Halloween, Becca, and Kyle

Okay, so I am about three or four holidays behind....I thought about not doing this at all but then I remembered that this is sort of my journal and I want to try to do it so that I can remember the year...even if I am months behind.  For awhile there I was great about taking pictures of everything...even stupid things and now I am out of the habit again and I missed some very important things.  So I guess I need to get better again.  So, this was Halloween.  When Scotty was two or three we bought him this costume at Costco.  Our kids gave us grief about it because they always had to have homemade costumes.  He loved Superman then and he still loves him now.  He has worn it every year since and now that he is seven, he finally fits into it.  I decided that this year we would finally get him a new costume since we had gotten our money's worth out of this one.  I told him that he could pick a new one and his response was, "Why??? I love Superman.  I want to be him again."  Sounded good and economic (or cheap) to me so for the fifth year in a row, here is Scotty being Superman.  He wanted to jump off the chair to show that he could fly.  He actually wanted to jump off the roof.  I said no.  You may think that he was teasing about that but some of the teachers at my school next door have actually seen him jump off of our roof.

This is him in a boring Superman pose.  I think that it is time to pass on the costume next year though, and so if Pacen wants it, it is his.
Kyle and Becca right after they carved pumpkins.  I am not sure why Kyle is dressed up in a tie though.  Maybe in his culture that is what they do.
Cute pumpkins.  I think that Scotty helped them.  They did it on the grass and the driveway and then just left all the innards out there.  The next day Scotty dumped them down the school drain....like the school couldn't figure out who had done that?!!!  It also didn't take much for the school to realize who had spray painted their green fence.....all red....with paint that Becca left out after doing some wedding painting.  I am afraid that we have a neighborhood hoodlum living under our roof or on it as the case may be!!
The next pictures are some of Becca and Kyle.  They had Kaylee and Janelle take some pictures of them for their wedding announcement.  They did a great job and their were several that could have been chosen.  I thought this was interesting that they are just sitting in some random chair against an ugly barn.  I have noticed that the latest photo trend is to take pictures in front of the ugliest backgrounds that you can find....unpainted fences, barns that are falling apart, graffitied buildings...the uglier, the better it seems.
This is the other side of that barn.  One side was wood, the other side was metal.
The fence at the Hunters.  I am glad that the electricity was turned off on it!  The other photo trend is that people are often not looking at each other or at the camera.
A very cute close up.  Look how pretty my daughter is and I guess how cute Kykle is.  Kykle is Olive's name for Kyle and sometimes we forget and just call him Kykle or Kyk.  She loves her Uncle Kykle.
I think that this may have been in the Hunter's backyard on their patio or in downtown Gridley, but either way, a cute picture.
Janelle took this one somewhere in downtown Oroville.  They drew the heart on the wall with chalk...at least it wasn't spray paint.  I love the look on Kyle's face in this one.
This was an interesting one.  I think that Kyle is pretending to be Spiderman and Becca is trying to do the Kathy pose.  She needs to tilt her head back a little further though and laugh.  I actually thought this was a cute picture though.  See what I mean about the ugly building pictures though???  What happened to pictures in front of pretty gardens or bubbling streams???
This was the CHOSEN picture.  This was on their announcement.  I LOVE it.  Some people wondered why they chose it because Becca is not looking at the camera and Kyle has such a sheepish grin on his face.  I think it looks like she caught him doing something red handed and he knew he was caught.  I loved their choice though and I thought it looked cute on their announcement.  And most people loved their announcement, even though it was a little unconventional.  Becca and Kyle took a chance on doing something different on their announcement and on their reception, but it all came together great.  Stay tuned for wedding pictures if I can get them from Erica.  

SO DEE IS PROBABLY GOING TO KILL ME...

Yeah, she is probably going to kill me for this picture, but she is the one who posed like this!!   I have been a slacker on posting the rest of this trip but life has been busy with work and the wedding.  This was the last night of our trip and we tried to cram in as much fun as we possibly could.  I took a lot of random pictures to help me remember the trip.  We went over to the game room and just hung out for the evening.  

Again the pictures are in random order and I don't know how to fix that.  This is a picture of Pam trying to explain to Tom and Dennis that she really did win the air hockey tournament.  In reality, Dennis won, but for some reason (maybe a technicality) she thinks that she won and she is trying to persuade Tom that she was the winner.  Tom set up the whole tournament and even had it all written out on a piece of paper, all official like.
Notice the look on her face as she checks over the tourney schedule.  Tom is pointing out to her how she actually did lose and Dennis really did win.  She doesn't seem convinced.  And notice how Dennis is just chillin'.  I don't think that he really cares who won.  He didn't even try to defend his position.  Don and Annette are just looking at Pam.  Do they feel sorry for her that she lost, or do they feel sorry for her that she is STILL arguing that she should have won??
Now Dennis is trying to explain it all to her.
Another thing that we did was make homemade ice cream and just watched TV over in the game room.
Just sitting watching some old western when right in the middle of it a "Girls Gone Wild" advertisement came on the TV.  All of the women jumped up to find the remote to quickly change the channel,  while all of the men sat and watched in amazement...just kidding!!  EVERYONE tried to find the remote.
Another activity of the night was karaoke.  Susan and Keith brought their machine and everyone sang away.  These three were trying to re-inact the Lennon sisters or the Supremes...I am not sure which one.
Keith jumped in on the act to add a manly voice to the group.
One of the worst activities of the evening ....according to me, not anyone else....was the pool tournament.  I have never played pool and have never wanted to play pool but Tom, the master event coordinator, made everyone play.  Walt and I were the definite losers.  It wasn't his fault at all though.  I don't think I ever hit the ball.  Annette and Tom were teamed up against us and it was pretty funny because Annette wasn't much better than me.  I think the men were a little disgusted in our lack of ability and our lack of competitive spirit.  Who likes pool anyway????  I only like the kind you can swim in.
Dee and Chris were pretty much pool sharks.  I think Chris said that he lived in a pool hall once or maybe he said that he played a lot as a kid.  Here is Dee in another attractive pose.  If she is going to pose like that, I am going to post the pictures.  Nice job Dee.
And here is the famous championship game between the two in the winners bracket.  Pam was not about to be beat.  If you know Pam at all, you know that she is VERY competitive.  She played so hard and slammed herself against the table so hard trying to win that she ended up with a huge, huge bruise on her stomach...about the size of a football.  It was awful.  And for that she got second place.  But she represented the women well...nice job Slammin Pam!!
Here is Chris racking them up.  
What a fun weekend!!  I am glad that I took so many pictures so that I will be able to remember the fun that we had in Jackson.  Again, thanks to Christy and Rob for letting us stay there.  I am so grateful to have such good friends to hang out with.  

FOOD AND GAMES

Now, some of you might ask....what do all of you guys do when you go away for the weekends?  Do you get along?  Do you hang out as a group all the time?  Do you harbor deep seated grudges against each other because you ALWAYS get the worst room or lose the most games?  Pretty much we eat really well, play lots of games, stay up really late, talk, give each other a hard time, dream of the cabins or lodges that we want to someday own, and LAUGH...and I mean we really laugh.  I love, love, love these weekends away.  This is the last morning as we were getting ready to leave.

Did I mention that we eat on these trips?  We usually go out to eat on the way down because it is normally later in the evening.  But the rest of the trip we do our own cooking.  We have strawberry waffles and sausage and juice, etc.  on the first morning and then that night we have teriyaki chicken with salad, mashed potatoes, fried broccoli, rolls, and then usually cheesecake or pie.  We used to do lunch too but gave that up years ago when we realized that if we ate lunch we were too full for dinner.
This is just a cute picture of Pam.  I really feel like Pam is the most photogenic of the group and always takes good pictures.  She is also the most competitive of all of us and will play Nertz until she drops even though she almost never wins.  She is a good sport and just loves the game.  She is also a super analyzer of the game and will often still be talking about what she could have done or should have done in a hand several rounds before.  She has a hard time letting go of things.  And if she ever does win a game of Nertz, you will hear about it for years...as in "Remember that game I won when we were in Tahoe and I had a nine and an eight and I won the game?"  But we all LOVE Pam.  I have to say that she gets more razzing than anyone there and she takes it like a champ.  I always tell her..."Pam you give us so much ammunition and material."  In all seriousness, Pam is one of my idols...she always has been and always will be.  There are times in my life when I don't know what I would have done without her help and encouragement and friendship and advice.  So thanks Pam for being such a good friend.
This is not the best picture but here we are getting ready to eat.  
On the second night we have tri tip...and boy did we have tri tip this year...we ate and ate and ate and still took bunches of it home.  We also had pasta and salad and french bread and homemade ice cream for dessert.  Life is good when you eat on one of these weekends away!  And the food for the entire weekend was a mere $56.  We ate like kings and even had enough for a dinner on the Friday after the weekend.
The women love to play Nertz and other games on the weekend.  Annette likes to play "Take Two", a Scrabble game, mainly because she dominates in it and likes to make the rest of us look illiterate and unlearned....is unlearned a word?  We also play games in the evening with the whole group.  Usually we play Catch Phrase and this year we learned some interesting words, crudite and giff, to name a few.  Give me a clue that would get one of those words as the answer and you can have my dog.  We also play the Couch game and if that doesn't tax our brains and memory enough, we also brainstorm about cruises and cabins.  Believe it or not, we usually don't spend too much time just chillin' in chairs, although this time we had some really comfortable chairs and we spent a lot of time trying to steal  them from Pam.
Mutt and Jeff...that just says it all.
While the women are inside playing Nertz the men usually find something creative to do outside.  One year they made their own miniature golf course and had a great time in the woods of Willetts.  This year they played a lot of horseshoes.  This is Walt looking mighty graceful.
Keith and Chris pretending to be good at horseshoes.  I think that the men enjoy their male bonding time on these weekends.  We don't really know what they talk about but it is probably things like fast cars, politics,  investments, retirement, fishing, ski lodges, sports, businesses, and maybe a little bit about religion.  The women have much more interesting things to talk about.  We talk about our kids, our grandkids, fruit roll ups, visiting the turkeys, our weight, and a little bit about religion.  One thing that I love is that we all love the gospel of Jesus Christ and are so grateful to have the gospel in our lives and that through it, in spite of all of the jokes and teasing, we have this eternal bond with each other.  Enough preaching for the night!! 

WONDERFUL WEEKEND WITH FRIENDS

Last weekend we went away with some friends to a cabin.  Actually, we all went with the Robertsons to visit their family....only their family forgot to show up....so we had the place to ourselves!!  This is Christy and Rob's "cabin".  I expected something a little more rustic, a little more cabinish, a little more little.  Instead, we drove up to this three bedroom, two story, beautiful CABIN.  It is near Jackson and I am not really sure where that is.  I never could quite figure out where we were....somewhere in California though.

This is the garage which has been converted into two bedrooms, a huge game room with a pool table, commercial air hockey table, big screen TV, and a loft.  We draw for rooms.   Everyone always complains that they ALWAYS  get the smallest room, the room with the most uncomfortable bed (sometimes that is a blow up air mattress or bunk beds or a pull out couch), the room with the worst view, the room furthest from the bathroom, the room too close to the bathroom, etc.  But the fact is, in all of the years going away, even the worst of the rooms is better than the best room at home!!  We get to be with our friends with no kids or responsibilities for an entire weekend!  It doesn't get any better than that.

Susan and Keith brought along their geo-caching things.  We piled into one SUV, all ten of us, (Don and Chris hadn't arrived yet), and went on the treasure hunt.  With Dennis driving Keith's car and Susan navigating, the adventure began.  I think that we found three of the four caches.  The funniest part was that on the last one...and thank goodness for that...Keith and Walt stepped in something .... dead or gross....and the entire car smelled like a dead animal.  So they hung their feet out the back window so the rest of us wouldn't pass out from the smell.  This is one of the treasures.  I actually found one of them in a knot hole.  We went on some pretty small dirt roads trying to locate a few of them and we sort of worried about what kind of treasure we would find....as in a Steve Collins treasure hunt!  I thought this was a fun hobby but I am not sure that I would want to spend two hundred dollars on a hand held GPS locator.

I tried to get  a cute picture of Pam and Dennis but he wanted to attack her instead.
Tom and Annette on the hunt.  We figured that we would never actually be lost in the wild.  Is all we would have to do is run Tom's shorts up on a pole and everyone would find us!!
Walt and Carolyn trying to find the one that got away.  We never did find this one.
On this geo-cache the people posting it wanted you to add a rock to their rock wall of their driveway...a nice way to get it built without doing it yourself.
Part of the kitchen crew.
Dee was hungry!!  I love her smile in this picture....she just looks so cute.  When we go away we make a menu....it is always the same one each year....and two people go shopping and buy all the food.  Then we split the cost on the last day.  Everyone is responsible for bringing their own treats and drinks.  Usually hot tamales and chocolate and almond M & M's are in abundance!!  Pam and I did the shopping this year.  It was fun to go with Pam, but not so fun to take Scotty.  He did fairly well in Costco but in Winco, Pam showed him the bulk food buckets and it opened up a whole new world for him.  The temptation proved too great.  I couldn't find him for awhile and then I got a phone call on my cell phone and they brought him to me.  Well I knew where he had been and sure enough, his pockets were full of candy.  So we went to customer service and talked to the guy there about stealing and the police and jail.  I don't think it helped much but hopefully he will think about it the next time he sees those buckets.
This is Carolyn and Annette looking sad because they think all of the almond M&Ms are gone. 
I love these weekends away.  I have more pictures that I will post later.  I love my friends and the fact that they put up with Walt and I  and each other.  We make fun of each other a LOT!!

CAMPING WITH FRIENDS

I had a bunch of other Fort Bragg pictures so I thought that I would do another post about Fort Bragg.  I know that I have a lot of pictures of Kyle and Becca but they are the only family that came with us.  Hopefully next year we will have more come.  On the last night of camping we had a big pot luck with everyone who camped together.  I think that someone said there were around 83 there and so we ate together on the last night.  Most people brought Mexican food and so of course Dad had to bring Nachos.  It was really fun seeing everyone at Fort Bragg but like I said before it was odd to think that we were the old people...kind of a changing of the guard thing.

I wanted to get a few pictures of Becca and her friends because I figure this will be the last time that they will all be together as singles and it won't be the same after this.  I thought this was a cute picture of Becca and Shannon.
A really cute picture of mother, daughter, and grand daughter.  Three generations...at least I am pretty sure that is Cali, Jana's daughter.  Don't they all look cute.
The trio of friends.  Becca, Shannon, and Sarah have been friends for nineteen years and have been on many camping trips together with their families and through school and girls camp.  Look how pretty they all are....all grown up.  Again, their last trip together as single girls.
I thought this was a cute picture of Mikila and Brittney.  I did feel a little bad for Mikila since I DOMINATED her in Nertz pretty much for the whole trip.  It is fun listening to her yell at everyone during the game though.  She pretty much doesn't like chit-chat during the actual game...especially if you are her partner.  
The stud of the campground.  Isn't he hot?????  He has broken so many girl's hearts!!
All the old lady friends, minus a few.  We are the grandma Robertsons now!!
The grandpa Robertsons....studly as well.
Derek and Joel looking cute and available.  Natalie is in the background.
Sarah and Jon.  I like to call him Jesus.  When he lets his hair down, it is really long and would make any girl green with envy.  It is beautiful.  Sarah looks a little confused as to why I am taking this picture.  I wanted to remember everyone who was there so I took a lot of pictures that night but I couldn't post them all so I had to choose a few select pictures.  I really am glad that I ended up going to Fort Bragg this year.  It was just fun to relax, play Nertz,   spend time with friends,  go to the beach, eat really good camping food, and watch Scotty be able to be a kid with other kids.

Fort Bragg

On Labor day weekend we went camping at Fort Bragg.  This is something that we used to do almost every Labor day when the kids were little.  It is sort of a hit and miss situation now that the kids are gone.  We missed last year because we went to Utah for the birth of Claira.  I was a little apprehensive since camping is NOT my thing but it was actually quite fun and relaxing this year.  I thought about it afterwards and tried to figure out why it was so nice and I think that part of it was that Scotty was free to run with other kids and for the most part I didn't have to worry about him.  He loved being there and having other kids to play with and being outside in the dirt.

Becca and Kyle got a little obsessive about the camera and pictures of themselves...but that is a whole other post.  I thought this was a cute picture of them though.
Kyle trying to look studly.
The beach right below our campground.  We don't go to this beach because it is not that great for playing in.  Instead we go to Sand Dollar beach which is up the road a ways.  We went there on Friday.  It was so much fun to sit there and watch everyone interact with each other.  When we got there though the first thing that I noticed was that everyone was young.  We are the old people now...we are grandma and grandpa Robertson.  We are there with our kids watching our grandkids in the surf.  As I walked among the people looking for somewhere to sit, I realized that most of the people there were my kids' ages.  I finally spotted Annette down the way and the first thing she said was, "Finally one of my friends are here."  It was really all younger kids with their kids.  It was fun to watch all of them and see them with their own families.  But it was a strange realization that I am old....although I did have one of the younger kids with Scotty.
Scotty LOVED this trip and I got such a kick out of watching him.  He ran from early morning until late at night non-stop.  He rode his bike or his scooter constantly. He was fascinated with the fires though and we had to keep him out of them.  And it wasn't just our fire either!!  One morning my friends and I searched for a campsite in the sun to play cards in and we found one just down and around the corner from our camp.  I showed Scotty where I would be because Walt and Dennis had gone kayaking.  I kept a watch on the forest for a plume of smoke because I did worry about him getting into things.  Well soon after, someone came riding by and said that Scotty had started a fire in our campground on his own..luckily in the fire pit.  The other thing that was funny is that he is deathly afraid of the dark.  It is about the only thing he is afraid of and as soon as it got dark he was pretty much wanting to come home.  When it gets dark in Fort Bragg, the raccoons come out and he didn't like them either.  I think that raccoons are far better than the skunks that used to be there years ago!!  He is embarrassed that he is afraid of the dark and the raccoons and one night he ended up in the Robertsons camp and demanded that Shannon take him home to our camp.  Annette asked him to ask her politely and he did.  She picked up his scooter to take it back and he asked her if she would carry him and then he said, "Shannon, I am afraid of the dark and of those freakin' raccoons so I need you to carry me."  She set him down in our camp and then someone asked her something and he said, "Shannon just go back to your camp right now!"  We thought that was weird but she came over and whispered to me that he didn't want all of us to know that he was afraid of the dark and the raccoons and he was afraid she was going to spill the beans.  It was so funny.  Becca was great and usually went to bed early with him because he is so afraid to go by himself in the dark.  That was great for me because in past years I always had to go to bed early with him and I missed out on all the games of Nertz.
Scotty and a few of his friends.  Sophia Ford, Scotty, Isaiah McOmber, Joseph Ford, and Austin Williams.  They all camped across the street from us.  Austin was kind enough to keep an eye on Scotty for a lot of the time.
Kyle and Becca in our campground.  The weather was beautiful...no rain or fog like so many past years.  Our campground was always dry and it was so much easier to clean up.  Camping meals always taste great and this year was great too.  We had foil dinners with chicken in them, hamburgers and hot dogs and corn on the cob (which is always good cooked in the fire), Nachos and mexican food on the last night.  Breakfasts are huge.  Walt feels like you have to have everything.  So we usually had pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, hot chocolate, juice, scones...who eats that much in real life?
Walt and Scotty in the campground.  Not sure why Walt looks like that.
Scotty heading to the camp fire with something in his hand to put in the fire.  His face is filthy.
All in all, the camping was a lot of fun and I was almost sorry to go home.  I had to leave on Sunday night because Kyle had to be to work on Monday morning. We spent Saturday in Mendocino.  I do not know why everyone likes going there.  It is all too expensive and the same thing in every store.  We won't do that next year.  Sunday, Walt and Dennis went kayaking and I literally spent most of the day playing Nertz with Pam, Mikila, Carolyn, Natalie and a few others.  It was great.  I do think that camping is so much work to get everything ready and I was disgusted with the price of the campground.  It was forty six dollars for one night...seriously.  You can stay in a motel for not much more than that.  I was also sad that almost everyone there had extended family with them but us.  We had Kyle, Becca, and Scotty, and that was it.  Even Dennis and Everett were not there because they both had to work.  I am hoping that next year more of our family will be able to go with us.  I have more pictures to post but I will do that in a later post.

SAD AND HAPPY SATURDAY

On Saturday August 29th Scotty turned seven years old.  He was so excited to be seven and excited because we were going to have his first birthday party.  He always tells people he is seven unless he is in trouble, then he always says, "Well, I am only five."  The day started out sad because Kaylee had called and she was sad and that makes me sad.  I was in constant phone contact with Erica because she was in San Diego with her mom and that was sad.  So pretty much I had been crying all day.  When my kids are sad, I am sad right along with them.  This is Scotty that morning...his first picture as a seven year old.

This is Scotty with his constant companion...Puppy.  We still haven't named her although we have thought about Eliza R. Snow since she was born on the 24th of July.  Scotty LOVES this puppy.  The first thing that he does when he wakes up in the morning and gets home from school is run outside to see her.  He has carried her around from the day she was born, much to our dismay.  But surprisingly, he is excellent with her and it is nice to see that gentle, tender side of Scotty when he handles her or talks to her.
He loves to swing with her on the rope swing or the patio swing.  She just lets him haul her around.
This is Scotty right before his party.  The night before Becca took him to the dollar store and bought him several things just in case not many kids showed for the party (which was a really good idea).  Then she let him have two dollars and buy whatever he wanted.  His special friend Emma was coming to the party and he wanted to get her some flowers.  Becca thought that it was so cute that he thought of her first.  These are the flowers that he got for her.  They have been in the same class since kindergarten and he has always liked her.  He is standing next to the goody bags that Becca made for his party.  She was such a help on this party.  She put a lot of time and effort and some of her own money into making it good for her brother.  And then my mother's heart broke again and I was so sad.  Only two little girls came to his party.  Thankfully Emma was one of them and as soon as she came in, he ran to the back and presented her with her flowers.  They went outside to play and he kept coming in and asking about his other friends and wondering why nobody else came.  I have a few theories.  Number one, Saturday afternoon is not a good time...it was right in the middle of the day and who wants to plan their entire Saturday around a seven year old's party.  Number two, he had gotten suspended the day before.  As a parent, if I didn't know the child I would probably ask my son, "Who is Scotty?"  and I am sure the child would say, "He is the kid who got suspended today." and then I would probably say, "You aren't going."  There may have been other reasons but the fact is only two kids came and that was sad.  My heart was broken for my little boy. 
But when Becca got home from work an hour into the party and found out that only two kids showed, she had a brilliant idea....Let's call Shannon and Janelle (both Becca's friends and because of that Scotty's friends too.)  This girl saved the day and I will forever be grateful to her for that.  Thank you Shannon and Janelle.  What party is complete without music and dancing.  They played songs on the ipod and had a dance party.  Emma and Scotty loved it.  Gracie is a little Mong girl and a little reserved but she enjoyed it too.  Shannon was her usual self..loud and crazy and fun...and Scotty loved it.  She doesn't even have to marry Sam anymore and I will still  love her forever!!  Plus she had gone to Seven and bought Scotty his favorite treat..rainbow candy.  I will forever be grateful that this girl saved Scotty's party.  
This was "THE GIFT".  Becca  and Kyle got Scotty a new bike.  And it was his favorite color...green.  I am so grateful to Becca for all the help that she was for this party.  She was the best big sister ever and the best daughter to me.  I am not sure if I will ever attempt doing this again...it was too sad for me.  As a mom I also felt badly that none of his brothers and sisters called him to wish him a happy birthday.  As a family, we need to get better about birthdays.  We don't have to do gifts but a phone call would be nice.  
And this is Emma.  She is such a cute little girl and she is really smart.
This is Scotty, Emma, and Gracie.  Gracie is in the fourth grade and lives down the street.
In the end, the party was fine and Scotty enjoyed it.  That is all that matters.  So Happy Birthday Scotty.  We are so thankful to have you in our lives and we love you very much.  You make us laugh and keep us on our toes.  Without you, we would never get off the computer or stop watching Fox News.