Happy Birthday Dave!! We love you!!

Monday July 28th was Dave's 32nd birthday. This year Dave made it really easy on me and planned his whole birthday months ago. He decided he wanted to go see Paramore in concert at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno Nevada. He then planned for us to stay overnight at the resort, this way we didn't have to drive the 2 hours back home at 11:30 at night.

Once we dropped Andalyn and Ryan off at my mom's house it was off to Reno we go....

Out of all of the mini trips we have taken together, besides our honeymoon, this has to be one of our favorites. We had so much fun. Once we got settled into our room we went in search of the perfect birthday dinner. We ended up finding this Italian place called Dolce.

We had the most amazing dinner. We started out with something called "Fresh & Crispy" it was very lightly breaded shrimp, calamari, and zucchini with a couple different sauces to dip them in. The presentation on all the dishes we had were incredible. We then split a salad that was this prefect little Italian salad with greens, salami, olives, avocado, red onion, and shredded cheese with a wonderful balsamic vinaigrette. Ok, now that I have all of your mouths watering. :) We are only half way done. For dinner Dave had Chicken Gnocchi and I had Grilled Salmon with Lobster Potatoes. Oh my gosh....both dishes were amazing!! The waitress ended our meal with a sweet desert just for Dave.

Once we were finished at Dolce, we almost had to ask the waitress to roll us out. We were so stuffed. But well worth that "oh my gosh I can't even walk feeling". And the best part of it all, is that on Mondays everything on the menu is 50% off. We ate like Kings for 40 bucks!!

Once we walked off some of our food, and freshened up in our room, it was off to the concert. It was in a standing room only room which made for very soar feet this morning however it was well worth it. The concert was amazing. This was Paramore's first stop on their first headlining tour. They are a very young christian based rock band. The oldest one in the band is like 23, but the rest of them are like 19 and 20. Because they are such a young band, there were 90% teenagers at the concert , 9% parents and then Dave and I made up the last 1%, "big kids" that love the band. :) We were asked by a parent if we had kids at the concert, a little embarrassed, we said "No, we just really like the band." :)

Here is a video clip from the concert.

After the concert we walked our aching feet to our room. We plopped on our big comfy bed and went to sleep.

Happy Birthday Honey, I love you so much and enjoyed our time together in Reno. I feel like these little snippets of time that we get to spend together, just the two of us, makes me fall in love with you all over again. You make me feel like the giddy girl that had a huge crush on you when we started dating. Thank you for always being able to bring me back to such a wonderful time.

Our first trip to the beach

Dave has been on vacation for the past week and has this next coming week off. In fact we kicked it off with our Date night last weekend. I can't remember the last time Dave was able to take vacation time and actually use it as vacation time. The last few years he has had to use it to move us back and forth from Albuquerque. Well, because we have been able to do some fun things as a family this week we decided to take the kids on their first trip to the beach. We went to a beach in Pacifica off Hwy 1 just south of San Francisco.

I have to say that I couldn't of asked for my kids to be better on the trip there and back. We had no fits or crying episodes. They were angels! Dave and I were so surprised because given past history, of them hating being in their car seats for any amount of time, they did amazingly well.
When we left our house on Wednesday morning it was in the 80's and sunny, however when we got to the beach it was in the low 60's and very windy and overcast. So needless to say we didn't go swimming, but had a great time on the beach. Andalyn was afraid of the ocean because the waves were very loud and huge. She went down to the water with daddy, but after about 2 times of the waves rolling in she was done and wanted to build a sand castle with her new buckets and shovel.

Ryan had a good time as well. He hung out on a blanket under an umbrella. He eventually fell asleep and took a nice relaxing nap on the beach with the noise of the waves in the back ground. Gosh that sounds nice, wish I had a chance to do that. :)

It was a great trip. It was nice to go somewhere as a family and enjoy each others company doing something we hadn't ever done together. I am really looking forward to this next coming week that Dave has off. Monday is Dave's birthday and we are dropping the kids off at my mom's and heading up to Reno for an over night trip. We are seeing a band called "Paramore" in concert that night. I have some of their music on my blog if you want to check them out. They are a Christian based Rock band so they aren't too hard core and don't sing about negative things. We really like them. We also have a camping trip planned at the end of next week. We are going to Thousand Trails up past Marysville, CA. It is a camp ground I grew up going to every summer with my family and my mom's side of the family. Of all of my memories of being young, the camping trips have to be some of my favorites. I can't wait to bring Dave and my own kids to make some new memories there.
I love having Dave home, why can't every week be vacation? :)

Date Night, What's that?

So I can't remember the last time that Dave and I were able to go to Dinner and a Movie. Well it happened. I know I can't believe it either! We dropped the kids off with Stacy and Marc (thank you so much guys) and went on a date. It has been so nice to have Stacy and Marc so close for many reasons, one being now we can swap babysitting for each other. I do hope that there are many date's to come for both couples. :) We caught an early showing of Hancock with Will Smith. We really liked it. It had some swearing, however a clever story.

We then just walked down the stairs from the El Dorado Theaters to a Mongolian BBQ. We loved it! If you haven't ever tried it, it is so good!

It was a great time, it was nice to just focus on each other, even if it was just for a few hours. Thanks honey for a fun date!! I love you!

Montana and Andalyn, what a pair...

Montana spent the night last night, and much to my surprise Montana had the same outfit that Andalyn has, so of course I had to dress them alike this morning. Oh, and their hair is exactly the same too. I can go overboard sometimes. :) They are like sisters, they love each other. However they have their fair share of fights too. Here are some pictures from today.

Here they are eating lunch at Andalyn's little table that her Grandma and Grandpa Cashdollar got her.

They both stayed up pretty late last night so they spent the morning just hanging out watching their favorite shows.

Aren't they adorable?

And this is what they are capable of doing together. This is Andalyn's toy room, I think it's great. It just shows how much fun they were having!!

Thanks for coming over and playing Montana! Andalyn loves it!

My little lover boy...

I have the sweetest little boy in the world. His eyes just melt your heart. He is so cuddly,I love it. Andalyn wasn't much of a cuddler, I'm so glad that Ryan is.

Aunt Stacy with my cuddle bug.

This is what happends the second I look away....

Andalyn has silicone bread pans on her feet and a tupperware bowl on her head. I can't look away for a second. :)

My little Pirate

So Andalyn has this obsession with being a pirate. I'm not sure where she got it from, however she thinks that anything she can find to tie around her head makes her a pirate. On this specific day it was her blanket that made her a pirate. She even goes around saying "ARG, I'm a pirate" Silly girl. Check out the link to my sisters blog, she has a video of Andalyn being a pirate. That time she had a head band around her head.

My precious little ones...

So I haven't been able to find my camera for a while and I found this picture and had to share it. Aren't they precious? Andalyn just loves her little brother, and Ryan can't get enough of his big sister.

Reunited!! :)

I was lucky enough to get a chance to see a dear friend of mine, a Friend that I love so much. I have been friends with Jennifer Arges (used to be Hansen) since Kindergarten. Because life happens it has been nearly 7 years since I have seen or talked to her. The last time I saw her was at her wedding! She is now living in Seattle Washington with her husband and is 7 months pregnant. She looks absolutely beautiful. In fact that is what brought us together again. She came to visit and her sisters threw her an awesome baby shower. I was so happy when I got the invite!! I didn't expect to get so emotional when I saw her, however I had so many emotions rush through me when I saw her. She's the one that is pregnant and I was the one that was crying. :) Anyway, if you read this Jen, it was so good to see you and I look forward to keeping in touch and seeing pictures of sweet little Julian when he arrives. Love ya!!!

Andalyn loves her Aunts and Uncles

Our kids are so lucky to have so many Aunts and Uncles that love her. I found these cute pictures of Andalyn and Her Aunt Whitney and her Uncle Logan I had to post. Just a little info on Whit and Logan...Whitney is almost 15 and will be a sophomore in high school the next coming school year, and is obviously a heart breaker...isn't she beautiful!? And Logan will be 19 in December. He is wonderful, and is looking forward to putting his papers in to go on his mission soon. We love you guys!!

Better late then never!! Happy 4th of July!!!

It has been well over 2 weeks since my last post. I have been crazy busy....I can't tell you with what but I haven't had a chance to sit down at my computer to even check my email. Anyway, I had to post this picture because I thought the kids looked so cute in their little 4th of July clothes. Thank you Grandma Cashdollar for such cute outfits!! We had a wonderful 4th. We were able to spend time with both sides of the family. Andalyn absolutely loved the fireworks!! Every time we handed her a sparkler or a fire work to put on the ground for someone else to light she said it was "her firework:....well every firework that she saw was "her firework" in her mind :). She REALLY enjoyed the fireworks that went off at the Elk Grove Park that went off in the air. All along Ryan was fast asleep in the house. I'm sure it was better that way. I'm not sure he would of loved the loud noises from the fireworks. Happy belated 4th of July to all. I will do more post sooner than later I promise. :)