Jumpin' June Jammers

Matt came up with the title, so blame him for it's awesomeness.

June has been an amazing start to the summer! We have already done so much and the summer isn't even half over!

We started off the summer with the Dirty Dash!  It was a very important event for Jen and I  because we were raising awareness about childhood obesity. JK, we just really like Fat Eric.

Whenever we thought the race was too tough and couldn't go on, we would just think of jolly ole Fat Eric and his spirit would keep us going.

The dirty dash was pretty much the best thing ever and I will definitely be doing it again!

The number one thing on our to do list was the backyard. We spent months working on it.

This is a picture of our backyard right after we moved in. Gross is an understatement.

It took us about 2 months to get our backyard looking decent. The reason it took us so long is because we had to till, trench, dig, put in sprinkler system, then sod. We also planted a garden that may already be half dead.  It was exhausting, but definitely paid off! 

 Shaiya and Matt just hangin' out! 

Then we headed off to California for a week with the Kirk Klan.

The first night we stayed in Reno with Matt's sister Alissa. It was awesome! We went and hung out at the marina across the street from her apartment. Matt and Ashton just kept trying to show each other up all night. Brit and Alissa had to give the long boards a try too.

After we spent some time at the marina we went to the hot tub. We were having a grand time until I spotted this gross, green, diarrhea bird poop on Matt's back, that's when the party started! I couldn't stop laughing for the life of me.  The best part was that Matt had no idea a bird used him as it's personal toilet. It was in a part on his back that he couldn't reach and we all thought it was too funny and too gross to help him out. I was given the bad wife of the year award when I wouldn't help out my poor husband. Eventually Matt's dad took pity on him and gave him some leaves to wipe off with. 

The next day we headed off to the beach house in Santa Cruz, CA! Here are the rest of the happenings while in California.

We spent the day at Hearst Castle. It was amazing! That Hearst guy was a champ and knew how to live in style!

The drive to Hearst Castle from Santa Cruz was about 3 hours, but it was along the coast. We had some amazing views! This is us at Julia Pfeiffer Burns park, it was absolutely gorgeous!

We went on a killer 15 mile bike ride all around San Francisco, we even crossed the bridge. It was so cool! Matt and I are biking pros and whizzed past all the dumb tourists that were walking their bikes up the hill. Then the dumb tourists had the last laugh when my bike tire popped.

We cruised around in style with our new cool sunglasses.  We tried to take a picture in the store, but the Asian lady yelled at us.

We enjoyed fried twinkies on the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. The man selling the fried twinkies assured me that it wouldn't give me a heart attack. 

Oh yeah baby! 

We went boogie boarding and skim boarding! I sucked at it, but Matt was super good and spent hours and hours riding those waves!

We saw tons of seal lions and elephant seals and we are even more in love with them than we were before. 

We spent an evening at the Mystery Spot. Look it up, its cool. I am totally a believer. 

We also went to the redwood forest. It was amazing! Those are some tall trees!!

We couldn't go to San Francisco and not go back to Ghriardelli Square. We may have gone into several different entrances so we could get multiple samples of the free chocolate. We also enjoyed the best sundae of my life!

The trip wasn't all just fun and games! I was determined to at least run every morning. And I did and ended up running 20 miles that week! I saw some amazing views while on my morning runs! 

 But my feet were not so happy about running every day! My shoes got messed up from the dirty dash and I was too dumb to replace them. I got some pretty mean blisters!

The last night in California we got some family photos taken! They turned out great!

On the way home our car broke down and we had to get it towed to the nearest auto repair shop, which was in Applegate, CA. It took 3 extra days and $900 to get us home!

But we got to hang out in Reno with Alissa! We all went to the Reno rodeo and the carnival. It was a blast! 

Well that's our summer so far! Hopefully July will be a little less busy! In August we're going to Brazil, we are super stoked!