Happy Birthday, Baby!

Jon turned the big THIRTY this year!  I'm married to an old guy :)

We've had lots of activities to celebrate, including, but not limited to...

... hiking around Rock City at Mt. Diablo.  Jon had Monday off of work, so we joined Cami and the boys and had a great time playing!  The mom's were nervous about some of the heights and the kids jumping about on those great heights, but nobody was terribly injured... and everybody had a lot of fun!

... my mini "surprise" party for Jon Monday evening!  Not a "jump out and scare you" surprise, but more of a gradual surprise.  I had, unbeknownst to him, invited some friends from the ward and from scouts to just randomly come by to wish Jon a happy birthday and hang out for games, appetizers, and desserts.  It was fun to watch Jon's puzzlement as friends kept showing up and wishing him happy birthday.  We collected a fun little group throughout the night and played the classic games of "Pin the party hat on the 30 year old" and "stand on a chair and drop something in a jar."  (If you're a Severson, you know exactly what game I'm talking about) I had prepared many of Jon's favorite treats: stuffed mushrooms, salt and vinegar chips, cheesecake, cream puffs, chips and salsa, black cherry jell-o jigglers (and of course a veggie tray and fruit tray to keep things looking healthy). We had quite a delicious spread that lasted the whole week.  It turned into quite a crazy late night, finishing off playing a new game, Repello, with Brooke and Jon until midnight... and THEN, I made pizza (the dough was rising and I wasn't sure it would keep another day)... so poor Jon didn't get to bed until about 2am.  Yeah, we can be party animals...

...  backpacking Point Reyes!  Jon planned this activity for his birthday several months ago with Brooke and Jonny.  Brooke had never been backing before and Jon wanted to make it a fun experience for her.  He took many precautions to make sure that Brooke was neither cold, nor hungry throughout the 36 hour trip.  The weather was FANTASTIC: no rain and temperatures in the 50's! The hike in was particularly awesome!  Though we started the hike well after dark, the full moon was out and we didn't even use flashlights most of the time!

Kiss, don't eat, the frogs...

And the frogs!  There must have been hundreds of them! We only saw a couple lost lonely frogs hopping across the trail, but we heard raucous choruses of them off the trail! We tried a couple times to find the big group of them, but had no luck whatsoever. (the video is pretty terrible in the dark with us wearing headlamps, but the sound is amazing!)

The next day was spent enjoying the beach, the hills and rocky terrain around the area, and just taking our time doing whatever we felt like.  We packed up and hiked back in the afternoon, stopped at a local burger and shakes place for dinner, and headed home.  Many MANY thanks to Nana and Mandy for watching the kids the ENTIRE day!

Monkey boy... now we know where Xochitl gets it...

 

Monkey boys up high...

Look closely... Jon is throwing a bag to Jonny from 15 feet below. I caught a picture of the bag flying through the air!

Congrats, Brooke, you survived a backpacking trip!

 

Why not go backpacking at 20 weeks pregnant? Jon carried almost everything for me... all I had was my sleeping bag and clothes. 

And that is the birthday week :) Happy 30th birthday, my love!

We took the Kids :)

 Last weekend, our whole family enjoyed a 3-day, 2-night backpacking trip!  Just before we left, I stopped at REI to pick up a few last-minute things and the look I got from the cashier was priceless when I told him what we were going to do:

   "You going somewhere this weekend?"
   "Yeah.  Our whole family is going to hike into Point Reyes," I said.
   "Sounds like fun. How old are your kids?"
    "Six, four, and two."
    (Stunned silence) "Ok... well.... have fun... and good luck..."

As it turns out, we DID have a lot of fun!  Our kids were amazing!  They each carried their own backpacks; Larry and Dawna carried their own sleeping bag, clothes, flashlight, water, and snacks.  (Xochitl carried her clothes and water, I carried her sleeping bag)

(Nana let Xochitl borrow this mini Jansport backpack!  It was TOO CUTE to watch her sport it the whole weekend!)

 We left Thursday after work and we started hiking around 7:30 pm.  The hike was about 2 miles, and we made it in about 2 hours.  Honestly though, I thought that was a great pace for the kids. Nobody was carried; everybody walked every step of the way!  And it made the kids really excited to get in the tent and go to sleep! Here's our awesome setup, designed and implemented by Jon.  The kids slept in the backpacking tent and Jon and I slept under the tarp.  It was quite misty and foggy the whole time, so while it is fun to sleep out under the stars, we were glad to have the shelter to stay dry.

 The campsite was fabulous!  Bathrooms, drinkable water, food lockers, and picnic tables! That made packing very relaxing... no bear canisters, no water purifier... ahhh... The campsitewas surrounded by tall grasses woven through with little footpaths, and filled with ladybugs!  We spent a lot of time just playing around the site!

 But eventually we ventured off and found this amazing eucalyptus tree, complete with huge roots and a rope for swinging! My crazy girls were all over that.  Larry wouldn't touch it.

(My little squirrels!)

 And then we finally made it down to the beach!  It was WAY too cold to get into the water, but the sand was nice and warm... here we see Dawna and Xochitl using it as a blanket :) Xochitl needed help getting out... I guess all I need is a giant sand pit to bury her in when I need to contain her, since nothing else can... monkey...

 Jon took Dawna on a longer hike down the beach while I stayed with the littler ones to throw rocks into a little stream.  Here's the Daddy-Daughter footprints:

 They found some fun sea life in the tide pools and Dawna had a lot of fun standing out on the rocks... Daddy carried her there...

 

The hike out was longer... 3 miles... so we had a few stops for snacks and pottys.  So it goes... still, we made it! And everybody walked and carried all their own stuff!  Even me :) I tried to get Jon to carry me out... no such luck... 

The trail out was a fire road, wide and not very steep. Perfect for our hikers!

 The bugs, however, were HORRENDOUS! These little gnat things kept flying in our eyes, mouths, and noses... yuck... Jon fashioned this for Dawna out of his Motley tube (it's a very useful contraption... I'm wearing mine as a headband in previous pictures)

 And in other news, Xochitl left her flashlight on all night and wore the batteries out.  She was sad, but then decided to pretend to take pictures with it... This is Jon and Xochitl taking pictures of each other... 

 And THAT, my friends, is a fine family vacation.  We took the kids. Five miles. Backpacking. We did.

We rock.