Hugh and Hugh

Recently Dad was visiting and Steven, Sheena and Hugh dropped by to visit as well. Hugh was wearing his hat, this kid loves hats. He know where his grandpa keeps his hats and off he went to get a hat for grandpa great. He loves to play with grandpa great, his name sake and so he placed his hat on his head and put a hat on grandpa great and keep turning it from front to back and then they shared some Mini Chip Ahoys and posed for a picture.

Even More Pictures from the Beach

A few of my favorite pictures from our recent beach getaway

Annual Beach Get-A-Way

Gettting away . . . Sometimes it seems like getting away does not last long enough. A few years ago we started a family tradition, a yearly beach trip. Our family loves the beach. Living in the desert we are like sponges; getting into the water and soaking it up, not wanting to be dry ever again.

We left Las Vegas early in the morning, three car loads for people loaded with bathing suits, boogie boards, buckets and shovels. Our first stop of course was in beautiful downtown Baker, home of the Alien Jerky and a motel for brave at heart and a Burger King.

Mind you, getting small children out of bed at the crack of dawn can make for a few meltdowns during the journey. Hugh was so tired and would not give in to sleep, being so sleepy and crying because he was strapped into his car seat, he was making himself hoarse. This is what a sleep deprived 2 year old looks like. . . so sad!! All he wanted was Grandma to lift him out of the seat and let him be free. So Sorry Hugh, there are even laws that Grandma's have to follow.

Getting to the hotel was an adventure! Let's just say Landa is GPS challenged. Everyone was following us and I kept telling them to turn here or turn there and they were calling on the phone to ask, "Why are we going this way again?" Finally the kids said, "Mom, we are going our way, you guys go yours".... So they did, so did we, We ended up right where we were supposed to... The Laguna Motor Inn, but wait we had reservations at the Laguna Holiday Inn. You see the kids were right, I was also right, I just put in the wrong hotel, we arrived right were I asked it to take us, to the Laguna Inn. Thank goodness our reservations were still waiting for us at the Holiday Inn when we arrived ..... We met the kids there.

We made quick work out of changing into our beachwear and piled back into the car for Huntington Beach. We hit Beach Blvd and to our surprise we picked the yearly weekend of the Surf Tournaments, BMX and Skateboard events that filled every parking lot and beach to the max. After driving around for awhile we all found spots at Dog Beach. I know you are thinking, what?? This was so much fun. This is the one beach that people can bring their dogs and the dogs have a ball. The kids loved playing in the sand, swimming in ocean and running with the dogs.

I love the cool breeze, the ocean waves as they rise and fall, being with my family, doing things together so they will always remember who they are and what a special family they come from.

A lot of our family discussions begin with "Remember when we were at the beach. . ."

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family, they are there for me and help each other. I will post a few more pictures so you can see all the fun we had with some sand and water.

Watermelon Bliss

How much fun would it be to set in the chair, your shirt off and enjoy piece of cool, refreshingly sweet piece of watermelon.
Hugh just finished swimming during one of our family swim parties at Charles and Tammy's house and he spotted someone with a piece of watermelon. Out of pool and watermelon in hand, he was one happy boy.

A Little Smile Between Friends

Sometimes when you take a minute in the middle of the day and drop what you are doing you find yourself walking down memory lane and browsing through pictures, cards, old newspaper clippings, then you realize you are wearing a grin. Not just any grin but a silly full face grin. You remember the moment, you find your self transported back in time and you relive the moment all over again. Sometimes I think we enjoy it more the second, third, or forth time around.

Our families, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and parents hold our past and are part of our future. As I was going through a box I found things that I had forgotten about I now need to share them with my grandkids.

So today I want to put a few of those picture out for all to see who makes me grin and reminds me how much I love them...

Kids Say the Darnest Things...and Then You Laugh

I have learned through the years that kids speak their minds without worry of offending anyone. You know you are going to get the honest truth and sometimes you get more than you bargained for. I have seven grandchildren and love spending time with them. They keep you young and on your toes. I marvel at their wisdom and wit. Yesterday we had all the kids over for the evening, Danny grilled hot dogs and fixed the chili so we could enjoy chili dogs and potato salad and visit with the family during Danny's "weekend" home.

Josiah, Stacey's youngest walks into the kitchen and announces to all that "Grandma, your bathroom is nasty!" After the shock of the statement and the laughter died down we asked him why would he say that, he answered, "I was just in there and now it's nasty" Oh my gosh, We just started to laugh and he reminded us that laughing at him was not that funny.

Sometimes we have to look at the statement being made and realize that they see things in the simple form. I started to look at myself, did I forget to clean the bathroom or did someone leave a present for the next person to see or was that his way of being funny. I let Joey know that Grandma would make sure that the bathroom was always clean just for him and he said Thanks and left the room. Somethings are truly important to a little guy.

I guess that is time to start blogging... My Niece Jennifer said to me "I thought more of the family would have blogs. It is really the thing, I have been blogging for years. OK, I am officially old. I have heard of it and even seen a few, just never figured I had enough to say to make it worth the time.

I now know that to blog is fun. I started working on our family website and now I am hooked. I love reading the blogs, so I figure I don't want to be left on the out side of blog world. I took the plunge and now we will begin the journey into "OUR YORK WORLD"

In the York World, you will meet many interesting people... Stacey, Enrique and their 4 kids, Kim, Nick and their 2 kids, Sheena & Steven and Hugh and my world traveler, Danny.