Hidden Falls

Sunday was finally supposed to be sunny....so went to church on Saturday night and went to one of our new favorite hiking spots. It was beautiful up at Hidden Falls and the waterfalls were much bigger than last time we went. It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed our lovely 3 mile hike with family.

RAINY days...

It has been a very rainy season and we have spent many days indoors. We haven't had a baseball game in over two weeks and needless to say we are looking forward to the sun. Allie and Luke stay quite busy during our days at home. Allie plays babies all the time. Her new favorite spot is between the couch and chair. She makes a little area that she sets all her babies up in. She is an amazing mommy to them. Luke loves to color and do art. I often find him at the art table coloring or creating something. Even though cozy PJ days are fun, we are looking forward to some dry warm weather.

Little Firefighters

Last week one evening we headed down to Mike's firestation to check things out. The boys have been wanting to go see his station for a while, so we made the trip to Rancho Cordova to see everything. His station has a fire boat because it is on the river. The kids thought it was very cool. Mike took them for a ride in the big fire truck, let them squirt the hoses, showed them all the gadgets on the different trucks, and gave them a tour of the fire house. The kids loved it and Andrew was especially excited when Mike came to his school on Friday and did a presentation about firefighting. He had made a video with pictures of our visit. Andrew was beaming after school when he told us that his friends all yelled, "hey, that's Andrew V" during the movie. Thanks Mike for a fun visit!!!

A HUME weekend with the Girls

Oh how I have missed Hume Lake....6 girls headed up this past Friday for our first ever women's retreat. It was different to be there and not be with highschoolers, but it was a glorious time. God's beauty never ceases to amaze me up there and it is so refreshing to truly "get away." Our group consisted of...my sister Toni, Christina, Melanie, Hannah, and Jessica. We all came together in a random way, but we had a blast together and shared many times of laughter. We were filled with worship, messages, and talks about God's grace in our lives. Friday night the snow started and it was perfect. Everything was beautiful and we had a great time playing in the freshly fallen snow. Saturday we enjoyed some meetings, a hike through freshly fallen snow, the screamer, quiet times, delicious food, and a picture perfect landscape. Sunday we woke to more snow and discovered we were only getting down the mountain with chains (which we didn't have). After much help from the Hume staff, they found us a pair of chains which we only had to pay $25 for, they put them on for us, and we started our trek down the mountain. Toni drove like a champ and the camp had men along the way to make sure we were safe and to help with chains. We were more than taken care of. It was so fun to be back at Hume and it made me very excited for our 2 week vacation there this summer as a family. I treasure this time I got to spend with some amazing girls and escape life down the mountain. Andy had a great weekend with the kids and he did so many fun things with them. He is a great daddy and husband and he helped make this weekend possible for me. I can't wait to head up the mountain next year with some girls to be refreshed and enjoy God's beautiful creation!