Our California Trip, Part II

We made it to Escondido in the afternoon, around 2:30.  The Williams' house sits on about 8 acres at the top of the hill and it's a kids paradise with everything there is to do.  Hiking the hill was one of the first things on the agenda and Brian & Cory took all 5 kids and the dog to the top.  I was on the back deck using our super zoom 70-300mm lens.  We don't use it often but it turned out to be a great lens for all the scenery during the weekend.

 Not even an hour after we arrived, Brian & Curtis were driving down the driveway and saw a rattlesnake going across the pavement.  It's become a tradition for us to kill rattlesnakes whenever we come to town.  Last year we found two in one weekend and this creepy guy greeted us right away.  It's so sad to kill any animal but you can't have rattlesnakes squirming their way around your property when you've got kids and animals running all around.  This particular snake was a female and she was pregnant with 9 eggs.  See those yellow oval shaped things below?  Yup, those are baby rattlesnake eggs.  So creepy.  I was pretty grossed out but this was definitely a highlight of the trip for our kids.

The next day Cory caught some amazing photos of a hawk that was flying around.  Much prettier than a rattlesnake.

Our kids play so well with Devin & Curtis.  It's like a non-stop kid party all weekend long.

Cory was the resident photographer for most of the weekend and he captured some really sweet shots like this one of Reese:

 and this one of Ryder (who was in hog heaven with all the fake guns around):

 and another one of Reesey:

 and this one of sassafras Ryan:

 After all the cute posing it was time to shoot some guns.  Again, this nothing we would ever do in Chandler but when in Rome.

 
While Reese was shooting stuff Ryan was trying to collect eggs from the chicken coop in the background but got chased out by an angry hen.  She was running like her life depended on it and I couldn't stop laughing.

 Then it was time to pose and make gang signs on a pile of wood.  They were all so funny together.

 And then it was time for us to leave.  So sad to go but we're happy to know that we will be back in August to celebrate Cory's grandpa's 95th birthday.

Dinner out with friends

My moms group got together for a holiday dinner and gift exchange.  We sat on the patio at La Casa Blanca and enjoyed marg & chips/salsa.   Love this little group of friends.

Parade of Lights

We walked in the Parade of Lights in downtown Chandler and had a blast with our girl scout troop.  They are such a sweet group of girls and it's so cute seeing them all dressed up in their GS vests with their patches.  What a fun night!!

Ryan Team CAP party

We had the Ryan Team Client Appreciation party today and we couldn't have asked for a better day.  The weather was perfect, the food was good, & the company was wonderful.  We are so blessed to have such amazing clients, friends, & family surrounding our team.  Mother Nature's Farm was the perfect place to host the party and I'm already looking forward to next year.  

I only snapped a few photos because the main goal was keeping track of Ryder boy.  Tell you what--chasing after him is a full time job.  

Here is my cousin, Carrie & her daughter, Cambrie.

 Ryder was pretending to eat the carrots that we were feeding to the animals.  Silly boy!

Love the wooden cutouts.

The corn maze is always a hit.

 Reese was having a blast climbing up the dirt hill and running on top of the hay bails.

 Ryan's top tooth fell out right before we got to the party.  She is a full fledged jack-o-lantern!  

I adore that gap toothed smile.

Dinner out with friends

We started a dinner group that goes out once a month and each month someone gets to pick the place we dine.  This month's was Alex's choice, Arrogant Butcher, in downtown Phoenix.  It was so delicious.  They have these little pretzel nuggets dipped in cheese & a salted caramel pudding that's to die for.  Everyone's food was so good.  It was a great night out.  Can't wait for December's choice!

Neighbors

We love our neighborhood.  It's so fun to live in a cul-de-sac where the kids can run, bike, & play safely.  Lately we've had Juhi & Kira over a lot.  Juhi is in 4th grade and we love her.  She's so smart and such a sweet girl.  I love when she comes over to play. The other day she wanted to play with Reese & Ryan but I said they had to finish homework.  She came inside and helped both of them.  They thought it was the greatest to have a 4th grader helping them out.  

Kira's parents work a lot so she spends time at our house in the afternoons.  Sometimes we pick her up from school and she'll play for awhile.  The girls & Kira get along really well and she's so sweet to Ryder.  It's nice having her around.  

The other night we decided to Boo both Kira & Juhi at their houses.  Kira lives deep in the cul-de-sac so we had to hide in the bushes while Cory rang the doorbell and ran across the street.  I tell you what, it brought me back to my teenage days of TPing and was more fun than I've had in awhile :)  The kids had a blast and I think it's our new Halloween tradition.

Tour de Tavern

We have some great people in our neighborhood and we recently went out with a group of them.  Our friends, Jacky & Brent, purchased a Groupon for Tour de Tavern in Scottsdale.  It's basically a pub crawl but you all ride on this bike contraption that 2 guys invented.  Hilarious, but so much fun.  We stopped at three different bars over 2 hours.

Here's Cory and the group pedaling hard!

It was great with a group of 8 people together.  We would totally do this again for a fun night out.

Turtleback riding

We spent some time with Holly & Andy this past weekend and they have an amazing backyard that's on an acre but it's still in city limits.  Their tortise, Sherman, was out and about and the kids loved him, especially Ryder.  He was climbing on his back as he cruised around and Sherman didn't seem to mind. 

The kids have now requested that we move to a property that has a desert tortise, chickens, goats, a black horse with long curly hair, and a BIG garden.  It sounds lovely and I hope we can find a property like that someday.

And we're off...

We have been planning to go to San Diego for awhile now and it worked out perfectly to go this weekend.  I've been excited about getting out of town but DREADING the car trip that is 6-7 hours one way.  It's fine if you're going for a week, but hard to drive that much for a weekend.  I was griping it about it to Cory last week, saying I wish we could just snap our fingers and just be there.  Well, careful what you wish for because I'm pretty sure my wish came true.  Our friends, Brian & Claire, own their own plane and Brian (who used to be a commercial pilot) offered to fly out and pick us up.  YES!!!  We were SO excited.  He flew right into Chandler Regional Airport on Monday morning and we took off about 9:00am.  We were in Escondido before lunch time.  It was amazing and kicked off the weekend in a perfect way.

It was awesome to walk out on the tarmac and just load our luggage right on the plane.

Reese was ready for takeoff.  She was all 80's with her stack of bangles.

 Mimi drove us to the airport.  She was nervous about the small plane and wanted to see us off, hoping it would make her feel better.

The Whytes with our awesome pilot.

Cory and Ryder were pretty good co-pilots :)

The view from our window.

Chandler's 4th birthday

Our sweet friend, Chandler Dobson, would have turned four today.  We gathered at the Dobson's house to celebrate his birthday with a potluck dinner and releasing orange lanterns in the sky.  It was amazing.  He has such a wonderful family & friends and I'm so happy that we could all be together to celebrate his life and his birthday.

 Check out how cute these girls are!  I love them all so much :)