National Milk San Diego

Jeff and I had the privledge to go to the annual National Milk Meeting, this year held in San Diego, CA along with 3 other couples from our YC group. A great time to escape to some warmer weather in the sunshine, but we also did enjoy the meetings and meeting other dairy farmers from all across the country and hearing how they do things in their neck of the woods.

Here's a group photo from the trip which including the Steve Rowe and our YC leader, Michelle Carter.

In between meetings (or maybe during a few of them!) we ventured out around San Diego a bit. One free afternoon we took the trail/rail car to Old Town San Diego which was alot of fun with the Dorsey's & Van Dyk's.

Becky and I also enjoyed the 'scenery' at one of the largest malls in the country which happened to be located directly behind our hotel.... darn the bad luck!

We also got to hear Tampa Bay football player, John Lynch speak to us during one of the lunches- he definitley had some great 'behind the scene' stories to share!

Ahhhh, palm trees- they always make me happy! :)

Last night at dinner!

Special day for the Boon's!

Yesterday our family and Steve & Melinda's family got to go down to the Darigold Headquarters in Seattle for a tour to see the pictures that they used from the Fresh Vol. 4 magazine and blew them up to hang on the walls. We came up to the landing of the 2nd floor and this is what we saw! Very cool. Had to get the "Boon Boys" picture taken in front of it, of course!

Three of our pretty girls :)
After a tour of the building, we went into the main Board Room to look at a few minutes of tape that they'd put together from a video they are putting together to show not only nationwide, but internationally! It'll be called "Feeding the World"- so far they just had some rough pieces, but was fun to watch and will be really neat to see when it's all done!

On our way to the plant our, Ryan showed me his goodies he got at the office... a brand new Darigold shirt, some Refuel chocolate milk and a cow toy :)

Jacob saw me take his brother's picture and said, 'Me too!' so he gave me one of his fabulous poses. :) Fresh milk-stache and all!

The whole fam getting ready to head out on our private tour of the Rainier plant where our milk gets shipped! We got to see from the bottles being, being filled, sealed, wrapped, put on pallets and loaded onto trucks to head to the store. Pretty darn cool!

Happy Halloween 2011!

And a successful Halloween it was for us! The 'treats' started this morning when Jacob and I delivered some extra cupcakes that I'd made for the Cake Walk at our church's Fun Fall Festival to Aunt Bonnie & Uncle Gil. She had goodie bags all ready for the boys and let Jacob even add to them for him and his brother. Then today after Ryan got home from school and after Jacob woke up from his nap, I got the boys in their costumes and we trick or treated our way out to Grandma & Papa's house. We went to Darlene's, Janee & Chris', May & Dick Larson and then Grandma & Papa's. After that we picked up Daddy at home, grabbed a bite to eat in town and headed to the Fun Fall Festival. Definitely was a busy place, but the kids had a ball playing all the games and winning lots of candy. A good day for sure- hope you had a good Halloween, too! :)

Heading up to Darlene's porch
Ryan, Jordan & Jacob

Anna & Jacob

Mommy with her Anakin & tiger :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Children's appt.

Yesterday morning Ryan had an appt. at Children's to have a CT scan and x-ray done to see if the device in his back was or wasn't still attached to him rib. As it turns out it is which is good news! Ryan was really a trooper. I took him by myself this time as Jeff finally got the part to get the chopper up and running and it was a beautiful day. Thankfully my mom & dad were able to keep Jacob so it all worked out. At first Ryan wasn't so sure about hopping up on the bed for the CT scan so the nurse had me get on it and show him it was no big deal- which totally worked. He got right up, held still and 3mins later we were done! Then a couple quick x-rays and we were off to chat with Dr. Song about the results. So instead of having to replace the top part of the device like we thought we might have to, we will just do another regular expansion procedure. He'll probably have it done in February pretty quick after we get home from Hawaii. Sadly, Dr. Song let us know that he's accepted a position at a Children's Hospital in LA. :( When he said it I plugged my ears and said "la la la" like a little kid would (jokingly, of course). That was not news I wanted to hear, but of course understand. After talking a bit more with him, I chatted with his nurse, Laura, about some more of the details. There is another doctor there who has been doing the VEPTR procedures, but as she mentioned, maybe someone from one of the other Children's hospitals that specializes in this procedure might come to Seattle. It'll all work out, just sad to see him go.

Jones Creek Apple Orchard field trip

Last Friday I went with Ryan's class on their field trip to the Jones Creek Apple Orchard near Lyman. I'd never heard of it, but it was a really neat place- they grow 120 varieties of apples! Of course, it rained most of the time, but the kiddos didn't care a bit!

Here's Ryan class all lined up for a quick photo op!

Telea, the gal (owner?) at the orchard who was our field trip leader... she was SO great with the kids!
It may be raining, but he was happy as can be!

Throwing his apple in the apple grinding machine!

Two cuties with their apples for the apple grinder!

Learing about the apple press! Everyone got a turn to turn the press and make their cider to drink.... yum!

Maddy Nielsen was so sweet to share her mom's umbrella with the other kids waiting in line.

Definitely a fun little field trip! The kids got to take home about 5 Jonagold apples each AND they made them each a carmel apple to eat before we left- YUMMY! Oh, and they got a cup of the cider that they pressed and boy was it delicious!

Jacob's 3rd birthday party!

Last night we celebrated Jacob's 3rd birthday with our family! I made my usual birthday pasta dish with salad and Kim brought her amazing homemade bread (a big hit!). Was quite the yummy dinner! Was glad everyone could make it except Auntie Melinda as she's got a little bit of a bug and Grandma & Grandpa Boon as they already had plans at their 'Boon Thanksgiving' that day down south.

I'd say a good time was had by all! :)

PRESENT TIME!

Greg, Kim & the kiddos got him this remote control flip car!

Opening the present from Darlene....
A John Deere back hoe & tractor!

Greg, Beth and the girls got him this neat Tonka helicopter that he's had his eye on at Costco! It was cute- when he opened it up he said, "I love it!" :)

All smiles!

This picture of Anna totally cracked me up!

Big brother equally excited about the cool, new gifts!

Time to dig in!

Caleb & Anna

"Happy Birthday" time!

The tractor cake the birthday boy requested.... Ryan insisted it was a JD 7510 so that's what we put on it. :)

The fun JD themed cupcakes!

Ahh, Auntie Kim & a very happy Jacob!

Between playing all together in the livingroom and then some of the playing this Jenga game on the floor, I think all 10 kids had a good time!

We're so thankful to have so much family close by to celebrate our sweet Jacob's birthday! Thank you to all of you for coming!

Happy 3rd birthday, Jacob!!!

Thursday was the 'birthday boy's' birthday! Jacob and I pretty much kicked back at home most of the day, playing together, reading some books, watching some of his favorite shows and then when Jeff got home he got to open his presents from us and Ryan!

Ryan bought the "Chuggington" book at the book fair earlier in the week to give to Jacob for his birthday- he had fun helping him open it!

And he loved the book! Good call, Ryan!
Next he got to open his gift from me and Daddy... not sure who was more excited, Jacob or Ryan! :)
He was saying, 'A chopper!!!'... it was definitley a hit to say the least!

Next we headed out for dinner to Red Robin to meet up with Grandma & Papa Lee and even Aunt Bonnie & Uncle Gil as they asked if they could come along since they can't make it to Jacob's actual party Sunday evening as they are celebrating Uncle Gil's birthday that night. Oh, and Shelby was along since Auntie Kim was still coaching v-ball. Talk about 3 cuties! Absolutely LOVE this picture.

Jacob 'reading' Aunt Bonnie & Uncle Gil's card with Shelby's help.

Shelby feeding her little bird his birthday sundae!

Birthday boy getting his birthday balloons- he all the sudden got really shy when he realized they were all singing the happy birthday song to HIM!

Boy are we ever thankful God gave us Jacob Lee Boon. What a blessing his is to our lives- the joy he brings can't be put into words. We love you 'baby Jacob'! :)

Almost Birthday Boy!

I can't believe tomorrow our baby boy, Jacob, is turning 3 years old! Where did the time go?! Tonight Jeff put him in his 'big boy bed' for the first time. I'd tried it a couple times since I got it all ready for him a few weeks ago, but he had no interest in actually sleeping in it. He'd say, 'It's too big, Mommy, I sleep in my crib'. Well I guess it just took Daddy to lay down in bed with him to do the trick. They looked at a bunch of farming pictures Jeff had on his phone and talked and laughed (I could hear them over the monitor downstairs). Pretty cute. AND, he's actually asleep in it- yay!!!!

Cute brothers :)

Tonight the boys got all snuggled up together in a new, cozy blanket I bought. They looked so darn cute I just had to snap a picture of it. :) Jacob happened to see me with my camera and had to ham it up just a little while Ryan was deep into their movie. :)

A few minutes later they decided they would like a little snack so I cut up an apple for them and sat their bowls on one of their new little lap pads- they thought it was pretty great! Spoiled little boys. :)

Pinterest!

I found the most addicting website last month... PINTEREST... I love it! So dangerous, though! I've already made a few of the things I've seen on the site and the list of things to still try is too long to even wrap my head around!

Mod Podge + epsom salt= very pretty pumpkins

Grape vine wreath+orange spray paint+berries+burlap= very cute wreath!
Salt+flour+vegetable oil+food coloring= great play dough!

Blackberry jam+puff pastry= ridicuously delicious pastry treat!