Let's Jazz

Dru was in the school choir this year.  They focused on Jazz music and learned a lot about its history.

She came home singing everyday.  We all had the songs memorized by the end of the year.

Owen even knows how to spell Mississippi.

The program had cute songs and darling actions.

Grandpa and Grandma Martin came to support Dru.

Thank you!

So did these guys.  

They drove straight from a vacation in Las Vegas to make it.

They walked in just as they turned off the lights.  

Awesome Aunt Kim came too.

These are the cutest friends ever!

Part one of our trip to California!

(Part two is stuck on my camera and I can't get it to load to my computer.)

It all began with this...

A couple of months ago we received this lovely package in our mail from our awesome friends.

These friends of ours are definitely worth 11 hours driving in the car, 1 blow out, 3 throw ups, 5 movies in a row, 45 snacks, who knows how many pieces of paper for coloring and 1 round of listening muppets sound track on full blast.  Thanks to this great box of goods, we made it with a smile on our faces.  Thank you.

How could we miss out on good times like this?

 These beautiful twins were the biggest reason for our trip.  We just had to see these babies in real life.  They were SO good and SO sweet and SO adorable!

My girls LOVED holding them and would take advantage of every opportunity.

Liv and Isla.

While the boys went golfing one day we stayed back and hung out at the house.  With 8 kids we thought a movie was a good idea.  Here they are voting on which one to watch.

Owen is my fav.

Watching the movie so intently.

Jammed pack in the car for a trip to the park.

I am convinced Liv is part monkey.  

Rocklin has the COOLEST parks!

Loving baby Isla.

Handsome Lincoln

This is my new favorite pic of Owen.

His little face cracks me up!

 We took a day trip and drove to San Francisco.

We walked the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was super windy and crowded, but so much fun.

 The Fairbanks

 Looking out towards Alcatraz.

 My favorite pic of the trip!  ;)

 I am sure we looked like a spectacle walking around the city with 8 kids between us.

We had a fun picnic in the park.

Owen tried to shoot everyone with his pretend guns.

 Owen loves Elmo so we had to stop and let him try on this little hat.

We walked all around Fisherman's warf. 

We stopped at Boudin's bakery for some yummy bread.

 

 We stopped to eat some delicious cinnamon doughnuts.

 They had a lot of fun little shops.  This magnet shop was so great for the kids.

Looking out at the sea lions. 

  

  

We also played at the beach and drove down Lombard Street.

We had so much fun with the Fairbanks.  I really hope I can load the rest of the pics.

You will just have to trust me for now, we ate and ate and ate, laughed and laughed and laughed.

Perfect vacation!

Thanks Fairbank's Family!

NYC: day four

Day four started out super SWEET!

We stopped at Dylan's Candy Bar and drooled all throughout the store.

They had so many different kinds of candy, chocolate, baked goods, etc.

They even had a chocolate fountain station.

 The stairs had candy in them.

Check out the giant gumball machine.

Dru was wishing the ice cream cone was real.

I guess we didn't have enough sugar so we stopped by ANOTHER cupcake shop.

Fun "art" along the way.

We did make an attempt to go see Eloise at the Plaza but they opened up 

another hour later than we anticipated.  Bummer!!!

We found our way to Central Park IN THE RAIN!

It rained ALL DAY LONG!

We never let it stop us.  We went right on and did everything on our list.

 Alice in Wonderland!

For a break from the rain we went to the Met.  Wow, that place is huge.  We could have spent all day there.  Unfortunately we were on a tight schedule and could only see a few parts of that massive museum.  It was so fun to see Dru recognize a lot of the impressionist artists that she has been studying at school.

A crazy museum docent. :)

After our million miles of walking for the morning, we stopped at Isabella's for brunch.

Ade and some friends of Ashley came to join us.  

We ate delicious food and had great conversation.

Our last stop for the whole trip had to end with something sweet.

These cookies from Levain bakery did not disappoint! 

Ade calls them cookie bombs which we agreed was completely appropriate.

Goodbye New York!

Hope to see you soon.

I wanted to send a shout out to Ashley and Liza...

Thank you for an amazing trip!

What great memories!  

Friends forever!!

Another shout out to the Grandma's and Grandpa's.....

Thanks for helping out Ryan and spoiling Liv, Rylie and Owen!

Really, you guys are THE BEST!  We are so lucky!

Finally,  Ryan....

Thank you for taking time off, taking such great care of the kids and being the best husband for me.

Love you!