Pham Farm

Ty works with this guy who's last name is Pham (he's Vietnamese). One Friday, not too long ago, we spent a Friday afternoon out with them and a bunch of other people from his work. I was aprehensive at first about going out there, because I didn't know anyone who was going, but we ended up having a great time. We were out there for about 8 hours. There was a little girl who was there and I'm not sure if she and L are the same age, but they are the same size. Anyway, those two kids were practically attached at the hip the entire time. They played amazingly together and had tons of fun. The next day, each kid asked when they could play together again. There were other kids around J's age, but she didn't have someone to attach to like L. The Pham family doesn't really own a farm, but they have 20 acres and have a pool, two ponds, a zip line, and other things, so that is why they call it the Pham Farm. The kids loved the zip line, and I think it was so smart to use a baby swing as a seat for the kids. Maybe we will have to put one in.... They also had this amazing gazebo right by a koi pond (one of the ponds). They had hammocks set up between posts. I laid there for a long time just enjoying relaxing in the breeze.

Frog Days

Up here, towards the end of May, is Frog Days. You know, the jumping frogs of Calaveras County, by Mark Twain? Yeah, me either. I should look into it to see what the big deal is, but Mark Twain made the area famous, and now, their county fair is Frog Days. You can actually rent a frog to jump, and those frogs with the biggest jumps win prizes (we didn't do that). It was about 100 and cloudy enough to make it miserable. Plus, we were only there in the morning and went home to do housework. But the kids had a blast at the carnival riding the rides. First we walked around to see what the booths were about and to see what was displayed. They had a huge section just dedicated to old motors. Ty got a pretty cool picture with L in front of this motor that is bigger than many cars now a days. It was fun to see. They also got to meet Smokey the Bear there. The Cal Fire guys were asking about forest fires and if they were good or bad, and L, the little smarty pants he is, says "Yes, forest fires are good because they make room for new trees." It shocked the guys that he would say that and they had to agree. It was pretty funny. After we made it home, the kids had had so much fun and sun, that L slept for a couple hours, and both slept amazingly that night.

Happy Birthday to Ty

Ty turned 33 back in early May. He was able to take half the day off and come home and enjoy a nap. Best birthday present ever! The kids and I got on Shutterfly and made him a special note pad with pictures of them for him to take to work (I didn't notice until later that it was rainbow striped. Maybe that's why the kids picked it. ;)) I got him some more nice shirts. Low key (like everything), but perfect for us.

Marathon weekend

So April 26 was the weekend of my half marathon. I had struggled quite a bit with my training the last few weeks because I had some pain in my left calf. But, I was determined to do it. Partly because I didn't want to wimp out, but mostly because I had a friend's family coming to stay with us and she was going to run the next day and I told another friend that we would pick her up from her hotel and take her over (we only live about an hour away from the race). That weekend also was the Asparagus Festival in Stockton. It rained all day Friday, but since the half was on Saturday, we decided to head into Stockton and see what it was all about. We only stayed about an hour before we got rained out. I mean, when we left, it was POURING. They had a little carnival, but we didn't ride since it was raining. We just walked around and tried asparagus ice cream, which was as nasty as it sounds. Here are the pictures from the weekend though. Sorry that the last picture is smooshed.

Easter

So going way back to Easter... We went pretty low key for Easter, like it seems we have done for most everything lately, but that's ok. Back in Ridgecrest, we would dye eggs and roll them down a little hill with some of our best friends, but we didn't get to do that this year. I did find the idea on Pintrest to dye eggs in shaving cream with food coloring in it to make a tie-dye look. I think the kids had a blast, but most of the eggs turned out really light. But I would probably try again.