Auntie Sue and Livvy Lou

Rob's sister Sue (his youngest, yet tallest sister that recently had twins!) sent us an e-mail last night with some of her childhood photos.

Does this look a bit like anyone else to you?
Here is a side by side of Liv and her Aunt:

I'm not sure if Liv will always resemble her Aunt Sue, but I'll tell you that there are worse things in life...

newport vacay

We just got home from our vacation to Newport Coast. I took almost 500 photos this week! After some debate over what to do while in southern California, we decided to take it easy and relax on the beach as much as possible. We loaded up on Tuesday afternoon, picked the boys up from school and were on our way. We met Rob's folks there on Tuesday, and Aunt Alisa joined us on Thursday night.

Wednesday included: Exploring around the resort (Tosh tried to ride down a steep hill on his scooter and scraped up his chin and face pretty good as you will see in photos), going to Crystal Cove beach, and then Grandma and Grandpa Pete watched the kids so we could go to the Newport temple that evening (gorgeous!).
Tosh told us that in this last one he was yelling at the ocean, "To not make big waves!"

I love that we caught Tosh yawning in this family photo. The kids were exhausted by the end of the day!Some Frisbee action:A picnic and more beach play on Wednesday:A candid shot by BurkeSaw some dolphins swimming (looked like sharks at first!). I saw them jumping, but wasn't able to catch any photos of that...
At Laguna Beach on Friday:Aunt Alisa, Grandma Pete, Rob, and Grandpa Pete

Laguna has a great viewIt was a gorgeous day and there was a wedding taking place about 200-300 feet from us (busy wedding day, 11/11/11).

It rained most of Saturday, but it didn't stop us from going to Balboa Island to explore around. We took the scooters so the kids could ride along the waterfront and we could stare in awe at the amazing homes! Wow. We stopped for "famous" frozen bananas (yummy!). Burke shocked me by saying he preferred the chocolate dipped bananas to the ice cream bars! Late afternoon Saturday we were able to meet Rob's cousin Brian and his family and catch up with them over some hot chocolate.

It was such a nice break to relax, play lots of games, get in a few good workouts (got my 10k around the corner), catch a few naps, and hang out and visit with family. We love Newport and are already figuring out when we can get back!

sisters are fine, especially mine

Some friends joined us for Trick or Treating in our neighborhood last Monday. The kids totally scored on candy and we only did a couple of streets! Two of the houses were giving out full-sized candy bars and when I said something like, "Wow! You are generous," the woman said, "New Costco membership!" and she laughed.

Hewitt and Tosh came up with 'new' costumes the night of Halloween. I especially liked Hewitt's creation. He got A LOT of compliments as I'm sure you can imagine:
Liv loves candy. She asks for it many times a day and isn't happy when denied. I was surprised (well not really) to find that she was able to climb up onto the counter top in our laundry room (she didn't use a chair or anything to boost herself!) to get into a candy bag on her own. Look at that devilish smile:

Here is a photo I took of Liv at the park last week in a favorite hand-me-down shirt from her cousin:

Some good friends invited us to their cabin in Greer (in the White Mountains in AZ) last weekend. I didn't think we'd be able to swing it, but thought it was worth a shot to see if my sister would be able to watch our kids... My sister ROCKS! She agreed to do it and flew out on Friday morning. We left around 1pm on Friday and got home right in time for 1pm church on Sunday. This was the first time that Rob and I have been away from our kids overnight in three years! It has been about five years since we've been away for more than one night. We had a great time away (nice and relaxing) and our kids had a fun time with their aunt.

Thanks Aunt Mindy!!!

One funny thing: I was so busy last Friday that I didn't have time to make lunches for the boys. They were very excited to buy school lunch and I was asking them about their Friday lunch as we drove to school on Monday. They were discussing what they got (both had chocolate milk, of course) and then Hewitt asked Burke, "Did you get anything from the vegetable barn?"

So I am actually writing this from California. We drove to Newport Beach last night and I forgot the cord to download photos from my camera to my laptop, so I am resorting to taking a photo of the tiny display on my camera with my cell phone. Here is my sister and me with the kids on Sunday night:

Mindy went home early Monday and we got ready to leave for CA. We picked the kids up right after school on Tuesday and drove to the coast. We met Rob's folks here and his sister will be joining us tomorrow.

I took this photo of the ocean view on the way back from my run this morning:

We are excited to be here. Get ready for lots of beach photos next week!

c'est chic

This was a busy week. Our primary program was on Sunday and went fine. Everything feels like a blur at the moment. I either have horrible allergies or am getting a head cold, so I'm going to be brief. The boys got their soccer photos (and team photos) this week so I'm posting photos of the photos (the originals look a bit better of course):

And just so Liv isn't left out, here is a festive one of her:


The highlight of the week was a "Disco Skating" party that Rob and I planned (ok, it was really just me but I'm happy to share the credit). Rob has always talked fondly of dressing up to go disco skating while he was at BYU, and I'm sorry to say that we have never gone roller skating together. So after years of talking about going (for what, 15 years now?) we finally decided to get a group together and go. We invited a bunch of friends and left the invitation open for people to invite others. We were pleased with the turnout and are planning to make this an annual event around Halloween. Next year: 80's theme and music. You are welcome to join us!

So here are a few photo highlights from the night. Prior to hitting the rink, we grabbed some dinner with our friends Alecia and Rob (this is the doctor I referred to in my last post and Alecia and I run together).

Getting warmed up at the rink before the others arrived:

I'm glad that I'm married to someone that makes me laugh... Rob was the hit of the night. He really is great on skates and spent most of the night skating backwards, weaving in and out of other people and he even can do the thing where you squat down holding on to one bent leg with the other extended. Such a show-off! :)

My favorite photo of Rob is actually one where I happened to catch him in the background of this next one.... Hilarious!

'Elvis' was a big hit and highly entertaining:

And I about fell on the floor when this dude made his grand entrance (this is Alecia's little brother!):
Here is a group shot taken before we got skating so not everyone had shown up yet. It was a total blast and we can't wait until next year!Happy Halloween!