This is 40

Well, I have been welcomed to the club! I felt so much love and appreciation for everyone in my life, it was a great week of celebrations! 

I started it off with a social distance happy hour with Michelle and Anne which was much needed. They've both been in my life for so long and we've been through a lot of ups and downs together, it was a perfect way to celebrate. Josh had us set-up with drinks and the kids brought us out a cheese platter :)

For the last year, all I've wanted to do was run the rock and roll 1/2 marathon the weekend before my birthday. I had ever recruited Josh and Dan to run with me! (They talked big but never heard about each of them actually running - haha). Well, of course it was canceled but I kept running. I may have taken me two days to get there but I ran all 13.1 miles over the weekend and even had some fans to greet me at the end :)

On my actual birthday I woke up to a whole lot of balloons, actually got to sit on the beach and watched a video full of messages from everyone I love! It still makes me cry every time I watch it. I also got to have a happy hour with everyone from across the county and Canada! Pretty amazing if you ask me. 

And then we headed to Palm Springs. Wahoo!

 

The good old days

Every day I wake up and remind myself how one day I will look back on this strange time and remember them being the best days of my life - being home with my kids, enjoying where we live, having fun everyday! I love every minute now and know I will always remember them as the good old days. 

                                                        Still committed to her gymnastics zoom calls!

A little gardening 

Living her best life

My California Girl 

Doing their kiwico tinker boxes that come in the mail once a month - they are awesome!

Playing with old toys 

How is she getting so grown up SO FAST?!

Our neighbors around the corner grew butterflies and let the kids hold them before they let them go. They also ordered the kono ice truck :)

We went back on a rock painting kick with Reese and Riley. Then the older girls dropped them off at various places around the neighborhood to make people smile :)

Since Owen has been out of school for so long we are starting our own lesson - we started with A...

Friday Night Lights

WARNING - The pictures you are about to see will show us not following social distance guidelines. We made decisions with close friends that we felt safe for our family. And the smiles and laughter that were seen lifted everyone up for a very long time :)

A few Fridays ago we met up with our crew of friends (all of which have also not left their homes or seen anyone else) for Friday night baseball (on a night the boys would've been playing a game). Ryan put on his gear and packed his back and so did Emmy and so did Owie :) We arrived and all of Ryan's friends were all wearing uniforms and kids ranging from 3-13 formed 2 teams to play. I have never seen everyone have so much fun. Everyone was smiling and laughing. There were no tears or fighting. It was the best night we've had in a very long time. It felt like exactly what childhood is supposed to feel like :) The night ended with the dads having a home run derby. All of the kids were in the outfield trying to catch the balls and the dads were re-living their glory days (and not moving the next day). Josh of course won with a hot over into the pool :)

He was so proud to have his baseball bag too

He could not have been happier

Even the girls had a blast and played great!

And he got to sit in the dugout! 

A quick pee before his turn up to bad. Ahahaha

It makes me so happy to see all of my kids grow up with some a great group of families and kids. They all adore Owen. 

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End of the night bowl of cereal - Josh looks like a kid. Ha!

Facing our snake fears

No surprise I am scared of snakes - I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ;) 

A few weeks ago our neighbor came over and told us he saw a snake in his yard and then go under the fence into ours. CRAP! Josh went to investigate and let's just say we faced our fears together and did a really good deed that day!

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We caught the sucker, put it in the car and drove it to the canyon!

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That was one damn lucky snake.