nightmare on 32nd street.

on friday night, jon and i went to a haunted trail that the navy sponsored down on 32nd street. it was free for military personnel! we left the house around 6 and drove down to the base. we got distracted by the huge PX that they have....after spending 40 minutes or so there, we decided to head to the event. there was really loud scary music playing at the entrance. 

the first thing we saw when we walked up were lots of scary skeletons standing in the fog. they had all these signs saying "enter at your own risk" even though it wasn't the entrance to the haunted trail/house. the whole area was free game...

the haunted house was actually really scary! we went to a haunted trail a few weeks ago that wasn't cheap...and also wasn't scary. this one was short, but totally creepy. they had zombies scaring people who were waiting in line. i mean...I never got scared, but i'm sure other people did... there were a couple parts where they had all this black fabric hanging down in strings from the ceiling and you had to push your way through them while a strobe light was confusing you. we were laughing and looking ahead when some psycho came running into our legs on all fours scaring the crap out of both of us. we did not expect someone to be underneath the strings of fabric, and definitely didn't expect them to bump into us while screaming at the same time. way scary! i do have to say that it was nothing like the haunted houses in utah. surprisingly, i actually miss utah more during october than during december. the haunted houses are soo good there!

(this man was making noises while this photo was being taken.)

 the good thing about the event was the pumpkin patch! they let you take as many as you wanted, so jon and i filled our arms full. okay...we took five pumpkins...one was really small though. 

sometimes jon and i feel weird about going to the free military events because often they're geared toward families with children. the day before this haunted trail, we went to a fall fair in our neighborhood. we checked in at the entrance and they asked us how many adults and children. when we responded "two adults, no children." they laughed really hard. the nightmare on 32nd street was way too scary for little kids though! i don't remember much from the haunted house, i mostly just see blurs of swinging corpses and terrifying clowns. 

all in all, we had a great time. it was the perfect compromise between the murray park haunted trail and nightmare on 13th. 

instagram/facebook sober.

i got rid of instagram. and i've been facebook free for for over a year and a half. 

in five or ten years, when i think back to when the iphone, ipad, mini ipad, etc were all really cool and making huge technological advances, am i going to be thinking about how awesome that app on my phone was or how cute my friends pictures were of her new shoes, her meal, or her house? although i do like seeing those photos of yours, they mean a lot more to you than they do to me. and that goes for my instagram photos as well. they meant a lot more to me than they did to all my 'followers'.

hopefully when i look back at this time, instead of thinking about my phone, i think about walks with jon and exploring san diego with him, holding my newest nephew for the first time, and how good it felt to be close to earning my degree that i've worked so hard for. aka the moments that happen when you take a minute to look up from your phone or take a big step and leave it at home when you go out with friends, family, or on a date with your loved one.

i do appreciate technology for what it does for me, my family and my friends. it was amazing to be able to talk to jon on the phone [almost] every day that he was deployed. i love instantly receiving pictures my sister sends to me of my nephews and my niece, and i love being able to facetime [or video chat] my dad and my sisters. it makes me feel like i'm not missing out on as much. 

also, i figure i should take the time i spent on instagram (facebook in the olden days) and put it into my blog! i love sharing certain things on my blog with the world! it's a fun way to document what is going on in my life (and makes for really cute books to show my kids one day). 

and, because i would never share this on instagram, a rarely taken and never shared (unless you're amanda/jon) myspace photo.

ps. i'm sorry about what i said about your instagram photos. if it helps, i probably love your blog!

we babysat.

and we babysat for 16 nights. 

the term 'babysat' is used loosely. the kids are 12(bella), 14(sully), and 17(chris) years old. it's more accurate to say that we were housesitting and hanging out with the kids. 

this is the house we stayed at. it was really nice, and a BIG change (get it?) from our usual set up. the room we stayed in was on the left with the big balcony. 

the first weekend we were there was conference weekend. 6 hours of church a day for two days is hard for me...it was especially hard for the kids. so after the morning session on sunday, we went 'geocaching'. it was fun, but we found better entertainment at the top of this mountain. we would throw a rock up in the air and then all throw consecutive rocks to try and hit the one that was falling. we never hit the falling rock....but we got really close a few times!

 this house almost got hit by a rock more than once...

it was a really beautiful day. i love that it's still so warm here.

the first week consisted of a lot of Office episodes. these kids love the office. jon had never. and i mean never! seen the office until about two months ago! how crazy is that? i watched the first few seasons and then stopped around the time jim and pam got married. (we all know it went downhill from there...) we started from season one and have been going strong! we are on season 8 and are almost office'd out. we are powering through because we want to watch this last season on the days that they are aired. 

on saturday bella had a gymnastics meet up in oceanside. she was pretty sad that her parents were missing it, so the whole family went. we have babysat them before for a few days, so we all know each other pretty good. jon told them he's going to make his children call him 'sir' and i told them my kids will call me 'mother', so that is what they called us for the duration of our stay. we made continuous jokes about being a family and having family time, so bella's meet was a family bonding day. it was so fun watching her! her team was all performing on sunday, and she told them she wouldn't do that, so she was the only one on her team to perform on saturday. i am so proud of my beehive (i'm her teacher at church:) )! she is the second from the left in the last picture with one of her two medals! she placed in a few other categories and received ribbons as well. 

we are proud of our oldest child who got a girlfriend while we were there, haha! she loves bears, so he bought her this bear from costco and used it to ask her to homecoming. he asked if she'd go steady with him that same day. so adorable. 

one night we needed to kill time before picking bella up for gymnastics, so we went to kohl's and picked out clearance ties for the boys. we looked at ties for at least 45 minutes and eventually bought 4 ties for $30. that is not bad! sully couldn't have been happier about getting his own ties. he's never had his own, only hand-me-downs.
(his face is from the office. it's when michael is telling the bartender he's writing a book on management called "somehow I manage" and it's "going to have a picture of me on the cover, shrugging, with my sleeves rolled up." here, sully is shrugging.)

the second week was mostly pingpong. they have a really nice pingpong table, and we took full advantage of it. at the beginning of our stay bella and i were the worst ones. at the end of the two weeks, we were all pretty good! we had tournaments until the wee hours of the night. it was so fun staying with them! we also went to a haunted trail, which wasn't nearly as scary as the haunted houses utah has to offer, but it was sufficiently scary. for some reason jon kept hanging back while we were walking through, so i took to burying my face in sully's back while chris and bella ran (ran!) ahead of us! there was a guy in front of us that was the biggest scaredy-cat. in one of the rooms, some scary person popped out and scared him and his body FLEW back against the wall. he got up and kept walking. another guy flew down from the ceiling and scared him so bad that he flew back against the wall again and his body slid down and slumped onto the ground. one of the girls working there broke character and seriously asked him "sir, are you okay?" way funny! we saw him at the end of the haunted trail laying on the grass just staring up at the sky.
we also watched a few scary movies, ate a LOT of steak, went to olive garden as a family, and quoted the office. they are the funniest kids ever and always remember the best lines! while we were at bella's meet, sully said "my nose is so big that it's always on the prowl." we lol'd for so long! he told chris "see, i can make original jokes, too" since he's always referencing the office. we were surprisingly sad to leave on sunday! we saw them at mutual last night and asked them how it was having their parents home. sully said, "it's.....worse." so hilarious! he was kidding of course, his parents are really nice.
all in all, it was a successful and very funny two weeks with them!

26!

one of these sexy ladies is celebrating her 26th today, and it's not me.

it's amanda! amanda is celebrating her 26th!

(sorry about the scar on your forehead...you shouldn't have chased me around the house with a pin and then tried to run through a door.)

although i haven't been alive for 26 years, i'm certain that i've loved her for 26+ years. she is the sweetest and funniest little lady i know. i wish i was there to celebrate with her, but i know she'll be surrounded by friends and family in her new/old home in utah. 

happy birthday, sweety gurl! love you so much!

babies.

two of my favorite people were blessed with something that in turn blessed me, haha! 

i am a proud aunt of two new baby boys. 

my bff lyndsi welcomed bentley michael in late september and i've been receiving the cutest pictures ever since. 

 cutest new mom.

those lips. 

i can not wait to squeeze him and pat that little bum!

my sister katie had her third in june. i had my plane ticket purchased for two days before her due date, but he came nine days early! i'm so sad i missed the birth, but being with katie for his first three weeks was the best experience. i did the same thing six years ago when she had robbie. robbie was such an experiment child, we have so many hilarious memories of katie's first summer as a mother! 

i need to blog about my trip to utah because there are 10,000 adorable photos to share!

Casper Jon.

see, he liked meeting me for the first time as much as i liked meeting him. a smile at one week old. 

my babies.

 look how tiny this old man was.

and this is him now. amanda sent me this photo during conference and i LOL'd.
he's going to fit in with our face-making family so well!! 

rodeo time!

guess what we didddd! we went to the rodeo on saturday! i have been wanting to attend one all summer, and we finally got the chance. our roommate (yeah...we took in a roommate) informed us about the Poway Rodeo and we all decided to go. more good news: we looked online and (thought) we read that it started at 6 but turns out it opened and 6 and started and opened are apparently two very different things. so anyway, we got there at ten to six and got really awesome parking spots! 

the rodeo queens were handing out the cutest little cowboy candies at the gate. see, if we would have gotten there later the candy would have been gone.  

 look how empty it was. we really thought that people just weren't interested in coming. the real deal was that the rodeo started at 7:30. that gave us an hour and a half to walk around....eat....look at the schedule...get some good seats....talk....etc. 

 when it started though, it was just as good as i thought it would be! except the parts when they abused adorable baby cows. i was expecting it...but not expecting it. one of the saddest things i've seen. steer wrestling and tie down roping...i was very happy for the steers that made it out without getting roped! when everyone was booing, i was cheering! you go little tiny cows! 

 the drill team was fun to watch! i knew i would like it because i loved watching amanda and her drill team so much. it was basically the same with the make up and the bedazzled outfits, these girls were just on horses. 

 my favorite part of the whole night was barrel racing. roomie told us that barrel racing was just for girls. that obviously made me like it more. it was so cool to watch! some of the girls were really, really good. they made it look so easy. some where going so fast that they and their horse disappeared. 

this was the only photo i got of the two of us. 

it was such a fun night!