Camping in Big Sur

On Friday, we made a last minute decision to go camping. The weather has been beautiful here, and we wanted to take advantage of it. We ended up going to the Big Sur Campground. I didn't know anything about it, but it ended up being absolutely perfect!


Addison knew we were in the right place when the lady directing us to our campsite and said, "turn right at the basketball court." That is pretty much how he spent his time. He was a little celebrity, too. Everyone around was watching him sink shot after shot. People kept coming up to him and telling him what a great basketball player he was. While I was playing HORSE with him, a guy told me that I shouldn't expect too much, because that kid (Addison) had a better shooting average than anyone else on the court. Addison felt pretty cool! (Because he is, of course!)



The campground was surrounded by redwoods. It was a really beautiful place. This is Addison looking up, up, up at one of the ones by our campsite.


The campsites were really close together. It would be fun to have a bunch of families go and get sites right next to each other. It was really crowded while we were there.


Delicious S'mores. Seriously one of my favorite treats ever...

One of the coolest things about this place was that Addison felt totally confident wandering wherever he wanted to go, even after it got dark. I kept asking if he wanted me to walk with him to the bathroom or to brush his teeth, and Tom kept saying, "Let him be 9!" ...It's hard!

Addison can't get enough pictures with bunny ears. It never gets old...
We played Clue and Phase 10 Twist. The main cabin had games you could check out, so we got Sorry! and played that, too.
The next morning we ventured over to the playground, and then played more basket ball.

This was a fun tree with a slit in the bottom perfect for a hideout. When we left the campground we drove to Andrew Molera State Park and walked down to the beach (about a mile). There was this little fort that someone had built out of driftwood that provided much entertainment for Addison.Of course, Addison got soaked in the water, even though it was windy and a little chilly. That child has no thermostat.

After the beach we stopped at Big Sur River Inn and ate lunch. We ate outside by the river. They have these chairs and benches in the water that are so fun.

We came home tired and a little sunburned and had a wonderful weekend!

Addison's 9th Birthday

For Addison's birthday, we did an Olympic themed party. We set up several events: Basketball tournament (which was actually a free throw competition), javelin toss, parallel bars (going across the monkey bars), sprint races, long jump, and the ever popular Olympic event - popping the balloon that is tied to your opponent's ankle. The kids had a lot of fun, and best of all, it was all outside and required little preparation and clean up!

We first divided the kids up into 2 teams for the basketball tournament and relay races. We let them paint their faces with face paint... which was one of the (several) nerve racking moments of the party. They went a little crazy with the paint, and as they were washing their hands to get the paint off before starting the games, we realized that it looked pretty permanent. Tom and I kept looking at each other like, "what did we just do?" I wondered how I was going to explain to these parents that their kids were going to look like they had been beaten (if they were on the red team), or like they were about to throw up (if they were on the green team). I went through a whole package of baby wipes wiping paint off their faces on and off throughout the whole party. By the end, most of them had somewhat normal skin color again, and I was feeling better. I still had a little explaining to do to some parents, but they were all great about it.

We had a "hang off" on the monkey bars to see who could hang on the longest. Some of these kids are super strong!!

This was just before another heart stopping moment. This little girl who is about to go across (the only girl there) is our neighbor and keeps up just fine with all these crazy boys (thanks to her 2 older brothers). She was going across the monkey bars and fell flat on her face... Hard. She was upset, but seriously so tough. If explaining face paint was going to be hard, I didn't even want to think about explaining stitches. She was fine, thank heavens.

Tom cut some bamboo stalks for a javelin toss. I wish I had taken more action pictures, but I was too involved with everything else. The kids thought this was really cool, though. On a side note, notice the torch behind Addison. This was our "Olympic torch" which we lit before we started the games. The kids loved it. Getting that torch almost killed me. I'll just say that if you want a tiki torch anytime before the month of June, you're going to have to work for it...

Preparing for the balloon pop game.

Opening presents. He got lots of Tech Decks and ramps (but none of the same ones... which was perfect!), a Lego pirate set, a model airplane kit, Life game, and gift cards.

For his cake, we had doughnuts and frosted them the colors of the olympic rings. The kids thought frosting on doughnuts was awesome! We also had pizza.

You can see some of the paint still on these kids.

The medals before the games.

For the party favors, I got Gatorade and put a sweatband around it and slipped a kids ClifBar in between.

I feel like Addison has really grown up this year. I keep saying he is starting to be a bit of a "tween" in so many ways. He really is between little boy and young man. He certainly has some of that obnoxious (but sweet) boy sense of humor, but he is so witty and funny, and always good company. I love that he still wants me to snuggle him at night, but won't hold my hand anywhere near his school. Much of The Lord of the Rings is too scary to watch, but he loves to talk to his friends about the battle scenes that aren't. When I suggested watching Monsters, Inc. the other day, he told me I had to be kidding, but this morning when I went in the living room, I caught him watching Handy Manny. No girls were invited to his birthday party, but he can't stop talking about the little girl at school who is "flattering" with him (flirting). I love this kid and feel lucky every day that I get to be his mom!

Tommen Ian

Ian came to visit Tom over the President's Day weekend. They planned a big camping trip, which they endeavored for a couple days, but got soaking wet, and cut it short. I think it was probably made worse by the fact that Tom doesn't believe in tents and so they slept in the storm with a tarp covering them, and a river running between them. Sounds like fun!

Doing the dishes after dinner. Their mother should be proud that she raised such good boys.

Ian playing Wii tennis (I think), while Tom is reading.

Trying to get them both to be normal for a picture was a joke. If one of them was smiling, the other was goofing off. Mostly though, neither of them would just sit for a picture. This is a good representation of how most of the pictures turned out.

Tom wanted to send Ian home with lots of new music. They spent a few hours in "the dungeon" putting together a huge playlist for Ian to take with him.

Pay It Forward

So, here's how it works-the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and past like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Please submit in an e-mail or on the comment, your address, if I don't have it already (thestotts3@hotmail.com). Remember that only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

... I've seen this on a few blogs and thought it looked fun!

Happy Birthday To Me!

I started my birthday out by going to Farm Day with Addison's class. It was really cold and pretty smelly, but it got me out of work, and I got to spend the morning with Addison. Later, Tom made me dinner and then my girlfriends came over for cake and ice cream, and late, late, late night chatting. All in all, a great birthday!!

Tom baked this cake and he and Addison sang to me. You can tell how old I am if you look at the cake. It's a code.

Melanie's a camera hog...

Camille and Hilary... Yikes. They liked posing for this picture a little too much...

Cute girls.

More cute girls.

Funny girls.

I got a salt lick from a few of my friends. Seriously - a 50 pound salt lick. It's almost gone.

This is what it looks like at 2:30 in the morning when I am imparting my words of wisdom...

Christmas Projects

I hadn't planned to make a lot of things for Christmas, but it seems I always end up with a lot of last minute projects. These were, for the most part, pretty fun projects... Ones I'll try again..

Slippers for Eric and baby Charlie (Jen... send me pictures!!).

Knitted stockings for Linda, Steve, and Brei.

These were the most last minute gifts ever. I emailed Erin (my knitting guru) 7 days before Christmas and asked if she thought it would be possible for me to knit 3 of her stockings before Christmas. She told me that it probably would be if I didn't have anything else to do. So, even though I still had to do pretty much all of my Christmas shopping, finish a quilt (which thankfully I later found out didn't need to be finished until after Christmas), and drive to Utah, I decided that I totally could. I did have to take them to Erin to have her put the names on - which she did on Christmas Eve! (She is the best... seriously), but they were stuffed and ready by Christmas Eve night for Linda, Steve, and Brei.

I am so intrigued by The Wizard of Oz, but am really scared of it (and for good reason, but I will save that for another post). I found this fabric a few months ago, and wanted to make something out of it, but because of my fear, I didn't really want it around. I told Amy about it, and she told me about her friend who is obsessed with the movie. So, I decided to make the quilt for Amy to give to Lynn. The picture isn't that great, but it turned out really cute. Thanks to my mom for her even stitches (even though they made mine look even more uneven...).

This was definitely the funnest project. I made scarves for Emma and Annabelle and then made dolls with scarves that matched. I actually just gave Emma the pattern because she is a crafty little thing and I thought it would be fun for her to pick out her own fabric and make the doll with me. She did a great job. She drew and stitched the face and hair all by herself and did all of the stuffing. This turned into a project that everyone got involved in, and we ended up making several dolls.

Stuffing her doll.

Courtney and Amy got involved, too. Jen and Annabelle even made one the next day.


The finished project.

Addison even ended up with a Harry Potter doll. And yes, I realize he has no pants on. We should have used black fabric for the legs. Got it...

December in Utah

Random events from our trip to Utah...Lunch with the ladies from my ward in Orem. I miss these guys...

BYU basketball game...

We were in the cheap seats, but visited Uncle Brad and Uncle Dean courtside.

We stopped in Vegas on the way home. Jen and Brad decided to as well, so we all met at the Orleans Hotel. This is Addison weaving a pot holder just before we left, and he started throwing up... which continued all the way home. Good times!!