"Party in San Francisco, Dah, Dah, Dah!!"

Once, when I was eight, I went to San Francisco to visit my darling Aunt Kim and her awesome little family.  While driving around, we invented a song (I wish this blog could sing) called, "Driving in San Francisco, Dah, Dah, Dah."

That's the whole song.  

One line.

And a totally catch tune. 

Over and over again.

It'll stay in your head and haunt your dreams for weeks. 

 

 Anyway, after driving 17 hours from Iowa to Idaho and then 12 hours (in traffic) from Idaho to California, we decided that that wasn't enough driving and we absolutely had to make another 8 hour drive from So Cal to Nor Cal.  

It was SO worth it.

We stayed at the "Hotel de Kim" (A.K.A. my super classy and talented Aunt Kim's home (A.K.A. mansion.) This picture is actually three pictures pieced together and doesn't even come close to showing how huge and incredible this place is.)

Oh, and the inside looks like this: 

It has about 26 rooms and all of them are "Architectural Digest" worthy.

There is also a backyard on this place that rivals Wonderland.  

 

My kids spent the entire trip collecting "treasure balls" (A.K.A. cousin Nate's air soft pellets), hunting rabbits, jumping on the trampoline, chasing lizards, and picking raspberries.

 

I occasionally interrupted their fun with demands that they look at me and smile.   

They WILL thank me some day.

Not only was the outside of their house magical, but the inside was something straight out of Brooklyn and Aubrey's "Dream Come True Notebook."  

The Barbie Extravaganza lasted for several days, made it's way to multiple rooms, and somehow pulled in almost every person in the house.

Accessorizing has never been quite so fun.

We made our way to a Farmer's Market one night and the "Dream Come Trueing" continued when Brooklyn got her very own corn on a stick.  

Corn on a stick = one very happy Brooklyn. 

A night out with super darling cousins = one very happy Ashley.

 

Snow cones with every flavor syrup = one very happy family.

The Party in San Francisco (dah, dah, dah) continued with a trip to Pier 39.  

 And what's a trip to Pier 39 without staring at (and smelling) the Sea Lions...

 

 imitating the Silver/Gold men...

 

eating a Boudin's clam chowder sourdough bread bowl...

 gorging ourselves on chocolate at Ghirardelli...

 and being accosted by a man in sparkly rainbow sequined spandex and silver platform shoes holding ski poles.  He yelled at me in his techno microphone because I didn't give him money.  

 (Excuse me, Mr. Sparkly Rainbow Sequined Spandex and Silver Platform Shoes Man.  Did I ask you to wake up this morning and come stand on the sidewalk?  No, I did not.  Did you give me something or provide me with some valuable service that I should be required to reimburse you for?  No, you did not.  Does demanding that I give you money make me want to give you money?  No.  No, it does not.  And that is why you got none from me.  Thank you.)  

My favorite day (by far) however, was the Boat Day.  ( I should be sent to time-out for calling the boat a "boat."  It was no ordinary boat, friends.  It was a shiny, sparkling, pimped-out, music booming, fun inducing, power MACHINE.)    

The girls could not have had more fun.

 

(I could have maybe had more fun if I was allowed to participate in the festivities.  But since I'm growing a human, I was forced to watch.  Cruel and unusual, I tell you.)

Aubrey especially loved it when people fell down. 

 She really, really loved it.

The girls had to be convinced (4 times) that there were no sharks in the water, and then we couldn't keep them out of it.

And just when we thought the fun couldn't get any more fun...

out came the Inner Tube. 

In it's premier run, it managed to fling off two unsuspecting cousins like they were ragdolls being thrown down a flight of stairs.

 

They may be in counseling for the rest of their lives.

 It took a lot after that to convince the girls to climb aboard the Floating Death Trap, but eventually we were all locked and loaded and being dragged behind the boat to Aubrey's chorus of "Aaah...aaahhhh....AAAHHHHH!"

She didn't really appreciate it.

 She did appreciate that there was a floating bathroom in the middle of the lake since she chose a perfectly awful time to have to drop a number two.  Unfortunately, the floating bathroom dumps directly into the lake (WHY?!) and so those poor unfortunate souls that were riding on the raft at the time had the privilege of swimming in...(shhhhhh!)  

We swore to never talk about it again.

 

By about two o' clock, the girls had hit a brick wall on the Fun-O-Meter and Brooklyn spent the next hour pretending to be a turtle inside it's shell.

It was uncanny.

 By the end of the day, both girls were found like this:

 (They are completely and totally dead-to-the-world asleep, face-down, on the edge of the boat.)

What a truly amazing party in San Francisco.

 Dah. Dah. Dah.

The 2011 Golden Summer Awards

For the past few years now, I've had a tradition of completely and totally neglecting this blog for the entire summer.  

This year, that tradition continued. 

And, as in years past, now I have a million pictures, a hundred awesome stories, and countless memories that absolutely must be documented.  

And so they shall.  

So without further ado, I present to you the...

2011 GOLDEN SUMMER AWARDS

The first award is the "I'm So Afraid To Have A Baby" Award which goes to Brooklyn and Aubrey for almost smothering Grandma Lori's 1 week old baby kittens on several different occasions and being physically unable to let go of them for more than 3 seconds (except to see if they could balance on Grandma's enormous exercise ball). 

I'm very, very worried. 

 (Side note: At church on Sunday, Luke and I looked over and Brooklyn was laying down on the bench on her side and Aubrey was arranging their 3 stuffed puppies exactly like this:)

 So. so. so. awesome.

The "Flashback Award" goes to these two:

(and the "Maybe I Am Getting Better at Photography" Award goes to me...)

The "Monkey See, Monkey Do" Award is all Aubrey's, who while touring the newly remodeled BYU-Idaho campus apparently witnessed one-too-many undergrads displaying public affection.  She grabbed Brooklyn and insisted on a quick little impromptu smooch.

The "Up, Up and Away Award" goes to Aubrey for being entirely unable to keep her feet on the ground.     

The "Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum" Award is all Vicki's.  She had to eat about 18 pieces as punishment for getting almost every bridal shower answer wrong.  At the end of the game, she spit out a wad of gum the size of my fist.  It made me gag a little.

The "Competitive Much" Award goes to Aubrey.  She really, really, really wanted to catch the bouquet. 

 

The "My New Favorite Temple Picture" goes to this one:

The "Best Most Boring Baseball Game Ever" goes to the Anaheim Angels for barely showing up to play.  The game was scoreless until the 10th inning.  It was OK though, since I was only there for the food and the fireworks.  And those, at least, didn't disappoint. 

The "Best Worst Picture Ever" Award is owned by this one: 

(I cannot get over how there is not one person that looks half-way normal.) 

The "We Pretty Much Grew Gills This Vacation" Award goes to the entire family for spending every spare second in the pool.   

The "Where's Braden?" Award goes to Braden for his tireless patience in being endlessly stalked by two girls who unconditionally adore him.  (They adore Brendan too, but I somehow got no pictures of that...)

 

The "Oops, I Did It Again" Award goes to Luke and Ashley for once again forgetting their Anniversary.  

2nd year in a row, friends.

 

 

The "What The *&$#&@^$)!" Award goes to the OC Fair food.

First of all: Chocolate Covered Corn Dogs.  Why?!  

Second of all: Chocolate Covered Bacon.  WHY?!

Third of all: Deep Fried Butter.  WHY, WHY, WHY?!?!

The "One More Thing Could Not Have Gone Wrong" Award goes to the OC Fair

We took the wrong exit.

We parked in the wrong parking lot.

We got dropped off at the wrong entrance. 

We stood in the wrong line.  Several times.

We got harassed by security. 

We lost our free tickets in the car (2 miles away)

We had a blast.

The "Way, Way, Way Too Amazing To Not Get It's Own Post" is for our weekend getaway to San Francisco.  It will be forthcoming... 

The "Picaso" Award is for both girls who now think that painting on the windows is something we need to do everyday.

The "Quit Your Day Job" Award goes to Aubrey for her Oscar-worth performance as my dental hygienist.  She was better than my real one.

The "A Little Bit Fishy" Award goes to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific for a really cool day.

 We watched the animals,

 touched some enormous sting rays,

played with some sea lions,

 pet some jellyfish,

and almost swam with the sharks.

 (A random stranger caught Brooklyn by the belt loops as she was falling into the tank.  Why must my children fall into every body of water possible?  Seriously, why?)

The "Givemee S'more!" Award goes to Brooklyn who against all odds (and three different attempts) finally got her S'more. 

The "Really Could Not Have Been Any More Amazing" Award goes to the Summer of 2011.

A White Wedding

We. Are. Home.  

It took a million hours and every ounce of patience in my entire body (plus more), but somehow, we arrived at our simple and humble home-sweet-home.

Our 3 week vacation was the best we've ever had and I seriously don't know how I can possibly blog about half the stuff we did.  

But I'm going to give it my best shot.

And it's going to take a while.  

So, first up: The wedding and the things you need to know.

Things You Should Know About Vicki Webb Martin:

#1: She is a total princess.  But not a snotty princess; a sweet princess.  

Like Cinderella.  

Or Kate Middleton.

#2: She is tough.  She's got 4 older brothers and she can actually hold her own.  It's seriously impressive.

#3: She is super extremely completely mature.  The first time I met her I asked her what she was majoring in.  

She had just finished 8th grade.

#4: She was the most breathtaking bride ever.  She beamed.  And glowed.  And floated.  And sparkled. 

(But not like a vampire.)

Things You Should Know About Kyle Martin: 

#1: He ruins the boy's golf fore-some, and they still like him.

I can give no better proof of how cool he is. 

#2: He has been dating Vicki almost as long as Luke and I have been married. We know all his secrets.

#3: He is the only one that cried more than me at their wedding.  And for that I will love him forever.

Things You Should Know About Their Wedding: 

#1: It was Idaho Fall's most perfect day on record.  Ever.

#2: I ate an icecream sundae (with every topping imaginable) for dinner that night.

#3: Their sealing was one of the most special I've ever experienced.  

#4: Brooklyn spilled three separate things on her dress during the luncheon, started yelling during the ring ceremony, almost fell off a bridge, spit half-chewed strawberries onto Luke's pants, and somehow managed to survive the day.  

 #5: Their wedding was INCREDIBLE and we are thrilled for them both.

Congrats guys - we love you!