Fun Filled Weekend (Day One)

The Beach!!!

Sandy came to visit for President's Day weekend, and *ahem* my birthday.  Ok, not really.  It just happened to be my birthday weekend.

She came from freezing cold and icy Utah to sunny California.  70 degrees.  It was a perfect day at the beach.  The boys and I met Debbie and Sandy at the beach.

Sand delivery for Aunt Debbie.

Ryan got out of school just in time to play with his cousins.

Boogie boarding.  On the sand.  Nate loved it.

Stay tuned for Day Two in San Francisco!

Happy Birthday Taro!

Taro turned thirty something on Jan. 27th.  ok, 38!  Sorry, couldn't resist.  He wanted to have Sukiyaki for dinner.  He bought all the fixins at the Japanese market and asked if I was going to cook it that night.  HA!  I have NO idea how to make that.  Besides, he doesn't have a recipe.  He just throws stuff in there and makes it up I think. 

Tableside sukiyaki.  What service.

 

Waiting for some yummy food, which neither of them ended up eating.

 Pretty sure he was saying "Cheese" here and laughing at the same time.  Funniest picture!!

The requested cake---German chocolate cake.  AJ got very upset when I started putting on the pecan frosting.  He said I should take it off and make another cake for Taro.  how rude.  I had to remind him whose birthday it was.

They didn't want any of Taro's ice cream choice either: praline pecan.  Boy!  Picky!  Good thing we had some backup chocolate ice cream in the freezer.

 

Nate was very, very happy about the backup.

Apparently AJ got over the whole cake thing.

 

Trip to Washington

Some pics from our 15 hour road trip to Walla Walla, Washington.  We made it there in one day on the way up. The boys were unbelievably well behaved for how long we traveled.  It was a beautiful drive.

Inactive volcanoes along the way.

Weed, California.  Not much to it.

We found snow along the way.

Snowball fight.

AJ at luncheon following Grandma Bernice's service.

The Five Swanson brothers. Handsome!  It was so nice to have them all in one place.

 

 Brothers and their wives.

Driving back.  Rest area somewhere in Oregon.  

 It was SO cold.  This is frost, not snow.  They had thick icy, fog.  Brrr.

 Mt. Shasta.  Just beautiful!

Found an old train at one our stops.

Water Park in January!

63 degrees in January.  Awesome!  The boys had fun at the park.  AJ got to wear his shorts, which he tries to wear everyday.  He doesn't care if it's cold, and boy has it been cold here.  I know, I know... we don't have anything to complain about in California.  Here's to more sunny and warm Winter days.

Mama's gotta slide too.

I had absolutely NO intention of letting them get in the water.  I about died laughing when we pulled up to the park and AJ said "Oh, the water park!  Just what we needed on a hot day like this!"  HAHA.  I was happy to see the water was actually off.  We were there for about an hour, when the water suddenly came on.  Of course, it was like a magnet for the boys.  I told them to look and don't touch.  HA!  Yeah, right!

Soon it was this!

Completely soaked.