Santa Cruz

Errrrrr....back it up.  Our life crisis is over for now!  Thank the lord!  So I'm going to rewind life a bit and talk about our summer.  Woo Woo!  We kicked off our summer with a family vacation to Santa Cruz.  We left on a Friday and headed to Pismo Beach where Casey's grandfather lives.  We used his house as a pit stop and made the rest of the trip on Saturday morning.  When we arrived we settled in to the vacation house and the rest of the week we played games, swam, drank, ate, visited the Monterey Aquarium, the mystery spot and of course the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  We also take an annual family picture which is always fun with four kids and 8 "adults".  :-)  Hope you enjoy some of the pics!

 

Every year MC celebrates everybody's birthdays at once... This was one giant birthday party for everybody!

Grandpa waiting to open his gift! 

And Bryan oh so excited... I see a little smirk there.  Right??

Now this is excited! 

Auntie Mel Mel 

OH MY GOSH!! I forgot to mention banana slugs! GRRRROOOOOSSSSS!  Apparently this is the mascot for UCSC!  Ha!  These little buggers welcomed me the second morning we were there.  I was ready to pack up and leave.  Gross (again), but kind of cool in a sciency (yes Mom I know that's not a word) way.

Casey, Grandpa Frosty and Corey modeling the birthday cake that Cadence, Cheira, Noah and Gabe helped to make.

All of Grandpa's grandsons: Casey, Bryan, Grandpa and Corey

Cadence and Gabriel

Grandma Coco, Cheira and Cadi playing cards

The first few days we were in SC were a bit rainy and cool so we decided to make those our tourist days.  The first outing was to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  This picture was taken downtown Monterey.  

This is Gabriel checking out the jelly's.

Octopus!

Auntie Chaudra helping Gabriel touch.

These 3 were having such a great time watching the wave come over them. I had to snap a few pics while they were giggling.

The cousins.

The view from the patio.  Gorgeous

If this looks like a random picture to you it's because it is.  This is our annual Quelf night.  And yes there were large quantities of alcohol consumed.  

Noah checking out the starfish

YEAH!!!

Another quick update...

Last Monday we received the results from our doctors office (our doctor was on vacay).  We were told that the biopsy taken in surgery had positive margins meaning that they hadn't removed all of the diseased cells, but the good news was it had not progressed into C yet!  It was just one step away.  Good news and bad news.    They said we could either wait 6 months to see if my body's immune system cleared them up or we could go in for more surgery.  We were devastated, happy, and confused all at the same time.  We had to meet with our doctor on Thursday and we were well prepared with questions and fully prepared to undergo another surgery to remove more cervical tissue.  HOWEVER, when we arrived our physician assistant and OB came in to tell us that they had received the FINAL biopsy report and that the margins were actually CLEAR!  I repeat CLEAR!  I burst out crying in shock and relief.  We are so blessed.  Period.  This experience has made me appreciate my boys so much more and most importantly it has made me learn to appreciate each and every day that I am able to spend in my life.  I definitely cherished life before, but now I appreciate, cherish, and thank God for every day that I'm able to spend with family and friends.  I know the last two posts have been kind of heavy... I promise to lighten things up from here on out! :-)  Thank you for everybody's love and support! 

Been A LONG time!!!

Oh where oh where has all my time gone! 

This year is flying by and we have done so much in the last two months.  I haven't blogged in quite some time as my computer bit the dust and I "lost" all of my pictures (they have since been recovered by my amazing brother and I'm waiting for my computer to be returned soon!)... We have also been dealing with a little health scare for little old me.  We have been in and out of the doctors office, had several biopsies taken and surgery last week for a bigger biospy.  Yeah me!  We are currently waiting for results to see if all these abnormal cells have turned into the big C.  Yuck...what a dirty dirty letter...  Anyway, we will keep everybody updated.  We are praying and hopeful that statistics are on our side.  A big shout out to my amazing husband for picking up wherever I leave off and really carrying our family for the last couple of months.  I have truly married my other half and it is so comforting knowing that I can count on him through thick and thin.  Also, a big thanks to my Mom for dropping everything and flying out to be with me and to get me started on a better, healthier regimen.  And MC!!!  Thank you to MC for racing home right after vacation, doing laundry, and then racing to San Diego to take care of us while I recovered.  Our entire family has been amazing and we are just so blessed to have so many caring and loving people in our lives. 

The boys are doing great and so ACTIVE!!!  To leave this on a WAY lighter note enjoy the various "lives" of Noah and Gabe...

A weekend trip to Grandpa Wood's

This last weekend we spent the weekend in Fresno visiting Casey's Dad.  We celebrated his 65th birthday on Saturday, Sunday we visited and Sunday headed home to San Diego after a quick stop to see Grandma Coco! 

 Playing some "ball" in the front yard!

 Taking rides on the "tractor"...

 Gabriel LOVED Cheira's jammy pants and every time we turned around he was either carrying them around or wearing them...  with his cowboy boots of course.

 Love their outfits!

 Happy 65th Birthday Grandpa!

It was a VERY long car ride up so Gabriel and I had our own fun while wasting the time! 

Happy 4th Anniversary!!

This past Thursday Casey and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary!  We have celebrated so many amazing things in the last four years!  We were married, bought a new house, moved down state, had Noah...a teeny tiny break...and then came Gabriel!  That was all within two years of being married!  Wow...makes me tired thinking about doing it all over again.  Things definitely seem "quieter" around here!  The last four years have been wonderful and I can't imagine celebrating all of these milestones with anybody else, but my best friend, Casey.  He is a phenomenal husband and daddy!  I'm so glad he chose to take his "jacket" off for little old me! ;-)  So blessed...

On our actual anniversary Noah and Gabriel helped us to celebrate with some "champagne" (sparkling apple cider) for the boys and ourselves (the real stuff).  I didn't feel like cooking so we had pizza!  Yum yum... Friday night was my birthday so we celebrated both our anniversary and my birthday with our good friends Brett and his daughter Megan!

Mother's Day

We had a very fun Mother's Day! Casey took Noah, Gabriel and I to Disneyland for a couple of days. We stayed at a hotel where the boys really enjoyed the pool and the fact that our room had bunk beds! We had a blast and tired the boys out!!! Thank you hubs! On the actual Mother's Day we relaxed at home in the morning, headed to Pipes for breakfast at the beach and then over to Beth's for some visiting time. After Beth's we dropped my brother John at the train station (so he could catch a train up to LAX for his trip to Guatemala) and continued on to spend a couple of evening hours at the beach. It was a wonderful Mommy's Day weekend.

Daddy and his boys on the Dumbo ride...mommy can't do these circle rides!  

Gabe is still a little unsure about these characters... 

Yo ho Yo ho a pirate's life for me...

This is how Daddy occupied the boys while Mommy watched...

Noah cleaning up Mother's Day morning..

Uncle John and the boys on his friend's bike..

Trying to get a Mother's Day pic with the boys... didn't happen...

13.1 miles!!!

On May 4th I set out to run my first half-marathon in over 10 years!  I did...not in record time or anything...but I DID IT!!  I ran 13.1 miles (hills and all)!!  Needless to say I'm pretty proud of myself and am already scouring the state of California for my next half!

The starting point

 The middle!

Yes I had to run all the way to the tippy top of this hill!!  Then 2 more large hills right at the end of the run!  

All finished!!!  Woo woo!!!