Easter Brunch-E-Que

We celebrated this Easter Holiday with our college buddies in Santa Barbara for the annual Brunch-E-Que. Although this has been going on for (i believe) 8 years..this is only our third time joining in the fun! (Read about 2011 here and here 2010 here - oh my goodness how big our boys are now!).

We started the day with Easter service at All Saints Episcopal Church. It was a beautiful service and Bryson stayed in big church with us and asked me all sorts of questions. I was happy he could experience a liturgical service and hope that we can continue to introduce him to different ways to worship. After church we headed back to a friend's house for brunch and egg hunting and then eventually dinner. The day was a bit rainy and curbed our park plans, but it was very low-key day - and i feel like i was able to catch up with almost everyone...which is always an amazing goal since we also have 10 little ones running around through it all!

Whenever I am doing our statements and invoicing for our business I turn on This American Life (this will be related, promise) because the whole process lacks brain power...This last one I listened to was on Tribes (listen to it here) and I told Bryan - this is our tribe. It is just nice to have a group of people that you truly feel like you belong with. And how sweet it has been to be in this child-rearing phase with them - and watch our littles hunting eggs together. so fun!

NFTD

So Party #2 of the day was our friendsgiving, or NFTD (new fangled turkey day) - our friends from college would get together every year and do their own interpretation of Thanksgiving...only a little elevated. I am blessed to have friends that like to cook...and its mainly the guys...they love it maybe a little more than the girls. Its especially nice whenever Eric and Julia come over and Julia and I sit and sip Rose while our men cook for hours. Its pretty awesome, not gunna lie. So I had this vision in my head of this fall dinner with all our friends. Since having babies...and now multiple babies...it gets harder and harder to spend quality time together...and by quality time i mean time without kiddos :) 

I was able to find a house to rent down the street, which worked out nice, except that no house is mean to house 7 kids under 4. But my friends are pretty awesome and didn't complain and made it work. We had an amazing time - amazing dinner - great conversation - awesome toasts and very full bellies. I was so blown away by the love and respect in the room and this collection of friendships spanning 15 - 20 years - lots of history and lots of love. These people have seen me at my absolute best and my absolute worst (and they all will gladly share stories with you) and I am so grateful that Bryan and I have them in our lives. Even though the weekend was hectic and I ended up making myself sick, I was so uplifted after our time together. 

I think that this is what my 30s is all about - focusing on what is important - nurturing those lifetime friendships and celebrating even the tiniest of things. I am beyond grateful.

Camping at Cachuma - Part One

(I say part one, because there are a ton more (even better) pictures...mainly on bryan's phone that i have to share!)

Last weekend we went camping with the Hurleys at Lake Cachuma. Jeff is Bryan's best friend since high school and we havent been able to spend quality time with them since i was (very early) pregnant with Bobby...so its been a while. We planned this weekend before summer started and i am so glad we did. Summer tends to fill up fast! There is nothing easy about camping with small children...it is a lot of work, but boy is it also a lot of fun!

Bryson will not stop talking about this trip. Even while we were camping i have not seen him smile so big! he kept saying things like, "man, camping is the best!" if you asked him why he would tell you the fishing and the smores...definitely the smores. it is some kind of camping sin if you dont have them! Declan is like the best marshmallow maker too, but unfortunately he doesnt like marshmallows...but, fortunately for me, he loves making them! child labor - love it!

This wasnt our first pick of camping sites around Santa Barbara, but the nice thing about Cachuma is that you can get a site and you dont have to occupy it overnight. So Solera went up on Thursday and was able to reserve us a site. The greatest part was the lake was a short walk from our site and was so gorgeous! the kids loved just throwing rocks in the water all day long. boys are so simple sometimes it makes me marvel at them...we fished on saturday at a day use area around the lake...no luck with the fish, but bryson fished the whole day. he is a pro at casting now.

There are things for kids to do around Cachuma beside fish - playgrounds and a swimming pool, but we just stayed in the sun on a rock bed basically all day...because we are smart like that...and also married to fish-a-holics.

Solera and Jeff have a 9 month old Beckett (along with their 4 year old Declan) and poor Solera could not put Beckett down anywhere all weekend, save for the tent. Plus he didnt want to sleep...like ever. I think it is pretty impossible to keep to schedules camping...especially with the sleeping outdoors thing.

To our surprise, Bryson and Bodie slept in their own tent! i was so shocked that Bodie was down for that...but it solved our small tent problem! we borrowed one from my sister and set it up right in front of our tent and it worked out perfect!

Part 2 to come...

Best Friends

we had a special guest yesterday that went on adventures with us and slept over (bryson's first friend to sleep over)...i'll tell you of their special day through some pictures....

nature walk...where leaves were gathered, jumped into and thrown all about

A shelter was made...and decorated

and climbed into

A: "Hey Bryson - we can cover the thorns on the tree trunk with these pieces of bark!"

B: "Great Idea Asher!!!!"

After we came home they hit the back yard slip n' slide hard and watched a movie...then...

A Dinner Picnic at Concerts in the Park - Fried Chicken, Fruit Kabobs and Cesar Salad...oh and Chocolate Whoopie Pies...it was completely consumed so i am assuming they liked it (that never happens BTW)

Bodie asked for seconds on the salad :)

Blogger

Bobby saying he is ready for bed

completely tuckered (and hot in our little hot box of a house) after a loooong day of building, running, playing, competing, laughing and FUN!

disneyland with friends

Lincoln, Wells and Bryson

Bryson took our picture...we look how we felt at this point...

Olive, Lincoln, Bodie, Wells and Bryson

All 10 of us!!!

we met up with our friends the Marcus' earlier this week at Disneyland. having an annual pass makes you kind of a snob when it comes to waiting in lines, and doing certain things and staying longer than a couple hours...but somehow we managed to stay for 7 hours during a summer day with 6 kids under 6 years old at a super crowded Disneyland and still manage to have fun and *somehow* no tantrums or raised voices...impossible! you say...and i would be one of you chanting also...but then i also know the Marcus' and they are amazing...

jessie was my freshman roommate in college - she was from a small town in Missouri called Joplin and stared at me like i was from a different planet...i was...i was from Orange County...and Todd and Bryan knew each other from their freshman year (they are a year older than us) and hit it off right away. so we all knew each other from before each other...we got married within 3 weeks of each other and when T&J moved to Pasadena we made it a point to hang out once a week...and then kids happened and then a move to Kansas City happened (a couple weeks after we had bryson)

so here we all are...that picture of the boys hanging on the railing and of olive in the stroller makes me so happy! T&J are amazing parents...which is not surprising one bit since they have always been such amazing people. we hope to vacation with them in the future when traveling doesnt feel like a punishment...i am so glad that todd has family out here and that we get to see them as often as we do...although its not nearly often enough, we are so thankful for their friendship and family!

Easter Pics

Here are a couple more Easter Pics...our family pics and a group shot of all the Westmont Alums...Bodie was in true picture taking form. the only difference is that i don't really care anymore...i think its kinda funny...i think when he is older and looking back at all of these pictures he may ask me why he looks so miserable...and i will just explain to him that is because he was! bodie does not smile unless bodie wants to smile. the end.

i do love my little dapper men in their bow ties...bryson had taken his off by then - it is a little too small for his neck, but they do look oh so handsome! but they dont need bow ties for that...

i already want to go back. i miss santa barbara so so much. its nice we still have friends that live there and a good excuse to go up every so often!

Easter Weekend Egg Hunt

we had another amazing time in santa barbara with good friends. i don't typically look at holidays as relaxing, but spending this holiday with dear friends makes this holiday one of my favorites! don't get me wrong - i love my family and love spending time with both my side and my husband's side, but unfortunately most of our families are not geographically close...

here are all the littles hunting the eggs...so fun this year! last year i dont think most of them quite knew what all was going on...but man...they picked it up this year!

the eggs were filled with *mostly* healthy snacks...bryson quickly put them back...we had *special* eggs for him, mostly with money in them...he was quite happy about that!

i get a little nervous about egg hunting because i feel like Easter is such a special spiritual holiday and I worry the eggs over-shadow that in the kiddos mind. its like stockings and presents at Christmas. I tried to tell them the Easter story before bed each night...but after the third time Bryson rolled his eyes and asked, "do we have to hear this again?" *sigh*...the balance between planting the seed and overkill...guess i fell toward the latter...

speaking of parenting...sorta...i marvel at my friends and what amazing parents they all are. it is so much fun to watch people you have known since you were in the early stages of becoming an adult and figuring things out to finding that person they want to be with to becoming a family and now having to parent...which they all do amazingly and i love having good friends to help figure stuff out with!