15th Wedding Anniversary

 

 Today was our wedding anniversary.  The past 15 years has been about living, loving and creating our beautiful, one of a kind family.  Fifteen years ago we dreamed about going back to Colorado where we honeymooned to celebrate  our anniversary.  Well, overtime dreams change, children come along and the economy takes a dip.  We did have a beautiful evening right here at home.
We told the boys that our anniversary was coming up and they asked what an anniversary was.  The best way to describe it to them that they would understand was that it is kind of like a birthday of our wedding.  Of course all birthdays have to have a birthday party so that is what we did.
 I decided to surprise Caleb and set up a table outside for a special dinner I made.

Welcome to Piney Creek Rustica.  Best described as rustic outdoor dinning, complete with local entertainment by the Piney Creek twins.  On the menu this evening was grilled ribeye steaks topped with blue cheese compound butter with creamy polenta and steamed artichokes.

For dessert I made our all time favorite, buttermilk panna cotta topped with fresh raspberries.  

I wish I could say that over the years everything has been peaches and cream but there have been a few bumps in the road along the way.  I can say that 15 years later I still look forward to sitting down and having dinner with Caleb just as much as I did at our first meal together.  

Our evening was memorable.  The weather was perfect, the views amazing, the food was yummy, and the entertainment was hysterical.  We even got to watch a live bike performance after dinner put on by the twins.  

What's a party without sparklers?  Colton found a pack of sparklers left over from the 4th of July which he insisted that we light before the evening was over.
Layton said it perfectly when he told us that this was "the BEST anniversary ever!"

Grandpa's Little Darlings

A few months ago my cousin Trista got married.  This past Sunday her dad (my Uncle Tom) had a party for family and friends to celebrate her marriage and meet her new husband Ryan.

It was a wonderful afternoon visiting with family.  I can't even remember the last time that we had that many cousins together.  

Trista, Jocelyn, myself and Stephanie.  Unfortunately we are missing one little darling which would be my sister who had to work.

 Grandpa and his little darlings.  We all love him very much and are proud to call him our Grandpa.

Cousins... minus Maya, Justin and Corey.

Finished concrete countertop

The last few days leading up to our big summer party were crazy!  Cleaning, decorating, grading roads, grading areas for parking and of course Caleb's main focus was getting the bar done.  Which turned out amazing.

He decided to do a concrete bowl go along with the countertop.  I love the rustic texture of this bowl.

This is what it looked like once he pulled the forms off before he started grinding it.

He spent hours grinding away.

Here it is!  The final result.  We decided to donate it to the boys school for the silent action that is coming up.

Here is an up close picture of it.  This is my favorite part of the counter.  I love how the rock blends in with the two colors.
I'm a little sad to be parting with this creation but happy that it is going to a good cause.  Hopefully it will be bring in some money for the school.

Concrete Countertop Day One....

It's the count down to our big summer party.  It's been a few years since we have had a party out here so we have been working extra hard getting everything looking good.  Last week we had a few workers over cleaning up the landscaping.  Today it was all about helping Caleb with a concrete countertop for our outside bar.

Here is the mold that Caleb designed for the counter which will sit on top of two wine barrels.

This is the first time I've watched and helped Caleb do a countertop.  It really is a science.  Everything has to be weighed to the exact amount to get the texture and color to be just right.

He had us all working hard, shoveling, scooping, scraping and all that other stuff that comes with concrete.

Well, we all were working hard except for Tess.  Concrete is kind of boring for dogs.... doesn't smell good, doesn't taste good and most important you can't chase it.

Colton manning the switch on the concrete mixer.

Here is one half of the bar top... it's the white wine side.

Caleb measuring the color for the red wine side.  I think that my hands will forever be stained this color.

With the left over concrete the boys made a "sidewalk".  You can tell by this picture that they have seen many sidewalks poured before.  Caleb always said that he would have his boys finishing concrete by time they started school.
Tomorrow we will see how the countertop turned out.

Kindergarten

The boys started kindergarten on Wednesday.  They were so excited and I was so emotional.  It seems just like it was just a few days ago that we were driving them home from the hospital and now I am driving them to kindergarten.

Layton ready to go.  He lost another tooth the night before.
He looks so much like his grandpa in this picture!

Colton was so excited about going to school.  When I dropped him off I barely got a good bye kiss from him.  (which I needed more than he did)

We are so happy that they were able to get into the Soledad Mission Union School.  It's a great little school 20 minutes from our house.  It has excellent scores (the top in Monterey county).  It's kindergarten through 8th grade and consists of 120 students.  The school has a full time music and art teacher thanks to donations from the local farming families.  

Another plus is that the whole school takes recess at the same time so the boys have been able to see and play with their local friends on the play ground.  

We are all so excited to see what this new school year brings.

Last Week Before School

Last week was our last lazy or not so lazy days at home before school started on August 31.  

We have our big annual summer party coming up in a few weeks so we spent a few days at home cleaning up the yard.  As always Colton is dressed for the occasion.

We even brought the chickens aka "the girls" out with us to work on bug control.  Tess has taken on the job of guarding them and making sure that they don't wander too far.

The girls even hang out by the pool with us.  I know.... we can't get more country than this.

On Sunday we decided to take a break from yard work and took the boys rock climbing in Saratoga.  It was a very long day but tons of fun.  Every outing the boys are becoming more confident up on the rock.

Summer vacation has come to and end.  I'm sad that my days at home with the boys have come to and end but excited about starting this next phase of life with the start of kindergarten!

Best Vacation

This last weekend we headed up to Angels Camp with our good friends Adam and Selena Herrin and their girls Audra and Nora.  We arrived Thursday and spent the day setting up camp.  

Friday we towed the boat out to New Melones lake and that's when all the fun and surprises began.

This was the boys first time going out on the lake in the boat and tubing.  They were so excited and talked about it for days.  

Here they are out on the tube with their dad.  Can you tell who wanted to go right back out and who wanted to stay in the boat with me?  If you know Layton and Colton it is not who you expect it to be....

 Latyon was a tubing maniac!  I can't tell you how shocked we were.  Our ever cautious, non-risk taking Layton had all our mouths hanging open.  After his first ride he only wanted to go out by himself or with Caleb because none of the other kids (or me) wanted to go fast.

While Layton and Caleb were out speeding around on the lake, Colton preferred to sit on my lap in the boat.  Surprise, surprise!  Our daredevil Colton who climbs the highest tree, races his bike over jumps and down hills was happy to stay in the boat.  

Caleb got some wake boarding in....

 I even got in some tubing, but like Colton I'm happy sitting in the boat watching everyone else.

Colton going for a nice smooth and easy ride with Caleb.  

We couldn't have picked a better time to be out on the lake.  We saw maybe 4 other boats out that day.  It was perfect.  You can see in this picture that there were parts of the lake that were smooth as glass.

Here he goes, giving us the thumbs up sign that he wants to go faster....

He had this tube flying over the wake and then swinging out to the side at speeds probably close to 35 mph.  I kept anticipating for him to start crying and say that he was done but he had a non-stop huge grin.

Whatever turned Layton into a daring speed demon on that lake still has us shocked.  

Meanwhile back on the boat Colton found his excitement driving.

On Saturday we decided to take a break from the lake and drove to Murphys.  We started the morning off going to the Mercer Caverns.  We took a tour that took us down 16 stories underground.  It was amazing to see all the unusual natural crystalline formations and to hear the story of how it was discovered.  Again we were a little surprised to see how much the boys actually listened to the tour guide because once we got back to the truck they had many questions about what she had said.

After seeing the caverns we headed to downtown Murphys to let the kids play in the park and in the little river that ran through it.  On our way back to the truck Caleb and I spotted an olive oil tasting bar.  We have gone to a few olive oil tastings before but it was nothing like this store.  Not only was there different flavors of olive oil but also balsamic vinegar.  There were lists of different combinations of the two that you could pair together and sip.   It was a tough decision but we left with our favorite combo, dark chocolate balsamic with chipotle olive oil.  If you ever happen to pass through Murphys you have to stop by Marisolio  tasting bar.

Our next stop of the day was Columbia.  This was extra special for me.  I have many fond memories of going there as a child on family vacations.  We rode the stage coach, panned for gold (a favorite for the boys) and went to the candy shop.

That night there was a Cajun blues festival so we finished our evening in Columbia dancing in the streets under white lights.  Here the boys are dancing with Audra and Nora. (bummed about the spots on the picture.  My camera got water spots from the lake the day before)  Before long Caleb and I joined the kids.  It was a perfect ending to a great day.
Incase you didn't notice this great day was all done in hunting boots.

Sunday we went back out on the lake for a few short hours before packing up and heading home.
Our vacation was all I hoped it would be, amazing memories being made and family traditions being carried on.