Easter

We had a busy Easter Sunday around the Hughes Zoo.
Sunrise service at church.
Home for a quick egg hunt in our new backyard!
Brunch gathering for Easter with our Sunday School class. (and Egg Hunt #2 for the kids)
Home for a quick nap.
Lunch with family. (and Egg Hunt #3 for the kids)

Home Improvement-- Backyard

For Valentine's Day this year, I only asked for one thing:
A usable backyard.
Yes, I am that romantic.

We knew it would take a lot of work to get it cleaned up, so we both planned to spend our upcoming Spring Break working out in the yard and getting it ready to go.

As it turned out, we hired contractors to save Bill's back.
(Best. Money. Ever. Spent.)
Bill did a ton of work on the sprinklers, and we spent most of yesterday laying the sod ourselves.... but we let the hired help do all the heavy lifting, so to speak. ;)

Here are a few slide shows that show the before, after and work-in-progress shots:

yard- view A - slideshow maker

yard view B - slideshows

yard view C - slideshows

yard view D - slideshows

Snow!

About every 20 years or so, there is a weather anomaly that happens and it snows in our normally sunny, southern California town. The last time it happened was in 1989, when I was in junior high. I distinctly remember making a glorious snowman at the local elementary school yard, and later driving across town with my dad through snow flurries because I *had* to have a new padlock for my gym locker at school. (For any of you local readers, we were driving to the then **NEW** Target shopping center, which at the time, was a good 2 miles north of any other development here in town. In other words, way out in the middle of nowhere. Funny how things change.)

So, flash forward to January 2, 2011, and the magic happened again. SNOW.

And we weren't even home to see it. :)

But...

We were up in the mountains enjoying the fluffy white stuff. Lots more of it, actually.

still shot before they head down the hill

These pictures were all taken in the morning, before it started snowing. The storm that brought 1 inch (or so) of snow to our hometown brought about 12 inches of snow to the mountains that afternoon and evening. It was a winter wonderland. And I didn't take any more pictures. But it was gorgeous. :) And we were thankful to make it home, fearing we might be snowed in. Neither Bill nor I were raised in snow, so clearly our perspective is a bit skewed, but it seemed like it was DUMPING snow us as we were driving home. With chains. CRAZY.

Such a fun weekend, and so thankful that our kids get to experience the fun of snow!

Florida Recap

Christmas Morning Sunrise
Pompano Beach, FL

Well, despite my commitment to finishing out the month of November with a 'thankful' post each day.... I fell short. Didn't finish the last 5 days, but that doesn't mean I wasn't thankful. :) Just busy.

No matter... I'm back, and more thankful than ever!

So, I missed the whole month of December in between--
recap: Bill had a birthday, we traveled to Florida for Grandmother Hughes' 90th bday (Dec 24th), and, of course, Christmas! (more on that later)

Our trip in Florida started out like this.

Southernmost Point of the Continental Unite States
Key West, FL

And then we did a lot of this.

Beach time with Daddy

And this.

Swimming in a warm hotel pool.

And this.

Liam's first east coast beach outing.

And this. (Lexy's favorite part, actually)

"Meeting New Cousins."
(or, meeting 2nd cousins for the first time)

And this.

Snuggling with GPa.

And this.

Celebrating Grandmother Hughes.

At Grandmother's Birthday Party
Christmas Eve 2010

And on Christmas Morning in the hotel, we had a very small celebration of Christmas. The girls have been asking for "Space Buddies" for the past 2 yrs, and despite our efforts, we could not produce. It is 'out of print,' so to speak. But, we were fortunate to have been given a used copy by some friends who were cleaning out their DVDs, and we knew we'd have some THRILLED little ladies because of it. So we captured their reactions....
I'll count that as a Christmas Success!

Thankful Day 7

Today, I am thankful for naps.

You'd think we wouldn't need a nap on Day Light Savings Day-- after that 'extra hour of sleep', wink, wink-- but everyone seemed exhausted this afternoon. Maybe it was the early morning wake-up for the race (which went well, by the way)... Maybe it is the gloomy, chilly weather that is making us all want to curl up in our warm beds... Maybe it's the toll of the busy week we just finished.... Or maybe All Of The Above. Not sure. But we can all say it was wonderful to rest.

Here are a few shots from this morning. Bill and I ran the 5K (not pictured) and Lexy ran the Kid K Fun Run.

***getting ready for the race***

***all business***

***pure joy!***
(waving at her sister :) )

And one from our trip to Aunt Barb's on Friday...
Looks like we've got another water baby!! Liam loved the water. :)

So behind, playing catch-up

I can't believe it's been OVER a month since I've posted anything on here.

Well, yes I can, actually.

It's been a busy month. Lots of visitors and activities.
Lots of LIVING, not much blogging, I guess.
But isn't that the way it's supposed to work?
Whatever.

Here is a photo recap of the last month of our lives...


Aunt Neva (Bill's sister) came out to visit one of her friends, and we spent a wonderful afternoon with her in Downtown LA. Highlight of the trip had to have been Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.




Next up, Bill's parents came out from TX to spend 10 days with us. We started off the visit with Sunday Brunch at The Castaway, which, on top of being YUMMY, was also a nice trip down memory lane since that is where we held our Rehearsal Dinner the night before our wedding.


Then, we immediately put Dick and Nancy to work in the fields, making them earn their keep. :)
We headed to our favorite So Cal location, Underwood Family Farms, and made use of the extra pairs of hands in picking blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and a few raspberries (it was too early in the season for them).

For Dick's benefit, I would like to point out (because he did MULTIPLE times) that he only picked BLUE blueberries, as evidenced above, whereas the rest of us had a hard time picking the ripe ones and ended up with buckets of various shades of reddish purple, and the occasional green ones thrown in in Lexy's bucket. (You can pay me later, Dick.) :)


This just in!
We interrupt this vacation recap to bring you breaking news:



WE HAVE CUTE KIDS. :)

We now return to your regularly scheduled vacation recap.

Next stop, the annual trip to heaven on earth, otherwise know as Yosemite.








And more on Yosemite in my next post because this one has been in the drafts folder for over a month, and I need to move on. :)

The Purple Camera

Since about January of this year, all Lexy could talk about was wanting "a purple camera."

If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times.
"I want a purple camera for Christmas."

She didn't quite understand that next Christmas was 11 months away. She had spent the previous 4-5 months saying, "Maybe I could get [x] for Christmas...." We hadn't converted her to the concept of BIRTHDAY presents yet.

So, I went online and did a little research to see if, in fact, a kid-friendly purple camera existed.
Not only did I find a digital camera designed for kids, but JACKPOT!, it was made by Fisher Price. The mother of one of the girls that I tutor is a Mattel employee and can get toys for DEEP discounts. Gotta love that.

So, the birthday came, and we were so excited to give her The Purple Camera (that is actually pink with just a smidge of purple on it).
We captured pictures of her opening it, and they are priceless.

She is gazing up at me while I'm asking her if she remembers what she has been asking for for her birthday.... And then the "I think I know what it is" smile sweeps across her face.

I love the open-mouth awe in the second shot, even though I KNOW she knew what was coming...

And the sweet look of a successful birthday present.

(Sidenote [because we are all about the sidenote]: check out what Tori was up to while the presents were being opened.)

Then we took a family walk to a local bagel shop for her birthday morning breakfast, and lest you be curious to know how it went, our little photographer-in-the-making documented the whole trip.

Daddy in the driveway getting ready to leave. Apparently he is too big to fit into just one picture.

Some bushes! With berries! And me telling her to stop taking pictures of bushes and catch up.

The patio at the bagel shop. And some unsuspecting patrons of the bagel shop.

Scenic long walk home. A Not-To-Be-Missed block wall.

And more of the long walk home.

At this point, we got tired of waiting for her, so we strapped her in the stroller (against her will) for the remainder of the walk.

But let me tell you, what a stroke of genius that turned out to be! We got some MOTION pictures out of it!

I like to call this particular shot "Asphalt".


In all seriousness, though, we are very excited for her to have her own camera! What an adventure it will be to see the world through her eyes. And expect regular blog installments of "Lexy's funniest pictures". I already have some pics in mind for that.... :)