Giving this blogging a try...

 I can't believe I am blogging.  It's been like a year.  We are all moved into our new beautiful home in MA.  During football season Steve hung his flag ON THE HOUSE.

 I live right near where they make Yankee Candles...yes my closet is FULL of them.

 We also live near ESPN.  Steve wants to work here!!!

 The fall here was breathtaking.  This is our street.

 These are all the neighbors on the street.  We had a Halloween party. 

 The week before Christmas we went to NYC.  While our boys were off to basketball games in the big city us girls we to see the Rockettes...WOW!

 We rode bikes around the entire 7 mile loop of Central Park.

 These are some wrapped Christmas gifts I gave out.  The pine came from the forest in our back yard.  I loved the simplicity of it all.

 We have a gas fireplace you just switch on with a light switch but with all the birch trees around here I had to bring some indoors.

 On New Year's Eve I went shopping and bumped into these cool chairs for the island...my kids actually begged me to get them.  At first I wasn't sure but they have grown on me.

 I am having a ball in my new house.  I painted the back of my front door blue...

and counted our steps to the second floor.  It's been so much fun.  Well maybe I'll get back into this blogging thing.

Garlic Capital Of The World...

 We went to Gilroy, California...the garlic capital of the world.  They grow 90% of the world's garlic in this valley in California.

 They sold all sorts of Christopher Ranch products...Christopher Ranch is my FAVORITE.  I want to go back at the end of this month to Christopher Ranch for the Garlic Festival.

MMM..the goodies I brought home.  I am going back to stock up so I can take lots of these things with me when I move.  We are moving AGAIN!!!!!  I know I have only had my things in my beautiful California home for 9 months...What the...  It's all good though, it's just I need a break.  This will make 5 different homes in 23 or 24 months.

4th of July In The San Francisco Bay

 We had a GRAND time celebrating the 4th of July!  We went over to San Francisco.  We stayed at a hotel right at Fisherman's Wharf so we could park and just walk everywhere.  Good thing we got there early on the 4th, they close all the streets next to the Bay....it was the 4th of July but seemed like a huge New Years Eve celebration...people everywhere!  Our hotel had a heated pool the kids spent hours in having fun.  Our hotel was PACKED TO THE GILLS with families.  So lots of kids in that pool.  In the above picture we are next to Pier 39 and you can see Alcatraz in the background too.

 We walked down to Ghirardelli Square for some chocolate treats.

 Our hotel was 1 block away from the Boudin Sourdough Bakery...I ate it everyday we were there.  While walking by one of the workers tossed Ben a loaf and he caught it.  We scarfed that sucker down.  Ben got another one later that evening too.

 We ate dinner on Pier 39...looks like everyone else had the same idea.  It was shoulder to shoulder people.

 This was the view from our table at dinner.

 We were walking around Fisherman's Wharf just before the fireworks began.  That large building you can see is the Boudin Sourdough Bakery.  Ben thought this overflowing trash can was funny and wanted his picture taken with it.  Looks like most people ate bread bowls filled with chowder.

This is the view of the San Francisco Bay while at Ghirardelli Square.  It was a beautiful day!  We had a wonderful time in San Francisco celebrating America's Birthday. The fireworks were HUGE.  They had a couple of barges in the water shooting them off so you could see them in every direction you looked.

North Lake Tahoe

 Today was a great day for a drive up to Lake Tahoe.  We live two beautiful hours from North Lake Tahoe. Last Fall we went to South Lake Tahoe so today we wanted to try the north side.

 I like this picture I took.  See Steve out there.  And holy cow look at all the shades of blue in the water.  It was dreamy out there today.

This is Donnor Lake at Donnor Summit...see Ben out there?  He wanted to go walk down farther on his own until his dad reminded him to keep an eye out for bears.

Carmel, Pebble Beach, 17 Mile Drive and Monterey

 We drove down Highway 1...THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE!  You bet we did 17-Mile Drive!!!

 There are 19 pull-offs on 17-Mile Drive.  This is stop #2...we were up in the mountains looking out at the Pacific.

 It was Father's Day and Steve enjoyed his special day at Pebble Beach.  He could not get over the golf course and homes with the view.

 Madi took a ton of pictures with her new IPOD.

 The golf course is on the other side of the street from this....AMAZING!

 The Lone Cypress is stop 17 I think on 17-Mile Drive.

 Carmel-By-The-Sea has to be the most beautiful town in all of America.  It was so breathtaking and fun this is the only picture of the city I took.  

 Took the kids to the Carmel Mission.  We are trying to see how many of the California Missions we can see while living in the state.

 This is Monterey Bay

 Monterey Bay.

 Vista Point along Highway 1.  We were going to drive down to Big Sur but the fog rolled in so we headed back up to Carmel.

I lived in California for 1 year when I was younger.  My dad worked at Ft. Ord which sadly closed.  This is the house I lived in Salinas long ago.  We also drove by my school where I attended the 5th grade.  All these places we just took our kids to my parents had taken me to the same places when I was Madi's age...how cool is that.  I just LOVE California!

Santa Cruz, California...THE BEACH!

 Santa Cruz has the best beach ever!!!  The Boardwalk...it's like having Six Flags right on the beach.

 Madi LOVES her ICEE'S!  There were some soccer games going on on the beach.

 The kids played for hours.

 Ben and Madi enjoy burying their limbs.

 We had to park like a mile away there were so many people.  It was a nice walk up Beach Street and then the famous West Cliff Drive.

 While walking up West Cliff I took this picture of the entire boardwalk and beach and pier...look at the palm trees lining Beach Street and those mountains back there.  This place is just unbelievable!

 This is a picture I took of West Cliff Drive while walking on Beach Street.  Look at those homes...BEAUTIFUL.

While walking to the car we had to walk right on the cliffs.  At this very moment Steve is looking for places to stay so we can go back.