Easter 2009

As Cameron gets older he is really starting to enjoy holidays! This was especially evident at Easter. He wanted to dye eggs and hunt for eggs. Now, we have never pushed the notion of an Easter bunny. The only figure of Easter we have ever encouraged is the most important figure, which is Jesus! Needless to say, we don't have television and he's home schooled, so the Easter bunny was never mentioned. But in an interest to not deprive him of the fun joys of childhood, we did partake in Easter eggs. Earlier in the day we had stopped at Larry's parents house. As Cameron was running around the front yard, he tripped and scraped his hand pretty good on some brick work. This incident parlayed nicely into our Easter discussion. We let Cameron dye eggs on his own . . . with very little guidance from us.




the finished eggs


His Easter basket

We got him all the stuff he needed for tball.

After a while the vinegar in the dye started to sting his hands and we found gloves for him to wear. (Side note, there are a ton of Easter pictures, so I'm only posting a few) Later at bedtime, we decided to do the Resurrection eggs. If you don't know what they are you can check out the link. But the basic idea is that there are 12 plastic Easter eggs and each one has a different item in them that ties into the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Jesus. We got to the egg with a sponge in it. The description of the sponge is to explain that when Jesus was on the cross, he was thirsty and asked for water. The guards instead soaked a sponge with vinegar and gave him that to suck on. This reminded me of our dyeing eggs and how the vinegar had hurt Cameron's hand and I explained that connection between the two. It's amazing to see the love of Jesus growing in a small boy. He was very sad for Jesus getting vinegar instead of water. It was a great way for the lesson to be brought to him in a physical way he could understand.

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On Easter Sunday, we went up to the Romona Bowl to watch "Behold the Lamb" the passion play that Calvary Chapel Hemet puts on every year. After we all met at our house for BBQ and family Easter egg hunt. Everyone who wanted to participate was to bring 12 eggs filled with candy and at least one egg filled with money. It was quite funny seeing everyone run for the eggs!

Kayaking in La Jolla!

One of things that Larry and discovered last year was ocean kayaking. Last September, for our anniversary, we went kayaking to the seven caves of La Jolla. We got an offer from the tour company that we used for discount kayaks for last Friday only. My sister and Bob took Cameron for several hours so that we could take advantage of $5 kayak rentals. Because this trip was a rental excursion and not a tour, we would be on our own in the kayaks. We got down there and the water was rough!! To say the least! We got into our kayaks and had to row hard to get behind the waves. After about 10 minutes or so, we finally got out far enough that the waves weren't breaking on us. The wind and sea was SO turbulent that my first choice of kayaking to the caves became an impossibility for us. As we approached the caves the swells increased and not wishing to be thrown into the rocks, we opted to just kayak around and also float off shore. We decided on a little spot about a mile and a half or two miles off shore. We paddled next to each other, hung on to each others kayaks and just talked. Every once in a while a sea lion would swim by. It was a very calming experience! After about an hour and a half or more (it's really easy to loose time when your out to sea with out a watch) we decided to head back in. One of the things we loved about the last time we went kayaking was the ability to "surf" in. This was not an option on this turbulent day! A huge wave hit Larry hard and he toppled out of his kayak. It spun me around and sideways and I rode the kayak in for about 30 feet, backwards and sideways, before it toppled me out. But when all was said and done I had lost my sunglasses and Larry lost one of his water shoes. We can't wait to do it again! The kayak part, not the being thrown from a kayak by a giant wave part!

Us before


Larry in his kayak


Those are the 7 caves behind Larry


Me



Us

Garden

After several years of landscaping, we have a backyard that is now our haven! We have several fruit tree's, a vegetable garden and a pond to just name a few. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

our flower bed


The swing is one of my favorite spots


Cameron's place


Our messy shed, morning glory's run the entire side :O)


View toward the dining patio


My cute furniture covered in Cameron's toys


baby plums


Larry planting our vegetable garden


Our apricot tree


Baby apricots


Our pond


baby apples


Our grapevine


baby grapes


Tomato's


Making sure our soaker hose and quick connects work!


By our pond is a bench that came from a friend of ours when she moved. Next to it we put a really pretty cross that I had found at Tuesday Morning. The cross serves as a memorial for Jasmine, our puppy that died last year of parvo.

Spring has Sprung

Here are some pictures of Cameron from our Spring has Sprung Picture event.

As seen on aypnews.blogspot.com

I don't know if those of you who read this blog ever check in with my business blog, but if you'd like to the address is here
Anyway, our web designer Bryan set us up a YouTube account and has started posting mini videos of ours that Jessica makes. Here is the wedding one, I hope you enjoy it!

Tea Time

Do you know the street value of this mountain?

If you don't know where the title of this entry came from then stop reading this, immediately go and get yourself a copy of "Better off Dead" with John Cusack and watch it! Then you may come back and continue reading this entry. If you don't see the movie, I'm sure you'll understand what I'm talking about, but you won't know the joke behind it . . . so it will be your loss. Oh well, I digress . . .

One thing we don't see a whole of down here in sunny CA is snow. But this year we got some! It was the first time in about 3 or 4 years that we actually got a decent snow pack. It was a chilly February afternoon. We went to church and as we were leaving, it started to rain. Most people take this as a sign to go home and bundle up and get out of the bad weather. But us crazy Zay's and our need to be doing things, left us headed up to Oak Glen to see what the snow would be like. Larry is not a fan of driving to Idywild in the snow (considering we don't own chains) but figured the elevation of Oak Glen would be high enough to get snow, but low enough to not require chains. This is what I would also call a win win. Oak Glen had the BEST caramel apples. So after a stop at the candy store "downtown" we went up to Los Rios to play in the snow. The thing we found out though when we got there is they do not allow sledding. It's all private property and they don't want the liability. A little disappointed, we put our Chevy sled back into our Chevy truck and headed off on foot to a large field with lots of snow and hardly any people! We played for about a half hour before Cameron's words couldn't be understood through the chattering of teeth. When we got home we took HOT showers, moved our mattress into the living room, watched a movie together and then enjoyed the slow cooked ribs we had put in the crock pot before we left. It was a perfect Sunday!

Valentines Day 2009

Valentines day is not normally something that Larry's and I celebrate. We feel we should express all those warm and lovey feelings all year long and not just one day of year. So in normal form, Larry worked on Valentines Day. Might as well give someone who actually cares about being off, the opportunity to be off! And the financial bonus of working an overtime day for us! Valentines fell on a Saturday this year. I took Cameron to Lowes to do the Build and Grow craft, then dropped him off with my parents so I could meet an old friend for lunch. Later in the afternoon Jen brought the girls over to spend the evening with Cameron and I so she and Justin could go out for sushi and then go home and get things ready for Jessie's birthday party the next day. I had a very fun evening planned. They got to play outside, then I had a Valentine craft for them to do (foam picture frames). I made taco's for dinner and BIG cupcakes for dessert! I left the cupcakes "naked" so the kids could frost them and decorate them however they chose! Then we settled down to watch "Princess Diary's" All in all we had a fun night! It sure is different having four kids instead of just one!

Doing their craft




Those look like some good cupcakes!


Jenna


Cameron


Jessie


Jordan