I am STILL a little freaked out.

Yesterday marked the 2nd anniversary of the day that I watched the movie I Am Legend. I am still scared of the dark a little. I still race up my stairs as quickly as possible thinking to myself, "Get to the light! Get to the light! Get to the light!!!" And I am now just starting to forget just exactly what it was that the "Dark Seekers" looked like. Chances are pretty good that I will never watch that movie again.

Jens' 12th Birthday Party - - FINALLY!!!

Well we finally celebrated Jens' birthday today. Never mind the fact that it is 3 MONTHS after his actual birthday. I rented this big water slide for his friends to slide on. It is such a fun slide and we always have a blast on it.

It is so long and you get going really fast!

I just bought some pizza and we ate it there and played on the water slide. It was the most simplest party I think I have ever put on but it was so much fun!

July 4th Weekend

On Saturday July 3rd, we went boating at Yuba with my family. We had a great time. I had not been there in 9 years to the day almost. We celebrated on July 4th with my family at Yuba 9 years ago. There was a terrible micro burst that came through. There was a lot of lightening and we barely made it off the lake to a beach in time. It was really scary. This same quick storm that hit us was the same storm that killed our friend Dev Duke. He was working in a fundraiser firework booth when the micro burst picked up the firework shack and dropped it back down on top of him. I'll never forget that storm that day because of that terrible accident. Thankfully this time we had beautiful weather.

Sidney and Jens' friend Keyne on the tube.

Kell - Kaitlyn - Jared

My brother Darren and some of the kids. Notice Alec - (the one on the right side in the blue tank top) he makes the most ridiculous facial expressions in every picture. I had to laugh when I downloaded these and found out just how many times he was in a picture - making some dorky face.

Apparently Jeff was not driving fast or crazy enough . They didn't seem too scared of falling off.

Brendan - Jens - Keyne

We drove across the lake to the other side away from most of the campers and found a nice sandy beachy spot for the day.

My little nephew Ethan just turned 1 year old last week. He could not get enough sand. He was completely content to sit and dig in the water and sand all day long. He also ate a ton of sand. My sister in law gave up trying to keep him from eating it after she had tried to stop him for a couple of hours.

My dad and step mom Nancy......and Alec in the background with one of his faces.

Little Miss Kaitlyn with Alec again!

Sunday we just BBQ'ed and let off fireworks with our neighbors Then on Monday we had a BBQ at Jeff's parents house and let off more fireworks. It was a great, long weekend!

Sugar Cookies

These are so soft and delicious!

2 sticks butter

8oz cream cheese

2 c sugar

*Mix well for a few minutes

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

*Add to mixture and blend well

1 tsp baking powder

3 1/2 c flour

*Sift together and add. Wrap well and chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Roll out to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, cut with cookie cutters and bake on 350 for 1o to 12 minutes. (Just when they start to crack on top)

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla

About 2 1/2 c powdered sugar

About 1/8 to 1/4 c milk

*Blend it all together and then add food coloring if desired.

Layered Cookie Bars

1 to 2 packages of Graham Crackers crumbled

1 stick butter - melted

*Mix these together and press onto the bottom of a cookie sheet

2 14oz cans of Sweetened Condensed Milk

*Pour evenly over top of cracker crumbs. (Now you may already have this recipe and it will only call for one can. If you want them to be ooey gooey good, use 2!)

Chocolate chips

Butterscotch chips

White chips

Coconut

Chopped walnuts (I never use walnuts. I don't like them on it, but you may)

*I usually use about half to a full bag of each for the chips and about half the bag of coconut. Sprinkle chips and coconut over top of milk and bake on 350 for about 25 minutes. Let cool and devour!

Bear Lake

Last week I took my kids and went to Bear Lake with Jeff's family. Jeff was in the Mediterranean on a cruise - - I know what you are thinking. "And why weren't you there too???" Well I was originally planning on going but I had a couple things that same week that I really wanted to go to as well. Plus the fact that we have been so many places this year already and we still have several places to go. I kind of felt like my kids were getting closer to the babysitters than they were me! So I backed out but we had a GREAT week at Bear Lake.

The lake was absolutely FREEZING. It was the coldest June that they have on record. There were still glaciers melting into the lake daily. You would step in the water - barely step in, not even up to your ankles and it would hurt because it was so cold. I didn't even get in the boat once because it was too cold. My sister in law Suzi would show up at the beach looking like this each day. Fully clothed in fall attire. I had to laugh but at least she was warm! She called it "BURRR LAKE".

Molly never made it deeper than this!

All the little kids just preferred to play in the little puddles on the beach. Which was great for me because I wasn't worried about chasing them into the water.

The guys and the bigger boys went golfing everyday and then all the kids would go miniature golfing in the evenings or swim in the pool.

All of us girls rented some surrey bikes one of the days and went on a bike ride around town. We had a blast. I had to laugh at my mother in law Julie. She rode with her purse hanging off her arm the whole time. It looked so funny.

There was a field full of poppy's and they looked so pretty that I had to stop and take some pictures in them.

Not sure what to say about this sign.............. or the picture on it. I guess the sign says it all! I should go sometime!