4th of July!!!

This year, we kept with the tradition of spending the 4th of July at the River with family and friends. Can't think of a better way to spend the holiday!








We always have a great time and this year was no exception. The Sessions Family came up to camp with us once again and it was so fun! We could have done without the GIGANTIC bird sized June Bugs, but we survived them. :)
The kids had a blast as usual. Shelby & Skylar painted the cutest 4th of July Tank Tops and made a matching one for Alagan. They looked adorable together, and so patriotic!




















Colby got a slide for the lagoon and the kids spent almost the entire time using it. Up, and down. And Up, and down. They had a great time, and I had a great time watching them.



















Lots of friends and family came out to celebrate the 4th with us, and the guys put on the best fireworks show ever! It was really good. Not sure if they'll be able to top it next year, but I am sure they'll try, and I can't wait to see it!















I'm so glad to have the chance to celebrate our Independance with good friends and family!

The Garden....

What a cool thing it has been for us all to have planted our garden together, watched it grow, tended to it every day, and now......



WHAT A HARVEST!!! How great is our God, to provide for our every need. Awesome!!!

Lucy's Gift To Us!

It finally happened! Last night, Friday 7/09/10, at about 6:45pm, Lucy gave us a beautiful, healthy, strong colt. Shelby has named him Toby after 2 of her favorite singers, Toby Mac and Toby Keith. Also, because Colby always liked that name and wanted to use it on Colson, and then Cameron after we didn't use it on Colson. Now he finally has a Toby in the family. :)













These pictures are the morning after he was born, at about 14 hours old. He is doing great, eating like a champ, and went out in the yard for his first run with mom this morning. They both loved it. Lucy is doing a great job as mama and taking good care of him. Now the fun begins! Toby is going to be Shelby's "forever" horse. Hopefully he'll live a long healthy life and be with her, and then with her kids one day. So special!!!! Welcome to the family Toby!

Dylan's 8th Grade Graduation!

Wow! Can't believe we're here already, but it's true! Dylan graduated from 8th grade at Valley Oaks Charter School, and is headed to High School!!!



The graduation ceremony was wonderful. I was impressed! there were over 100 students in the 8th grade graduating class this year, which is the most Valley Oaks has ever had!




The ceremony took place at the Fox Theater on Thursday, June 3rd. Dylan looked as handsome as I'd ever seen him. He brought a tear to my eye! But the tears really started rolling when the students each had to find their Mother in the audience and present them with a rose and a Thank You card in appreciation of the hard work they had put in to get the students to where they are today. I had to put on my sunglasses to hide the teary eyes, and it was dark inside, so I'm sure I looked goofy. What a big cry baby I am!!! (I get that from my Dad....we're an emotional bunch.)



After the ceremony we had a great dinner in Dylan's honor at Sorella's. It was a great night! I'm so proud of Dylan. What a milestone for him! Now he's headed to High School at Bakersfield Christian High School, starting with summer school & football preconditioning. Lots of new and exciting things in Dylan's future! Congratulations Dylan!!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's so nice to have a special day just to celebrate Moms!!! I celebrated with my Mom, by going out for a nice dinner with 4 generations of girls. Grandma Swarts, Mom, Me, Shelby, and we were joined by Russ's girls, Lauren & Lia. It was so nice! Then today, Colby and the kids and I drove up to Reedley. We visited Grandma Sylvester, and then had a BBQ lunch down on the river. It was a beautiful day! Just before we left, a storm started rolling in, and we could hear the hail cannons going off all around. The wind picked up and it started pouring!!! We got packed up just in time. : ) Thank You Lord for this wonderful day with my family, and for allowing me to be their Mom!

Today's Random Memories......

Just remembered how cute it was when Shelby was little and she used to say, "I'm gonna hold you sausage!"...instead of "hold you hostage", when she was playing cops and robbers with Dylan. :)

And last week when we drove past a big field of cotton and Colson said, "Wow Mom! That's a really big garden!" Cameron chimed in with, "We should plant marshmallows in our garden!" :)

Colson made up a character named "Odd Todd", and whenever he's helping to cook, or work in the kitchen, he puts a piece of scotch tape across his upper lip like a mustache, and wears a name tag that says Odd Todd. It all began when the kids made up a coffee shop business a year or so ago. Their imaginations are a wonder!!!! :)

Colson used to call the Corvette a "Quartervette". He's grown up a lot since we first got that car. Yesterday, when we saw pictures of it at the tow yard all burned up from the accident, he reminded me how he used to call it that, and how he can finally say it right! Such a sweetie. :)

That's all of my random memories for now.....stay tuned for more as they come to me often!

Bye, Bye, Sweet Corvette....You'll Be Missed!

Colby and I have known each other for fifteen and a half years, and neither of us have been in an accident in that time. Now, within 2 weeks of each other, we both have!

Saturday, 5/01/10, we had to say good bye to the 'vette. We loved that car. It was soooooo fun! But it was just a car, and things like that can be replaced. People can't. I praise God for keeping Colby and my brother Russ safe that night. That is all that matters!

Rest in peace, you sweet, red, corvette of ours. Thank You for your service & for the good times. You will be truely missed!

The Girls Getaway!

So, Shelby had an appointment scheduled with an endocrinologist in LA in regards to Hashimotos auto immune disease. We thought, if we have to go down there, we might as well make the best of it! We turned it into a girls only getaway! Colby's mom flew out from Arizona to join us. She picked us up Thursday in her beautiful rental car (Chrysler 300 M....I want one!) and we headed out for our adventure! Little did we know just how adventurous our trip would really be!



On our way down south, we were in a car accident on the 405 freeway. A guy lost control of his sports car and spun out, going 70 mph, and crashed right into the drivers door of our car. It knocked us over into the lane next to us. Thankfully, there wasn't a car next to us in that lane, and we were able to coast off the fwy. to an island there between the fwy and the upcoming on ramp.



Once we were stopped, and could realize what was going on, it was so scary! But we were so incredibly blessed through it all. God was DEFINITLY taking care of us. It had the potential to be soooo bad! But in the end, none of us, or the guy who hit us, had to go to the hospital. Cars can be replaced...people can't. I am soooo grateful that everything worked out ok! We had to have the rental car towed away, and so we had to ride in the tow truck to get off the fwy.



The driver dropped us off at a Denny's restaurant just off the fwy. There, we had to get things in order, try to deal with insurance company on the phone and arrange for a new rental car to be delivered. It was taking way to long, so we decided to call a taxi.



I think the taxi ride may have been just as scary as the car accident! But we made it to our hotel, and all was well. Now we could relax and begin the fun!!!



We stayed the first night in Santa Monica at the Fairmont Resort. It was FABULOUS!!! Right across the street from the beach, just up from the pier. Talk about pampering! They think of every little detail at the Fairmont.







We had a great walk up the beach, fun on the pier, and then dinner at Bubba Gumps right on the pier. Walking back to our hotel, we went up the 3rd Street Promenade and watched some awesome street dancing, heard some great music, and lots of photo ops!



Breakfast at the hotel was wonderful. Connie and Shelby even tried to invite a four legged guest to our table! I wasn't so excited about that part. :) We hated to leave our decadent surroundings at the Fairmont, but we had to move on!



Next stop on our girls only getaway would be Pacific Palisades for Shelby's Dr. appointment. It went well, got a lot of good information, and they ran some tests wich will take time to get back. On the street in front of the office, we watched some papparazzi harrass someone who I think was Renee Zellwegger. (I have no idea if I spelled that right???) Then we were on the road again!



Stopped in Malibu for lunch at Dukes. Great food, good prices, not such good service though. But the view was worth it! We sat right on the water, watching the dolphins play. It was great! And then we headed out again to continue our way up the coast.

We stopped in Santa Barbera for a quick break to stretch our legs & grab a starbucks. Didn't stay long, but it was getting late in the day and we wanted to reach our hotel before 5 o'clock traffic! Onward!!!!

The drive was beautiful, and complete with a 5 minute laugh attack (Connie! Look at the Llamas!) but we were relieved to finally reach the good old, familiar, central coast! We checked into our room at the Cottage Inn, and quickly headed to SLO to meet Mendy & Danny at their apartment. It was great to visit with them and spend time with sweet little baby Judah.



They joined us for dinner, then we headed back to our room for some much needed sleep. The next morning, they came to our hotel and had breakfast with us. Then we spent some time on the tide pools before we had to head out.





On our way home, we stopped at Avila Valley Barn...so cool! They have great fresh produce in their farmers market, fun gifts and goodies, and a neat little petting zoo area. It was a great end to our fun weekend! Next, the drive home!





The boys greeted me out front when we pulled up, with huge smiles and hugs! I think they missed their mama...just a little bit! I know I missed them. And not 5 minutes home and it was back to reality, dropping Dylan off at a friends house, getting food for the boys, and cleaning up the house. Vacation Over!

It was great spending time with Shelby and Connie, just girls! And then getting to visit with Mendy's family was icing on the cake. I think we'll have to make this girls getaway a tradition! Just without the car accident part from now on!

Dust Off Your Kilts!!!

It's that time of year again for the annual Scottish Games and Gathering! This year's events were held at the fairgrounds. I took the kids, along with 2 of Dylan's friends, Courtland and Michael. We had a great time, as usual! We visited the Clan Logan booth, enjoyed great music and performances, traditional battles and sporting competitions, lots of hands on activities for the kids, good food, and fun shopping!



















The kids tried their hand at archery, got to experiment with several musical instruments, tried to spear veggies with darts, ring toss & toss the chicken in the pot, etc. It was a fun day all around. Even with purple lips from snow cones!