Los Angeles

On to Los Angeles. It was a pretty quick drive from Monterrey to LA on Sunday night and probably the most exciting part was watching Danny navigating our bus around the switchbacks that led up to our RV park located on the cliffs above the beach in Malibu. If golf doesn't work out we've both discussed the option of Danny being a truck driver. He's pretty amazing!! We had a nice start of the week just hanging out at home, doing preschool, playing baseball, basketball and golf in front of the motor home, and eating in (one of the major perks of the motor home). Eating out is fun every once in a while but it can get old pretty fast as you can imagine.

For Valentines Day the Tour made arrangements for the players and spouses to have a nice three course dinner out at a restaurant in downtown Santa Monica however Jack was just getting over a little bug and with him still being new with potty training we decided it wouldn't be fair to leave him with a tender so we ended up watching our friends little boy and having a romantic evening at home being parents to three:) I guess that's why I am still so crazy about my husband...we can have fun doing just about anything.

Another one of the highlights of this week was more family. On Wednesday we played with my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Bill. They took us to the coolest place called the Skirball Center. It's a Jewish Community Center that has an incredible Noah's Arc exhibit that was designed for kids. Amazing!!! If you're ever in the LA area with kids you have to check it out. I had some fun pictures but they didn't turn out:(. We also had Grandpa Summerhays come into town on Wednesday night and we had a blast hanging out with him as always. He was a trooper and walked both Thursday and Friday despite the extremely wet conditions. The course the tournament was played on (Riviera) was really pretty even though it was drenched:)

Saturday was a bittersweet day. Danny missed the cut but it gave us a much needed day off to just hang out with our fam. My brother Branson and sister-in-law Ryanne who live in LA came down for the day to play with us. We went to Santa Monica Pier and then went down to the beach and hit the playground after eating a gourmet Hot Dog On a Stick:) It was such a blast just playing in the sand and soaking in the atmosphere. We actually got quite a bit of playing in before the storm hit at which point we headed back to the motor home. We then got an Olive Garden recipe off the Internet and made some amazing five cheese zitti and then all crowded on our bed and watched a movie while we sipped back on some Henry Winehards root beer. Too fun!! Sunday we went to church and then headed to Phoenix.

In short, LA was a fun week to soak in some sun, and some rain, and have some good times with family. Now for a much needed week off during which we have to somehow get the motor home from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic:) Til' next week!

Monterey- The AT&T

What a fun week we had in Monterey! For starters we couldn't have had better weather especially for Monterey. We stayed in an RV park up in Marina (about 10 minutes north of Monterey) right next to the beach. It was gorgeous with rolling sand dunes making more of a hilly beach than your classic southern California beach. The boys and I went to play right before sunset one day and though we didn't touch the water we had a blast throwing sand (ok primarily Jack) and digging holes and burying our little crab beach toy (who unfortunately met his final resting place on that beach since Jack forgot where he burried him.

We also spent a couple of afternoons at the amazing childrens museum they had there. It was complete with a golf area, stage with costumes, treehouse, hospital, basically heaven for two little boys as well as their mom who could just let them explore. Now for the record Danny and I have no desire to push golf or anything else for that matter on our boys and part of me thinks its a little cheesy that my boys already have their own sets of golf clubs at the ages of 3 and 1 but what am I supposed to do when my little 3 year old asks me every day if he can go play golf? Oh and he's not satisfied with merely hitting a little wiffle ball around our motorhome, he wants to hit real golf balls at a golf course like Daddy. Really, what have I gotten myself into? Anyways, I took the boys to a driving range at a public course so they could hit "real golf balls". I love the looks I get when I show up. People think I'm crazy rolling up with a stroller and two chillins' to the range but even more than that I love the look on peoples faces when Jack actually hits the ball 30+ yards. Patton is also getting the swing of things (pun intended) and has a blast trying to hit the balls with his little plastic clubs. Oh my cute boys!

That gets us to Thursday when the tournament actually starts. We had an awesome gallery this week. Branson and Ryanne (my brother and his wife) and Hannah (Danny's cousin) as well as Cindy and Scott (our sister-in-law's sister) came to walk the 3 beautiful courses and cheer Danny on. We had tons of fun going out to dinner, having a pizza party and just walking the course with friends and family. Golfwise it was a really fun week as well. After a mediocre 2 over at Pebble Beach on Thursday Danny posted a 2 under at Monterey Penninsula. Side note: so every once in a while I get this crazy idea that maybe Jack is old enough to walk 9 holes. After all he did pretty well in Phoenix. Well I attempted this again on Friday...I saw maybe one hole and that was because Branson and Ryanne were entertaining him:) Lesson learned for another year. We did have fun throwing rocks and sticks into the stream and peeing in the rough (just Jack:)). End side note.

So Saturday rolls around and because of the nature of this tournament this meant cut day. Danny had made a great run on the back 9 holes to get within one shot of the cut line but he needed a birdy to play on Sunday. He got to the last hole and sure enough had about a 10 foot putt for birdy. It was looking alot like Phoenix, needing to make a putt to make the cut. Fortunately the outcome was different and he made his clutch putt and got another shot at Pebble Beach. He went on to shoot 2 under par at Pebble which was a pretty good score for that course and finished in a tie for 26th place.

Anyways, this post is getting too long but in summary, it was such a fun week getting to play with family and fortunately it also turned out to be a great week on the golf course as well. We are continuing to learn and grow in so many ways. Life can get pretty crazy out here but I feel like we're all doing a decent job at trying to keep things real. I think kids have a great way of reminding you whats important and again we just feel so blessed to get to have these adventures together as a family. Ok I'm out!

Phoenix AZ, Waste Managment Open:)

So one of my many shortcomings where blogging is concerned is that I'm not amazing at taking pictures but it is definatley a goal of mine to be better at so this will be a great weekly reminder to take more pictures and maybe someday you'll see more of our travels than in inside of our motorhome:)
However, despite the lack of pictures there was most certainly not a lack of good times and stories in good ol' Phoenix. Definately a highlight of the week was getting to play with Boyd and Barbara Jean (Danny's brother and his wife) and their adorable three kids. Phoenix was pretty darn cold (well for Phoenix) so much of our activities took place indoors the first few days. Our primary activity being potty training Jack. With much fear and trepidation I decided that waiting for us to be home for any length of time wasn't going to happen so we just went for it. We got him some big boy underware and camped out at home for a couple days and really pretty painlessly, he's pottytrained for the most part. I think it helped that he's a little older and really motivated by his hatred of diapers. So there you have it...

Another adventure was on Friday night when Danny and Jack went to the Sun's basketball game with Boyd and Preston. Jack was in heaven mastering the "defense" chant and even yelling at the ref over a lousy call. While he had so much fun being a big boy he paid for it the next day when he had no voice:) While the big boys were at the game Barbara Jean and I took her two youger ones and Patton to Peter Piper Pizza for some good fun and gormet pizza. Patton and Cam (my nephew) couldn't get enough of the action-packed mini carosel....oh baby!

The adventures continued on Saturday when we learned first hand the reason why the tournament is sponsered by Phoenix Waste Management (ok that's a little harsh). I don't think I've ever seen so many "wasted" people in my life (ok bad pun). We decided it would be a good tournament to take the boys out to since really they were quieter and better behaved than most of the adults out there:) So we're walking through a herd of drunk ASU students when this girl sit on my stroller...with Patton in it. The amazing thing was that she just kept on sitting until her friends pulled her off. I have to admit I wasn't quite sure what to do I hadn't ever had anyone sit on my baby before. For your peace of mind Patton was just fine just a little frightened and smooshed...welcome to the Phoenix Open:) It really was a fun tournament to be at though and Danny played pretty well on Saturday and just barely missed a put on the last hole to make the cut. Disappointing to miss it by so little but these are the moments every golfer lives for.

So on to the next week and the next city... until then live it up!!!

The New Breed vs The Establishment- San Diego and the Farmers

We had a fun week in San Diego! For starters it was only about a three hour drive from Palm Springs to San Diego and it was done after the boys went to bed so that started off the week well. We parked the bus at the Torrey Pines Glider port which is where all of the hang gliders take off from so as you can imagine it was a pretty spectacular view up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. So pretty!! It was also right on the golf course so it was a pretty easy commute. Danny spent all day Monday and Tuesday at the course working his tail off like usual (yes golf actually is quite a bit of work despite what you may think:)) while the boys and I found fun things to do around La Jolla. We went to story time at the Del Mar library and then found a cute little playground right on the beach that became our primary source of entertainment throughout the week. Whenever we get to a new city the first things I research is a Target or Walmart/grocery store and a playground. We also try to find other fun things to do with kids like children's museums or in this case a library. I find that as long as I can locate these things (Target and a playground primarily) than we can have a great week:)

On Wednesday Danny practiced in the morning while I attended a ladies Bible study/discussion group and the boys went to child care for a few hours. We then took a much needed afternoon off and went down to Old Town San Diego to play golf:) I know pretty sad that we spend our time off golfing but Jack had been begging for several days to play golf so we went down to a little course called Presidio Hills where Danny used to play Jr golf tournaments when he was young. It is the smallest golf course I've ever seen and Jack and Danny tore it up:). I started to play but lost all confidence when Jack was beating me on every hole so I opted to play in a twosome with Patton:)

Jack and Danny played all 18 holes and Danny shot 3 under (a score he was pretty proud of) and Jack almost made a bogey (also very impressive) he just got a little case of the yips on the putting green:) Man we had so much fun and Danny was loving the nostalgia. Even Patton was getting into it dragging his little plastic golf bag around and attempting to hit his little plastic golf ball with his mini club. Obviously my boys have inherited some skill from their father despite my attempts to interfere in the gene pool with my complete lack thereof:)

Afterwards we went and got some pretty authentic Mexican food complete with mariachis band. After dinner we went up the street to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. Wow!!! If any of you happen to be in the area anytime soon you have to go check it out. This is a visitors center unlike any other. I felt more like I was at a Disneyland presentation rather than a visitors center. Totally interactive complete with pictures that talk to you and amazing effects that make you feel like you are travelling with the Mormon Battalion. OK enough with the raves but it really was pretty incredible.

The rest of the week was also great despite Danny missing the cut he still felt good about his playing and about the direction he's going with his game. And as far as our family is concerned we couldn't be happier and more grateful to get to have these experiences together!!!