Yum!

Lake Tahoe 2010

Gina and Bethany getting ready to play in Lake Tahoe

Everett has a mouth full of grapes in this picture.

The most beautiful Lake on earth. (Although, not the best picture of it.)

The boys with their best friend Anthony. They love him SO much!

Jeremy, Krista and Baby Girl to be, baking in the oven.

Veronica and Everett. She and Jon came up so they could visit for a day. She luckily took some great pictures since I was not permitted to use the camera most of the time I was there. The reason for that was because the last time we were in Lake Tahoe I lost our last camera.

Veronica taught them to hold hand! It was so cute and they were so proud of themselves for following instructions.

Still holding hands.

Brock smiling. (Probably the only time on the trip that he smiled.)

Our family trip to the Beautiful Lake in the Sky.....what can I say about this beautiful place? Joaquin and I both love it so much. We spent a lot of our dating time up in Lake Tahoe. It's just such a special place to us. We love it so when my Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary came this year and we decided to all get together, we were excited when the destination chosen was there. Everyone was able to make it for the reunion/celebration except my brother David, Lisa and Jorja. (They were surely missed.) We had a really good time getting together with everyone. Melina and especially Anthony loved playing and entertaining our boys. Which was really nice for Joaquin and I to have a break.

I just realized I don't have one picture of my parents taken from this trip. We were kind of out of it when it came to the camera. Usually Joaquin is really good about taking pictures on our trips but his back was hurt a couple of the days on our trip and I'm not the best picture taker. I know between all of the cameras that were there, I'm sure we got some good pictures but I don't have them. But we did have such a good time. We can't wait to go again. I hope the next time the boys will listen a little better, sleep a little better, communicate a little better and just be happy a little more. I felt a little bad since we were all in one house and the walls were paper thin, everyone could hear our kids from any place in the house. Our children must be hitting their terrible two's early because they scream, they hit and they are just plain little stinkers right now. Sorry family.....

We don't have a camera....well, we do but the charger is missing at the moment so this is the reason for no recent post....stand by fellow bloggers. We'll figure something out.

For now, I am off to bed to get rid of a head ache.

Oh me, oh my, has it really been 5 years that we have been married? The older we get the more I realize how true that saying is, "Time really flies when your having fun." Joaquin and I have been through a lot and I am so happy and grateful to have had him by my side. Sure, we've had our ups and downs but now that the time has flown by, I can't really remember the downs and the ups have remanded in my memory.

I can remember being married for one month and we decided to go up to Lake Tahoe and celebrate our 1 month anniversary on Rich's boat. Well it was a big adventure and I actually came home and wrote it down in my journal because I knew I'd always want to remember our trip. Here is the entry from my journal almost 5 years ago.

We headed up to Tahoe for the weekend. We met his dad on Saturday, then we drove around on the big boat with him and his Dad's buddy, Ted along with his girlfriend. We drove over to Emerald Bay and swam and fished with no luck. Anyway, the plan was to use the big boat, sleep over and head home the next day. Well, rich and his friends left and we drove our boat back over to Emerald bay and hung out. We had a blast, we swam and jumped off rocks. The water was really cold but it is so clean and it felt really refreshing to swim in it. Well after we were done swimming we got in the boat and Joaquin fished again and I read the notebook out loud to him. The sun started to set and we decided it was time to go back and dock up. Well, the boat didn't start. He tried again and again. There was nothing. I started to freak out because we were stranded and my phone was dead and Joaquin had barely a bar left of battery. Joaquin did call his Dad with the last bit of juice on his phone and left him a message. I was getting tired so I put sweats on and crawled into bed. I fell right asleep but Joaquin had me get up once to see how beautiful the sky was. It was so romantic and I wish I could re-live that moment because did I appreciate it?....NO! If I could, I would do it a little different. I was #1 a little crabby, being in the sun all day and nervous about what would happen to us in the middle of Lake Tahoe. (I think secretly I thought we might die of starvation.) Joaquin probably slept an hour that night. He was worried the boat would drift into the rocks. Anyway, in the morning we woke up watched the sunrise and we went back to bed. Then around 8 or 9 am, I was really freaking out. We tried using oars to get us back to shore but it was really hard and we were not seeing progress so Joaquin put on a life vest and tried to tow the boat with his body. That's right! Macho man thought he would bring us to land with his body alone. I tried to wave people down, waving an oar in the air from the top of the boat. People just thought we were saying hello. Finally I jumped in the water with him and I try to help. Then these people drove by on their speed boat and I'm waving and they wave back. I think they could tell there was a problem so the stopped. We told them the problem and the guy let Joaquin use his cell. He talked to his dad and his Dad said Ed and another guy were coming out with gas. We thought something was wrong with the engine. Nope, just out of gas. (The gas gauge was broken and Rich put 100 gallons of gas in the boat when he first got up to Tahoe so he thought we were ok.) Well Ed showed up and sure enough, that was the problem. We drove our back to dock up and we went home. That was our first adventure as a happily married couple.

So fun huh? Hope that wasn't too personal but it was a good memory. Love you Joaquin you really are such a good man and a great Dad!

Look at these little muffins. Shaved heads and all. I have to say, they look so stinking cute. Everett has a perfectly round shaped head and Brock, well lets just say that Brock has his mother's head. Shaped like an big, extra large ostrich egg. But even with his funny shaped head it looks good. (Others might disagree, or let me rephrase, others have disagreed but we don't care.) They seem to feel free. When I put both of the boys up in front of the mirror, they just laughed at themselves. It was as if they thought I had put a hat on their head or something. My little boys, oh how I love them.

The BIG 27

I don't have much to post about today. I just had my birthday, which by the way, was so nice. I was a little worried about turning 27, which is weird because I have never, in my life cared about the age I have been but all of the sudden, I woke up a couple of days before my birthday and looked in the mirror and felt a little sorry for myself. In my "crazy" head, I was thinking, I'm turning 27, I look old, my eye's have bags under them and I'm over weight. (I know, cry me a river...what a baby I was being....I am now over it.) However, my actually birthday was so nice. I barely did anything the entire day. I went and got a pedicure and a manicure, a friend (Kara) took me out to lunch and then I came home and we had a little bbq with some friends we have around here. To me, it was the best. Couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Especially how I was dreading it so badly only two days before. Thanks Joaquin for being the best husband I could ever ask for!!!

Another exciting thing I had done this week, (Well today, in fact) was had the boys hair buzzed. It's gone! I'll have to post pictures sometime this week but, it's all gone. Brock about fell asleep when Heidi was cutting it. They both loved the clippers. The vibrations must have felt good on their little brains.

Look forward to pictures this week.

Our last day in Bishop

Joaquin's cousin's at the Ranch.

Everett at Convect Lake. Throwing rocks into the water would entertain him for hours.

The back ground is so beautiful it looks as if it were fake but it totally isn't. :)

Beautiful Melina holding Everett.

Melina's big sister, Feather. Oh my breath taking little beauties they are. And as sweet as a peach pie. Oh I wish they were mine, they were so sweet.

Daddy with the boys on the Ranch.

First horse ride of his life.

First horse ride of his life.

So this was our last day in Bishop and ALL of the family (or almost all of the family) got together for a bbq. We ate, the kids played and rode horses and chased sheep. It was such a blast. I'm looking forward to when the boys get bigger and they can actually remember their cousins. It will be so fun. All of the family is so nice and everyone helps with the kids. It was really fun. Since we've been home, the boys have been going crazy since while we were there, all we did was play outside and now they are home and there isn't much space for them to roam free like there. One good thing about this trip is that they didn't get sick. Every single trip we've ever taken them on, they've gotten sick and this one they didn't. Thank goodness. We had a blast and now can't wait for next year. We're so lucky to have family that lives all over. It's hard because we don't get to see them very often but it makes for fun vacations. Thanks Toni for letting us stay with you. It was a blast!

The Mule Day Parade, hip hip hooray!

Grandma and Everett hanging out at the parade!

Brock and I at the Mule Day Parade! Yay!

Everett and Aunt Marian. Everett was loving her! She gave him so much attention.

This is a shot of the actual parade. Jerry and some other friends of theirs from Soda Springs were riding on the float as well.

This was after the parade. Jerry put his hat on Brock and Brock thought he was pretty cool.

Auntie Veronica and Everett after a very long day. Veronica had just drove in and made it to the tail end of the Parade. She was loving on her nephews and we were loving on her too. We couldn't wait for her to get to Bishop! Miss you sister! (You don't even know!)

What we did...

Once we were in Bishop, we did a lot of hanging out. A lot of letting the kids do what ever they wanted. They loved being naked and playing in the water. Most of the time we were there, we just hung out on Joaquin's Moms back porch eating and talking. It was so relaxing and fun. We miss it. One day while we were there, Toni, Joaquin's Mom and Jerry bought us tickets to go see Lonestar. Which is funny because neither of us really listen to country music but we had a lot of fun. Just the two of us. No kids. It was so nice....we realized we like each other again. Haha! It was nice to get away and have Grandma and Grandpa Jerry watch the kids.

On our way to Bishop

Our 2nd annual Ficker Family Fun trip to Bishop, California was list last week. It happens to also be Memorial Day weekend and Mule Days in Bishop. We have decided to make this a family tradition to go there every year during Mule Days. The drive is a little harder with the boys as they are getting bigger and less tolerant of being in the car for long periods of time. Not to worry though, we got there eventually, even if it took forever and a day. These pictures here are where we stopped and had dinner. It's a small town called Tonopah. It's an old mining town and there is something about it that I love. Joaquin thinks i'm crazy for saying that too. It's tiny and there is nothing there but a mining museum and a couple of antique shops.

Hiking date

Joaquin finally has returned from El Paso, TX. I like that he is able to go on business trips and get experience but I sure hate while he's gone because I need his help. Everett was sick almost the entire time he was away so it we were happy to have him return. Now Brock is sick with the same thing. He just had a fever last night of 104.6 and I was kinda freaking out a little bit. I threw him in a cool bath and tried to get his HOT body to cool off. It eventually worked and today he seems to be feeling better. (Although, he won't eat anything!) So anyway, that really has nothing to do with my pictures. When Joaquin got home, I felt as though we haven't had any "parent" time together so I asked my sister if she'd watch the boys while we go on a date. She of course said yes. But then I got to thinking, what can we do that doesn't cost any money...and she suggested we go on a hike up above the U. It's by the Red Butte Gardens. It was so beautiful up there. We really had a good time together. I told him that maybe I could bring the boys up here too while he's working because it seemed like there was one big dirt road we could just walk on and the babes could explore.

Mt Timpanogos

Me with my little Babes!

Israel and Christan

Hudson and Millie

Gummy bears on my window, in the rain. Thanks Brandon!

It was a semi nice day yesterday here in Salt Lake so we (Diana, Isreal, Christan, Heidi, Brandon, Hudson, Millie and us, minus Joaquin.) drove up to Mt Timpanogos to go on a hike. Well I wasn't thrilled about the idea because I have was worried about pushing the boys up in a stroller and then coming down by "myself" but everyone talked me into doing it. Once we drove up there and talked to the employees, they told us you are not allowed to take strollers on the trail. We didn't want to make the entire trip a waste so we went on a little hike. It was only 1/4 a mile. (It wasn't exactly what we were hoping for but we enjoyed our little day hike with all the kids.) I'm excited to go again with Joaquin.

You know your a Mother when...

You cross your legs to sneeze.

You don’t hesitate in the least to swipe a booger from your child’s nose with your finger.

You can’t remember the last time you painted your toenails.

Your washing machine never stops running.

Your comfy flannel pajamas look much more appealing than your naughty lingerie.

You have time to shave only one leg at a time.

You hide in the bathroom to be alone.

Your kid throws-up and you catch it.

Someone else's kid throws up at a party. You keep eating.

You hope ketchup is a vegetable, since it's the only one your child eats.

You find yourself cutting your husband's sandwiches into cute shapes.

You hear your mother's voice coming out of your mouth when you say, "NOT in your good clothes!"

You hire a sitter because you haven't been out with your husband in ages, then spend half the night checking on the kids.

You use your own saliva to clean your child's face.

You spend an entire week wearing sweats.

Your feet stick to the kitchen floor, and you don't care.

You say at least once a day, "I'm not cut out for this job", but you know you wouldn't trade it for anything".

Happy Mother's Day to all wonderful women! Especially the Mother's in my life.

Zion's with Papa and Grandma Cindy

Everett's first hike.

Brock's first hike

This is the boys playing after a long day in Zions.

Joaquin and I LOVE Zion's National Park so much, so we couldn't wait to take the boys on their first trip there. Joaquin's Dad and Cindy have a WorldMark membership and we have said it would be awesome to meet in St George because it's about half way between Salt Lake and Oceanside so we decided to have a little weekend getaway with Papa and Grandma Cindy. It was a lot of fun. We just hung out, talked, and ate. We also took a day and visited Zion's which was beautiful as always. I recommend everyone to see this National park at least once in their lives. We will bring our kids back here again and again. Our earth is so beautiful and I am so grateful for it. I want to bring the babes up appreciating how beautiful the earth is around them. The only thing that was kind of sad is that Everett got sick...(big surprise) while we were down there. He threw up and had the worst diarrhea EVER! Poor little baby. Any time we go anywhere on vacation, one of the babies has to get sick. I don't know how to avoid that. Oh well, but thank you to Rich and Cindy for having us. It was so much fun!