CRAZY Summer and

Things have been so crazy around here I'm sorry for the lack of posting! Summer is over and the kids are into school knee deep. I've started running again and the FFP is busy taking fire classes and hunting. Not a lot of time for much family stuff but we did get a weekend or two away this summer for camping and a trip to the beach. We had so much fun at Butt (seriously... it is called that) Lake once with Good Neighbor, Julz and all of our kids. FFP came up one day and GN's parents were in in camp site across from ours. We got the perfect spot right next to the beach and would sit right in camp and watch the kids play in the water. It was perfect!

I did get a girls weekend away at Bailey Creek (Eagles Nest owned by the Simmons Parental units) and 5 girls w/ lots of wine and vegetarian food was a blast! I won't even tell you how many bottles were consumed because you'll probably not even believe me! We did crazy things like run through the sprinklers on the golf course, do self pedis while watching old movies and lots and lots of silly laughing and talking. We had a BLAST!

Got the hubby off of work so we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Monterey for a few days too. We had entirely too much fun on the rides at the beach before heading to Monterey for the night. We even ate at Bubba Gumps and it was probably the most amazing sea food I've ever eaten which isn't saying a lot, but hands down best service in any restaurant too. We all crashed hard that night then headed to aquarium the next morning. The kiddos got to do the scuba dive (more like snorkeling w/ dry suits and scuba gear) in the little cover and they loved it! So worth the $$$!) The aquarium is one of my favorite places and I love that the kids still love the touch pools. I'm sure they'll outgrow them but I'm not in a hurry for that at all! We checked out tide pools too and saw seals, otters a pod of killer whales all out by Lovers Point. It was an amazing trip!

For most of the last 7 years I've walked in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. This year I crewed. I took GN with me (she's my 3 time AWBC buddy, my hot red headed friend, momma and Aunt Sandy with me. We packed a crazy amount of stuff into 2 and a half days. Friday night we went to see Wicked! It was wonderful and I would totally see it again. Saturday GN and I worked our fingers to the bone crewing rest stop #1 and RS #3. We were exhausted beyond reason and actually changed our clothes in porta potties without getting dirty. We are that good. We headed out to AT&T park to see Sir Paul McCartney play. He was absolutely mind boggling freaking incredible. Momma and Aunt Sandy had seen the Beatles in 1965 at the Cow Palace. So I'm glad they got to experience that with us. I'm not sure if GN's hubby will ever talk to me again but Oh Well. We finished off the weekend with another crazy early morning wake up call and off to RS #1 for more crew duty. Today we got to cheer and bring everyone in. Much better than the 12 hours of cutting fruit. Next year I'm back to walking for sure!

We made one more trip to Butt Lake with the Cafferata clan and added a dash of Simmons since Doc is dating the youngest of the Simmons boys. We had a blast and spent a whole day over in Mickelson Cove doing things like Kayaking (thanks to Gail) and the boys fished for crawdads and reading books and visiting with friends. Lots of yummy camp food too! All in all it was a pretty awesome summer.