Lee's 34th Birthday!

The day after our beach excursion, Lee turned 34!  He caught up to me age wise, once again.  (Till December, ha ha). 

I cooked some beef ribs in the pressure cooker for his birthday dinner. Even though I burned the sauce in the cooker and the ribs on the bottom of the pan, the other ribs (and meat from the burned ribs) still turned out great! I'll have to keep a better eye on the time next time....whenever that will be.

After dinner Lee opened his gifts.  It's always cute seeing what the kids will buy/make for him.


I did a little bit of decorating.  I reused the same tablecloth banner, streamer thing from one of the boys' birthdays.  One gift from me to Lee was Oreos!


Birthday cards are always fun.



I also bought Lee some tennis rackets and balls, as if you couldn't tell from the picture.  Lee borrowed some rackets from a friend a couple months ago and surprised me with a tennis date.  It was a lot of fun.  I have no clue about which racquets are the best to buy, but since we are beginners, I figure we are safe with the less expensive ones! Lee has gone a few times already with Cal and Clark to play tennis.  They all really like it.


Our friends the Frankes, came over for cake and ice cream.  I am a big proponent of using the same amount of candles as the age of the birthday-ee.


We had a hard time lighting these candles, so not all were lit.  But there were 34 of them!





Here is a slightly better picture of the cake.  It was SO GOOD!


I did an Oreo crust, a layer of chocolate (kind of like a ganache-melted chocolate chips mixed with heavy whipping cream), chocolate wacky cake (Roger ever since you made it in North Carolina years ago, Lee loved it, and still remembers how good it was), chocolate frosting, and then chocolate whipped cream with Oreo sprinkles on top. It was so good!  There is an Italian restaurant here in town--Ciros--that has a really yummy chocolate cake. Their cake was my inspiration for Lee's cake. I need to make another one soon...


Haley made Lee a birthday crown.  It looks very good on you Lee!  I am so blessed that my best friend is a wonderful husband and father too!  We hope you had a wonderful birthday.  We are looking forward to many, many more together.

Beach Day 2014

Our second annual beach day was a blast!  Last year Lois and I and our families went to Virginia Beach on Labor Day and it was great.  We did a beach day on Labor Day this year too, and I think we've found a perfect beach day.  The traffic was good, crowds were fine, and it's a fun outing to look forward too before summer officially ends.

This year we met up with our friend Mary in her hometown of North Wildwood, NJ.  We started off the day with a yummy breakfast at a restaurant that Mary worked at in high school.  We got the "special" for $2.99!  Two huge pancakes, with eggs and bacon.  I loved the cinnamon syrup too.  And we were right on the boardwalk.  Pretty fun.




After a delicious breakfast we parked a few blocks from the beach (free streetside parking!) and walked in.  It was a great beach, with lifeguards too! The weather was great and we had a lovely time.  Enjoy the picture overload!




















































We ordered pizza for lunch and the slices were huge!  Thanks Chris for helping Lee with the pizza! 










After the beach we stopped at Mary's house and everyone showered in her parent's outdoor shower---complete with warm water!  Before we left Mary gave us all some yummy gourmet ice cream for the road.  We made it home in good time, but were exhausted.  Some of the kids were late to school the next day too...oops! Can't wait for next year's beach day! 

Pennsylvania

School has been in session for a few weeks, but we still had some summer travel plans for the next few weekends.  We put a lot of miles on the van the past few weeks! 

For awhile now the kids have been doing certain jobs for pay.  But there are jobs around the house that they have to do just because they are part of the family.  With earning money, the kids like to spend it.  I need to be more willing to go shopping with them, as they all like to go and spend their money!  (If you were wondering, here is the breakdown for their pay in our house: 10% giving--tithing, 40% spending money, 50% savings.  Birthday money is theirs and they don't have to save any.)

Shanna bought a little kit and Lee helped the girls assemble it.






Between all the trips and school starting we didn't do our no-electronics week this summer. Maybe next year.  We all really enjoyed it last year and did some extra fun things as a family.  I wanted to do something, so one night we went to the park for dinner, s'mores and running around.  Can't go wrong with a fire and treats!














I am sure you probably saw something on social media or the news about the ALS ice bucket challenge.  My kids had fun doing it, Lee too. 




My kids are ever enjoying Legos around here.








The last weekend in August we headed up to Pennsylvania for my nephew Eric's baptism.  About midnight the night before I realized that we could swing through Hershey, PA without adding any extra travel time! I went to Hershey at least once, maybe twice growing up and loved it.  I thought my kids would enjoy it too.


















We stopped at Hershey World for a free tour of how their candy is made.


Wow, a lot had changed since I was there over 20 years ago!  I just remember seeing still photo shots of the production process. I did get to sit in a "car" that went around. Not sure what to call them?








At the end of the tour you get a free sample.  We all received a package of chocolate covered acai berries.  (I think that was the fruit.)  I like chocolate, and I like fruit.  But not together.  Now I do like chocolate chips in say, pumpkin or zucchini muffins/bread. 


After the tour we looked around the shop and each picked a treat.








Four of the five kids got York peppermint patties.  Too funny.


Sometime it would be fun to go back again.  Maybe, even maybe go to the amusement park there. Even though we didn't add any extra travel time, we did arrive later than planned to Darrell's.  We missed out on going to a cool park.  Some other time though. Our kids still had a fun time.






















It was so fun seeing the cousins swim in the pool.  Realistically, I don't think we'd ever get a pool, but being at Darrell's definitely had me thinking about one! 








That evening we went to a near-by state park for dinner.  The kids, and Lee, had fun throwing huge rocks over the edge of the bridge.
















On Sunday we enjoyed some great meetings, followed by Eric's baptism.  He is a such a great kid!  We loved that we could be there for his birthday (which was the day before) and his baptism.  In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints children are baptized at age eight.  We believe that infants and those younger than eight do not need baptism.  At age eight they are old enough and accountable enough to know right from wrong.  We're proud of your decision Eric to follow Jesus Christ!




On the way back to Darrell's we had all girls in the van (except for the driver, Lee).  It was so cute hearing them all sing.


One more group shot!  This picture is only of four of us siblings and our families, including my parents.  We have a big, happy family! I love it!