Osbornes: The Next Generation

My brother Alex, his wife Morgan and their son Iver recently moved into their own apartment in Santa Ana! Alex got a great job at the local Habitat for Humanity and now they're only 30 minutes away...we're very happy about it. And of course my brother Brian (with Kirsti, Navy, and Audio) lives in Ventura and is killing it as a designer for Neff.

So when we scored an awesome Groupon deal for 2 nights at a cabin in Big Bear, we decided to make it a family affair! It was the first time our three families had an adventure away together without the parents. It was cool to get a first glimpse into the next generation of Osbornes! (and Harris:)

We had an aweeesssome time snowboarding in the sun, taking turns with the kids at the lodge. We hit up Sizzler, played late night Banangrams, and a took a beautiful lake side walk. How cute are my niece and nephews?!

I feel so lucky to have all these guys so close and to all be friends! It makes me happy.

It's fun to think the next winter there will be one more munchkin added to the mix!! Do you think he/she will be able to do the moose??

Baby on board

Holy Moly, am I really posting this??? It's getting really real.

Shane and I have been married more than 6 years now and have finally

decided we're sticking this thing out. So the next logical thing to do...have a babe!

Baby Surf. Mini Moose. Baby Long Time. Little Shally.

We had our first doctor's appointment on Valentine's Day, and saw this:

A really cool memory for us. We saw the baby kicking and rolling over already! The doc told us I was about 11 or 12 weeks along!

We were happy to see the baby alive and well and to get a due date: Sept. 1st.

This weekend we got together with Alex and Brian's families and broke the news.

It was a lot of fun:)

Our little one is going to be lucky to have cousins so close!!

We had a totally awesome, beautiful, sunny San Onfore surf session together.

A day I won't forget!

My wetsuit is about to get real stretched out.

Slumber Party!

Remember how stoked you'd get when your mom let you have a sleep over??

I do. And this weekend, we ladies gave ourselves permission.

I met up with these awesome girls after work Friday.

We dined at a tasty Mexican place on PCH and watched the sun go down over chips and salsa.

Then we saw saw the ultimate chick flick, "The Vow."

Although we did have some qualms, overall we really liked it. We all cried...some more than others...(you had to be there).

Next, we settled in at this rad place (Sarah's family's Laguna Beach apartment). We had a gab fest until the wee hours of the morning. Well...1:30am seems really late for me now! My late night, early morning rock star life is faaaar behind me.

What did we do in the morning? What else? EAT! Its was pretty delicious.

Sarah's little sis, Sandy, met up with us later and she and I hit the beach. We tossed around the frisbee,

played a rousing beach volleyball game with a group of strangers, and then topped it off with a no-wet suit dip in the ocean!

Just what the doctor ordered.

This little excursion really renewed my thankfulness for my friends. I don't have sisters, so girlfriends are soooo needed!

And I'm so lucky to have them! Thank you Sarah, Amy, Dara, and Sandy! Love you all.

24 hours of...fun?

I was asked to accompany the youth to the stake snow trip last weekend. Shane was so nice and agreed to go with me (we both have callings with the youth). And thank my lucky stars he was there...

We met at the church and swapped cars with the YW Pres, who has a mini van to fit lots of teenagers in. We bravely headed into the Friday afternoon traffic, towards the mountains. After 3 hours in the car (1.5 without traffic) we were finally heading up the hill to the campsite. And then we hear a sound...a bad sound. It quickly got worse. We pulled over, popped the hood only to watch smoke billow out into the cold air. GREAT! With a car full of hungry, antsy kids (myself included), we start flagging down passing cars asking for coolant because we believe the car has over heated. Cell reception is terrible and we can't reach of anyone from camp. After about an hour someone finally gets our message and rescues us! We find out we're only 2 miles from camp. Soon after, they somehow get the van started and get it up to camp. Whew.

We scarf down some chili and hang around in the lodge util MIDNIGHT. But not without some awkward karaoke and chili stomach aches.

I head over to the women's stake cabin only to find that it's freezing cold due to broken heaters. So I drag my stuff (mattress pad included) over to the girls' massive cabin, full of every girl in the stake. The iPod is pumping and the hour is late. But at least it's warm! I am finally able to shut it down and get to sleep around 1:30.

5am. Everyone is fast asleep. At least I think.

I am awoken by the most excruciating scream I HAVE EVER HEARD. Someone is in real trouble. Someone has found a dead body. Someone sees a bear in the cabin. Someone is getting attacked.

I sit up, ready to stare fear in the face and be heroic.

The bathroom door flies open. One of the LEADERS is standing in the doorway and shrieks, "I'm standing in PEE!!!" Yep. Pee. The toilet had overflowed and she was standing in pee. Pee was the dead body.

By this time every girl and leader in the cabin is awake. I can tell this leader isn't planning on taking care of this situation quietly. I get up, put on my boots, walk in the bathroom and close the door behind me. I calm the pee-footed lady and start sopping up the pee water. The toilet is really plugged and it takes me some hard labor to get the water level down. After a half hour I send us both back to bed.

7:30 am. "It's 7:30 everybody! Breakfast is at 8!" says lady pee-foot. It's not. It's at 8:30. I finally roll out of bed, into the bathroom and here are some things she says during face washing and teeth brushing: "So are you talking to me?" "You'd do the same thing if you were half asleep standing in pee!" "Well, I just like funny stories." Uh huh.

Back to the lodge for breakfast. One of the leaders is a mechanic and he looked at the smoking van. He doesn't think we should drive it home. The awesome just doesn't stop coming!!

Luckily, Shane had recently upgraded to AAA Plus, which tows up to 100 miles. It's 96 miles to Long Beach. 2 hours later I'm sitting in the back of a tow truck with "Larry from Ucipa." (We sent our kids home with other stake members.) Once again, I thank my lucky stars Shane was there! I went right to sleep in the back of the bumpy truck and woke up right where I started.

What an awesome 24hrs, huh?! Hey, it makes for a "funny story," right?

Friday Surf Day and more...

I need to take more pictures.

I don't have any new ones for you, but this one makes me happy!

And it's very telling of our weekends lately.

We LOVE to surf and it puts us in high spirits.

We decided to take Friday afternoons off so we can surf together. This was our second week of Friday Surf Day, and we can already tell we made the right decision. It's our favorite activity. I'm really proud and thankful to Shane for braving the cold waters and paddling out to surf the big waves. He's awesome and it makes me so happy to do something together that we both love so much.

After our surf session Friday, Shane took me to a fun local play:

Saturday we had another fun surf session with my brother Alex.

I got frustrated because I was using a tiny, difficult surf board, but then Shane traded me for his longer board and I rode some sweet waves. When we were packing up Shane says, "So, Sally catches and few waves and the world is great again." He got me.

This is our chosen surf spot lately, the Huntington Beach cliffs.

It was 80 degrees and sunny! You just can't beat it. Really.

Then we went to a really great baptism where both Shane and I shed many o' tear.

Afterwards we went to the movies to see...

I felt like I was on a ledge the whole two hours. We give it a thumbs up.

Sunday was a beautiful day of rest.

Now back to work! "Drop and give me 20, you hoodlums!"

Quotable quotes from the children in my life.

"Guys! Guys! We forgot the cuddle!!" - First grade boy during a flag football game.
"My growing pains are really hurting today." - First grade girl, holding her side ache during warm up run.
"My doctor said that if I don't stand in the shade...I will SHRINK!" - First grade girl on a very hot day.
"I just prefer academics. P.E. should NOT be mandatory." - One of MANY funny quotes from a very smart 3rd grade boy (2nd picture down, on the right) who hates P.E. He has founded his own "Global Airlines" and takes people on flights during recess. He gives me quizzes on the capitals of the world daily. He's 7. He's going to be rich someday.
"Let's do the DNA play. We'll cross through each other and form DNA!" - 7th grade boy in the huddle during football game.
"Each shot is a parabola." - Same 7th grade boy during basketball.
They crack me up.

Goodbye Guam...

Hello New Mexico!

My parents and little bros have moved again! My dad recently retired from the FBI after 25 years of bustin up the bad guys.

To my delight his new employment has brought the family closer to me!! He will be doing Chinese counterintelligence work at the Sandia Labratory in Albuquerque.

They came for a few days to meet the newest grandbaby,

Iver, so we were able to sneak in a Christmas Eve surf sesh!

It was a beautiful afternoon with a huge pod of dolphins hanging out with us:)

After surfing, we flew to Albuquerque to meet my parents for Christmas!

They had the apartment all decorated and ready for us, it was awesome.

We spent the week snowboarding, rock climbing, longboarding, watching movies,

school shopping, exploring the new city, and maybe pulling a few shenanagins...

Snowboarding is what the boys were most excited about moving to Albuquerque

(other than being closer to their 3 older siblings of course!)

So we hit the slopes hard (2 full days!).

It was a total blast! It was sunny, warm, and beautiful. Sam and Joe were kicking bootay.

We took a beautiful hike on the mountain side right behind my parents' new house.

(Yes, they already found the perfect house and will be moving in soon!)

It was a great way to finish an awesome week with awesome people.

Thanks to my parents for being SO generous and making it super

memorably epic Christmas break.

Here's to seeing you four WAY more often!!

To see more pics http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100278932708589.2501694.17809381&type=1

(Snow, surf, skate video coming soon...)

26?

26. Yep, I'm now on to my second 25 years. Weird. But hey, at least birthdays give me an extra excuse to really party it up! The night before my birthday we had dinner with friends Mike, Kayla, Micha and Evie, who bought us dinner and a birthday cake! They're so fun and thoughtful.

On the morning of my birthday, I went on a nice solo surf session. Then Shane surprised me at work bearing gifts! He is so nice and so cute; I was happy to get to show him off to everyone at work:) That night we went out to dinner with Alex, Morgan, and Iver - so fun.

The next day we went snowboarding!! Sarah, Bryant, Kyle, Shane, and I piled in a van and headed up to Big Bear, about an hour and half away. It was a dream. Finally it pays off to be from Idaho! I loved every second of the day. Shane did amazingly well, having only been a handful of times. Sarah and Bryant are new to the snow and are both catching on great (I won't mention Sarah lost control and came FLYING down the mountain at one point...and somehow came away alive. hilarious.) And Kyle is at the same level as me, so it was really fun to ride with him.

P.S. Be sure to notice my really hip 1989 red ski jumpsuit that I snagged from a Goodwill bin.

I love California. I love my friends. I love my husband! 2 days of awesomeness. Here's to life as a 26 year old!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving, to give me an extra reminder of the abundant blessings a very loving Heavenly Father has given me.

I'm thankful for my girls, Sarah and Sandy, who I'm positive were meant to be my sisters, just a little later in life. I'm thankful we coincidentally all wore matching denim shirts to our surprisingly fun Thanksgiving-eve bowling night.

I'm thankful Sarah was woman enough to do the Long Beach Turkey Trot, and that she, Sandy and I laughed through the entire thing. I'm thankful Shane and his friends ran it too, and that Shane rocked it.

I'm thankful to have both my older brothers and their families close by. I'm thankful for the generous and totally awesome Roberston family, and that they had us over this year. I'm thankful for my 2 sister-in-laws who I admire so much and love to be around. I'm thankful for my cutest niece and nephews, who I didn't know I could love so much. I'm thankful for surfing, and for the most epic post-Thanksgiving family surf session ever.

The list could go on forever:)