Sunday, June 27, 2010

Horseback Riding

Mumi loves horses!! As a little girl her greatest wish was to have a horse she could ride, brush and love. As an adult she made her wish come true with a lovely mare named Cheeka. She tried to get me interested in her horse too, but I was way too interested in other things to get excited about Cheeka (I am fairly sure this was a HUGE let down for Mumi). The good news is that Logan is usually up for anything so Mumi decided to take him for a horse back ride. I was busy riding my bike at the beach with my girlfriends so this was the perfect opportunity.

Riding a bike is much more my speed :)


Mumi took Lo to a local stable for a riding lesson. Here he is with his trusty stead, Peaches. Logan got to brush her...

And lead her on a rope to the arena to ride..


And even got to practice riding all by him self. He even directed her around the red and blue poles just by using the reigns!!! Mumi always picks such fun activities, Lo is still talking about Peaches.

Thanks Mumi!




Sunday, June 20, 2010

Father's Day

Logan and I love to celebrate the people that we love!! This past weekend we celebrated all the Fathers in our life. We worked hard on cards for Grandpa Tim and for Daddy, Logan chose to make his cards this year with "maps" on them. I didn't get any photos, but they turned out really cute!
We started our Father's day celebration with a trip over to Sylvie's house, to wish Thomas (Logan's god-father) a very Happy Father's Day!

Logan in the Orliczky's back yard enjoying a cow pop in a cow chair

Sylvie having a pop too

Here is Thomas helping Sylvie escape from her new house out the window. Logan invaded and Sylvie took the quickest route OUT!



Logan in a dinosaur hat



Sylvie in her dinosaur hat


Then it was off to Grandpa Tim's house for a Father's Day BBQ

In true Stephens tradition we played a very close game of Bocce Ball.

And Lo and his Tim put Ironman Legos together using the map

Some backyard time

Here is our wonderful lunch on the grill, doesn't it look lovely??? I don't have an "after" picture, but I did accidentally set the corn on fire. Oops!! It was still delicious.

And here we all are, enjoying lunch!

Then Logan got to celebrate with his Daddy. (I don't have any pictuures, but Logan gave his Daddy his map card, it was very sweet)

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads we LOVE!!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Bryn's Birthday

We were invited to celebrate our good friend Bryn's 2nd birthday at Victoria's garden this past weekend. She had a farm themed party and we had a blast! This party has all kinds of great outdoor farm things to do...

The birthday girl

Lo in the petting zoo, petting a very soft bunny

Climbing a tree



Rope swing with good friend Kaian


And riding a pony





Monday, June 14, 2010

Time with Mumi

I took a weekend vacation with some of my girl friends to the Colorado River,(I am not in the picture becasue I was taking it, but you get the idea)

and Logan was lucky enough to get to spend the weekend with his Mumi! Mumi ALWAYS has great fun things planned for Logan.

Here he is making breakfast



And then Aunt Ellie, Mumi and Lo all went to the circus, there aren't any picture of the circus, but here is the after party at a restaurant. Aunt Ellie is wearing a funny red nose!




Mumi and Lo share a funny red nose kiss



And to round out the day Logan helped Ellie with her new sod, look how helpful he is!

Thanks Mumi




Sunday, June 6, 2010

CAMPING!

We just had our first Summer camp out of 2010. Our good friend Stephanie booked us a beautiful camp spot on the lake at Lake Jennings campground(keep in mind this lake is lovely, but there is not swimming, only fishing). June is usually the best time for camping in San Diego, as it is still pretty cool and foggy, and the summer heat has not yet set in. Boy were we wrong!!


7am Beautiful Camp Spot, early morning fog over the lake


7:45am Logan is now one of the "older" kids in this group and has taken to his new role like a champ. He has always been the "baby", the kid everyone looked out for, and now he has to look out for someone else. Here is a picture of Logan and Cody (Carter's younger brother), and we now call him the "Baby Whisperer". He was so wonderful with Cody, who just turned 1. He tries to tell him all the rules, but the best is that he tries to comfort him. We were shopping for campout supplies and Cody had a total meltdown (no sleep due to tent sleeping and he was hungry too) Logan took it upon himself to sing all songs he knew to help Cody stop crying in his stroller. He sang, twinkle twinkle, sometime you loose, Real Gone, and itsy bitsy spider. And belive it or not Cody stopped crying. My sweet little man, has a wonderful spirit beginning to show.


8:45am Everyone has been fed, so we decide to hit the park, it has a nice shade covering and it is starting to get pretty warm. (Carter, Sophia, Cody and Lo)


10:00 am its only been an hour playing at the shaded play area and everyone is WAY too hot for comfort. I was considering going home, when Carter and Cody's Dad offered to get the boat for a swimming and tubing trip on the near by reservoir. I don't think I could have asked for a better surprise, thank you Ryan and Shelly!!



Lo on the boat. This is his first boat ride. I am totally biased, but he is such a cute kid!!


Here is Lo, Sophia and Vicki enjoying the cool, wonderful water of the El Captain Reservoir.





My baby and Me




After everyone cooled off with some swimming it was time for Tubing!! I have never been tubing, and neither has Lo, the only one on this tube who has any experience is 5 year old Sophia (who prefers to be called Sophi, by the way). So here we are having WAY too much fun, as I try to hold on to both kids as we bounce over the water. What a freakin' blast!! Woo hooo!




Lo then decided he had enough of the girls and decided to brave it with the boys. This was possibly not the best choice, all was well at first, until we hit a bump and lost Matt (skinny fellow on the left) the tube then went from horizontal to totally vertical. I though for sure Logan was going in the water, but no Craig righted the ship and brought everyone to shore, but my poor little son was DONE at that point.




And then he promptly put himself to sleep.

What a great camp out!! Thank you to the Vanderhoffen's, without your boat and quick thinking to go get it, we all may have melted and never camped again.

Welcome Summer 2010!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Easter Lily

Last mother's day my wonderful sister, Ellie gave me an Easter Lily. It was beautiful when she gave it to me, but he blooms eventually died, and it looked like a funny, spiky plant. I felt bad letting it die or throwing it away so I decided to plant it by my front door. It was pretty funny looking for a long time, so strange in fact that my neighbor offered to pull it since it looked like a week. But look what sprang open this past week...

A most beautiful flower to greet me by my front door.


Thank you Ellie, I don't think you realize what a special impact the beautiful flower you gave me has. You are the most amazing sister! This little touch of beauty brightens my day each time I pass it.