Mo Town Philly, Dance Tour and Disney

I can't believe its been so long since I posted! Well it certainly isn't for lack of updates...quite the contrary! First off, the Kern county fair was AMAZING! It was like the Utah STATE fair. There was way to much to eat and do, but we tried to take advantage of as much as we could. One night we went with Brad and Tina, saw a pig race, high dive show, elephant rides, animals, people's collections, boothes, and ate fried smores...YUMMY!

The next trip back was with some friends to see Boyz II Men! It was SO fun! It was quite the ordeal. The concert was free with fair admission, and we just weren't sure how big the Boyz II Men following still was but just in case we planned to be there an hour early. It's a good thing we did! We didn't even get a chance to eat before scrambling our way into the arena and up the bleachers, plus we were trying to save seats for the two latecomers in the group and that was also a challenge. I must say though that I am not the only one in Bakersfield who agrees the Boyz II Men still has it going on! (Luckily after the concert we did get to try more fried goods including a fried twinkie, snickers and oreos)

Clockwise from bottome left - Jaime, Jolene, Ashley, Me, Amanda
On Bended Knee

Then my final fair visit was on kids day where admission was free! I went with my playgroup and we spent most of the time looking at the animals again.
You tell me who is more curious!
Elllia was starting to get fussy and it was a warmer day with a lot going on later so I decided to leave the group early and head home, but on my way out I passed some farmers getting ready to help deliver a baby cow...so we stopped to watch!

Andy's 1st Birthday, it was so fun taking Ellia to a birthday party!





Introducing - So You Think You Can Dance dance dance dance!!!!

The Garden

They had a lot of curtain warmers, and Gev was the main character in the little storyline... that's him wearing a dress!

Boliwood (sp?)

Bleeding Heart

Fun with Ellia

I bathed Ellia and then took a quick shower myself, when I was done I went looking for her, and this is where she was, it was the first time she'd been able to climb into the chair, and just look what she's holding!

Ah, caught playing with the sprinkler...

It's always interesting finding things in new places...you can see what she gets into...here she's got the toothpaste and the dishwasher basket. The other day i found the toothpaste in the fridge and the mustard in her toy chest.

Waiting for the Great Pumpkin.

First attempts at spaghetti - like mother like daughter

Hide and go Seek

DISNEYLAND!!

Murray Farms

Not afraid of the big bad goat!

Castle, Concert & Vegas

On the day Jeremy and I decided to tour Hearst Castle, Ellia decided she was done 'walking' on her knees. We took the backpack carrier but she would have nothing to do with it. Try keeping a one year old ready to practice her new walking skills on a four foot wide tour rug without touching any walls, furniture, plants, statues, well without touching ANYTHING. Fun! The castle was still amazing none-the-less and we are glad we did it.




The indoor pool


This floor tile had 24 karat gold


just one attempt to control Ellia

This building was built using limestone from Manti, Utah!

Finally a little time to relax
Afterward we stopped at the beach and at a tiny fair in Cambria, a quaint and beautiful little moutainous town by the coast. It's nickname is little city in the pines or something. We even saw a deer - which oddly enough was pretty exciting because we really haven't seen much wildlife since leaving Utah. We walked to their beach which was more of a tide pooling beach than a swimming beach, but the weather was nice and cool so we just relaxed there for awhile before driving home.

Poor Ellia was so tired she kept trying to sleep on the sand - even though we had a blanket and a pillow for her.

The little fair.

Family: I wish you could experience this booth more by picture alone. Minus the somewhat sanitary screen, this looked and smelled just like the Mayfield 'buffet' line used to!

We also recently returned to Buck Owens Crystal Palace for another concert, this time to see David Allen Coe. It was quite the personal little concert! Jeremy tried to describe D.A.C. to me but I had a skinny mid-thrities cowboy pictured instead of a 68 year old cross between ZZTop and - well I just don't know.

Yes, those are two braids hanging down off his beard.

If that 'ain't country . . .

Perfect country western song

Next, it was off to vegas to visit Jer's family, see some of his brothers baseball games and take his sister shopping and to see Hoover Dam.

The bridge for the new road...yikes!

In other news I bought my birthday present this week and I am so stinkin' excited! In Oct, jeremy and I will be attending the So You Think You Can Dance live tour. Wahoo!

Recent Weekends

Camping and Hiking at Fish Creek

Of course Ellia is carrying a rock Jeremy found and wanted to take homeAlthough not impressive in size, just look at that color! (Jeremy made me promise to post this picture)

Grilling hamburgers for dinner
What a night! Actually Ellia had her bast camping night yet. She sleeps between Jeremy and I, we just zip up the tent and let her crawl around until everyone falls asleep - she is usually last. When I woke up she had fallen asleep on my legs, but she slept all night without waking up, doesn't she look rested?

Morning view from our tent

Our camp spot
This picture doesn't even come close to showing how dirty she got

Relaxing in the tent
Too tired to hike



Ventura Beach

Ellia now understands where hats go, she just hasn't figured out WHAT a hat is.

Camping at Big Meadow

It is truly just a BIG meadow - this doesn't do it justice. It seemed like it should have been a lake, and that's what Jeremy and I kept calling it by accident. We went up with our ward to help get it ready for the girls camp, (thanks Pam for letting us borrow your camera since we forgot ours!) I think our presence was appreciated, except in the middle of the night when Ellia woke up and screamed for twenty mintues!