A hike with Rachyl and more practicing with the camera

Rachyl and I decided to go on a hike with my dogs up to this pretty cross on top of this cool hill that overlooks part of Vista. It's a cool place. It actually is private property (I think). It belongs to Green Oak Ranch. I remember going to this cross when I was very young with Aimee Friend. We used to go to Green Oak Ranch for summer camp - before it became an addictions recovery camp. And we also spent some time practicing taking pictures with my camera. Let's just say that Rachyl faired better than myself. Here are some pictures from our nice little walk :)

[WARNING: The formatting of this post will not correct. I'm 100% positive it's user error, but I've fiddled with it for 15 mins and it's still doing it, so I'm going to post it anyway and beg your forgiveness :)]














Bootie was sooooooo tired from the walk up there. She isn't the most energetic dog in the pack :)



















Yes, Rachyl took this one.













Dizzy actually really loves Rachyl. Its pretty cute!

Not sure what happened here with the flash, but I think this is still a cute picture of me with our dogs :)

Pretty Rach. Just practicin'.

I love this one too

Wouldn't this be a cool place for a Community Night or bible study?

Yes, Rachyl took this one too. No fair!

About to head back home!

Easter 2010

Easter this year was pretty sweet. Douglas and Carol invited us to their new home to celebrate. They had yummy food, great appetizers, and just did a great job making us all feel welcome. Their house is awesome, and we were all very happy for them! Even though there was that crazy earthquake (which did freak me out pretty good I must say), the day was perfect. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day :) Thanks for the nice day you guys!

Day started with Nanny driving us out there. It was her first time on the freeway. She did so well!





The brothers enjoying themselves.

I think my mom was enjoying having the day off. It must be nice when the next generation start to host some holidays.

Our lovely hosts

Isn't she lovely :)

Pretty aunt #1

I love this picture of these two

Jim and Grandma.

Stanton and Gma

Pretty aunt #2 and Gma

Petey and Gma

Carol and Gma

This is a nice picture too. My mom looked so festive and springy in her orange shirt.

Some pics with the new camera :)

Ok, soooo.... my camera came! I'm very excited, slightly overwhelmed, and have come to the conclusion (rather quickly) that taking good pictures isn't as easy as buying an expensive camera. But, I'm determined to learn! Here are a couple of my very first pictures with the new toy - but I must be honest. Some of these were not actually taken by me :) Here is some of our growth group friends celebrating some milestone accomplishments for Carlee and me. It was a fun night!

Last post for tonight! But I just thought of something!

Barb, Nina, Trisha and Mom

Happy Birthday Aunt Trisha!! I love you!!

Have I told you about my small group?

I'm back into high school ministry and have been leading a small group of AWESOME high school girls for a little over a year now. It's awesome and I love them. These girls bless my life and bring me so much genuine joy, and I know I learn more from them than they learn from me. They are just rock solid, authentic and inspiring - and pretty darn hysterical too!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of things we have done together. I hope you enjoy!!



Our "monthly" breakfast, that has happened 3 times :) Here is Aryn, their leader since Jr. High. Her shoes were very hard to fill. She's awesome :)


Shasta junior year. This was the last day and they were not excited I was making them take pictures :) In fact, when I posted these on FB, most of them removed the tags. Hahaha


Disneyland for birthdays. This was one of my favorite memories.

Bus home from Shasta :)

Our first monthly breakfast at Allen's Alley. Eleni and Lisa had been up all night at a sleepover and STILL made it - such troopers! Rachyl slept through it - poor thing! It was a good time.

Summertime In-N-Out trips after Fuel. They suckered me into going so they'd have a ride home :)

Slumber Party March 2010. A little blurry but still cute :) We were all piled on my bed chatting and laughing. My dogs had suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper bad gas this night and were grossing us all out. This is what we were cracking up about in the pic!

Christmas 2009 - Small Group Christmas Party. Man, I just love them!

Here are Lisa and Alyssa reacting to my dogs' gas. I think this picture is HYSTERICAL!

Rachyl is going to kill me if she ever sees this! :) But it's such a cute picture!

Again they'll probably kill me. But, hopefully they never see it :)

How come "ENTER" won't work?

When I hit enter to go down to the next time, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Why does it do that?! So annoying! My blog below is a perfect example of this strange formatting glitch. What am I doing wrong?

I can't believe I remembered my blog's password!

Ok..... so............ I always give my friend Julie a hard time about how little she blogs. I love reading about how she's doing and how her baby Gigi is and it's just a good way to keep up with her even though we don't talk often. And I always laugh, because I nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnever blog anymore! I'm laughing right now! Well, I'm going to try to be better because I really do love blogging :)

Something I'm super excited about?! I ordered my new camera tonight! I've been looking for a new camera for some time. I put all my birthday $$ toward it, and I also convinced Mike it would be the perfect anniversary gift for US! :) He went along with it :)

So, hopefully it comes by Monday! Oh, and I accidentally bought 2 of them. So, as soon as THEY arrive, I'm going to return one to Costco. I have no clue how I did that! I'm so excited!

Tomorrow is our 6th anniversary! 6 years!?? Wow - how time flies when you're having fun! While the last 6 years have had their share of trials and struggles, I really believe we are stronger, better, happier, more in love, and more in tune than we were 2,190 days ago. In six years, we have experienced:

- a new apartment... our first "home"

- a new (to us) house... our first home

- 3 new (to us) cars

- 1 new job that created more time for "us"

- 3 significant deaths in our family

- 4 growth groups who've blessed our lives

- 1 awesome roommate

- 2 dogs who love us and cost us a lot of $$

- tons of good times with our friends and family

- lots of laughs and memory making moments with each other

It's been an awesome 6 years and I'm blessed WAY beyond words! I love you Mikey :) I can't wait to document the next 6 years with OUR new camera :) hehe.

Ok, here's to more consistent blogging!

And some really awesome pictures!