Summer Stuff

Now that the kids are back in school it's time to update the blog and catch up on some of our summer stuff. 

Ashley and Jenna have been good friends since they were in pre-school. Both girls are getting more and more busy but we found a day to meet up while her family was camping in Carlsbad. Ashley and Jenna had fun catching up. 

The beach was beautiful and fun to walk along. 

We cooked out at their campground and got to reconnect with the Scoteses. 

They have camped multiple times there this summer. It looks like it might be a fun thing to do, maybe next year!

A couple of days later it was time to take Taylor and Jacob in to get their wisdom teeth out. Long story short they were referred by 2 separate doctors to the same oral surgeon close enough together to have their surgeries done the same day. 

Here they getting ready to go in and are modeling how they will look when their faces are all swollen... 

Jacob went first and Taylor nervously waited.

Out of surgery. Since Jacob went first he had more time to wake up but even so he was alert and talking right after he came out of surgery....Taylor not so much. 

We about died laughing as Taylor kept jerking awake, saying nonsense things, and then going back to sleep. Jacob had him scared about all kinds of things like the doctor cut his tongue off (because Taylor kept saying his tongue was numb). We didn't have to tease Taylor too much because he kept saying hilarious things himself. 

Taylor woke up once and thought his arm was cut off because only one hand was out of the blanket.When one flip flop came off he freaked out and then said he wouldn't be able to walk and that he would need crutches.  Even the doctors and nurses were laughing right along with us. 

I took a short video of Taylor with my phone but he got mad when he saw us recording him so I put it away. Later when he was recovering at home Taylor said "Mom why didn't you record me the whole time!!?" He said I should've kept the camera on him no matter what he said, ha ha.

When we got home the boys turned on Forrest Gump. Taylor immediately fell asleep and stayed there most of the movie looking just like this. 

Luckily by the next week both of them recovered so well that they were eating and doing things like normal with no problems. I'm sure both of them are glad that it's all over. 

While the boys were getting surgery, Jeff was in Philadelphia speaking for New York Life. When he got back we went to dinner to celebrate his birthday...well Ashley and us went to celebrate since the boys weren't solid eating food yet.

While the boys were recovering Ashley had her own things to do. This day we had Kate over for a spa day. One thing that Ashley will miss now that summer is over is having friends over and hanging out without homework or schedules to worry about. 

That weekend we went to a surprise birthday party for Jared. It was a superhero party...

orchestrated by his wife. Cute job Vanessa! Happy Birthday Jared!

This summer I went with Ashley and the young women on a tour of the Mission Inn given by a friend of ours who is working as a docent there. 

It was fun to see behind the scenes and here the stories about the Mission Inn and early Riverside. 

Lynette did a great job and the girls seem to all enjoy it. 

Ashley like this window that memorialized Frank Augustus Miller's wife as a saint after she passed away. 

The whole time during the tour it was hot, hot, hot and we kept walking by the hotel pool and I was thinking how nice it would be to swim. 

So when we got home I called up Mary Ann and asked if we could invite ourselves over and she let up come swim. So nice!

The next day I went with Jeff and the Bagley's back to the Mission Inn to do a summer Dinner under the Stars tour. It was his birthday present even though it was just as much for me as him. It was something they advertised for the first time this summer and we thought we would try it out. I would recommend it. I thought it was great.

For the price of a nice dinner we got some good food...

that we enjoyed with friends...

and an evening tour of the Mission Inn. 

The best part is it included tours of some of their nicest rooms that have housed stars, authors and presidents alike. This room had its own indoor staircase to a loft/office. 

We got to see views from rooftop courtyards and terraces that I've never seen before. 

This room housed Arnold Schwarzenegger while he was governor. 

Some of my favorite pictures from that night...

Jeff pretending like he was "Evita"

There was another couple taking the tour with us and we found out that if you did the package deal along with a nights stay you could stay in one of the gorgeous rooms for a really good price. Maybe something to look forward to in the future.