aint that america.

4th of July was a fun filled weekend for us! On Saturday, we went swimming with Miss Emily. It was so much fun! I have always LOVED swimming, and I'm loving that Emily is a bit of a water-baby too!

Look at that smile - and in her Mickey towel that we got her for her birthday. :)

On Sunday, we had a BBQ at our house. Hamburgers, hot-dogs, and potato salad - what's more American than that? Perhaps the red, white, and blue smiley cookies that Janica made!

(and they were delicious too!)

Unfortunately, everyone had to leave before fireworks. They totally missed out! We lit our own fireworks (bottle rockets and sparklers), some of the neighbors lit fireworks, and we watched the Disneyland fireworks from outside our house. I was quite popular with the younger kids in the neighborhood because of my sparklers. I shared, because sharing is caring, and one of the moms was so cute... she said to me, "thank you so much for sharing such a special treat with my daughter!" It was the first real interaction we've had with the neighbors.


the neighborhood boys liked the bottle rockets that gabe had. We didn't share those though, they're a little more dangerous.

And me with my sparklers. I heart sparklers.

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!

end O june.

the end-O-june has brought some fun surprises.

1.

Little Allyson joined the family - YAY mike & janica! We love having little nieces and nephews around.

2.

Mr. Bass (gabe's lancer) took a powder. so we got a new Honda Fit. and lucky me, i get to drive the Fit. It's such a fun cute car.

3.

We had our 1 year anniversary! We had dinner at the White House (where we were married). It was a great way to spend our anniversary. I can't believe it's already been a year!

We're so lucky to be together! (i'll leave it at that and keep the mushy-ness to myself.) hehe.

Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him... and says, Catch up.

time to play a little catch-up....

May and June have just flown by. In may we enjoyed family birthdays, Mother's day, sunshine and a quick trip to Lake Arrowhead (which was actually kind of rough for me. but that's another story for another time.)

Here are some pictures of May fun:

Emily's 2nd Birthday Party

Linda's birthday

Homemade Pizookie for Linda's Birthday. yummmmmmmm.

View of Big Bear Lake from the Ski Lift

June has been a fun month too! It's been great having EAK back in town. She and I have spent some saturdays together while Gabe had to work. Gabe and I have had picnics and enjoyed afternoons in the park.

I love my new picnic basket!

Cooking w/ EAK - Buffalo Chicken Macaroni & Cheese. it was delicious!

heartbreakers.

Spurs are out. After an exciting series with the Mavs, they were swept in four by the freaking Suns. Woof. The only thing worse than Dirk Nowitzki is nasty, Canadian Steve Nash. We had to know though, the Spurs are heartbreakers. They can show up and win it in style, or they can tank it. Timmy, Tony, and Ginobili only have so much to give. and poor Papa is so tired. he just looks like he needs a nap.

don't get me wrong, the Spurs are a good team. they may not be as glamourous to the media as the Lakers (wooooooof), but they have players with class and, all things considered, an amazingly consistent track record:

17 division titles (Lakers only have 16...)
they've made the playoffs in 19 of the last 20 seasons
4 NBA Championships (1999, 2003, 2005, & 2007... all with Tim Duncan...)

I still root for the Spurs. but the moral of the story (as it is every year) is "root fervrently, but don't get your hopes up."

But, we'll try again next year. and we've got a new fan to join the cause...

it's may.

just thought you'd like to know.

april flew by.

now that it's may, i might actually get around to posting something.

then again, this might be it...

new york city!

Warning - Picture overload...

Gabe and I went to NYC for vacation a couple weeks ago. It was Gabe's first time in NYC and we had such a great time! We stayed on Times Square (thanks, dad!)...

Elizabeth came up from DC to spend one of the days with us. She was a great tour guide and we had a lot of fun tourist-ing with her. We went to the Tenement Museum - where i touched an artifact and got in trouble with the tourguide.

the Flatiron building is the first skyscraper in NYC. it's 29 stories tall.

Grand Central Station was beautiful. The station itself is a work of art.

Rockafellar Center

Gabe ruining my picture!!

the only thing we didn't like was all the rain.

Apollo holding the head of Medusa - Metropolitan Museum of Art

i really liked is furniture set.

Gabe liked the Egyptian stuff the best.

Going out.

Empire state building.

86 stories up - it was very windy up there!

quite the view!

i love the Flatiron building.

"i think i see my dad."

right after we took this picture, some girl walks up and says, "can i interview you? i'm a reporter. did you hear about the suicide here last night?" we thought it was a prank!! but then we looked up the news on Gabe's phone and sure enough, a guy climbed over the railing and jumped off the Empire State Building the night before we went. creepy..

Ground Zero.

the construction of the Freedom Tower (red steel going up on the left.) the Freedom Tower will be 109 stories tall.

View of the where the 2nd Tower was. - at Ground Zero we happened on to a tour... we just heard this guy talking and we gathered around the rest of the group. turns out it was a paid tour, but one of the guys leading it said it was ok.

Liberty Island. View of Manhattan.

Lady Liberty.

We were two of the few Americans at Liberty Island.

the little bit of sunshine we got to enjoy...

at the aquarium of the pacific

saturday, Gabe and I took Emily to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. She was hilarious in the car, dancing and singing along, stopping every now and again to say, "that way!" It was a beautiful, sunny day (if not a little hot). We had lunch at The Pike (shopping area next to the aquarium), walked around, and then went to the aquarium. There were so many exciting things for Emily to see/explore (even before we made it into the aquarium)... there were boats at the dock, there were pigeons, an escalator... it was all VERY exciting. :)

Emily, as she always does, won the heart of everyone at the aquarium. She said hi to everyone - even the man sleeping on the bench waiting for his family to get moving (Johnny Johnson, anyone?)

She loved running up to the glass (she could get right up to it) and saying, "Hi Fishies!" or "Wow!!! Look (at) That!"

There was so much excitment that it was hard to get her to hold still for a picture.

Uncle "Babe". We sat down on a bench for a snack and Gabe was out of her line of sight and she started to get worried. "Babe? Babe?? Babe!?" then he poked his head around so she could see him and it was as if she said, "ok. there you are."

After we had seen all the fishies, sharks, sting rays, seals, and sea lions, we stopped at the gift shop and told her she could get anything she wanted. She probably would've been happy with anything at the store and we made a few suggestions that seemed to be what she wanted, but she saw a book that called for her. Once she had that book in her hand, she could care less about all the other books, toys, stuffed animals - you name it. she was even reluctant to give it to the cashier to pay for it.

It was a fun-filled day. We all had a blast.

Thanks Mike and Janica for letting us take her!!