to wrestle with his boys, and they love it just as much.

13. He is a sucker for his girls, and we love that too.

14. He is quite possibly the smartest person I know.

15. He is incredibly good at his job, I worked with him a while back so I know first hand.

16. He is also incredibly good at his calling, probably the reason he's been doing it so long.

17. He would do anything for anyone, just ask.

18. He loves his parents, its always his idea to stop over for a quick visit.

19. He also loves his siblings, it is so important for him to visit them as often as possible too.

20. He is the king of useless trivia and facts. (but its great at parties)

21. He will always call it exactly how he sees it, which is really great for clothes shopping.

22. He is not easily offended, something I'm trying to learn.

23. He is a fantastic teacher, and knows how to explain it so it just makes sense.

24. He is incredibly insightful. He is great to go to with any question, he'll know just what to say.

25. He loves to have fun and joke around but,

26. He knows when its time to take things seriously.

27. He is very forgiving, which comes in handy for all my faults.

28. He is also very understanding.

29. I love how involved he is in my life and our kids lives.

30. And, He is not only involved, but hands on. 

31. He will rock- paper- scissors me for a diaper change, and be a good sport if he loses.

32. He is not in the least bit shy, and loves to meet new people.

33. He is very confident, but at the same time...

34. He is also humble.

35. He knows what he likes, but.... 

36. He is always up for new things. 

37. He is very spiritually minded and those things always come so easy to him.

38. He is responsible which again is handy because a lot of the time I am not.

39. He is so darn cute, and sweet, and handsome, and fun, and good looking, and amazing, and hot, and incredible, and gorgeous....well you get the point. 

40. He is a million other things and reasons why I love him, but there are still more birthdays to celebrate so we can't give them all away now. 

Happy Birthday Darren, I love you so much and am so thankful for you in my life, you are such a blessing to me, and more than I deserve. Thank you for being the most amazing husband, father and friend anyone could ever imagine, you are the greatest. I want you to have the best 40th birthday ever, so.......................................Let's go car shopping! 

"You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose...

But you can't pick your friends nose."

Rod Amussen

Ive always tried to live by my dad's inspiring words of wisdom, and look how well its paid off. I have some of the greatest friends in the world. When we get together we always have the best time, even at 2 a.m. Our "girls nights out" seem to be getting later and later but all the more fun every time, just as long as there aren't too many per week, we are none of us 18 any longer. This was our movie night for Kellee's birthday. I can't recommend the movie we saw, but the company was worth it. 

This is book club night, and yes we did talk a little about the book before we pulled out the movie, and all the yummy treats. Thanks Kim! 
Kellee and I at another "girls day out" and no she is not getting fresh but I was about to fall and she was saving me, Thanks Kellee. 
I am so lucky for all the friends in my life. I wish I had pictures of all of them, my friends from the wards we've been in, my fabulous basketball friends, they are all the best. How lucky am I?