Are you Jealous yet? If not just wait....

Looking at the Date Palm field at Sunset.

Hey all.  I just wanted to share the local weather report and show you what I look at every evening with my sweetheart.

It is now 11pm at night, and the temperature outside is a BALMY.......................................
92 degrees!!

Yup still hot out here, but hey its not as bad as it has been, and all of you can come visit us in the winter and enjoy the high 80 degree weather.  We have sand dunes 10 minutes from our home, river rafting 10 min away, a sandy beach 2 hours away, Disneyland 3 hours away, and the list goes on. Which by the way I will be posting pics of our trip to Disneyland when we return on October 12th.  But I will post other posts first but that is a heads up.  So here is your invitation to come visit us, and play in our pool, and enjoy the "winter".  We would love to have you share our warm and sunny weather, and beautiful palm tree littered sunsets. Seriously...we have room, and would love to enjoy family time.

**Truth be told I am a little jealous of the leaves changing colors, and that cool crisp in the air to let me know it is time to can apples, and get the pumpkins out, and fall decorations out.  This will be difficult getting Christmas stuff out in what seems to me to be the wrong time of the year.  I'm sure though I will adjust.  I love and miss you all.**

The last week...

We have had tons of fun this last week and saw some of our hard work and sacrifice start to pay off.  Will has been working a lot lately, and we really miss him, so when we get some time together, it is very precious.  So when we decided to have the mini van detailed we had to rent another van since it would take all day long.  Well we didn't want to be stranded at home doing nothing on Wills one full day off, and so we decided to take the rental mini van and drive the two hours to San Diego.  We got there and went to Del Mar Beach.  It was beautiful.  Apparently Del Mar Beach is the "rich persons" beach, so it is the best for families with little kids since it is the cleanest area with not a lot of stuff you don't need when going to the beach.  As soon as we took our shoes off, and looked out into the water what did we see, but a seal swimming about 2 feet into the water parallel to the beach.  I have never seen them that close before except for at the Omaha Zoo.


See the seal!!

This was the very first time that the kids had ever been to the ocean.  Nessi and Sabrina had been to California 6 years ago this last January, but it was for my grandmothers funeral.  We didn't have time to go to the beach or anything like that because Will had to get back to school right away.  Anyway here are some more photos of the beach.  Vanessa LOVED to comb the beach for shells, and Sabrina LOVED playing and making sand castles in the sand.  And well Isaac couldn't settle on just one thing to do, so he was up and down and all around trying to do everything he could.  The kids absolutely loved the beach, and wore themselves right out.  As soon as we got into the car to go get some dinner, I looked back, and after only 5 min driving they were all out like lights, and so we just drove straight home, and then went out to dinner.



All of my beach beauties!



But once they got in it they got used to it.



This little guy would not leave our stuff alone. 



These Will called Sand Fleas, I grew up being told they were little sand crabs.



These are the things that burrow in the sand and leave those little holes.





This was my favorite part of the trip..seeing this all day long!!



Here is the famous sand castle...



...and it's creator!!



apparently making sand castles wasn't enough...



She had to bury daddy as well.



Nessie realizing there is a current under the water that pulls.

Look at me mom!!!

Don't let go dad....

So we all had a great time playing in the sand and sun as a family.  It was very relaxing and such an awesome good time.  All our hard work as students faded as we were able to just up and go somewhere fun like this as a family and not really have to have huge consequences financially if we did so.

Also something else that we crossed off our list of things to do once we graduated was with regards to my wedding ring.  I'm sure you are all aware that in 2003 when Will went back to college to start this journey we didn't have a lot of money, and we needed to have a reserve to help us out.  He cashed in his 401K but it wasn't enough for us, so reluctantly we both decided to take in my diamond wedding ring, and sell it and use the money to live on.  With the understanding that it would be replaced as soon as we graduated.  Well that day has finally came, and I couldn't be happier.  Now there does need to be some clarification though.  There is no way on this green earth that we would have ever been able to afford such a nice diamond had it not been for my sweet mother in law giving us such a great deal on this diamond.  We did buy it from her, but at a lot less that you would at the store, and it is an old European cut diamond, and it is from her as well, so there is some sentimental value in this ring as well.  I hope to be able to pass this onto the girls and have them pass it on as well.  I hope they will love it as much as I do.  I think it is absolutely stunning and so I wanted to share my excitement.  It is a reminder of all the hard work and sacrifice we all made to get to where we are today, and that if we are patient everything we ever wanted and more can be ours. 





But the best part over all above beautiful diamonds or pretty beaches or vacations, is the fact that we get to do all of this together as a family, and make tons and tons of memories.  I love my family, my husband, and my life!!!

We have Twins!!

Ha, caught ya with the title huh...no way am I pregnant or even trying right now.  But Will has gotten his babies...or so he calls them.  He has lusted over these things since we found out we were moving to Arizona, and he was lucky enough to get twins.  They are two years old, and in about two more years we will reap the benefits of feeding and caring for these two girls.  Wanna see the twins....well here they are.

The twins by the pool sunning themselves.

Aren't they lovely beauties.  Apparently Will thinks so.  I don't think they are worth the money we paid for them, but Will assures me that they will pay back ten fold.  We shall see about that.  Here is what they will look like as they produce the food.

This is them with their bird proof baggies on them.

They are pretty palms I have to say that, and they are BIG palms.  But to get fruit off of them that I don't really care for...except for in granola, I don't know.  Maybe if I cut the dates up into small pieces, and substitute them where it calls for raisins, maybe.  I will have to try that since Will hates raisins, and LOVES dates.  Here is the fruit up close.

Each cluster produces about 70lbs of fruit, and a tree can have about 7-9 clusters around it.

I never knew dates grew like that, but now I do.  I also learned how to pollenize your female trees to produce the fruit.  Something about a big cotton swab, and male flowers and I left after that to take pics.  Will knows all about it though, and he is really excited to do something about it in two years.  Apparently only 4 year old trees start to produce fruit, but that the tree can live for 200 to 300 years and still produce fruit. 

Also I wanted to show you some pics of what this last storm did to our neighbors and such.  The other night it was raining, and hailing.  It was nothing like any of the fierce storms we would have in Nebraska, and I laughed at Will when his store closed two hours early due to the rain.  I thought "What Idiots..it is just a little rain people".  Well that's true if the ground could handle it, but apparently because the storm drains are so little, and the ground can't suck up the water very well, I went down the hill to get Will and whoosh we went water skiing at the bottom.  There was about 14 inches of water over the road and such.  Then that is when I realized OK, maybe it is a little scary for the rain we got.  Then the next morning, these photos are what we saw, along with a few retaining walls, and yard walls that were undermined by the water and just collapsed.  IT was a little surreal, and showed what water is capable of.

The roof slid off

The trees couldn't handle the winds and rain.  Many yards looked like this with their trees.

Also, just wanted to include some photos of Kira.  She has been such a great dog.  O don't know if I ever posted her before pics here, but here is a before pic, and her pics I just took the other day.  Will snapped one of me where I fell asleep on her.  She makes a GREAT pillow.  And she enjoys the contact as well.

Kira with tons of hair loss and scabs.

She just looks so pathetic and sad, and you could see her ribs as well...she was underweight.

Isn't she so pretty now.  Nice even coat, and so happy.  Minus her tail, but that was just a bad thing for her all around.

See all the hair on her face now.  She finally looks so healthy.  She sleeps with this toy snake.  It's her favorite.

She is an awesome pillow. So soft.  And healthy gaining her weight as she should.

Well, it's been super hot here..today it is 115.  So we have been spending tons of time in the pool, and in the air conditioner rooms.  Hope all is well with you guys.  We miss you!!