We shall start with a vacation....

From the valley to the mountains!  Labor Day weekend was the perfect chance to get away from the suburbs!  If you have teens you know that packing for a trip can be a battle...we told them three outfits, a bathing suit, and Pj's thats it!!  We packed the girls in the car

and hit the road!  The pressure girls have to look perfect all the time was thrown out the window!  They were free to wear what they wanted, to be make up free, and throw their hair in a pony tail! 

We were all unplugged from our electronic devices and it felt good.  We kept so busy...it was hard for us to check emails, log onto to Facebook, or Twitter!  We had Olympic style games each night...

And hung out by the lake all day!  Bass Lake is like a 5 hour drive for us but worth every hour.  We love the long chats, and stories the girls tell us during the car ride!  It was a priceless weekend spent with family, we are so lucky to be so close to our extended family.  We had great-grandpa, great uncle and auntie, and plenty of cousins.  The girls are well aware that if they ever need anything they have a huge list of people that they can turn to.  We love that the girls keep that line of communication open with the family...in this day in age at any given time they are facebooking, texting, or IMing someone in the family.