Happy Birthday SARA!!! 12? Seriously?



















Aaron had a serious heart to heart with Santa. He pleaded with him that he wanted some CHALK. Santa was confused and finally told him he'd bring him some. He's been floating ever since.

Chalk? You got it kid.

Loving the Season

Nothing like this time of the year. Tonight we decked out some gingerbread houses.

"Aaron and Alex, where did the other house go?". hmmm.

Halloween and Thanksgiving

Halloween-

Don't ask me what Alex is. Tyler dressed him last minute as a "tough guy". Somehow, he liked his costume.

For Thanksgiving, we got together with Tyler's family. All of them but 2 (Jared's wife Kristin had a baby right before). I think we were around 55 this year. We have to reserve a church now to all hang. We had the best day ever - eating, playing, visiting and being thankful for each other.

Where's Waldo?

The other day we took the kids to Mile Sq Park for a walk around the lake. Beautiful day and all, until Brock disappeared.




















We heard a bunch of ladies screaming and looked over, and there was Brock diving on top of a duck and then carrying it around by the wings. Crazy kid. See if you can find him below (you'll have to blow it up).

Final Countdown

I hate when Summer ends. We live for this time of the year. Owell, that's life. We are trying hard to squeeze the last week together and end with a bang.

We just returned from AZ for a week long family reunion with a million cousins. So good to see everyone on the Dray side. We wore out the kids with some fun times (cave exploring, little olympics, hikes, swimming everyday, etc).













Last few days of snorkeling, surfing, and just having so much time together - until school steals my kids away again.

Summer Fun

Life is going great. We've had the best Summer so far. It's just going too fast. Lot's of cousins, swimming, beach, and family fun.

Tyler took Sara and Cora camping in Doheny last weekend. They had fun with all their cousins. Not a bad campsite, right on the sand.










We just got back from spending a few days in Big Bear with Tyler's brothers family. Never a dull moment there. We hiked, played, explored, and the boys shot bows and arrows and even shot a squirrel. Here's where Craig and Tyler were skinning it and cooked it up. Actually pretty tasty.



















Last night Tyler and I went on a
hot date to the Wedge. Waves were
so big. There were so many people watching
that we got stuck for several hours down in Balboa
(till almost midnight). Not a bad place to be stuck in traffic (and not bad company). We just chilled at the beach till it mellowed out. We tried hard to get on TV with the News casters there. Next time, dinner first.







US Open surf competition this weekend. Over 100k people here in HB watching it. I think we're done fighting the crowds for a bit, but we had a blast.
























Poor Brock split his chin open on a hike. We discovered Liquid Bando today which is like super glue with anticeptic. A few hours later, Alex ripped his toe open and we used it there. How did we survive without it? Every family needs this stuff on hand. Hopefully, no more stitches anymore.

Death of the Trampoline

The other day the kids were jumping on the tramp and the whole thing ripped in half. It's a gonner. We have been fortunate not to have any accidents on it yet. Rare, I know. A million close calls though. Are we mean parents if we don't replace it? The kids are ticked and are planning a revolt. "But Dad, everyone has a tramp... We won't ever get hurt...". Yae, yae, yae. We told them that they'll have so much more fun without it. Hiking, skating, biking, exploring, beaching... We'll see.















Alex is trying to figure how this camera grew in the garden. Weird.














Come on Max, I get whatever I want!

Joshua Tree

We just returned from camping in Joshua Tree with our great friends, the Billings. We haven't been the biggest campers for the last few years. Newborns...and all. We had such a blast together. Kids all were so great and haven't stopped talking about their adventures.

Here's everyone all piled in.

Both families brought propane stoves but no one remembered pans. Oops. We got a little creative by cooking our eggs and pancakes over the fire, in orange peels. Somehow worked. Good memory.

Fun night hike looking for coyotes in the light of a full moon.

Getting a little desperate for an escape from the heat.

Good, now stay there.

The only shade we could find. Frogs and tadpoles in green, stagnating water....appetizing?

Escaping from the heat with a popsicle and loitering in front of Staters. The manager showed his appreciation for our popsicle cheer (to the customers) by giving us the boot. Tyler's head was just spinning.

Shopping at the outlets.

Spring

We've been too lazy to blog, or too busy. One of the two. Anyways, life is peachy. We've put in a few gardens around the yard and they are jamming. We can't get tomatoes to grow, but we're not giving up. The kids have had so much fun with the yard these days. They beg their dad every day to go work together in the garden. Jumping on a shovel is more fun than jumping on the tramp I guess.











Brock and Tyler fishing together. After a while of not catching anything in the ocean, they started fishing in the tide pools and caught a bunch of little ones.














Alex's new favorite hobby. Archery. This will be interesting.




I wonder where Aaron gets his ideas from. hmmm. poor duckie.

The Tree

I like trees as much as the next gal, but for years I wanted our big sycamore down. It's the messiest tree ever, puff balls and leaves are never ending. It grows over the wires, the neighbor's yard and over the back wall. We had another tree belonging to the city just behind the back wall that hides the wires and we don't have to take care of it. So, the other day I was just done. I wanted it out, that day. I saw an opportunity and took it! I knew Tyler would understand about being spontaneous (of all people). He agreed. So, we called up our good friend/neighbor Ed, who is the pro-fix-everything-guy. He was kind enough to offer! After a few hours and a whole lot of help from fearless Ed, it is gone.

We were worried about the landing. One mistake, it would go through our wall and hit a car, or our even worse, our house. It took out a few of our other trees on the landing but we'll take it. At least we still had the city's tree.

Well, 2 days later, the city came and chopped all their trees down. oops. We're feeling a bit exposed. ha. I'm still so happy to have that sycamore gone. (Yes those are my maternity jeans, and nope....)

With all this wood, we have a goal to cook dinner over an outside fire once a week. What do you eat for dinner besides chili dogs and foil dinners? We will have to start getting creative I guess, or just pull out the smores!

With all this tree stuff happening, time for some good tunes. About trees of course. Tyler wrote this song back in the good 'ol days and it's always been a favorite of mine and the kids! Especially this week. (click the widget below)

Apple Tree.mp3

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Fairwell Circlepix

After nine wonderful years here at CirclePix, I am now passing the torch and hanging up the gloves to move on to another new and exciting challenge. I've accepted a position to work with my 2 brothers in the home healthcare arena, working with the elderly.

As I have been slowly packing up my office over the last few weeks, so many memories of the early days have flooded my mind. Crazy. We started this company with just a few people in Rob's upstairs bonus room. Just a few of us buddies banging things out trying to figure some way to make things work. We went from just a few tours a month to over 10,000 tours a month, with over 400 photographers nationwide and somewhere around 150 employees in our corporate office, at one point. Although I'm so proud of all that we've accomplished together, the sweetest thing is the many friendships and memories that were made along the way. So thankul for all I've learned from everyone, past and present, at Cpix. I expect great things for the future of the company and wish everyone the best- and please keep in touch.

Thanks for the AMAZING ride!!


Tyler

Slingshots

We just took the kids out hiking in the Laguna Beach canyon. They were able to get their new slingshots all worn in. I think Santa really scored on these puppies. Out of all the toys and clothes they received, nothing holds a flame to these wrist rockets. Brock is sleeping with his. He wants to take it to the beach to nail seagulls. What has Tyler created? They are already talking about their next weeks adventure in the woods with their new slingshots.