Yosemite!

Sorry for all the collages, but just like in my scrapbooks, I can't just pick one or two pictures to represent such a big event!
We just spent a week camping in Yosemite - our favorite camping spot. We look forward to it all year long and we're never disappointed! We got an even extra treat this year as Jason's parents, his sister Emily and her husband Ty and their son Daylen, joined us for the last 3 days of our week. We had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect! Can't wait til next summer! Here's some of what we did: 1. family shot in front of Half-Dome 2. our beautiful camp site on the Merced River 3.my tough boys at the top of Vernal Falls -long hike uphill carrying fishing poles to fish at the pool on top 4.bear in tree eating apples while we bike past him 5.Mom & Alli playing in water at camp site 6.Dad & Alli on hike to falls 7. Alli & Daylen feeding the ducks 8. raft wars! 9.Junior Ranger Walk -holding a skinned animal-the boys earned a J.Ranger pin and patch doing various activities during the week 10. Nana & Papa w/ the kids 11.Group shot-the photo crop took away the beautiful view of Valley 12. Mother-daughter moment at Vernal Falls 13. My handsome Junior Rangers! 14. Alli loves the water w/ Daddy 15. paddle down river -one of our favorite events in Yosemite 16. an Alli & Nana moment 17. bike riding is another of our favorite past times in the Valley - we bike all over the place! It's a blast! 18.Aragon family 19. My boys! Beautiful waterful hike -I was so proud of the kids for making the hike with no complalints! 20. more water playtime 21. gone fishin'! 22.Group shot at the Vernal Falls 23. the boys are having casting contests 24. mama bear and her cub - Jay & the boys followed her for a while - Mom & Alli nervously stayed back 25. Our Family
~Thanks for sharing in our fun. Hope you enjoy the photos. Click on collage to see up close!

Princess Alli

Have you ever seen a cuter princess chair than this? Alli got it from her Grammy for her birthday! She loves to sit on her pink satin throne and is quite the "Princess." I couldn't help but take a few pictures on this morning in her pj's. If you look closely, you can see the wand at the top of the chair which comes out and she swirls it around. So much fun!

My Man!

A friend in our ward takes photos for the local newspaper.
He was on scene at this fire today and got some shots of Jason
in action. It was a house fire just a few blocks from where we live.
I can't imagine how tough his job is. I am eternally grateful for him
and his love for his family which drives him to be such a hard worker!
That's MY MAN!!

Harry Potter Mania!

Well,
Last Friday night Darren and I headed down to Barnes and Noble to join in on the Harry Potter Mania! We did this with our dear friends Margaret & Andrew for book #6 and we were excited to do it again. We wish they were with us! Anyway, they had tons of fun activities - trivia games, crossword puzzles, word searches, guess how many Bertie Bott's beans were in a jar, a magician show, costume prizes, readings from favorite passages, pictures with Harry, free glow-in-the dark glasses... etc. One of the fun things for Darren was to have the "sorting hat" question him and place him in the House of Ravenclaw! (of course he was hoping for Gryffindor) He got to decorate a shield to wear around his neck. He also got to make a bookmark for the about-to-be-released book #7.

Late into the evening we spotted some of the employees wheeling out cases of the books to the front registers. I quickly snapped a shot of Darren with the books. It's pretty serious stuff - they were really edgy about letting me do it but let me anyway. They immediately covered the boxes with a large sheet of some sort. We thought it was funny.

Tons of people were dressed up. One guy made a pretty good Albus Dumbledore. He was kind enough to pose with Darren. Some other good costumes were Fred and George, a Snitch, and Professor Umbridge. We did meet up with a few friends from the ward who were equally excited to receive the final book.

I have finished the book and loved it. Darren is still working on it as we had to share. Over the past few years, we've read all the books together, and separately. We love to discuss them and joke about them. I've enjoyed having this unique experience with my son. I'm so sad there are no more books to look forward to. We'll just have to re-read them again and again until something new comes along. Will there ever be anything as fun as Harry Potter?

Lake San Antonio -July 2007

What a fun week we had camping at this lake! We were invited to go with a group of friends and it was a blast! We camped right on the water and were able to enjoy many fun activities. I love our family time together when we take our camping trips.

These pics are: 1. Dad and Darren going out for a ride, 2. a view of our camp site 3. a family shot on the jet ski, 4. Alli lookin cool, 5. playing with little sis, 6. Alli decided to learn how to stand in the play tent and was quite taken with herself, 7. cheesy romantic sun down photo, 8. Daddy's little girl, 9. Darren whittled a bow and some arrows out of sticks and used a rubberband to make it really work! Impressive boy!

Alli celebrated her actual birthday while we were there and shared cupcakes with the 30+ kids that were there. We had a great time visiting with many friends during the trip and we're so grateful we could go.

Just a Sunday photo that I especially love!
July 2007

Allison turns one!

Allison had her first birthday party at Grandpa Steve & Nana Deb's house last week. She had a great day, surrounded by loved ones! She loved the swimming pool, loved her cake as you can tell, and she loved her new toys. You can see her hugging her new baby doll and riding her Dora bike. I can't believe our little princess has been with us for an entire year! It goes by so fast! Our family is truly blessed! (click on photo if you want to see larger image!)

Water Bug

Our little Alli went swimming for the first time at cousin Gavin's b-day party June 16th. As you can see, she LOVED it!
She played in the pool for hours!(with short breaks in between of course)

Summer Do's

If you haven't seen the twins lately, you may not recognize them with their new "do's." Daddy took out the clippers last week and went to town and the boys love it! Nice and cool for summer - we have to remember to put sunscreen on top of their heads!

Starting Summer with a BANG!

Darren got to spend a whole week in Visalia at his best friend Andrew's house. They went to science camp each day at the middle school there and watched experiments, performed experiments, and made cool things like this rocket. On Friday I came out there and we got to see them launch. They had a real egg on the tip and if your parachute worked, your egg didn't break. It was cool! They went sooo high. Below is backyard fun at the Schimelpfenings as they used PVC pipe to make marshmallow guns. Yes - they blew marshmallows out the tubes at each other. Thanks to the Schimelpfenings for taking good care of Darren and entertaining us well! I miss Sonic!!

More 4th

Sorry -here are more of today's pictures. I'm playing around with this blog and learning. Above are the boys w/ Presidents Jefferson and Washington. Below is Daddy getting an impromptu kiss from Alli. She just reached up and smooched him! Precious. Here are the boys' face painting results. It was airbrushed on and sprinkled with glitter. A man from The Star newspaper took a photo of Darren getting his done and took down his name. We'll have to watch to see if he got his pic in the newspaper!

More Independence Fun

I forgot! The boys met Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington! I just can't figure out how to attach the other photos. Be patient with me. I'll get it!

Happy 4th of July

I'm just trying out this blog thing. Here is my first post. Today is July 4th. We went to the Ronald Reagan Library for their celebration and festivities. It just so happened that daddy's fire station was asked to be there with the fire truck to display to the public, so it was fun for the kids to see him there. They had lots of entertainment, kids crafts, face painting, and the kids favorite part - FOOD! They had hot dogs, watermelon, kettle corn and cake. Yum! They had lots of giveaways like keychains and hats. We had a great family day.