IN N OUT Day 4~ Cousins

First of all...today has been all about cousins. Shanes sister Pam and her family live about 2 blocks away from his parents. It is wonderful. I am the oldest of 5 on my side and none of my siblings have kids. On Shanes side, we have 16 nieces and nephews but we all live so far away

from each other that we have yet to meet many of them. Pam has a son, 9 and two twin daughters, age 5. I am in love. The kids adore each other and it's like they have never been apart.
Tonight, of course, a typical Butler tradition is to go out to IN N OUT for dinner. I have always thought IN N OUT burgers/fries are eh...okay. SO much hype around them, you'd think they were the most amazing burger in the world. Even tonight, Shanes family got pretty heated as I stated this opinion. Don't ever criticize a Californian about their precious IN N OUT burgers.
So...I shut my mouth and ordered a double up burger. It was good. Not AMAZING. But...good.

The place is pretty efficient. There were two sports teams in line, a slew of customers and our 14+ people and we were still able to get our food in under 10 minutes.
The kids had fun and it will be a memorable night for sure.

Below is another one of the twins. She just loves Brennan. Don't they look like they could be sibling instead of cousins??
Alrighty then! Off to Disneyland tomorrow! Yippee.....

Oh....I am adding this video I took of Nathan and Brennan jumping off the wall into the pool.

Shanes DAD was prompting them and assured me that everyone does it.

I could help but think of my freaky dream Brooke. Remember? What if it was a premonition?

In any case, I put the brakes on anymore jumping.

Okay...update. I cannot upload the video. To see the video yourself....
check it out HERE (click the HERE).

California Vacation day 2/3 Train ride

When we left off (Sat night) Shane and I were headed to dinner in downtown Seattle.
It was so fun. We took a taxi and headed down to NiJo, a japanese restaurant that I love.
Shane loved it too. It was very romantic and we had a great time.
Sunday morning, we took another taxi to the train station with a very rude muslim driver.
Turns out...taxi drivers do not like it when you pay with a credit card. Oh well.
The train was loooong. It was fine until we wanted to sleep.
I took the kids to the Diner on the train expecting some good food. Nope. I paid 13.50 for what I thought would be a great spinach lasagna. What was it? Bertolli frozen lasagna reheated and some frozen soggy vegetables. Bleck. Oh well. Now we know.
Time for bed. The kids did fine. Shane, Nathan and I pretty much stayed up all night. At one point, I ended up on the floor with my body stretched out under the seats. I may do that one again.
As we reached Oakland, Sacramento etc. we started to see da hoods. Tent cities and garbage littered (literally) the train tracks.
We loved the graffiti. It's art, albeit destructive.

Mae loved the train.
So beautiful. It looks like Ireland!
And home sweet home. We arrived to LA at 11pm last night and Shanes sister, brother and brother in law picked us all up. We arrived home to food blessed food and soft warm beds.
Today, we woke up at 8:30 to SUN! Not just sun...WARM sun!! Tomorrow we head to Disneyland for two days.
I'll post more in a few days when we recover from Disneyland and the hotels!

Vacation- Day ONE

The day began with a power outage. Fitting considering we are OUTTA here!!!
Mae on the ferry with her new Monchichi. We should have taken a cab from the ferry, but...

come on, it was only 14 blocks or so with a LOT of luggage. It was pretty cold and windy, but we made it to the Hyatt in downtown Seattle. This will make it tons easier to get to the train in the morning.
We headed straight down to the pool. Pretty swanky bathrooms too. 50 or so different perfumes, gels, hair sprays, hair things...etc. Not to mention a sauna just for ladies and ultra techy showers.
Zee hot tubb. Very nice.
So today our vacation officially begins. Shane is already giddy and relaxed. Yes, I used giddy to describe Shane. Odd eh?

He even asked me out to dinner tonight, just the two of us while we are here in Seattle.

Stay tuned for that!

Happy Valentines Day!

There is nothing more magical to a little girl (in my family) than decorating for a special event.
I remember the excitement of fun holidays as my mother and I would spend time together making holidays and other events, special. My mother started a tradition when I was a child that we would have a fancy Valentines dinner every year. We always looked forward to it.
I have done this every year since Shane and I have been married. This year was extra fun because Mae was so excited to help out.The loves of my life. I'll have to share their fun, sweet cards on another post.

Who is this, you say, posing for a photo?? That's right! It's Rylan!! I didn't even question it. I just snapped away.
The table. I was pretty disappointed that I didn't have a white tablecloth. Oh well, the kids loved it and that's all that matters.
First course.....two salads with the same dressing. Spring salad and a mozzarella, tomato, basil mix. All dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and honey.
Second course, appetizer, lobster claws with lemon butter. Rylan and Mae didn't care for it, but the rest of us were more than happy to eat theirs. Yum!
3rd and main course. Filet mignon topped with dungeness crab, fingerling potatoes roasted with garlic and olive oil, topped with sour cream and chives, and cold green beans with olive oil, garlic and lemon.
4th and dessert course. Homemade angel cake topped with strawberries and blackberries.
Oh and whipped cream.
My best story of the night is that I had scheduled dinner for 6pm. After spending a while preparing, the kids came home hungry and we all decided that we were too excited to wait. I served dinner at 4ish pm and we finished by 5. We had FHE early and the kitchen clean by 5:30.
Right then....wouldn't you know it, the power went out!! How lucky were we??
We then spent the rest of the dark night reading, playing games and cuddling to stay warm.
Well, most of the cuddling was done by me and my Shaney. Swoon. Hey..that's what Valentines Day is for!
Happy Valentines to all of you!!

Wild Wednesdays?

KIDIMU is our new favorite place on Wednesdays. Mae and I start out at library story time, move onto our church play group, lunch at Blackbird bakery, and then walk to KIDIMU.
We had such a fun time doing this last week, that we did it again today. This is going to be our new Wednesday ritual if anyone would like to join us.
Sorry for the lack of posting and photos, but as usual....something has gone haywire. This time, it is the hard drive in my faithful MACbook. I was using Sandras laptop until, go figure....the battery stopped taking a charge. Cars and laptops......don't let me near them. Oh.....cameras too.
Anyhow, I am a bit pissy about the whole thing. So much so, that even looking at a computer makes me furrow my brow.
....and I am going to stop myself there before I get into trouble.
G'night.

Hope Raquel Topham

She's finally here and she is beautiful, perfect and sweet.
8lbs 1 oz. Nonny had a quick easy home birth and is recovering wonderfully.
Here are some photos. Enjoy!

Goin to the temple.........

A few close friends and I are going to the temple tonight. I wish I could share the feeling of peace and joy that I feel while inside, with everyone I know.
xo