Ridge Family Reunion 2010

This year Claron's grandpa, Alf, turned 90. In honor of this event, Claron's Aunt Mary organized a family reunion in Bear Lake, Utah. The next few posts will revolve around the events in and around Bear Lake. We initially drove to St. George, stayed with Claron's grandpa, Von Brown, who is 92. The next day we drove to the lake. After the reunion, we stayed a few days in Utah with family and friends. Here is Alf (as taken by Melinda):

Catch-up: Father's Day

Now that it is September, it is finally time to write about Father's Day. We had a lovely Father's Day this year.

Eliza made a tie for Claron in nursery at church the week before.

Claron had donuts for breakfast before church.

Claron's dad and Clark, Lilly & Violet came to visit, and the girls wore matching dresses to church.


The whole crew after church.

We had a great day. A funny aside from that day... Eliza is very territorial about her chair. Violet found a work around though.... Camouflage!

Catch-up: Scott's Awesome Birthday Party

After our Memorial Day BBQ, Scott was hanging out, and we were all playing Dr. Mario (Man, do I love Dr. Mario!). Anyway, Scott mentioned that his birthday was coming up and that he was sure it was going to be super lame. So, I asked him what his ultimate birthday would be like. Surprisingly, he said that he would love to have a party with a bouncy house and a pinata.

The weeks past, and I decided to give Scott his party but to make it a SURPRISE. So, I invited friends, made a menu, ordered the bouncy house, made a cake and picked up the pinata. Lisa and I collaborated to get Scott to our house and man, was he surprised!

The bouncy house was SO MUCH FUN! If you ever see a bouncy house for sale, call me! I think the big kids loved it more than the babies. Beating the pinata was fun, but the adults didn't really want the candy. I made Scott a lemon cake with strawberries, cream cheese filling and a vanilla buttercream icing. He happily decorated his own cake wreck.

It was a great day. Here are the pics:

Catch-up: The Getty

This is a catch up post. We did this earlier in the summer when Claron's dad was visiting.

If you live in LA, around LA or are visiting LA, you MUST visit the J. Paul Getty museum. We have seen the museum from the 405 for years and never stopped in. The tram and the modern buildings are clearly visible from the freeway. This museum is amazing!! I only have two regrets. 1) That I hadn't visited earlier; and 2) That Eliza was not into it. Lilly and I are going to go back together sans children. It is not that the museum is not child friendly, it is that 2 year olds do not dig fine art. She loved the children's museum and the tram though. Anyway, we had a fabulous time. The art is amazing. The architecture is just awesome, and it has breath taking views of the city. Oh, and did I mention that it is FREE?! You have the pay for parking, but big deal!

Maybe we could organize a girlfriend trip?!

Here are the pictures:

DC Temple

While we were East, Claron and I went to the temple with his parents to do some family work. It was quite an interesting drive down. When we left the house, the sun was out, and it was gorgeous. By the time we were going through Laurel, it was raining in sheets. We hit 495, and it was still raining. When we exited 495, it magically stopped. We went into the temple and had a lovely time. I love DC. It was where I was endowed and married. We came out, and it was sunny. We went out to eat. Right before we got into the car, the sky turned black again, and it started pouring. Luckily though, it made for interesting pictures, but the driving was a bit tense.

Grandpa's Pics

I just got these from Claron's Dad.