Family Vaca(s)!

We were so lucky to be able to go on vacation with both of our families these past 2 weeks. Week one was spent with the Goodman's in Coronado at the wonderful Hotel Del Coronado. We had so much fun playing at the beach, eating at yummy restaurants, fun bike rides, going to Sea World and just spending quality time as a family. Thank you Grammy and Papa G for taking us on such an amazing trip!

Week 2 was with my family in Oceanside. We always enjoy our stay at North Coast

Village. We missed Stephanie, Travis and Christopher who couldn't come so to make up for them, Marcie brought her fun friend Allison:) We hit up the beach, hit up some yummy food (except for half of the day on Sunday for Casey and Allison who are GOOD and fasted on vacation. Notice their sad faces in the pics below as they watch Marcie and me scarf), we are very tight with Shamu now, and the boys went deep sea fishing Friday morning. Poor Casey was the only one to toss his cookies.

Thank you again to both of our families for including us on your fun vacations! We enjoyed every second of it. Back to reality...darn!

Family Camping

It was time again for our annual Lindblom family camping trip up on the rim by Woods Canyon Lake. My family has been camping every summer for as long as I can remember. These troopers were up there Wed - Sat. but we were only able to make it up all day Saturday this year... so sad! We love going camping, especially with this great group.

this is where we eat, play games, eat, and play some more!


bacon anyone?

my cousin Kate and her 2 kids Claire and Grant. Lane and Claire are only 2 weeks apart in age
clay pigeon shooting

watch out folks!

horse shoes muscle man

all the kids waiting so patiently for their turn

I guess on Friday afternoon they got caught in a lightning/hale storm and they all thought they were going to die. That tree was in the middle of there camp site and you can see were the lightning hit the tree all the way down to the ground

swamp ride with unlicensed David at the wheel

Birthday Bash

Today was my 25th birthday. It's so scary to me to think that in 5 years I will be 30! CRAZY! (No offence to any 30 or older out there).I am usually not one to talk a lot or bring attention to myself but since there were so many people that made today so special, I have to recognize them for all that they did for me. It seems like I have been celebrating all weekend... but I can't complain . Casey surprised me with getting a sitter so we could go out Saturday night. That was a huge gift in it's self that I didn't have to arrange the babysitter. Thanks Minda for doing that! We went and saw Indiana Jones then ate at the Cheesecake Factory which of course was so good. The day before that my best est friends from high school took me to lunch at Crackers which was also so yummy and good to catch up with all of them as well. Today my sweet wonderful friends from the ward took me to Paradise Bakery for lunch and a little shopping spree to one of my favorite stores, Junky Trunk. Then to top it off I got a phone call while running errands today from Casey saying that his parents were bringing over Mattas so I didn't have to make dinner! WOW, I have the best family and friends ever!

Brooke, Alyssa and Julie who are just amazing! Thanks girls for the fun day!

getting a little birthday treat for myself at my favorite store! They have the cutest jewelry and thanks Brooke for always being prepared with your camera for those special moments

At Crackers with Jenni, LaRee and Jessica. Steph, we missed you!

I have so many memories with these girls. We have all been friends since forever and I don't know what I would do without them! When we are all together we have a reputation of being crazy and getting a little out of control. Girls, remember when we took that hip hop class for "exercise" or when we wanted to watch the N'SYNC concert live in NY city but nobody had HBO so we checked into that ghetto hotel room in downtown Mesa for a few hours so we could watch it?! I love all of our good times!

So turning 25 wasn't that bad after all! Thanks a million again for a wonderful birthday!

Happy Stars and Stripes!

We had so much fun celebrating the 4th yesterday. We started off by having brunch with the Goodmans then going to the park for a game of water softball. I guess it has been a while since I have played because today I am fairly sore and I think I bruised a rib sliding into home base. I guess I am getting old! We had a lot of fun... maybe this will be a start of a new tradition?! We then took Lane (and Casey) home for a much needed 2 hour nap then headed over to my parents for swimming and a BBQ.
Casey gracefully sliding into home

go Val!
not the best hitter

the ever so cute girlie's (Happy Birthday Bre!)

I think that was Lanes 4th popsicle, you can see all the other colors on his rash guard

Lanes favorite uncles
maybe this is why I am sore?
I am still laughing about your pose Jefferson!
double gulp diva
the master chef grillen up some dang good carne asada!!



What a great day it was to play in the sun and to be with family!

Twinners

I had a request a while back to do a post about me and my twin sister Stephanie . I thought that it would be fun so here it goes. As you can tell we don't look anything like twins, especially when we were little. Stephanie having dark hair and brown eyes and I having blond hair, blue eyes and one always being taller than the other...she won that part in the end. Nick names growing up were Steph the reph (with a boyfriend named Jeff) and Shell the bell (with a boyfriend named Mell). We had a friend who couldn't pronounce Stephanie but could kind of make out my name so we were Sheddy and more Sheddy. My mom made sure that we always were in separate classrooms in school and church so we could be an individual and not be labeled "the twins". We always managed to have the same group of friends though. There are lot's of perks about being a twin. We always shared a room so when we weren't tired at night we would play games while lying in our beds like tracing words on the ceiling with a flashlight and having the other one figure out what it said. There was 2 closets to choose from instead of one. There was always someone to hang out with at a boring family reunion, someone to go with you on the scary first day of school and some one to open your bedroom window so you could sneak in after curfew! We did almost everything together, (probably since we shared a car, jk) until we graduated high school and real "adult" life came in. Stephanie left for BYU and I stayed here to work and go to MCC. It was a hard adjustment to have her leave but I think since I knew she was only going for 2 yrs it didn't seem so bad. Plus I had a sweet hook up to go snowboarding all the time and I finally had the car all to my self! We also got to go to BYU Hawaii together for a semester which was a good bonding time for us. Since then we both have gotten married and of course you all know that we have Lane which Stephanie is a second mother to him. Another reason why I am doing this post about us is because today Stephanie moved to Buffalo NY so her husband could go to dental school for 4 yrs. To me 4 yrs is an eternity and Buffalo is an eternity away, so we will miss them very much. I know that being a twin has been a blessing in my life. I am not the most out going person and can be very shy so she has been a sense of comfort to me all through the years. It was hard to see her leave again today for a long period of time. Steph, I know you don't think this sometimes but I really do love and appreciate you. Thanks for always being there for me, always offering to babysit Lane and being so good to him. You are a wonderful sister!

Stephanie taught 5th grade at Franklin Elementary so on the 2nd to last day of school Lane and I went to visit her class room. This is were I went to school for 6 yrs. so it was kind of weird going back. We played some games with the kids and I even got to be in charge of an activity... what a power trip!


We will miss them for sure...especially Lane. So everybody look forward to seeing lots of posts of trips back east in the future!

Celebrate Good Times!

We celebrated a lot of fun things this past weekend. We enjoyed spending time with all of our families yesterday for Fathers Day. Lane and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful men in our lives.

We LOVE these guys because:

... Casey is the best husband and father ever! He let's us control the remote, does all the projects around the house with out being asked, gives the best back tickles, he eats my concoctions I call dinner and devotes all his free time to us, I could go on and on!!

...my dad makes the best breakfast burritos with homemade green salsa (well everything he makes is amazing), he is the best handyman and can fix anything, will drop everything to go help anybody out, has the best laugh ever, hahaha!

...Casey's dad makes a killer Sunday lunch and homemade ice cream, can grow anything in his garden, loves his grandchildren like no other, and serves others unconditionally.

We also celebrated my Grandma Ann's birthday on Friday night with all the Udall girls. We partied at Mi Amigos for dinner then played games and ate dessert at my grandmas house afterwards. It is so fun getting all of us girls together and having some good laughs.

Casey and I are grateful for these grandparents because they let us live in there house while they were on there mission basically for free. As newlyweds that is a huge blessing. Even when they came back they let us live in the little apartment attatched to there house for another year. We love them so much. Happy birthday Grandma!