A few of our favorite things... (so far this summer)

Lets start with the most recent, and then go back since it has been so long since I have posted!
Here is our new home in California. We are renting and really love our house.
***please note Max's attire in this picture...Yes! He is POTTY TRAINED! (That is part of the reason I haven't had time to update.) But it was all his idea and he has done so great! It was scary for me for the first few days because I don't think I was ready, but he sure was! Its so fun to have such a big boy!




Last week, Alex and I got a MINI VAN! I know, I thought I would never get a mini van, much less be excited, no let me say overjoyed to be driving one, but driving it around today has changed my life forever. My life running errands, and driving in the car with two young ones is actually, peacful, fun and enjoyable! We may be jumping the gun with only 2 kids and room to seat 8, but I am loving all the amenities, comforts, and easiness of the mini van. I love love love this car. For any of you holding back on getting one, do it!





Here are a few photos of the house:
The kitchen...




Max's room...
(with a "big boy bed" even though he wanted a cool race car one, I convinced him this is much cooler :) plus its easier for guests to sleep in when they come visit, hint, hint!)




Allie's room...
She is such a sweetie these days. She loves her own room and pretty decorations, she wakes up in the morning and just talks to herself and looks around.



Family room...


Back yard...
We spend most of our time out here. We are LOVING the weather! It is beautiful!


This is at the tide pools up by Half-Moon Bay... our favorite Sunday drive.



OK, I gotta get to bed, I'll post more tomorrow! (Hopefully!)

Goodbye Provo!

My friend Melissa is a great photographer and she took some pictures of our family before we left. We miss our Provo friends!

Our Alaska Trip

Many of you know we have been looking forward to our Palmer/Schureman family vacation "Road trip to Alaska" for many months now. We are back and happy to say that everyone survived! It was THE road trip of all road trips. The bus came from Phoenix and picked up our family in Provo. We then drove through the night on the bus to Calgary Canada where we met up with all of the rest of the family. 36 people in 2 busses, 16 of them under age 13!

Here is a group photo of all of us starting the actual Al-can Highway in Dawson Creek, Canada. 1200 miles down, another 1500 to go! Please note the cute matching shirts my dad had made for us!



OK, so the kids did surprisingly well on the bus ride. You KNOW Max and Allie were in heaven playing with all of their cousins. They are still going through withdrawls and we have been home for 3 days!

Max is playing with one of his cousin's nintendo DS? I had never heard of them, now you know how uncool I am. However, Max is asking for one for Christmas. Ha! Yeah right! He also wants a pinball machine like Bradley and Jack's. Thanks Melissa and J.D.:) He misses his Provo friends so much! So do we!




Below is a picture of Lake Louise, one of the beautiful spots we stopped to see.



One of the best parts of the trip was all the wildlife we saw on the highway. This is a mamma bear and 3 cubs we saw while we were driving on the bus. We saw 7 bears, lots of porcupines, moose, big horn sheep, buffalo, caribou, bald eagles, elk, deer, sea otters, beavers...it was so cool!



This is the Alaska Pipeline



This is Exit Glacier. We all hiked in the snow for what seemed like forever with kids on our shoulders. Whew what a work out! It was worth the pain because the glacier was really amazing!



OK, The BEST part of the trip was being with the whole family. Isn't my dad cute? He is so sweet. I love every minute that I spend with him. He always makes family vacations fun.



The rest of the family has more great pictures that I will have to add later. In summary, it was an amazing trip. We took a gondola ride in Banff, we loved the Liard hot springs, halibut fishing in Homer, good food everywhere, tons of halibut fish and chips, yummy clam chowder, reindeer hotdogs (eww)... A trip like this took a lot of planning and organizing and work all along the way. My dad and Dan, and Steve and Travis put a lot of work into this trip and made it so fun for everyone. They made all these fun memories possible! Thanks again!

Graduation!

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(pay no attention to the mysterious line of words I have mistakenly added and don't know how to remove)

He did it! Alex graduated last Thursday with his MBA. I am so proud of him I don't have the words to express the way I feel. He has worked so hard these past two years and while completing his degree, he has managed to become an even better husband, father, and leader. I thought I loved him 9 years ago, but this man continues to sweep me off my feet! Did I mention I am so proud of him?




Here is Max looking for daddy in the Marriott Center. He did so great during the graduation. (Thanks to Jenny and uncle Brad) He was so excited for dad's graduation party that we had up in Provo Canyon after the ceremony. It meant so much to have all of our family there.



These past 2 years have been an adventure. Allie was born during his first semester of MBA school, that was a crazy time for all. Now she is 18 months old! During Alex's 2nd year he took a field trip to Europe that he will never forget. We will miss the BYU football games, BYU bowling, Creamery ice cream, deer in our backyard, BYU devotionals, Matthew and Kathryn (cousins that live downstairs) and all the wonderful friends we have made. That is partially why it has taken me so long to write this blog. I think I am in denial that we have to leave them soon and say good bye! Alas, I thought I should face reality and share the good news that we are done with school! Now off for a couple fun vacations, and then back to work (in San Jose!)



This is a picture of our friends Mike and Melanie who are moving to San Jose with us! We are so excited to be there together. Max and Allie love playing with their kids Tyler and McKenzie.


We are so excited to go on our "graduation vacation" cruise to Cabo San Lucas this weekend. Thanks Brad and Teresa for watching the kids! We have never done a cruise before, so if you have any advice we'd love to hear it. I am looking forward to naps and sleeping in and reading a good book. Any suggestions on a good book? Oh, and of course the FOOD!

More random things...

Adding a little cultural diversity to our lives. On Saturday we went to the Festival of Colors at a Hindu temple in Spanish Fork. There were probably 5000 people there and they sold bags of color ( I think it was flour) to throw on each other. Max was so confused at first, but he really got into it and he and Allie loved it at the end. On the way home Max said, "That was a fun temple party!" Boy is he going to be confused!




This is one reason why we are excited to move to California. Can you believe it SNOWED yesterday! Come on! We are DONE with the snow!

Random Post of Everything

This is just another example of how our Easter turned out. They were going to be cute cupcakes for our friends. Why can't I make a simple CUPCAKE! Can anyone tell me what I did wrong? (Notice the ones in the back with wrappers turned out fine.) I am stumped!

Here is our belated Easter post. It was kind of a sorry Easter this year. We were recovering from colds and flus, our egg hunt on Saturday was in the dark and cold, and lets just say Sunday everyone was cranky and so we are happy its done. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Easter will come again next year! Really the kids didn't know any different. I was hoping that by separating the Easter bunny on Saturday and Jesus on Sunday that we could have 2 great days. Instead both were a flop! :) hee hee!


This one is for you, Dad! Here is our geode hunting trip... you can see the 2 big geodes Alex found (at least we hope they are geodes, he have yet to cut them open and see the insides). You know Max was L O V E loving the treasure hunt in the dirt!

An eventful week last week...

This week we went to the Bean museum as a family. It is a fun place that Max and Allie loves to go to. There are tons of animals stuffed and mounted on the walls. In case you were wondering...there really is such thing as a Liger! His name was Shasta and he lived at the Hogle Zoo and this is a picture of the kids and I infront of him. (past tense, of course he is stuffed now!)

Next picture is one of our favorite activities of the week...Library time! Every week we go and Allie loves it more than Max these days. Its pretty fun because they sing songs, do a puppet show and of course read a story!

Careful, the next one is a sad one...Max got the flu! Doesn't he look so miserable! Poor guy, he was so sick. It kept coming and going and after a week of him not feeling good I took him to the doctor and found out that he has pneumonia. We are glad to get him on medicine to start feeling better and have our busy 3yr old boy back.

Lastly, Allie has enjoyed having a sick brother, being in charge of all the toys in the house she has kind of taken over. Max can't keep up with her now! She even took over his superman cape and racecars! :) Thanks Max for sharing!