Beginning to feel a wee bit like Fall....

I didn't notice it last year, but this year I can tell the subtle change of seasons here in Southern California. The temperature is hot in the daytime and thankfully is beginning to cool at night. Some leaves do change color and fall here, however most just winterize meaning they aren't as green due to less sunlight hours. We are enjoying the Fall harvest as I am sure many of you are from your backyard gardens. Unlike you, our harvest is coming from one of the only actual farms left here on this fertile soil. We recently became part owners of the South Coast Organic Farm where we receive a weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) basket of food. The food is amazing! Sam loves to check out the bountiful basket and I enjoy the variety of vegetables that I normally wouldn't purchase. Why did we ever move away from this way of eating?




Check out this cheesy grin. Evan is all about smiling. He is enthusiastic about everything and is particularly fond of the bathroom. He's already locked himself in there and got the plastic bolt cover on the toliet stuck in his mouth. I can't believe he's ten months already and walking is just around the corner.

Big Week

Monday we celebrated Joe's 33rd year. Sam loves birthdays! He wants to celebrate any and all. He helped me make the birthday cake, frost and decorate it with of course, his guys. These particular guys happened to be surfing. We made signs, homemade cards, and wrapped up a few items from @ the house. As you can see below, Sam can't get enough of the frosting.

Tuesday was Sam's first day of Serra Preschool. On the way there he kept confirming with me that I would be dropping him off with his teacher and not staying with him. I could tell that he was a little nervous, but at the same time excited. He greeted his teacher with hand picked flowers, put his bucket in his cubby and was off. When I picked him up later he told me, "I had fun mom."

Our family band!
Julie-notice how Sammy plays the guitar.

The Van

In the Blackhurst Family when one says "the van" it brings up memories of one hiding in a row of seats after being picked up from junior high, or wrestling with several siblings on the back platform, or of course many of us experienced running out of gas because dad thought there was enough gas to take the scenic route home. For some reason our dad always had a special place in his garage for this beast and still does. Well, our little family decided to purchase a van which will hopefully bring new meaning to the word. So here we introduce our latest addition: The Carberry Eurovan. So scroll on down for a glimpse of some of the fun we have already experienced going to the beach with our new van.


At Old Man's Beach. Notice the pop top which allows for standing room and a built in bed. The back bench fold out into another bed. Sam has already taken dibs on the top bunk. Just think, now we have a traveling guest room!

Sam is showing how we use the inside table. There is also a small refridgerator underneath the back seat. I had to get over the whole sand in the van issue. We have a bucket of water for the dirty feet, a towel, and then we sweep the rest out with a broom.

Evan on the move. The van has earned its worth already just for the simple fact that Evan took three naps in there last Saturday at SanO. Because you will probably be seeing a lot more of the van in the camping months ahead, enjoy some cute photos of the boys that our friend Jeff Moag took.

p.s. Feel free to share some of your memories of the van. Love and miss you all!

So Squeezable!

Lately.....

Evan is on the move. He wants up and then down. Sam's Lego's are put up high. The books and magazines are flying off of the shelves. And yes Sue, my baskets under the bench are dumped out daily as you predicted. The beach now means constantly pulling the sand, seaweed, and other oddities out of his mouth which by the way is now filled with six rather large chompers (4 top, 2 bottom).




I like to blame the teeth for Evan's new resistance to sleep. He has been getting up every two hours at night and taking only two 30 min. naps in the day. He, I thought was my sleeper. As you other mamas with babes can understand this wears you down after several days of this and then you start to be short tempered, impatient, negative, all those lovely things that begin to wear on the rest of the family (sorry Joe). Ahhhhhh.......

Luckily Sam is sleeping soundly and eating.....& eating.....& eating. In the AM it goes something like this: cereal, juice, breakfast bar, toast or pancakes, ham or hard boiled egg, and after all of that he'll often have room for a smoothie. Imagine all of the feeding I'll be doing as the boys get older.
Random shot: This is Sam at his first Angel's baseball game which we got free tickets to a couple of wks. ago. Our seats were of course up in the nosebleed section so we tried to snag some empty seats a little closer. This was just before we got caught.


Evan looking so peaceful as he sleeps. Kristie has the magic touch and helped get him to nap several times while they were here vacationing. He's so precious....my cherub.

While Joe stayed home with our sleepy and not so sleepy wee ones, I got to to out and have a much needed night out with my girlfriend Grace. She had free tickets to a concert with Diana Krall at The Hollywood Bowl. The hour drive up to the city reminded my that my mom did this commute twice a day while she was here for her doula training, definitely an impressive feat and thank goodness for GPS. The concert was well worth the drive. Diana Krall is known for her soothing deep voice and smooth jazz on the piano. Check her out on Pandora.

The Hollywood Bowl. You might remember seeing it from the movie "Beaches".

Blackhurst 09'

Get Your T-Shirt!

Poor Ford.....attacked by mosquitoes and a big bump on the head.

Our first annual Blackhurst Reunion held at the Carberry Cabin. Everyone made it!

A lot of smooching happening in this one.....except for Brian showing off his muscles.

Our big, beautiful family.

Easton showing off his ride (Sam liked to call it his snowboard), and his hot mom.

Amy just prior to pulling out her double-ski wake riding skills. Tesla knows she has one cool mama. Grandpa Doug was impressed with all of the "old school" skiers showing up the "new school" wakeboarders.

North Beach is great for beaching the boat and just relaxing in the sand.

Uncle Russ-a natural. Doesn't he make everything look easy.

Oldest and second to the youngest of the crew thus far. Do you see the family resemblance here?

Evan loved the cool water and practically wanted to swim away. Look at his cute chubby body swimming with his Aunt Kristie. This is at the U of I private beach that we were able to poach because of all the hard work Adam did there.

Thanks everyone for making it happen! Can't wait to see what kind of fun we have again in 2010. We love and miss you all!

Beach Day (Riggins Style)

I love the sandy beaches along the Salmon River, and speaking now with actual beach experience, they are some of the best. We were feeling like summer weather so we loaded up kids and kayaks for a day trip down to the Salmon River Canyon. Russ drove up from Boise to join us. I think his motivation was to surf Gold's but he was up for the adventure with our babes.

The big boys started out with a surf session while the little boys threw rocks in the river. From there we found our own private beach where the big boys jumped off the cliffs and the little boys played in the sand. As sun saturation set in, Russ took off in front of us to begin picking wild cherries. We helped and couldn't stop. It is so hard to leave delicious, ripe fruit hanging for the birds.

While the big boys took "one more" surf, I drove the little boys further up the river for nappy time. When everyone seemed satisfied and hungry we left and drove up and over the steep canyon walls (Sam kept thinking it was a motorcycle trail). We continued through Burgdorf Hotsprings where we stopped for a soak then back to McCall for Burgers at My Father's Place. The big boys and little boys were oh so tired which makes for one happy mama.

Cherry Pie from our mini wild cherries which took FOREVER to pit. Thanks to Grandma Sue for making it happen!


Boy will be boys!