15 Years of the Good and the Bad,

Happy and Sad, Great Sorrow and Great Joy, Pain and Peace

but above all So Much Love!

This week Ken & I will celebrate our 15th Anniversary... and no I'm not older than everyone thought, I was almost a child bride LOL! I was engaged to Ken just 2 weeks after I turned 19 years old and married to him 3 months later. (We only knew each other for 3 weeks before we got engaged.) We have been through so much together that I can't even imagine having to ever get by without him! I am starting to understand what it means to become one with each other. There are many things I love about this man but above all I love the fact that he just lets me be ME! He is an incredibly loyal partner and I know I am very fortunate to have him weather life's storms with me and then share in the parting of the clouds.
I am grateful for: My forever man!

Pacific Grove Lantern Festival
This area of CA has a lot of "festivals" all up and down the coast. We can't make it too them all... but if we're here for a while I'm sure eventually we will!
I am grateful for: The opportunity to discover new events at our new home!

Girls Camp Survivor!

All clean, shampoo'd 2x's and ready to rest!

All of the crafts and fun things she did up at camp!

Jessica spent all this week up at girls camp and I missed her soooo much. The house was so quite and I thought about her non stop hoping that she was having a lot of fun. I went up this morning to retrieve her and several other girls from camp and bring them home and it was so fun to listen to all the qwarky camp songs that I recalled from my years at camp!

YOU KNOW:

... A Rig of Bamboo

...John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith

...Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee

and on and on and on.....................

When we got home and Ken came out to greet her he got a little choked up! I was emotional all the way up to get her because this just means that she is getting older and more independent! I couldn't believe it... she made it all week with out us :) LOL. The years are just flying by and I can't slow them down. She is becoming such a neat young woman and it's a joy to watch her grow... and I suppose spread her wings a bit!

I am grateful for: My sweet wonderful daughter and the privilege to be her mother.

Kayaking Camp!

Josh attended Kayaking camp this week and loved it! I was impressed how well he did and it was a really great experience for him. They went through a kelp forest and saw a mother dolphin and her calf jumping around. Josh got to touch some anemone and thought it was so cool that it didn't sting him?!
I am grateful for: Fun childhood memories!

She can SEE!
Apparently, Jessica really needed glasses. She got her grades mid semester last semester and they had slipped and of course, being the mom that I am I immediately got on the phone with her teachers to find out what was going on. They both said that she was a really good, hard working student and didn't know why she was struggling. She had been sitting in the back of the class in both these classes so, I asked that they moved her to the front and watch her socializing thinking that could be contributing. Well.... her grades did come back up so I figured problem solved. No, she was sitting closer and could see, therefore she was able to see the correct signs for math and the correct pages for her homework assignments! :)

I took Jessica for her yearly physical a couple weeks ago and they said we should go get her sight tested, it had been a couple years.

We went to the eye doctor last week and... poor thing can't see! The doctor put some glasses on me to show me what her current vision was and I felt sooooooo very bad. How in the world did I miss this???

Lesson learned... perhaps if my children's grades slip in the future I will handle things a bit different! :)

I am grateful for: Yearly check-ups and cool eye doctors.

Thousands of Motorcycles!
This weekend there was a Grand Prix race at Laguna Seca and every afternoon and evening people from all over the WORLD would line their motorcycles up and down cannery row here in Monterey. We saw some really cool bikes and the boys enjoyed looking at them.

Goofing Around...
My sister came in this weekend for my step brother's wedding and we had a lot of fun just goofing around!

Augh... I'm sorry I was going to eat you!

What was in that food... we're feeling great!
One of the few pix we got at the wedding... (the others didn't turn out)

I am grateful for: Time to goof around with my family and just be plain ridiculous!

Sweet moment...
As mom's sometimes we get those sweet moments when we see our efforts paying off. Josh was a little sick last night so we decided to keep him home with Ken from church. This morning I went in and put my had on his head, he looked at me and asked what I was doing. I told him I was getting ready for church but he could stay in bed and sleep. He said, "OK, I'll stay in bed," so I left his room and went and finished getting ready.

When it was time to leave I called Jessica to come so we could leave and I heard Josh calling me from his room. I went in to see what he was upset about and he was almost all ready for church and asked me to wait a minute for him. This was a sweet moment for me because he could have stayed home with his dad all morning and he chose to get ready for church with no one prompting him... the funny thing is that Ken had to hurry and get ready!

I am grateful for: Children who make good choices :)

Happy 4th of July
We had a great family day and started it with our ward pancake breakfast where Josh participated in the flag raising!

Next, we went tide pooling along the bay, our new favorite pass time!
We had to park down by the bay around 6pm to make sure we got a place for the fireworks along the bay. So, we spent the next few hours walking along the bay, cannery row and taking a lot of pictures to pass the time. We had a lot of fun being together and relaxing while we people watched.

A nice lady sitting next to us saw us taking pictures of each other and offered to take one of our whole family!

OK, so there is no excuse for fireworks being cancelled for clouds because Monterey does them every 4th regardless if there is clouds or fog and it is actually really, really cool. The fog makes the whole night sky light up and it was a lot of fun to see.

I am grateful for: My country and the opportunity I have to be free. I am also so grateful that my father served in the military and I was able to grow up with a deep appreciation for the men and women who serve in our armed forces and fight for freedom.