Hot Hot September

Maybe now is not the best time to visit Sacramento :) We have had record temperatures (105 degrees) for the last 4-5 days. It has been fun to hit the pool and play at the splash parks to try and beat the heat. That's not the only thing that has been keeping us busy in the last few weeks. It has been fun, especially for me, so here it goes.

During drill for Darryl this month, we had the annual family BBQ and pic nic. One of the soldiers had a great idea to roast a pig and serve it with the meal. Many of the soldiers brought their entire family and Tanner had a great time running around and climbing trees with the kids. Many of the coordinators for the unit took the time to make care packages for all the kids with boxes of school supplies and small toys. Tanner and Parker also rode the carousel and jumped in the bounce house at Kennedy Park in Hayward. Darryl gave some awards and recognized some of his soldiers, then generally did a great job of leading the activity for the day. In the evening we went to visit the Darringtons and chat with cousin Dave that was in town. He and a bunch of his local friends were there for dinner. We had a wonderful evening of laughing and eating. The weather that night was perfect, so we spent all of our time out on the porch. It was tough to say goodnight, and we got home really late, but it was worth it.

One of the biggest events of the month has to be that I turned 31. Not nearly as weird as 30, but still strange to say, "I'm in my 30's". My birthday was a wonderful day. As a gift, my friend Suzette planned a pic nic in the park with a bunch of other moms with kids. We let the kids all run around for awhile while we munched, then we blew out candles on my cupcake. In the afternoon Darryl called saying he had arranged a babysitter and wanted to take me to dinner and the Temple. He also gave me tickets to the So You Think You Can Dance tour show in November. I met him in Sacramento and passed the kids off to Michael his co-worker, who took the boys home with him and put them to bed. Meanwhile Darryl and I went to a great little restaurant on the Capitol Mall called "The House". When we walked in the owner greeted us with, "Happy Birthday!" Our meal was good and the waitress brought me a piece of chocolate pecan cake with a candle in it. I was glad that I didn't have to make my own cake this year. The temple was as beautiful as always and we enjoyed some time to chat as we drove to pick up the boys, then go home. It was a great day!
The fun for me didn't stop there. Last weekend I finally got to use my birthday gift from last year. It was a gift card for a hotel stay. I planned a girls weekend with all my friends from Fremont. It took a year to find the time to slip away, but with all the planning we had 10 ladies that were able to come. We stayed at the Pleasanton Marriott Residence Inn to have rooms with a little kitchen. We all got there Friday afternoon and drank smoothies and hung out while we waited for everyone to arrive. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and to see the movie "You Again". Dinner was delicious and the movie was funny. We got back to the hotel and talked until 3 in the morning. We soaked our feet and painted our toenails. It felt like a regular high school slumber party! One of my favorite parts was our introductions of eachother. One of the ladies that came was new to Fremont, and needs some girlfriends so she came along. She asked us to each introduce ourselves, but that felt awkward so we decided to introduce the person next to us. Everyone had such wonderful things to say about each other and we had so much fun remembering how we all got to know each other and end up at "Girl's Weekend". Saturday morning dawned quickly, and we got up to have breakfast at the hotel. Some people had to leave but a few of us were very hesitant to head home so we went to Danville to do some shopping at the Farmer's market and look in all of the cute little shops on the main street. I even had to detour into an art gallery or two. We ended the day with a late lunch at Mimi's Cafe then headed for home. It was a WONDERFUL weekend. (In the photo Sharman, Heather Murphy, Holy Devito, Amy Crane, Janine Weston, Julia Madsen, Suzanne Hale, Laura Hancock, Krissy Rich, Priya Raj)

We did a couple of other fun little outings. One evening we had dinner with Analyn Sorge and her cute son Sam started singing to the people next to us at Chevy's because the were celebrating a birthday.

Another highlight was a Saturday pic nic at the local Morse Park. We ate and played and Tanner came up with a great game he called, "flying" where he would jump off a giant rock and Darryl would catch him and sail him to the ground. Both boys played the game over and over. I think it scared just about every parent in the park. One other great evening was our back yard campout. Darryl and Tanner set up the tent on the porch, we had chicken and hot dogs on the BBQ then roasted marshmallows for s'mores over the coals. Parker really liked the flaming marshmallow.
We are still madly working to renovate our office and of course we have hit a few snags. The goal is to have it done by Halloween, so we will see. When it is done it will double as our guest room, so we will need some visitors to come and try out our very fancy wallbed. We are all now happy and healthy, so life if great. We hope you are too.