The Spencer Twins

In September, We went camping at Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu. We were there for 5 days as Dad commuted in each day for work. Joining us was Grandma and Papa. Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Bruce came out for a couple of nights and stayed in a nearby motel.

A lot of pictures weren’t taken as the main photographer was working, but here are a few fun pictures from the trip.

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Mammoth Mountain decided to hold it’s 1st annual Mud Run. What better excuse to go to beautiful Mammoth Mountain. The race was a 6K starting and ending in the village, with the first portion of the run on the street going up to Canyon Lodge. From there we waded/swam through our first water obstacle.

We ran across the loading area of the lifts at the bottom of the mountain then straight up the mountain, were we crawled through mud, climbed on stacked trees, ran through water spraying the course and eventually run down a rocky dirt path back to the village. Once at the village we had to slide head-first down a flight of stairs that was covered with padding, water and soap for extra speed and climbing over snow at the finish line. It was a lot of fun but definitely very hard.

So we asked Granny and Grandpa to join us for the weekend’s festivities and to watch the kids while we did our run. Total time was about an hour to complete the race. The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of bands playing daily and nightly. It was a good time all around. . We did some hiking and a ride on the gondola to the top of the mountain, which was still covered in snow. Here are some pictures from that weekend.

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Simi Valley Parks and Recs celebrated it’s 50th anniversary by throwing 4 musical events at the same time throughout parks in Simi Valley. One was literally across the street from our house, but it wasn’t our style of music. We ended up at a 70′ disco band, Boogie Nights and our friends John, Marie and their son Justin came out for the evening. Here are some pictures from that day.

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After Corryn did her impromptu modeling shoot over the 4th of July, there have been a few more times since that we were able to catch. She now got Brady involved. Mom happened upon them playing on got a few shoots of them.

I’m not putting in any comments, as the pictures speak volumes.

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Here are some pictures from July 2011 of various activities from the kids. It was another great summer with tons of fun.

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After spending the day at Granny and Grandpa’s house, swimming in their next door neighbor’s, Bill and Louise’s pool, it was time for fireworks. After some debate on what or where to go, we all settled in for a home-style firework show. The neighbors had quite the stash and it was a good time. Here are some funny moments from that night.

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In our quest to find new places to go camping, we decided to take a trip North of Santa Barbara, near Lompoc, to Jalama Beach. It was a warm weekend where we live and it looked to be good timing. The thing about Jalama, that we didn’t know until camping there is, it’s quite windy….to say the least. In four days of camping, we probably spend no more than 90mins TOTAL on the beach, due to cold, heavy wind. and we were right across the street and over a sand dune from it.  There was at least one afternoon we spent entirely in the trailer due to cold wind. We’re told there are times in the year it’s not windy, but when an area is known for wind or kite surfing, it’s windy!!!

Here are some pics from that trip.

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As mentioned before, the kids’ third birthday was being held in Hawaii. The party was day after Amie and Joe’s wedding. Surprisingly, they were the first guests to show up.

For their birthday we planned a BBQ for the whole family, Joe’s included. As a surprise, Mom found a hula dancer and guitar player to perform at their birthday. Here are pictures from that day.

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Cousin Amie and Joe were getting married while we were all in Hawaii. They asked Corryn and Brady to be a part of their special day, by being ring bearer and flower girl. They were amazing. They did exactly what they were told and executed it perfectly. After the wedding the reception followed immediately at the hotel’s grounds. Brady and Corryn danced all night and never once showing a sign being too tired. We left minutes before it officially ended we had to peel them off the dance floor.

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It seemed like forever to get to this day, but it was finally here. Mom threw it out on their second birthday, to have Hawaii be the party destination for their third birthday. The real planning started in October once we got our plane tickets. All of Mom’s immediate family, Aunts, Uncles and the cousins, all joined in. This was going to be a very special birthday, vacation, and first time on a plane.

In December, cousin Amie and her boyfriend Joe, or as the kids call him, JoJo, got engaged. They were already planning to come and decided to get married there, since Amie’s side of the family was going to be there already. The kids were asked to be in their wedding as flower girl and ring bearer. The kids were the only wedding party, which made it that much more special. Here are highlights from the trip. (Birthday party and wedding in other posts to come.)

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