First Day of School 2011

The kids started school today. Where does the time go? I have a High Schooler a Middle Schooler and a 4th grader!

Calissa

4th Grade at MG

Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. Wright

Favorite part of the day: The scavenger hunt for things around the classroom so we know where things are.

Worst part of the day: Having only two recesses.

Conner
6th grade at SMS

Favorite part of the day: PE

Worst part of the day: The long lunch line (He ended up not eating today)

Parker

9th grade at CHS

Favorite part of the day: Meeting his teachers.

Worst part of the day: Doing nothing in every class.

Let the craziness begin! (OK, well ... let it continue!)

Conner's Birthday Party

Conner's 12th birthday was on the 9th of August. He kept asking me when he was going to have his party. It was one of those years where it just didn't happen right away! He had Scout Camp the last week of July, the Romer Family Reunion the 1st week of August, his Grandparents coming the 2nd week of August, the 3rd week of August was Concord High pictures, registration and Freshman Orientation. On the 4th week, the party finally happened!

Michael, Miles, Lincoln, Benjamin, Ryan and Conner playing ping pong. (Parker was there too).

He had a sports party. He and his friends played ping pong, whiffle ball and a little basketball.

After playing for a while, Grandma brought over pizza!

Yum!

Then, back to the sports!

Towards the end of the party, we had Conner's favorite chocolate cake and opened presents.

It was a little windy and the candles kept blowing out!

Hope you had a fun time Conner!

Court of Honor

On Tuesday night, the boys had a Court of Honor at the church. Since they went to Scout Camp they both had quite a few merit badges that they had earned. Parker was involved by sharing the history of the Baden-Powell Ash Ceremony and leading that ceremony. It involves ashes from lots of different campfires and mingling the ashes from your campfires together.
Conner received his Tenderfoot Badge (and Scout Badge) as well as six merit badges. He earned First Aid, Nature, Environmental Science, Fingerprinting, Mammal Study and Swimming. We are proud of how much he has already accomplished!

Parker earned his Life Badge (one away from Eagle) and 5 more merit badges. He earned Camping, Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the World, Communications and Nature. He only has three more required badges and then his Eagle Project. Woo hoo!!

Great job boys!

Grandma and Grandpa Came to Visit

Since Conner turned 12, that meant that he was receiving the Priesthood at church on the Sunday following his birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Burr decided to fly out and spend a few days with us. They flew in on a very busy weekend, but we managed to squeeze in some fun with them too.
Friday we had a sealing to attend at the Oakland Temple at noon. Trav's parents and the kid came with us and toured around the grounds while we attended the wedding. The plan was to go into the city after the sealing and walk around Pier 39. The sealing started almost an hour late so we decided not to go. We ended up at Fenton's for lunch and some yummy ice cream instead.

The Oakland Temple is so beautiful!

The view from the top of the temple.

Grandma, Conner and Calissa waiting for us to finish!

Calissa waiting ... not so patiently!

Saturday, we had another wedding to attend, and the whole family decided to join us again. After the sealing, we changed clothes and headed over to catch the A's game. We did a little tailgating and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of baseball. Unfortunately they lost, but we had a great time at the game!

Parker, me and Calissa

Go A's!

Saturday night, just the adults went out to dinner and my parents joined us. Then, off to another wedding reception. Sunday was the big day. Conner was excited to be ordained a deacon and we are very proud of him and the decision he made. After church, we went to my parents house for Conner's birthday dinner of shells! We played a new game with Grandma and Grandpa Romer and then enjoyed a late night chat session. Monday, we treated Trav's parents to a yummy breakfast at Diggers, played a few games and then took them back to the airport. It was a great trip and it's always fun to have Trav's parents come and see us!

Happy 12th Birthday!

Conner turned 12 on Tuesday, August 9th. We started the day off with cinnamon rolls (like always). I forgot to start them until about 8:45 the night before, so Trav and I were finishing the cinnamon rolls about 10:15 at night.

All worth it though, to see the happy face in the morning at breakfast.

He was surprised and excited to receive a new phone for his birthday. Parker is jealous of his new phone, but that is OK. He keeps getting wrong number calls. Hopefully those will stop soon.

He got Pokemon cards from Calissa, a new book from Parker and a couple of new books from us.

He also got a Harry Potter game for the DS. One happy boy!

He had soccer practice that night so we couldn't go out for a birthday dinner, so I took him out to Buckhorn for a birthday lunch. He inhaled his tri-tip sandwich! That kid loves his steak! (Just remembered he never did get his birthday dinner out ... maybe a trip to Outback is in store!)

Thanks Conner for adding some love and laughter to our family. We love you!

Good-bye Tree!

A few weeks ago our next door neighbor came over and asked if we would be willing to have our Eucalyptus Tree taken out. They said that they would be willing to pay half to have it removed. We decided that we would get it taken out, so I got several quotes for removal. We decided on a company and within a week they were there to take it out.

They had that giant tree taken out and cleaned up in less than two hours! It was really amazing at how fast they worked.

Now that I know that it wasn't likely to fall over ... I kind of miss the shade! At least we are good neighbors, right?

Romer Family Reunion 2011

There are a lot of pictures in this post! (I took even more!) I've put off posting about our family reunion since it was going to be a bit of work. Maybe I'll delete pictures as I go? We went to Jenkinson Lake in Pollock Pines for the Romer Family Reunion the 1st week of August. BJ, Chrystal and family drove out from Arizona and Kevin, Kellie and family drove out from Utah. They were troopers and packed up their camping gear along with their vacation gear. That would be hard to do! We arrived at Jenkinson Lake about 2:30 on Monday afternoon. We had a group campsite that held 50 people and the 22 of us fit with room to spare. There was no one around us and we had a short 2 minute walk to the lake. (Which was perfect with all the little kids!)

Monday, Trav and I were in charge of dinner. We made 16 foil dinners and Mac and Cheese for the kids who didn't want the foil dinners. Besides taking longer than we thought to cook all of them, they were tasty!!


Monday night we had S'mores for treats. We got our roasting sticks out and then Kevin got his roasting sticks out. We decided to call them pitch forks because they were so huge! Because our campfire ring was so huge, they were an immediate hit for those who didn't want to sit in the fire to roast their marshmallows!

Kellie, Kevin and Sam showing off their roasters!
Yummy s'mores!
Aunt Chrystal brought glow sticks for all the kids. Parker had fun making a snowman!

Tuesday morning we headed down to spend the day at the lake. The water was pretty warm and we had the beach and dock area pretty much to ourselves (for most of the day!)

Calissa and Abby taking Maddie for a spin in the boat.

Kevin (fishing with his Barbie fishing pole) and Kellie

Charlie on the beach

Sun bathing beauties!

Smile Conner!

Parker working on his tan.

About mid-day a family came for half-day use of the campsite next to us. TWO BUSSES of people came! Needless to say, it was a little hectic down at the beach that afternoon! We were glad that they weren't staying there!

Drew and Tina brought their boat to the lake and each family took turns going out for about an hour. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera back on shore, but we had a great time. Parker knee boarded and was trying to do a 360. He almost got it, but got stuck going backwards. He was doing great though! Conner and Calissa went on the tube together twice and had a great time holding on for dear life as they went over the wake! Wish I had pictures of their smiles! Travis got up right away and was showing off his skills water skiing. He thought he lost his contact, but didn't! It took me a few tries to get up (Calissa said it was Uncle Drew's fault) but I finally made it up on the water skis too. It's been quite a few years! We had a great time and were grateful for Drew and Tina sharing their boat with us!
We were the last family to go out that afternoon and once we got back we went back up to have dinner. Charlie (and Lindsay) got pretty dirty at camp but had a great time! Kevin and Kellie, and Drew and Tina's families treated us to tri-tip that night for dinner.

After dinner, Uncle Drew let Uncle Kevin take out his boat for a little fishing and the boys headed out. Kevin joked that he had insurance so not to worry!

(Parker, Nathan and Conner)

Sam and Grandpa (and Travis) went too.

About halfway through their trip, Kevin called back to Drew (we had great cell service there ... which was good AND bad) and asked about how high the temperature gauge should be. Kevin told Drew it was running a little hot and there were headed back to shore. Drew walked down to the dock and saw his boat coming in with smoke pouring out the back. Not a little smoke, but a TON of smoke! Kevin was so worried that he had everyone put on a life jacket (younger kids had them on anyway). He was worried that it was going to catch on fire and they were going to have to abandon the boat! Luckily, they made it back in one piece, but the boat was another story!

Chrystal and BJ happy to be together again after a long training for BJ in Georgia.

Kevin being his goofy self.

Grandpa making his famous pancakes on his Coleman stove that is probably older than me!

Enjoying breakfast.

Parker, Sam and Nathan

Grandma and Calissa

Tina (don't you love her socks and flip flops?) and Drew

Kevin, Kellie, Sam, Charlie and Abby

Lindsay and Drew getting ready to head to the lake to check out his boat.Kevin and Drew decided to take it out for a spin to see how it would do. They decided to go around the island and once they were the farthest away from our dock, it started smoking again. Here it is still smoking. Notice the melted plastic piece on top. Needless to say, we didn't get to go out on the boat again on Wednesday.

Instead, we all enjoyed a day on the beach. (Isn't the water beautiful?)

We decided to have a contest as to who could jump off the dock the farthest. Here are Kevin, Parker and Drew trying. I think Parker ended up winning! Travis did some cool tricks off the dock as well.

Kellie and I couldn't let the boys have all the fun, so we decided to join in. (We didn't go very far!)

Poor boat! (And poor Uncle Drew and Aunt Tina!)

Lindsay enjoying the water.

Sam, Nathan and Charlie

Abby, Calissa and Maddie

Grandpa even came down to relax at the water!

Trav

All the grandkids on the dock.

Sam, Conner, Charlie, Danny, Nathan, Lindsay, Abby, Calissa, Kaylie, Parker, Maddie and Christopher

All the adults. (It's funny that Kevin is the tallest son and he looks the shortest because he's standing in deeper water.)

Kellie, Tina, Dad, Mom, Me, Chrystal

Kevin, Drew, Trav and BJ

After a morning at the lake, we headed back to camp for some lunch. My brothers and dad decided to have a contest with these sour strip things.

Drew was game

Grandpa with lots in his mouth!

Kevin wanted to participate too!

They were pretty sour, but they decided the more you eat, the less sour they are.

After lunch, we came back down to swim for a while longer.

Isn't it beautiful?

Sam and Kellie going out for a row.

The boys started throwing rocks to try and hit a buoy in the lake. Parker was the first one to hit it straight on from another angle, but Trav's glanced off the side. Their arms were pretty sore from throwing so many rocks!

Lindsay liked to eat rocks! You'd think after her first rock or two she'd decide that they didn't taste all that good!

Mid-afternoon we went back to camp. Kevin had to fly back to Utah early the next morning to work for the day, so he was headed off to Sacramento to stay in a hotel. The rest of us (minus Grandma and Grandpa) decided to drive to the regular campground and go on a hike to a waterfall. Drew and Tina had been there about five years ago. We piled into three cars and went to the campground area where they charged us $10 per car to use the day use area! (We were already paying $250 a night for the group site! We weren't upset about that at all!) About 7 or 8 miles in we found the right spot to park to start our hike. We took a few wrong turns, made Parker run ahead a couple of times to make sure we were going the right way, got eaten by tons of mosquitos and got pretty sweaty. The trails were not marked at all and what should have been a short 3/4 mile walk ended up being quite the adventure! Sam found a huge pinecone along the way. (This was before we became lost and eaten by mosquitos!)

Here we are hiking back down the wrong trail ...

We finally made it to the waterfall and it was beautiful. The water was really cold though.

Conner getting ready to wade across the river.

Kellie, Abby, Sam, Conner and Calissa

Trav and I (and the rest of the family behind us).

BJ and Chrystal's family

Parker up the the rocks ready to jump. Drew and Parker went up there and were getting ready to jump while I was across the river yelling at them and talking in sign language to make sure they check the depth before they jump. Drew finally sent Parker down and they had fun jumping off the rocks.

Parker and Drew

(My camera was blury without the flash and with the flash was super dark!)

Parker, Trav, Conner and Drew

Conner was over there on the rocks and even decided to jump. He's my cautious one, and I was really surprised, but proud of him that he did it! It doesn't look that high, but was about 10 feet into the water. While we were there Lindsay fell over in the backpack and smacked her check on the rocks and Sam and Christopher were throwing rocks in the stream and Christopher got hit from one of them. We only stayed about 20 minutes and then decided to hike back out. The walk back was only about 20 minutes. Parker carried his 6 year old cousin most of the way out. It was definitely an adventure and a memory maker! Grandma and Grandpa were wondering what had happened to us because we were gone so long. The coals were almost past ready for the hot dogs and hamburgers once we got back to camp.

Thursday morning it was time to pack up and head home. Calissa needed a little help taking the air out of her tube! Kevin had asked us to help Kellie pack up camp since he wasn't there. Just like Kellie, she was ready to go before the rest of us and helped Grandma and Grandpa pack up!
As we were putting away our boat, Drew asked if we could keep the ores out. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't ... He wanted to take them on his boat just in case it couldn't make it across the water to the boat dock. He and Travis headed to the boat while the rest of us drove around. I was thinking that those little oares wouldn't make much of a difference, but at least they had a plan. Luckily, they didn't need them and got the boat across just fine!

Thursday night after showers, we all went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. Friday, we went to Sky High, out to lunch at El Farro and everyone hung out at my house. The kids (and adults) played basketball, ping pong, ran through the sprinklers and had pizza for dinner. Travis was at Girl's Camp for the night and Conner was on an 11-year- old camp out. Saturday we hung out and the kids watched a movie. Grandma and Grandpa babysat while the adult kids (minus BJ's family who were driving home) went to dinner in Lafayette at an Italian place. It was a great trip and probably one of the best family reunions that we've had! Hopefully we can do it again in a few years!

PS - Drew fixed his boat ... he thinks!