Zuri and McKenzie

Life is very busy these days with J back in school and me working full time again. For those of you who don't know, I am a personal assistant up in Salt Lake. I do everything from accounting to sewing to childcare. The perk is that I work for my mom, which means that I can have Zuri with me and I also get to watch my little sister, McKenzie. Zuri just adores McKenzie; she follows her aunt around and just laughs and laughs with her.
Sorry about the quality of the pictures; I was trying to take the picture as they were swinging so they are a bit on the blurry side.

Family Reunion

Over Labor Day weekend we went up to Palisades for J's family reunion. There was camping, games, skits, crafts, and good ol' food to be had. Zuri enjoyed playing in the dirt and grass.
I promise the picture below was not posed at all. I snapped the picture at the perfect moment. She was actually trying to kick the ball but misjudged and got her foot on top. She used the bat to help balance and this was the picture! I love it! Again, this picture is not posed. We have ourselves a little ball player!

The girls playing in the mud. Pretty deep!

Zuri and her cousins all playing in the grass/weeds. Zuri went over to the spot and Ashton (the girl immediately to Zuri's left) came over to play with Zuri. Soon there was a ring of girls and they were all playing with the weeds. Zuri was loving it.

Another thing she loves: chasing dogs....

...And playing with her cousins....

....riding in jeeps...

...and playing with Aunt Amanda and the mini 4-wheeler...it actually has a motor....

Triplet's Birthday party

We went to Nevada Beach for Lindsay, Matthew and Michael's (close friends of the family)twelfth birthday party on August 15th (yes, I am backtracking a bit, but I am trying to get everything all caught up). We had fun with a barbecue, pinata, and a bit of splashing in the lake.

Lindsay just loves Zuri--I got a great shot of the two of them together.

Present time!

Phil holding Zuri who just loved the pinata! She didn't want to let it go!

She was a little less enthusiastic about sitting on it though. ;-)

Then she wanted to play in the sand...

There was a guy at the beach who was working on his tightrope skills. He was generous enough to let the kids have a go as well. It was really cool to watch.

To the water we go!

But the sand is just more fun...

Jesus's Wedding

So to continue our saga (see San Francisco post below), after San Francisco, we drove back to Sacramento and stayed the night. We got up early the next morning (Saturday) and drove back up to Lake Tahoe, change, and then drive down to Minden, where Jesus, a good friend of the family, was getting married. The wedding was in Spanish, but they had translator headphones for us non-spanish speaking people. It was the weirdest thing listening to the wedding ceremony on the headphones! During the reception (which was also in Spanish), we relied on J to translate.
I included this picture of J and ZZuri only because Zuri is starting to look so grown up! She definitely isn't a baby anymore!

Jesus and Cristal cutting the cake. They were nice to each other...awww...

After the reception we went back up to Dad's house. What I have neglected to mention was our car issues. On our way to San Francisco we began hearing a strange rattle-clank type noise whenever we braked or turned left. It was coming from the front passenger side of the car. We had just had our brakes completely replaced last October so we didn't think it was the brakes--necessarily. We get to San Francisco and couldn't find anything that could be making the noise except for possibly a loose piece of plastic that looked like a bolt had been lost. We get to Sacramento and try to ghetto-rig it but nothing seems to work. Meanwhile, the noise and grinding seem to get worse.

Sunday after church, Dad knows someone who is/was a mechanic and he goes for a ride with J to see if he can diagnose the problem (we were supposed to be leaving Monday morning to return to Utah). He said that he thinks the problem is the axle, possibly something bent. Great; he estimates the cost to be somewhere between $300 and $500. Have I mentioned that neither J nor I had a job? He refers us to a place in Carson. Monday morning, J is headed down to Carson City and goes to the place. They can't find anything wrong with the car but definitely note something is wrong. They refer him to another place. Same thing, only they refer him to a place that specializes in axles and suspension. The third place can't find anything wrong at first either, so they get to work tightening bolts. What-do-you-know, the problem ends up being a bolt that was loose half a turn on the axle. Go figure. Something so little could be the source of so much ruckus (and devastation had it worked its way loose). We only had to pay for the labor; we were definitely blessed. So, Tuesday morning we head out, car sounding great, and has continued to sound great since. Crazy stuff.

San Francisco

Our trip to California was crazy because we packed so much in such a short time. On Thursday, August 21st, we drove from Lake Tahoe to Twain Harte to visit with Chantal and Travis for the day, which was a lot of fun. Neither of us were ready to leave that night, but we already had plans to go to San Francisco Friday with Dad, so we drove to Sacramento late Thursday night. I was driving and missed the turnoff (still can't figure how that happened, but leave it to me to get lost! :-P). We finally made it to my grandparents house around one in the morning. Needless to say, we were tired. Dad didn't drive down from the Lake that night (so we really could have crashed at Chantal and Travis' after all--go figure, right?).

J had never been to San Francisco, and since there is so much to see there, we chose just a few areas (we are planning another trip when we go out for Thanksgiving). We drove into the city on the Bay Bridge and out of the city on the Golden Gate.

Our first stop was at the Coit Tower, which has a spectacular view of the city, the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, and Treasure Island. These first few shots were taken from the lookout point at the bottom of the tower. If you look past J and Zuri to the right, you will see the Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in clouds.Treasure Island (above). J and Zuri walking at the base of the Coit Tower.We went through China Town! We spent most of our day at Fisherman's Wharf. There is always so much going on there--we could have spent several days and not be done. One of the oddities that we saw were several people dressed entirely in one color. The sparkling guy below. In the picture of the beach, if you look closely on the right, you will see a guy completely in gold. We also saw a guy in silver (but we were in the car and I couldn't get a good picture).

I thought the sign was funny, especially contrasted with the picture of all the sea lions on Pier 39.

Sweet! A store for us lefties! Even the workers are left-handed!

The Golden Gate on our way out; it was a good day.

My First Drawing

Zuri had her very first experience with markers last weekend, and as you can see, she had a fabulous time. Jennifer and Perla were watching her while J and I went on a date (Jennifer took the video). Zuri made a mess of herself and the paper but had so much fun that whenever she sees markers (or anything that looks remotely close to a marker) she just has to have it and she tries to draw on anything she can. It is hilarious. You can also see some of her babbling. Oh, she learned a new word this morning--'yum!'

Pigtails

Hey everyone--we are back online! I feel like I am connected with the world again! Whoohoo! This will be a short post since it is late and I have work in the morning. I did want to show you all that I was able to get pigtails in Zuri's hair! It was so cute! For the whole ten minutes she kept them in, anyway. She is such a little wiggle worm that they were a little crooked, but still way cute. I will post more later (probably after Labor Day) from our crazy California vacation!