Fillmore love!

We live right next to the beautiful start of the Sespe mountain range - a few minutes walk!  When it rains we get some of the Sespe river too! One of the kiddos favorite things to do is walk or catch tadpoles and play by the creek or dry creek bed when no rain!  I can't resist taking photos here as it is especially pretty this time of year - here are photos from a few of our river walks lately!

Dusk my favorite time of day! 

A boy and his dog

The kiddos! 

Exploring with friends!

Rock hopping! 

 Colt loves the flowers too! 

My running buddy! 

The view from walking path!

My favorite photo by the river!

2015 Reading Challenge Review and Favorite Reads

At the beginning of every year I do a wrap up of my favorite reads from the previous year. Last year I committed to the 2015 Reading Challenge where I picked books from different categories, and I did pretty good with almost completing the whole challenge!

Here are the books I read to complete the challenge!

• A Book Published this year: At the Waters Edge, by Sara Gruen
• A Book in a genre you don't typically read: (biography!):  My Life in France, by Julia Child 
• A book everyone's reading All the Light we Cannot See, by Anthony Doer 
• A book you chose because of its cover: Huckleberry - A cookbook!  Couldn't resist! 
• A Book by A favorite author: After You, by Jojo Moyes  (def not as good as Before You)
• A book recommended by someone with great taste : Follow The River, by James Alexander Thom
• A book you should have read in High school:  For Whom the Bells Toll, by Ernest Hemingway  - actually I am still reading this one - it is slow and hard to get through but I enjoy the writing! 
• A book that's currently on the best seller list: The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown

Here are some other books I did not read in the challenge but I really want to read this year!

• A Book you have been meaning to read: Still Alice by Lisa Genova 
• A Book your mom loves: WALDEN or The Children's Blizzard (fact)  or Devil Colony ( fiction but lots of scientific fact)
• A book from my Childhood: The Borrowers by Mary Norton
• A book originally written in another language: Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• OTHER books by favorite authors: Lisa See - China Dolls OR Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl OR The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant (The Red Tent was one of my fav books of all time!)

Anyway for My FAVORITE BOOKS of 2015...I read a lot of middle of the road books - i.e. 3 star*** books and none that I rated 5***** stars, so I really do not have any TOP favorites that you just HAVE to read, but a few good ones - 4**** star reads! - that would be worth your time!

Follow The River, by James Alexander Thom 

Probably my favorite read of the year! WOAH - this story was insane and what a crazy story of survival and determination! Honestly I did not know this was a true story until the authors note at the end with the history of the story. Throughout the book I thought there were some areas which were unbelievable and I thought the author could have made it more believable, but then when I realized at the end it was based on a true life account, I realized most of it really did happen and was impressed with the story.   Goes to show real life is stranger than fiction. So the story was awesome and the author did a pretty good job of filling in the blanks, but honestly he could have cut a third out of the book as about a third of it was the same journey trials over and over...but an amazing story and a fast read! Caution though - a few gory parts in the book too so would not recommend for younger readers. 

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Philbrick

This on was a doozy of a read and I started it at the end of December but finished it in 2016 but the movie about this is coming out so I would read it before the movie comes out! Very intense and what a story!

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

A touching heartwarming story of strength and courage to overcome hardships and endurance to persevere! Loved reading more about rowing and feeling more of a connection to a family member who coaches rowing at Stanford. Now I get what it is all about (well without the blood sweat and tears of it!) . A well written story interspersed with some facts about Germany during the Olympic days before WWII.

My Name Used to Be Muhammed: The True Story of a Muslim Who Became a Christian

Wow - what a story! I knew this was about a man who converted from Islam religion to Christianity (Mormon) but did not realize that he had been so deep in the Islamic Culture - the stories about his family are heartbreaking. The stories about his time in an Egyptian prison are crazy and the fact that he spent years in prison because of his conversion just makes me appreciate the freedom of religion we have in America! What a strong man and a amazing story.

And as always I post my reads and often a short review on Goodreads! 

And I need to start sharing some of my kids favorite reads too!  Shayla is my voracious reader so I will have to pass on some of her favorite as well!  

Here's to your happy reading in 2016!

Christmas Memories 2016

Christmas Day!  A day to celebrate Christ's birth!  We try to keep Christ in Christmas by focusing on helping others, reading Christmas stories of giving and cheer every night in December, giving gifts related to the gifts the Wise men gave the Savior and surrounding our self with family!

Kids on Christmas morning!

Stocking time!

Celebrating Christmas with Nanny and Poppa and Rachel and her family!

The Nelson Family Christmas Day 2015

The joy of opening a gift!

Spy stuff for Shayla! The kids asked for Spy stuff, Skylanders and Legos.  We don't overwhelm them with gifts as they get 3 main gifts but they did get Skylander and Lego Dimensions and Spy stuff too!  They were happy. 

The kids participate in a Secret Santa at their school where people donate gifts and the kids shop for their family member - everything is $1 - and the money raised from selling the gifts goes to a Charity!  It is a great project for all!  Mitchell got Jon a "Bacon Cookbook"

We had Christmas Dinner at Rachel's House - cousin love!

Megan and her family came to visit the week after Christmas so we got to spend more time with our Abbott cousins too!  The kids always love going in the river bed. 

My beautiful sister!

The kids having fun with the jeep and Skateboard

Fun times!

And that ends another Christmas season!  My favorite part of the season is getting to spend time with family!  I am so blessed to have a wonderful family and a wonderful family I married into! I am grateful that our Heavenly Father gave us the gift of eternal life and forever families! That's the best gift I could ever hope for!

Summer Fieldtrips

As part of my photo catch up from the summer, I am sharing some of the photos from our summer outings this summer!  We normally do family vacations/trips in fall or spring and not summer, so we do a lot of local trips in the summer and we love it that way!  We live so close to so many wonderful places and things to do!

Ventura County Fair

The kids entered some projects for 4h.  Here they are with their art projects.

My little farmer wannabes!

Shayla won 1st place for her Succulant planting

We love the Fair! 

And a fish to take home too! (Shayla chose a fish for her summer earned rewards so it worked out when we went to the fair that she could pick one from the games!) 

Lake Casitas Water Adventure! 

First year going here and it was nice - a small version of water park with Lazy river and splash pad.

  

More camping fun!  

We joined 11 families campaign at Carpinteria State Beach and has a great time with them all!  

A group of us did the Junior Ranger program to the Salt Marsh nearby which was neat!  I did not know there were sting rays and sharks in the salt marsh area! 

Family style eating!  Love this group of friends! 

Boogie boarding kiddos!  They love to boogie board!  I love this shot by my friend Sierra! 

Over the river and through the hills to Grandmas house we go!

We love visiting our Grandma Betty and got to go see her this summer! 

Birthday fun at Pump it Up!

Visiting Sylmar Wildlife Learning Center! 

Girl Scout events - we went to a STEM event where Shayla got to build her own tin can robot!  It was an awesome experience and all girl led!  very cool! 

Sea World!  We went to San Diego and got to go to Sea World with my dear friend Corrinne and her beautiful girls! 

Fish at Sea World! 

Sea World Atlantic ride! 

The kids checking out the San Diego Temple! 

One of the coolest things we did this summer was go to the Specila Olympics which were based in LA this year! We had fun cheering on the gymnastics and football! 

And tasting sodas from around the world!  Bibo was our favorite!

  

And cheering with Apollo Ono!

Go team USA!!!