Just Playing!

I was just fooling around with my camera, trying different features, hoping to be artistic. :) Here's what my fumblings came up with.

Trip to CA: Jet skiing!

On our second day there, we went jet skiing on Lake Isabella. It's beautiful and hardly anyone there so you can zoom around all you want. And the weather is so warm, just perfect. Tim and Tabi know the man who owns the marina so we got to use 3 of the skis for free and just pay for fuel, what a steal, let me tell you.

Tori and Taegan enjoying a little swim.

Ethan having a great time too.

Reagan sitting in our camp shade, having a snack.

Tim and Tori coming in from a ride.

Thanks guys, we had so much fun. Wish you lived closer. Hope you all enjoyed my little diary of our trip. We had a great time but it's always nice to come home. :)

The rock slides in motion

Tim and Nick got pretty crazy at the rock slides. Here's a couple short clips of them running and sliding on their butts going over the falls. Tim gets alot more air than Nick, it's pretty funny!

Trip to CA: The Rock Slides!

One of the days we went to some rock slides up in the mountains. It was a long windy drive and Reagan and Ethan got carsick (in Nick's car, Tabi and I were in the other car), and did a little throwing up (Reagan threw up three times to be exact, ugh).

The slides were made from runoff from the mountains so the water was really cold. But we had a great day.

The car ride up there.

Our little camp. Reagan slept most of the time in the stroller.

Tim catching some serious air over the last jump.

Nick the daredevil going strong, too. Not to be outdone. :)

Tori with all her equipment.

A LESS than glamorous shot of me totally biffing it.

Tabi making her way down. Is it cold? Oh yah!

And you thought your gas prices were high? This actually wasn't one of the highest we saw. EEEK!

Trip to CA: Our friends!

We met Tim and Tabi here in Vancouver. They used to be our neighbors up the street. They were our "couple": the girls AND the guys got along. At that time we didn't have any kids but they already had three. Tabi and I were pregnant together in 2003 (me with Ethan and her with Taegan) so that was fun to share. We were so sad when they moved three years ago and this is our third trip to see them and they're wonderful family. We love you guys.

Here's Tylee (kid #3) being silly. She was only a year old when we first met her. Now she's 7.

Toni and I, she's of course not cooperating, that's a 13 year old for ya!

A decent pic of Tabi and I. Nothing was satisfying that girl. Of course, I'm slouching, but what else is new. :)

Again, misbehaving. I gotta keep that girl in line.

Taegan, their youngest, with their 4 month old puppy Great Dane, Biggen. He was such a good dog. Reagan LOVED him.

Toni was taking our picture and just NOT following our directions. :)

The clan from left to right: Tylee (7), Tori (10), naked Reagan, Toni (13), Ethan and Taegan (4 1/2).

Trip to CA: The Drive!

We just made our annual trip to visit our good friends, Tim and Tabi Hogue and their four girls, in Lake Isabella, CA. So here's my picture diary of our time.

As seen above, traveling at a nice clip, about 73 mph.

The CA sunrise, about 5am. Boy, I'm tired just thinking of it. We left at 6pm on Saturday night and arrived at 9am the next day. That's really good time for us.

Tuckered out, Reagan asleep at about 4:30 am. Probably not the safest trying to take these pics while driving. Hmmmmm.

The view from my rearview, Ethan zonked out.

Check out the bugs on the windshield. Nasty.

Lake Isabella is located about and hour east of Bakersfield. Our friends actually live a little more east in Onyx, about 400 people. Yep, pretty small.

You have to drive through a treacherous canyon from Bakersfield to even get to Lake Isabella. I didn't get a picture of the sign but as you're entering the canyon it shows the death toll of people who have died in the rapids (about 250) and then a big sign saying, "Stay Alive." That makes you feel really confident. :)

Smoke billowing from a new CA wildfire while we were there. Pretty scary. After this day, the whole sky was a haze with the smoke, we didn't see blue sky til we got back to WA.

Just a reminder, don't throw cigarettes out the window! I thought it was a funny sign.

Pedicures!

Reagan and I had our first real mommy/daughter girlie outing today. She earned a reward for doing so well with her potty training (which she is completely potty trained now, yay!) so I took her to get a pedicure with me. She was super excited. She did so well, was very still and patient. It was very fun for us both!

a guy ended up attending to her, but she did just fine. she was a little shy.

look at how pretty, he got a big tip.

here's my toes, too. :)