Cinco De Mayo

Haven't blogged in a while, I suppose you could say life has been a little busy lately. Nevaeh started kindergarten and celebrated her 5th birthday, Trinity started preschool and celebrated her 4th birthday, Selah is growing like a weed and will soon be turning one! And if all of that wasn't exciting enough we found out early September that we are expecting baby #4!!! May 5th 2012 another little miracle will be added to the Winters household and we couldn't be more thrilled. Nevaeh and Trinity are super excited and are praying for a brother, I reminded them that it could very well be another little sister and they were okay with that. While this pregnancy is a lot different than my others I am still expecting baby to be another girl. Aside from the ever so wonderful morning sickness I have crazy fatigue ( couldn't have anything to do with the fact I'm chasing 3 little rugrats around everyday) and am super sensitive to smells. It's a package deal, these symptoms just come with the territory, I am so excited about the end reward and am thankful to have an amazing family and a wonderful, supportive husband. Gender will be revealed early December. Guesses? ( not what you hope I'm having, but what you truly think I'm having:) )

Winters Family Adventure 2011

Our family vacation, or as we like to call in The Winters Family Adventure 2011, was both amazing and exhausting. It came with many sets of challenges but above all else gave us some quality family time and memories we will only laugh about later.
I must say first and foremost we had an amazing time on our trip. There is always so much to discover out in the Eastern Sierras. Family, food, fishing, hiking, old gold mines , hot showers and the scenery is just breathtaking. We did however hit a few little "bumps in the road" and so the "adventure" begins.
We got to camp only to find out our electric wasn’t working, but we shook it off. Then Day 1 of our trip I got super sick and ended up in the ER and was treated for strep and pneumonia. I had one day of rest but didn’t let getting sick stop me. We enjoyed Lee Vining went on a few hikes with the whole family, it was a blast!Our girls had a blast with all of their cousins, we had Jason's entire family there this year. This was my parents first trip to Lee Vining so we wanted them to see a little bit of everything, Yosemite, Lundy Lakes, Mammoth and more. An interesting fact, the water levels were higher than they have been since the 30’s, many of the campsites we have stayed at in years past were under water this year. Only downside was Yosemite was CRAZY BUSY because the falls are so huge.

Day 3 Jason ended up in the ER for the same reason I was there, then it rained for the first time taht we have ever traveled to Lee Vining( I'm going on 7 years this year) We made a day out of it in Mammoth though ( trying to entertain three kids in a trailer for an entire day to escape the rain is nearly impossible). We even ran into some friends of ours from Ramona who happened to be on their family vacation at the same time.
My parents left on Saturday, Sunday we went to church in June Lake then headed on the Rainbow Falls/ Devils Postpile hike, it was beautiful. And while we were in Mammoth we ran into a good friend of ours David Porter who joined us on our hike.
Monday we celebrated the 4th of July in Bridegport, as always. We enjoyed battling it out in the Mud Volleyball tournament, playing on the jumpies at the courthouse and eating yummy food. It was here we decided that we would try something new, pack up Tuesday morning and head to Lake Tahoe. Jason had fun childhood memories there, floating down the Truckee River, eating breakfast at Ponderosa and taking the cable cars up to Squaw Valley. So we made the trek, found a great camp spot right by the beach, set up the trailer, swam in the lake for a bit and had a relaxing night with our girls. The next morning we found out that Ponderosa closed in 2004, Jason was bummed. At least we had the rafting trip. So we headed up to the Truckee River, stopped to buy Selah a life vest discovering there was a bunch of money missing out of our account. All of it to be exact. We were in Tahoe with no money, no gas and three kids. See what I mean about adventure. Praise the Lord for free wifi at McDonalds, I jumped on the internet, found the problem, Chase fixed it and we were back and ready for action! We FIANLLY made it to the rafting company only to find out IT WAS CLOSED FOR THE SEASON! AH! Apparently because of the high levels of water this year the base of the river was flooded so they had the dam closed not allowing any more water down the Truckee.

At this point Jason and I questioned why we ever came to Tahoe. As we headed back to camp feeling stressed and defeated I received a text message from a dear friend Lori Bassham inviting us for dinner in Tahoe. They were on their family trip only 15 minutes away from us. ( Her Mom Ginny read on my Facebook Profile that we were in Tahoe and gave Lori a call)We were THRILLED!!! And to make this dinner date even better, they had coordinated with our friends Aaron and Carol Gayden who live an hour away, to meet up with us as well. These folks are some of our FAVORITE people ever. So we got ready, spent the afternoon with our girls then headed for dinner. It was loud, crowded, a little chaotic with all our kiddos but we had a blast! That dinner made our Tahoe Trip! We decided to start our way home the next day to break our drive into 2 (6 Hour) driving days allocating time for a few stops along the way. First stop was a cable car trip up to Squaw Valley which is some one the best Ski area ever. They hosting the Olympics there in the late 60’s. It was really fun traveling up the cable cars, a little freaky, but our girls absolutely loved it. Second stop was supper at Aaron & Carol Gaydens house where we grilled some carne asada, visited Aarons studio and just enjoyed each others company for a while. We made the trek down the 101 and stayed IN A HOTEL! It was heaven after camping for over a week. We swam in a pool, slept in a super comfortable bed, woke up and ate a breakfast I didn’t have to prepare, it was great! Then we started the trek home. Not a lot to say accept our 6 hour drive home turned into a nearly 12 hour drive home because of unexpected traffic and another ER pit stop. Jason was suffering from a weird unexplainable fever. So we made a pit stop in San Marcos then I drove the rest of the way home ( driving a trailer is scary.) As soon as we pulled into Ramona a sense of peace came over me. It felt so good to be home. So that was our adventure. Life has a way of creating challenges and adding a few bumps in the road. We got to a point where we just looked at each other and laughed. We may have had a lot of “issues” with this years trip but we still had an amazing family adventure. Dare I say, I am looking forward to what God has in store for us next summer!

Better Late Than Never

So it's been a couple off months since I have blogged last and once you read this you will understand why. At the end of May I had the honor of shooting Paul & Cindy Ransoms Wedding. It was a beautiful wedding full of friends and family from our church. June we hit the summer running, Nevaeh graduated from Busy Bee Preschool we had a wonderful MVCC Staff Retreat at Boomers and then I left for Summer Camp. I spent a whole week with 20 of our MVCC kiddos at Indian Hills Camp in Jamul, it was a blast! I came back mid week of camp for a day to pack for our family camping trip. I got home Friday, finished packing Saturday then we left Sunday after the church picnic for Lee Vinning. We call this trip our 2 Week Winters Family Adventure(Vacation Blog to follow) The day after we returned from our trip I had the priveledge of shooting my friend Sarah's wedding. It was a mini high school reunion for me, I had a blast and she was one stunning bride.
After spending a few days getting " back in the swing of things", my sister-in-laws and I spent the day at Glen Ivy for our birthdays. It was so nice having a day to myself. Lots of fun and exciting stuff. I have a few more birthday celebrations this week, our 6 year anniversary is coming up then I get to look forward to Catalina in August. I feel so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to do lots of fun things and am thankful for the strength and energy God has blessed me with to do them.

A Dozen Blessings for Hope

At 1:08am Monday morning I woke up to my dog Hope barking from the laundry room. She had delivered her first puppy and freaked out. I calmed her down, laid her on her blanket and handed her baby boy. He was so tiny! I got a little nervous, which is silly because I wasn't the one in labor. The second puppy was born about 15 minutes later. I had to kind of help her find the puppy and prompt the clean up. The third puppy came and she was a pro! The first four came quickly ( about 15-20 minutes apart)the next 6 came about every 30-40 minutes, an hour later was puppy #11 and an hour after that puppy #12. I was up the entire 7 hours, giving Hope food & water, petting her, helping the pups find food, ect.


It was an incredible experience, I just hope next time she delivers during the day so the girls can be there for it. They ere pretty excited to wake up to 12 puppies in the house though. She is such a good mommy, it is really neat to see my crazy, hyper puppy turn into a calm, mature, responsible "woman" over the course of a couple weeks.


Now I am the proud owner 12 Golden Retriever Puppies for the next 8 WEEKS!

Meet Bandit The Racoon, he is going to help me see how fast the puppies grow week by week.

We ROC'd it!

Hubby, a few friends and I ran in the Ridiculous Obstacle 5 K Race today and had a BLAST! The course was made of of a 3.2 mile run with 12 obstacles. We climbed over a snow covered " mountain", across monkey bars with giant Gorilla Men hitting us with bananas, slid down a hill while being soaked with fire hoses only to land in a giant pit of mud. Wait it gets even better. We roped climbed up a giant dirt hill, slid down a crazy scary fireman pole, raced up a giant inflatable slide, went over & under fences and metal poles, ran through tunnels, crossed a balance beam, dodged giant balls, summited a mountain of tires, jumped over a 6 foot wall, and finished the race swinging by rope over a giant pool of mud. I missed a few of the obstacles but those were the ones that stood out. We had a blast running this race together and look forward to putting a GIANT team together next year! Del Mar Fairgrounds is hosting a Mud Run on October 15th, who's in?

Grandpa Jauregui

A few days ago my Grandpa, Henry Jauregui ( My Dad's Dad) suffered a major heart attack. Doctors wanted to operate but couldn't right away because he had fluid in his lungs. After weighing out many different options the family decided to bring him home, with all of his medications while we waited for his surgery. We wanted an opportunity to spend some time with him in the comfort of home, surrounded by family and familiar things, not a hospital bed. His surgery is scheduled for tomorrow and I am asking whoever is willing to add my Grandpa Jauregui to their prayers. Doctors are giving him a 25%-30% survival rate, because he is already in poor health. But I serve an amazing God who can perform miracles. I surrender to His will but am asking that he heal my grandfather (age 79) so we can spend some more time with him. We had a great time with the family yesterday celebrating his 79th birthday, my grandmothers 75th birthday and my Dad's 47th birthday. So if you are willing, please shout out a little prayer for Henry Jauregui.

Safari Park Half Marathon

Many of you know I have been training for this Half Marathon since January and have been following my progress via FACEBOOK. After having Selah I wanted to set a fitness goal for myself. Inspired by the show the Biggest Loser I signed up for a Half Marathon giving myself three months to train for the run. Today March 13th 2011 was the day I had been training for.
My good friend Melissa Lull and I registered together, we had an amazing dinner the night before and woke up at 4:15am (3:15am because of daylight savings), ate breakfast and headed to the Safari Park for the big event.

We arrived at the park just before 6am, checked in our gear, stretched and warmed up. It was freezing! At this point my nerves had settled and my adrenaline kicked in. There was no turning back now. The race began and all 3600 participants started the 13.1 mile trek!

During my training I always had a hard time with the first couple miles, my body kept saying, "why are we doing this again?" That wasn't the case today. The first 5 miles were a breeze, we made it to the 6.5 mile mark before we stopped. Melissa needed to make a pit stop and I walked waiting for her to catch up. About a quarter mile later we were back to business. We passed mile marker 7 and mile marker 8 felt like FOREVER to show up. Just before we started to get discouraged we saw a mile marker sign ahead and to our surprise it was mile 9! We were stoked!!!We kept a good pace and right around mile 11 I was starting to struggle a bit. We hit a GU station (it's an energy supplement) walked for a minute on the uphill to catch my breath then started back up again. Seeing the mile 12 marker gave me a light at the end of the tunnel. After we passed mile 13 we could hear and see the festivities at the finish line. So we ran hard to finish strong.

Aside from my wedding day and the birth of my three daughters, crossing that finish line was one the most rewarding experiences ever! I set a goal to finish within 3 hours, I trained hard and I finished with time to spare. Finishing time was 2:33:54. I crossed the line next to one of my best friends Melissa Lull, had an amazing group of girls cheering us on ( Nicole, Jessica, baby Whitney and Shara) and have had an amazing support team of family and friends encouraging me on this journey.

They handed us some water and our Half Marathon Finishers Medal. We cooled down then found our cheer squad.




I was inspired by the Biggest Loser Show to get out and do this. The contestants have always said, " If I can do this anyone can." I took that challenge and found it to be true! So I forward this challenge to all my family and friends...we are all at different levels, some of us runners, some barely able to walk, we gotta start somewhere. Set a goal, work hard and through the strength of Christ all things are possible.