I wish I was a little girl again!!!

Does this bring back memories for anyone else???? Brilynn and Maycie were over to the neighbors house while they were going through some boxes. They kept coming home with lots of little toys that to me were junk but to them the most fabulous "treasures." It wasn't until Brilynn came home with this necklace that it sent me back about 25 years or so. Oh how I loved my charm necklace. I haven't thought about these for many years. I distinctly remember having the toilet, tennis racket, toothbrush, bottle, and notebook and pencil. I know I had many more but can't quite remember. I wish I still had mine. This really made me think of how simple life was when the most stressful thing at that time was what charm should I trade with my BFF:) I almost became "giddy" while looking at these charms. What are your memories of these necklaces???

Vernal for the 4th

I just realized I never posted pictures from our Vernal visit. I didn't take very many pictures but here are a few.
Payge and Preslee love to color. They spend a lot of time coloring. Usually it is on paper like they are supposed to, but many times it is also on furniture, walls, clothes, and themselves. Payge is right handed and Preslee is our little lefty.So I love this picture. Yes they are 2 and they are still completely attached to their binki's and blankies. I just don't have the heart to take them away. Nothin like a good ol' free Vernal haircut.

The tire swings were a big hit with the twins. That is all they wanted to do when we were outside. The older girls (no pics) also got their turn on the swings. Uncle Ben took turns pushing them. I finally had to tell him to stop when I started to worry that they were going to flip backwards.

Nothin like going back to school after a 2 week summer!

I must admit I am a little bitter about our 2 week summer. Because of the tracks we have had in the past we have always had atleast 8-10 weeks off during the summer. This year is our first year of experiencing a short summer and it STINKS!!! I was completley bummed to have to send the girls back to school. We packed in as much fun as we could during the 2 weeks. A trip to Vernal, road trip to San Francisco, a day at the aquatic center, 2 birthday parties, and a little R&R. So here we are in the middle of the summer...GOING TO SCHOOL!!! Anyway...I am actually really excited for the girls teachers this year. After meeting with them and having a chance to visit with both of them and learning about their philosophies, I must admit, I totally agree with them. They believe that their job is to educate and prepare their students to live in the real world. Brilynn and Maycie have both loved their new teachers and are excited for a new school year. So for now, a big ADIOS to summer!!!

Baptism

I didn't realize how much work it would be to have a daughter turn eight. Not only do you have the regular birthday party stuff but on top of that you have the Baptism. We had to find a dress, take pictures, make invitations, reserve the church, plan a meal, make sure they are prepared to be baptised, mail the invitations, and probably lots of other things that I haven't done or have forgotten to do. I think it will all be worth it in the end...I hope:)

Birthday Partay

On Saturday Brilynn had her friend birthday party. This is something that Brilynn looks forward to every year. She counts down the days, then hours, and usually the minutes. I know my cupcakes are a big dissapointment to all my talented cake makers, but this is an area that I chose to keep sweet and simple. This is about as good as it gets at the West house:)She got lots of cute and fun gifts from her friends. They really do have a sweet group of girls and they all get along so well!!!

On Monday, her true birthday, we continued to celebrate. We woke up early, spent a few hours at Chuck E. Cheese, went birthday shopping with her birthday money, went to lunch, had dinner at Cracker Barrel where she enjoyed her free birthday dessert, spent the evening at boondocks where her and Maycie were very competitive while racing the go-carts, finished off the night with her presents. Brilynn is actually getting hard to buy for because she really doesn't want toys, but isn't into clothes, and has just about everything she needs. This year the only thing she wanted was a pair of "real" walkie talkies so that she could share them with her friends and they could pretend that they are cell phones. Since cell phones are years down the road I thought it was a great idea. It makes me laugh to listen to the conversations that they have had on the walkie talkies. It makes me SMILE! Happy birthday Brilynn.

Day 2, 3, &4 of San Francisco

Friday morning we got up early to start our trip. Our plan's were altered a little because of the riots that were going on in Oakland due to the white cop claiming that he accidently shot a black guy instead of using his tazer gun. So instead of going to the fairyland park in Oakland after the Jelly Belly factory we went to the one in Sacramento instead. The park was supposed to give the kids a chance to get their wiggles out in between the jelly belly factory and the Winchester house, but o'well. This is just a cute little park that is based on fairytales. Very cute and fun for the kids.
Paul was so good to help take the twins down the big slides!

After the park we drove to Fairmont to the Famous Jelly Belly factory. Anytime there is a free attraction, in California, in the middle of the summer...WATCH OUT!!! We waited in life for about an hour and a half. Preslee and Payge were not about to just stand in line for that long. This is the point of the trip I realized that we had made the right decision when we chose to leave them with my sister when we went to Disneyland in Feb. I no longer feel guilty about that:) The jelly belly tour was very interesting. 1 thing I learned is that the reason jelly belly's have such a strong flavor is because they have flavor through the whole jelly bean and not just the shell. Also, cherry and buttered popcorn are 2 of the top 3 selling flavors (silly me...i can't remember the 3rd one:) After we spent a little time in the gift shop. This was really fun for all of us. We bought bags of belly flops (jelly belly's that aren't "perfect") beandoozled jelly beans, jelly belly flavored soda, and some cute jelly belly dispensers. A little side note, when we got home we did a taste test with the beandoozled beans. Maycie was so daring!!! She was the only one that ate pencil shavings, booger, barf, skunk, and rotten egg. She did put her foot down when it came to the dog food. She started gagging when she smelt it. We never new that we would laugh so hard watching someone eat jelly beans. Try it sometime, it's a great family activity:)After doing a little driving to San Jose, stopping by a HUGE mall to do a little shopping, it was finely time for our Winchester Tour. The house was very intersting and my girls loved it. The only bad thing was that our tour guide was horrible and I won't go into details but John's sister, Beth, let the manager know of our dissapointment in the tour guide and he refunded our $78. So even though the tour guide wasn't good, we still got to learn, see the house, and the kids didn't know any different. I had to buy a book in the gift store after so I could learn even more about this crazy house and the crazy lady who built it. If you ever get the chance to go to San Jose, make sure you take the time to visit.If you aren't familiar with the Winchester house go to this website for an brief overview. www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/sarahwinchester.cfm

This is the ball room. Mrs. Winchesters elegant Grand Ballroom is built almost entirely without nails. It cost over $9000 to complete at a time when an entire house could be built for less than $1000. It is said that she would come play music here at midnight to entertain the "Good Spirts."This was her main bedroom and also where she died in 1922. At the time of her death the home rambled over six acres. The mansion contained 160 rooms, 2000 doors, 10000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. This room was very creepy. It was her seance room. This room had 1 entrance but 3 exits. She had a closet in there where she kept her 13 robes that she would wear during the seance. This is where she would speak with the spirts and they would tell her what to build. She would ring them in with the bell at midnight and dismiss them at 2 a.m. She was the only one that was ever allowed in this room. She used the number 13 throughout the entire house. Many windows have 13 panes and there are 13 bathrooms with 13 windows in the 13th bathroom. There are also 13 wall panels in the room prior to the 13th bathroom and 13 steps leading to that bathroom. The #13 is found everywhere in the house including 13 holes in the sink drain covers, 13 ceiling panels in the rooms, 13 gas jets on the ballroom chandelier (she had the 13th one added) Her will also 13 parts and was signed by her 13 times.
There is so much more that I could tell you about the mansion and you are always welcome to borrow my book if you would like.

That completed the 2nd day. We drove into San Francisco and stayed again at the Hampton Inn.On Saturday we drove into the city and did a lot of driving around while Paul (who served his mission in San Francisco) gave us very detailed tidbits of info. I didn't take a lot of pictures this day but a few of the most famous places.

Lombard street is the most crookedest street in the world. It consists of 8 sharp turns. The switchback design was instituted in 1922 in order to reduce the hill's natural 27% grade, which was to steep for most vehicles to climb. The speed limit is a mere 5 mph and the street is paved with red bricks.

The kids walking up the stairs on Lombard street.Just a cute pic of John and PresWe then headed over to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Yep, six buckoroo's just to cross the bridge!!!The rest of the day we spent mostly driving around. At end of the day we were all excited to eat dinner at a authentic mexican restraunt that Paul enjoyed while on his mission. We parked a few blocks away, enjoyed walking down the streets of San Francisco, ate lots of yummy mexican food, and started heading back to the car. Payge was determined to run so Brilynn, Maycie, and Myself ended up about a half a block ahead of the others. All of a sudden I hear cars screaching, and yelling. I stopped, grab the kids and looked back. John, Paul, and Beth all had the look of fear on their faces. I just stood there and waited for them to come to me. John told me to just keep walking and didn't want to explain. After a few minutes I finally got the story. While they were walking a girl came up beside them. She must have gotten out of her boyfriends car. At that point her boyfriend slammed on the brakes jumped out of the car and started to beat her up in front of them. Paul, being the good citizen that he is, put his hands up and said, "whoa, whoa, whoa." The guy then stuck his hands in his pockets, started backing up, and yelled, "I'll shoot you Nig$r" There stands John holding Preslee wondering if he is going to have to dodge a bullet. Thank our lucky stars the guy turned around and ran off. We decided we had had enough excitement for the day and returned early to the hotel:)

Sunday morning we were headed into the city to ride the muni (the subway and public transportation) We did a quick drive by of the painted ladies.After riding the subway into the city we were all excited to ride the trolly cars. You can see the trolly car in the background while we wait for it's arrival.Our first stop was china town. For some reason Brilynn was so excited for this. The whole trip she talked about how she was going to buy her a real "fan." Her and Maycie spent a lot of time in the car drawing fans with different designs. They were able to find chinese fans, umbrellas, and lanterns while in China town. We also went to a little tiny shop where they made fortune cookies by hand. We were excited to see that the Sea Lions were back at Fisherman's Wharf. We all loved Alcatraz. Very interesting and a lot of historyPreslee's own little peep hole.Very windy on the boat ride and a little chilly. I never knew that California was chilly in July. We were sweatshirts a lot of the time.

The tour was self guided and you listened through a headset. In the bookstore I bought a book on the prisoners and a one on the history of Alcatraz. I was able to read most of my book on the ride home and learned a lot. We were a little worried about taking the girls on a trip where it was mostly sight seeing and not D-Land, but they loved it. We were so sad when our trip came to an end. There's nothing better than a family road trip!!!