Happy 3rd Birthday to Samantha!

And what and exciting one it will be...lunch with with the princesses in Ariel's Grotto at Disneyland. Pictures to come. :)

Christmas has come early in the Morrill Household!!

So for years Adam has been dreaming of a Eurovan so we could go on camping adventures with the girls. But we kind of just put that dream aside because they don't make Eurovans in the US anymore and when searching for used ones they either had hundreds of thousands of miles on them or were selling for way too much money. Little did we know that 2 doors down from us a little old lady had one tucked away in her garage in practically mint condition with only 38,000 miles on it!! Our other wonderful neighbor let us know about it and the timing was perfect because she was ready to sell it! We spent a day clearing out our garage so we could make room for it and now it is ours. :) We got a great deal on it and cannot wait to use it. We already have Yosemite reservations in April and plan to go camping along the coast in January after the craziness of the holidays. We cannot wait!

The search is on...

Here is the picture I said I would post once I had it of the baseball players searching for my diamond on the baseball diamond. If you don't know what I am talking about refer to the story below...

Aggies Truly Coming Together

Our department has recently started a program called "Aggies Coming Together" to boost moral in the department. Every so often an event is planned for the staff and coaches so we can get together and have a little fun. Last month we were excuse a few hours early from work so we could go watch and cheer on the women's soccer team as they played in the afternoon. Today we got together at lunch time for some batting practice on our baseball field and to enjoy some pizza.

We have some really good hitters among our staff...of course we are the Athletic Dept but I felt really lame with my hits that only made it as far as second base at the most...but it was still a lot of fun. So after hitting some balls, hanging out in the dugout for a little bit I headed up into the stands to eat some pizza and hang out with some of the other staff. At the end of the hour as we were all packing up I decided to step up on the wall separating the stands from the field so that I could yell down into the dugout and thank our baseball coaches for a fun event. There is also a huge black nylon net separating the field from the stands and I used that as leverage to get up onto the wall. After I said thank you I went to jump down and I felt my engagement ring snag on the net. Instinctively I looked down and my whole diamond and its setting was gone!!!

I started yelling, "My diamond is gone, my diamond is gone!" and the few people still in the stands with me started looking around with me. The people on the field started scouring the area right under the wall where I jumped off. There was some padding on the field side of the wall and gaps where my diamond could have fallen...luckily they were removable so off they came but no diamond. Unfortunately there was also an open drain on the field right below where I was and so the slats came off and people started looking in there too. Another misfortune was that because it is Fall there are a lot of dried leaf piles around and because we are on a baseball field there were a lot of spit out sunflower seeds in the stands. So as I am looking in the stands I am trying not to be too grossed out about these disgusting seeds as I am carefully sifting through the leaves.

I decided to go to the field side of the wall to see if I cannot help look there while others stay in the stands looking for my diamond. We search and we search...we recreate my jump off to try and figure where the diamond could have gone and start thinking that the net could have acted as a sling shot and shot the diamond somewhere which makes our search area even bigger....ugh!!

In the mean time baseball practice is scheduled to start and so more and more student-athletes are arriving but as each of them arrives they each start searching for my diamond...how nice is that? So in no time I have about 20 to 25 people looking for my diamond but still nothing! By now I am back in the stands looking and it has been about 20 or 25 minutes and I start trying to joke about the situation by saying, "Well at least my diamond is on the baseball diamond" or "Well it has been over 10 years...perhaps I am due for new one.". All the while I am dreading having to tell Adam and so sad that my diamond it just lost because it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

I decide to lift my head up off the ground and what do I see but about 20 student-athlete baseball players lined up on the ground in a perfect line on their hands and knees in the grass and methodically combing through the grass as they move in unison through the grass searching for my diamond. It just warmed my heart so much that I start yelling out thank you to them! The assistant baseball coach takes a picture with his phone (which as soon as I get the picture I will post because it was a great sight to see). Then as they are about to get to the boarder of the grass and dirt one of the student-athletes jumps up and yells "I found it! I found it!" and I couldn't have been more happy or thankful! I thanked everyone over and over again for staying for so long to search and it truly was an example of "Aggies Coming Together".

Just as I was about to leave work I emailed the baseball coaches to thank them for looking so long, for interrupting their baseball practice, and to let them know that I really appreciated the effort their student-athletes put into finding my diamond. Ironically, the student-athlete whose idea it was to get the other players in a line to look on their hands and knees was the one that found my diamond in the end...how fitting.

So now I have take my diamond, which is still in its complete setting to the jeweler and have them put it back together. Adam set the diamond in platinum, which is stronger than gold, when he bought it because he knew I have a knack for getting my rings or jewelery for that matter caught on things. Little did he know that it was possible for me to rip the whole setting out of my ring...but I guess it is a good thing it is still in its setting which made it easier to find.

First Pumpkin Patch Visit of the Fall Season

Today we used a Groupon Deal and went to Dave's Pumpkin Patch in West Sac with our neighbors across the street. While we had a great time I would not have ever paid the full price to go to this place...it was a stretch at the Groupon price.

Our first stop was to ride the horses. The girls LOVED this...in fact we almost left this for later in our trip b/c the line was taking too long but Samantha freaked out b/c she REALLy wanted to ride the horse.

She was so happy...


Hannah was quite happy too...


After this we went to this cool sand like box but instead of sand it was filled with corn kernals...the kids had a blast pouring kernals on them making "corn angels" and burying themselves in it.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of the day...


Adam enjoyed burying Samantha and I think she did too...




Next we went on a hay ride. All the kids loved this...


And here the girls enjoy picking out pumpkins..




PUMPKINS!!


Hannah helping Henry (our neighbor friend) down the jumpy house slide...


After this Samantha and I got lost in the corn maze...not worth talking about as it was quite embarrassing. I figured if I really got in trouble I had my cell phone so I could call for help...ahhh modern technology. :)

Passed Out

Clearly Samantha was busy doing something else before passing out.

So proud of my Hannah...

Hannah is developing some new friendships in Kindergarten, which I am happy to see. One of them is with this boy named Chase. We met his dad at the back to school picnic last week and he was very nice. Today, Adam met his mom. After Adam dropped Hannah off and was walking out of school with Samantha a lady came up to him and asked him if he was Hannah's Dad. Of course Adam answered yes and the lady introduced herself as Chase's mom and told Adam that we should be really proud of the way we have raised Hannah so far. Apparently Hannah's school has an all school assembly every now and then and Chase gets a little overwhelmed there because there are so many kids, so sometimes he cries a little bit. I guess his mom was at assembly helping out yesterday and observed Chase crying and before she could comfort him she saw Hannah get up from her seat two seats away and sit next to him and hold his hand through assembly...doesn't that just make your heart melt?!! When Adam told me this story I started crying, it was just so sweet to me. Additionally she held his hand on the walk back to the classroom. I am just so proud of how empathetic she is and how she would get up to comfort a friend who was crying in assembly. I just love her for that. I especially needed to hear that story after I heard from my mom this morning that Hannah hit her when my mom was trying to help her get her shoes on for school b/c she didn't want my mom's help. I was a quite disappointed in that so this more than made up for it.

Samantha's new hair style...ha-ha

Samantha had an EEG today because she might be having seizures...not the twitching kind just the kind where she is unresponsive and out of it for a bit. So an EEG is one of the things we have had to do to check out what is going on. It actually went much better than I thought it would b/c I thought she would be ripping off the sensors and screaming. She actually just sat there kind of looking sad and crying...it was really quite sad to watch her. She wasn't even distracted by a Dora DVD. It probably helped that she had a slight fever and sick...she probably didn't have the energy to fight too much.





The lady that was putting on the sensors was trying to convince Samantha she was getting her hair done. I think probably now she will never want her hair done again. After the sensors were on and the fancy bandage was put around her head to keep the sensors in place she hadd to lay down and try to go to sleep to record sleep waves. Again this is the only time I was happy she was sick b/c she had been up for about 2 hours the night before and then had to get up early to take Hannah to Kindergarten so she was ready to go to sleep...especially after all that crying getting the sensors on. I was ready to go to sleep too so I laid down next to her and we both dozed off for about 1/2 hour.

The whole test only took about 1 1/2 hours...I thought we would be there much longer...so that really wasn't that long. When we were all done it was time to take everything off her head. As you can see by the picture below she was less then thrilled by the end and giving us her "F-you" face...she is good at that.



Now we wait until next week when we have our appt. with the Neurologist for the results. By the way...how shocked is anyone that is reading this that I actually updated 2 days in a row!!

Hannah's First Day of Kindergarten!

Hannah started Kindergarten today. She was quite nervous on the drive there but when she got out and saw the 6 other girls she went to preschool with she was good to go. She looked ADORABLE in her uniform and so did all the other girls.

Hannah ready to go...


Samantha had to get in on the picture action...


When we arrived at school I started crying...yeah that is right I started crying but I turned away so Hannah could not see me so she wouldn't start crying b/c until she saw her friends I thought she was going to join me.

The Kindergarten class started late only today so it wouldn't overwhelm all these new little guys and it was so fun to see all the nervous little kids with all their parents taking pictures like crazy...including myself. Here are some more pics when we got to school...


Love this sisters picture...


When Hannah's friend Gabby got to school, they ran up to each other, then stopped about a foot apart and they just stood there and starred at each other in their uniforms and giggled. It was the cutest thing to see them checking each other out in their uniforms and excited about it.


Here are Hannah and her preschool peeps now kindergarten peeps all happy to see each other. Samantha was happy to get in on the playing action as I am sure she misses all these girls at her school that she use to play with.




Samantha giving her sister hugs good-bye...


It was cute because Samantha kept asking why we were leaving Hannah at church...she didn't quite understand that there was a school there as well.

Each kid is assigned either to the blue or green class and then they get a number for that class. Hannah is in the blue class and is number 16 which Adam is thrilled about because that was Joe Montana's number. Hannah is excited to be in the blue class because it is her favorite color and most of her friends from preschool are also in this class. The K class has 36 kids this year so for the academic sessions they split the class up into two groups of 18 since they have 2 full time teachers and one part time aide. So here is Hannah off to her class with her blue class. Notice in the background all the parents lined up...just a little before I took this picture it was like the papparazzi showed up and were taking pictures of all their little ones lining up in their respective lines...it was hilarious. I of course was trying to part take in the picture taking too but I am short and there were a lot of taller parents in front of me taking pictures...so I did the best I could.



Finally here is a picture of Hannah at her desk. She just happened to be assigned to sit next to two of her good friends from preschool so she was really excited. In this picture you can see her backpack also that she is very proud of. Yes it is a boy's backpack if you are wondering...I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was a boy's backpack when she picked it out at Land's End. She loves blue right now and loves bears...she said she wants to be a park ranger when she grows up so she thought this was a perfect backpack for her...I had to get it for her. She has a little turtle hanging on it as kind of a tribute to Nali (Adam's mom who passed away) so she feels like she it school with her...so sweet.


And so that concludes her first day. It was a half day and I picked her up and then she spent a few hours at work with me doing arts and crafts. The first 2 weeks are 1/2 days and then after Labor Day it moves into the big full days...but I am sure she will do fine. When I asked her what they did today she told me they went out on the playground and learned they could not climb on the monkey bars or slide down the pole which was very disappointing to Hannah b/c she said she knows how to slide down the pole...her Daddy taught her b/c he is a firefighter. Too funny. Regardless she cannot do it and she is not happy about it. Tough first day. :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

So today I am 36 years old and it has been quiet a nice birthday. This weekend I went to San Francisco on a scrapbooking retreat and when I came home Adam's Dad and his wife had dinner and a cake made for me (that the girls helped them bake) and a cute picture of the girls framed from their adventure at Six Flags with Adam's Dad and his wife. Then today my office took me out to lunch and tonight I had dinner with the family and Yolo Berry Yogurt.

Hannah also made me crack up today when I asked her what was her favorite part about camp today...she responded by telling me that they are learning about the ocean and they played a crab game today where the crawled around on their arms and legs and had crab races. She told me she kept losing but it was because she told me crabs are slow so she was trying to be an actual crab and crabs don't move that fast. She also then told me that at soccer camp they play a crab game and last year when she was 4 she could get her butt in the air which made it easier for her to play to the game. But this year she could not get her butt in the air and that made it harder..it must be because she is older she told me. Hilarious. Then we were talking about swimming and somehow she came up with "Drowning is not fun"...that's right drowning is not fun. That should be a PSA.

Royal Wedding

Samantha got up at 2am this morning for whatever reason and after I settled her back down I decided it was a sign to stay up and watch the Royal Wedding. I watched 1 1/2hours of it and loved it. I still remember watching Princess Diana's wedding when I was little. I am paying for my waking hours this morning as I went to bed after 11pm and woke up at 5:30am to go to work...but it was worth it. :)

Snow much fun!

This past weekend we headed up to Lake Tahoe with our neighbors, who also have two little kids around the same age as Hannah & Samantha. We planned this a while ago and when we rented the cabin that we stayed in we were worried there wouldn't be any snow at the end of March...boy were we wrong!

Not only did we have enough snow, the Lake Tahoe region had so much snow they didn't know what to do with it all. We had the cabin reserved from Friday - Monday and on Thursday a huge storm came through, and not only that but it had been snowing all week prior. When we woke up on Friday morning we found out I-80 was closed but that it should be opening at noon. So at 11:30am we left our houses hoping that I-80 would open up for a small period of time, enough to let us through so we could get to the cabin on Friday.

As we started to approach the Grass Valley/Colfax area we started seeing trucks just lining I-80 because they had not been allowed through for a while. I of course had to take a picture b/c how often do you see a lot of semi-trucks lining the freeway.


And then when we got to Colfax the freeway turned into a parking lot because the freeway was still not open east bound, it was only open west bound.


We did move very slowly as the CHP was directing us off the freeway and speaking into a loud speaker to tell us the freeway would be closed for several more hours and they don't know when it would re-open because there was just so much snow they didn't know where to put it all. By the way, if you haven't figured it out already that white truck all loaded down with tons of stuff that is in my pictures is our neighbors truck and we were following them.

We hung out in Grass Valley at the McDonald's parking lot that was packed as was every other business parking lot in the area. We had no idea how long we would be there we were only hoping we would be let through. After only hanging out for about 1/2 hour we looked and saw the freeway was moving in the east bound direction and it appeared that everyone else realized this at the same time. Everyone seemed to jump in their car and then it turned into another parking lot trying to get back on I-80.

Once there we were cruising along just fine, but only for a little bit. As we were going up in elevation the snow quickly started growing and it started snowing quite a bit, so we had to pull over to put our chains on. Once that was done we got back on the freeway and went maybe 1/2 mile and then came to a stop as all the traffic had now caught up and we were back to sitting in a parking lot because just so many people were trying to get through.

About this time Hannah kept asking if she could go play in the snow. We told her that there would be plenty of time for that. Well in a 5 year old mind I think that she thought if I tell them I have to go the bathroom I can get out of this car seat, so that is just what she did. Normally this child has a steel bladder and she had just gone to the bathroom about 1 hr ago but she swore to us she needed to go. Well since we were moving at about 0-5 miles per hour and really making no progress at all. That yellow potty seat that you see strapped down to back of neighbors car came in real handy as we pulled it out and let Hannah sit in it and pee right there in the middle of I-80...we didn't even pull off the freeway.


You can see how much it is snowing out there and Adam was rushing Hannah along but she was taking her sweet time. It really didn't matter b/c after she was done, we really only had to move the car about 20 or so ft.

This lovely traffic continued on and on...


Samantha passed the time reading some books.


Both girls had their melt downs but for the most part did really great.

As we got closer and closer to the summit the snow levels were crazy!! As you can see from this picture they were up to the freeway exit signs and you couldn't even read what exit it was. Additionally most exits were closed b/c that is where the snow plows were moving the snow to get it off the road.


Check out how high up the snow plow is shooting that snow...


Finally after several hours both girls fell asleep and I got to enjoy reading my "People" magazine in peace while Adam drove through these fun conditions.


We finally got to the cabin in Truckee at 7:30pm...a full 8 hours after we left! The other problem when we got there is that our cabin was up in the hills up several small streets and all the street signs were completely covered with snow so we had no idea what the street names were. Additionally it was getting dark. Luckily our neighbors had GPS in their truck so we just followed where the GPS told us to go and that was the only way we found it.

The next day we woke up to it snowing some more but it looked beautiful outside. Our only plans were to hang out at the cabin and let the kids play in the snow.

Getting the kids ready to go outside was like "A Christmas Story" where kids are screaming and crying as you bundle them up to head out into the cold. The older kids, Hannah & Marie were excited to go so there was no complaints from them. But Samantha and Henry were not happy. Even when we got out there this is the face we saw from Samantha...


Then she slowly got use to it...still unhappy but at least no more tears.


Hannah on the other hand was a happy camper and happy to be eating snow.




Here is a shot of our house.


Hannah making a snow angel.


Samantha trying to make a snow angel.


Adam just threw Hannah into a snow bank and she enjoyed just sitting there.


Samantha warming up to the snow more.


Henry decided he really liked eating snow...


Then Samantha discovered the joy of eating snow and then the smiles really started.






Samantha and Henry were cracking each other up as the both shoveled snow into their mouths and made funny noises.



The Dads made a great sledding "hill" from one of the snow banks on the side of our driveway and that was enjoyed by all.






Samantha trying to shovel some snow too.


The big joke before we left was how much food we were taking. Our neighbor went out and bought a ton of food for fear of being snowed in with 4 whiny kids plus 4 adults. Couple that with the food we brought and it completely filled up the empty fridge, the counters, and empty cabinets. It was great though b/c we never once had to go out to eat!






Henry and Samantha were sleeping in their respective port-a-cribs and were jealous that Marie & Hannah got to sleep in this bed together so when their sisters were not in the bed they quickly jumped in and enjoyed lounging around. They look so cute!


The kids enjoying playing with playdough on the coffee table we moved into the kitchen so it wouldn't get the carpet dirty.


This is the house next door to us that did not get plow service and it was completely buried under the snow. The only reason we knew it was there was because we could see it from our 2nd story window.


After nap and rest time is was back to more fun playing, eating and sledding in the snow...






Hannah pretending she is a penguin and sliding down on her belly.




Marie giving it a try too.


Here the kids are building a snow man and the little ones are enjoying eating it too.








The next day we went to a snow park by Kings Beach near the lake and on the very first run Adam throws Hannah down this big hill by herself. That little pink dot in the middle of the hill is Hannah and Adam standing at the top watching her sail down.



I couldn't believe he sent her by herself and when she got off her sled all the people around were clapping for her and giving her high fives for going down the hill by herself. I see her stand up and start running towards me as her face breaks down into a full out cry. I knew that she was terrified...and she says to my while sobbing...that was so scary! But after I reminded her that she did it and nothing happened and all these people were so proud of her including me she was good to go. And then it was back to more sledding with and without Daddy...





Samantha and Henry were once again only interested in eating the snow.


We kept asking Samantha if she wanted to go down the big slide and she kept saying no. This was weird to me since she is my wild child and so I told Adam to just pick her up and put her on the sled with him. She protested but then quickly realized how much fun it was and then kept saying "again". I knew it!


Here she is sledding by herself...not from the way top but about 1/2 way...


It cracked me up how Adam picked her up and carried her...


Here is a good smile...



And of course there was time to eat more snow and have fun...





Snack time!


Hannah's cool Lunchables BIG sandwich...



Then back to more sledding...




And falling...


Hannah doing her penguin maneuvers again...




Samantha and Daddy cruising one last time...


At the bottom of the hill Adam found a new way to drag Samantha back up it. It looks like she is very injured and on a stretcher but she loved it...


The tow back to the car with both girls giggling...


The only 2 pictures with Mommy in it b/c I was the official photographer...and I had to take them myself just to document that I was in fact on this trip too...




4 Happy Kids...


On the way back to our cabin we stopped to look at Adam's Family's old cabin that they sold several years back...too bad.


Story time at night before bed time...


Final pictures on our way out of just how high the snow is...


I-80 on the way back home...