We have a new blog!

Okay, I started a new blog. It has taken me a looooong time to get caught up so I am finally "revealing" my new blog address. It is:

thegallupfamily2.blogspot.com

For a while there, I was enjoying not blogging. Life is so busy, I honestly don't have the time. Home schooling is soooooo demanding. But I realized that I LOVE blogging, it's like scrapbooking and journaling combined and also a great way to stay in touch. So I forced myself to get caught up.

I thought long and hard about possibly making the new blog private, so that I would know who's peeking in, but I finally decided that I would rather have an open blog that is easy to access. (Sometimes I do wonder what weirdo might be looking at all our pictures!) :)

If you like reading our blog, I would love to get a hello from you. I don't necessarily need a "comment," but I do like to know who's been checking in, (and reading every detail of our lives!!) :)

I truly would appreciate a hello!

Love to all!
Suzy

I might have to change my blog address

My dear three readers, :)

Well, I haven't blogged in almost a month. It's partially due to being super-busy, but it's also because I completely used up all the space blogger will allow me. I actually paid for extra space, but for some reason my account does not reflect it and nobody will help me resolve the issue!! So I can't add any more pictures to my blog. :(

We've been super-busy around here. We took a camping trip in mid-August and we also started school last week! I miss blogging, but like the extra time I have when I don't blog. I'm not sure yet what is going to happen!!

Just thought I'd post this info.

Love, Suzy

Visiting the Rices!

We spent Sunday with the Rices. We went with them to their ward which was very nice. My girls LOVED going to primary with Tristan! Afterwards, we went to their trailer back on the farm. It was exciting to be greeted by all of their animals! They have a lot more goats and chickens than they did the last time we came to visit. The kids all had a blast playing together. They played on this motorized thing, the new swingset, and waded in the pool. It was HOT!!

We had yummy barbequed hamburgers for lunch and DELICIOUS, fresh goat's milk from Amelia. It was my first time drinking goat's milk and I was very happy to find how wonderful it is. Brieanne milks her goats every morning. Brieanne and I had a wonderful visit, just talking and talking while the kids played. Craig and Eric went to do some of Erics farm chores together-- feeding the pigs among other things. After it cooled off a bit, we took a little walk with the goats and then came back to make dinner. Brieanne made fajitas, rice and guacamole. It was so fun to be with the Rices!! I miss them being close soooooo much!

Burger Lounge with the Frasers

So we left my brother's place and went up to La Jolla to visit our good friends, the Frasers. We LOVE hanging with these people! Standing is sooooooooooooo sweet to my girls (even though I know they drive him a little crazy!)

We really wanted to go out to eat, but Craig and I really wanted to eat somewhere healthy. (We are more committed since seeing Food, Inc.) Can you believe there is a burger place in La Jolla that makes their hamburgers from 100% organic, grass-fed meat? Their buns are organic whole wheat and locally made. The produce is local and organic. The food was AWESOME!! Probably the best burger I've ever tried! The place is called Burger Lounge and I can't wait until I can eat there again! I can't recommend this place enough.

The "Purple Pearls" and the Birthday Party

My nieces Yazi and Ari play on a little league baseball team called the Purple Pearls. On Saturday we got to go see them play which was very exciting! It was fun to root for them when they were up. Unfortunately, for her turn, Yazi struck out because of a bad call. (A very low pitch called as a strike) It made me kind of mad at the umpire and I realized that I probably wouldn't be good at having my kids play little league. (Some of those parents get pretty crazy!) But when Ari had her turn at bat, she got a single!! And then she stole second and third!! I thought it was pretty cool that she got a hit for her birthday.

After the game, her team mates sang Happy Birthday to her, which was nice. And although they don't officially keep score, their team actually won. It was fun to root for our cousins and see them play!














After the game, we went back to my brother's for Ari's party. My sister-in-law made a delicious lunch of corn, potatoes, and barbecued chicken. The party started with presents because none of the girls could wait!! We then sang to Ari and had cake and ice cream. Later, the kids all went swimming. It was so nice to be with my brother and his family!

Soak City and Padres Game!

Last Friday we went to Soak City in Chula Vista with my brother and his family to celebrate his daughter, Arianna's, 7th birthday. We had a blast!! The kids LOVED it! It was so nice to spend time with my brother, my sister-in-law, Sandra, and my adorable nieces and nephew. Sandra's mom was also there and Sandra's brother's twins, Jocelyn and Jose. We played in the big wave pool, the lazy river, (you can just float round and round in it) and went down the various fun slides. I was glad I got to go down the slides with my older girls while Craig enjoyed the lazy river with Ceci. My girls were just sooooo happy to be with their beloved cousins! We're pretty sure Arianna had an AWESOME birthday. It was hot and quite exhausting, but really fun!
















































































So after the fun at Soak City, we went to Petco park for a Padres game. My dad came down to join us too. It was really fun! The ballpark has been recently redone and it is beautiful!! They designed it to be like the old school baseball parks and it lies on the waterfront of San Diego. We sat in the outfield where they have a sandbox for kids to play in. The kids loved it!! (Although I was a little disoriented to be in the outfield, I usually sit behind home plate!) It was really exciting when a home run was hit, and fireworks went off! It was also awesome when the Padres won because then they shot off more fireworks!

The coolest thing was that a whole fireworks show was scheduled for after the game. Where we were sitting is where the fireworks are shot off. So we got to go and sit on the field to watch the show. It was really exciting to be able to go out on the field!! And the show was beautiful!! What a wild, fun day! (I'm still recovering!)

Swim Parties

We've gotten to have some small "swim parties" this week with some of our friends.

First, Bella's best friend from church, Violet, came over with her two sisters to swim on Monday. It was evening and I didn't get a picture until after they got out of the pool, but they had A LOT of fun!!

On Wednesday, we had some friends from our home school group over to swim. We had a GREAT day with a delicious pot luck and lots playing in the back yard too!

Today we had some church friends over to swim which was also super-fun. We feel so blessed to be able to share our pool and be able to spend special time with our good friends! (Thanks everyone for coming!)

The VW's

Yesterday we visited our dear friends, the VanWagenens. They now live in Texas but came to visit Michael's family in Newport. We LOVE to catch up with them when either they visit us or we visit them. Michael introduced Craig and I!!

We were super-lame, though and got to their place way later than we meant to. (Traffic, not finding a Trader Joe's and a loooong line at the ferry that Craig insisted on taking.) It threw everything off, because WE were bringing dinner!! We all ate late, and after what seemed like a very short visit, it was midnight. All our kids fell asleep before I could even think to take a picture of them! I just hope the VanWagenens still like us! We sure love them!

Balboa Island

Yesterday we went to Newport Beach and Balboa Island. Lately, I've been remembering a summer when I was 9 (1978) when I went with my family and spent a week there at a beach house. Besides tons of swimming and shell-collecting, one of my favorite things we did was go to Balboa Island. We played skee-ball, rode the ferris wheel, and got Balboa bars. We got to the island by the ferry and it was so cool to take our car across! These memories inspired yesterday's family outing.
We drove onto the island and then took the ferry to Balboa. We went on a really crowded day, so the line was pretty long. When we got to the other side, we played games in the arcade and rode the ferris wheel--they sent us around LOTS of times, it was sooooo fun! (If you click on the picture, you'll see us up at the top!













We also rode the carousel.

























Later, we went to the beach where the big girls played in the ocean while Ceci napped. The waves were HUGE!!! (Like, in-the-news, huge!) They were beautiful, but a little scary!





























After swimming, we wandered around Balboa a little more before taking the ferry back to the other side.




















We then got some frozen bananas covered in chocolate!










We finished off our day by having dinner at Whole Foods-- soup and sandwiches. The Tustin Whole Foods is reeeeaaallly nice! What a fun and exhausting day!