We spent a fantastic weekend in Shelter Cove with Leisa, Josh and the little ones. Check out the progress the crew is making on the remodel! We've got a roof now, and getting ready to install the windows.




It's pretty scary watching the workers up on the roof - Cade has been using his climbing gear to stay safe! Here's a shot looking down from the lot on the hill above.

The surf was unbelievable this weekend - record-breaking swells of 20 to 25 feet with waves 30 feet and higher. I went down to Black Sands Beach to go jogging. There is usually a 200 ft to 350 ft wide area between the beach and the cliffs where I run, but this weekend there was absolutely NO beach! The waves were crashing clear up to the cliffs - I've never seen anything like it!



You could hear the surf crashing from miles away. The waves were crashing against the cliffs and rocks and the spray was shooting higher than the roofs of the houses. It was just amazing. Morgan and Cade had a treasure hunt for the little girls; Big Josh, Nick and Josh went golfing til the sun went down and it was too dark to see, and I got to sit in a warm cozy house with adorable baby Crew...the perfect weekend!

Morgan and Cade's wedding!

Just a few highlights, since I suck at blogging:

Girls' Weekend!!! (and Crew & Mike)

Leisa and I decided it was high time for a wild and crazy girls' weekend. So we loaded up her car with our duffle bags and Diet Coke and headed to Reno to party with Kylie. Actually, it was a modified girls' weekend because we took Crew along too (he's too tiny and cute to be away from his mommy and Grammy!) And Mike was there too (because he lives there, natch!)

Skylar was quite intrigued with her tiny little cousin. She just wanted to pat him on the head and poke him in the nose. She also took his binky away from him and put it in her mouth and crawled away every chance she got!










We partied hard. Actually, we were quite lazy and loved every minute of it! Here is a sample of what we spent most of the weekend doing:


We talked, we laughed, we ate. We watched movies, we talked, we laughed, we ate. We went out for pizza (the BEST pizza ever!) and Skylar enjoyed gnawing on the crusts and eating the yummy pizzookie (white chocolate macadamia nut was the best)



Check out Skylar - she's an ATB! (all terrain baby) She is very proficient at crawling. She is also very fast and fearless and will crawl up over and down anything and anyone.

Thanks Mike, for putting up with a bunch of crazy girls all weekend. And thanks Kylie and Leisa for making it so fun! And thanks Crew and Skylar for being so adorable!

The New Kid on the Block

As you may have heard, Morgan is sporting a sparkler on her left hand! Which means that Cade has decided to cast his lot with this wild and crazy Laney family (although I doubt that we'll be able to talk him into changing his last name to Laney...)


Cade decided to propose to Morgan while we were all up in Shelter Cove a couple of weekends ago. The whole fam was there, so privacy and romance were a bit on the short side. First of all, Morgan invited Nick and Josh to go to the Tea House for lunch with her and Cade. Hmm, romantic lunch? Not. Then, Cade suggested that he and Morgan go down to the beach and go fishing...and Morgan invited Nick and Josh along again! So Cade quickly clued me and Gary in, and we "suggested" that Nick and Josh stick around the house instead of going fishing.


So Morgan and Cade went fishing, and Morgan caught a lovely red snapper...which she decided to keep alive in her lunch cooler. While Morgan was trying to retrieve sea water in a plastic cup to pour over the fish, Cade got down on one knee , whipped out a ring box and popped the question! How romantic is that? Yeah, he'll learn that things never quite go to plan when any of the Laney's are involved, and especially if Morgan is involved!

Happy engagement! Save August 29th everyone!

Crew's First Sunday

Leisa takes such great pictures of Crew I just had to share a few!

And now...his first sneeze!

Welcome Aboard Crew!

Here is the newest addition to the wild and crazy Laney bunch! For years we have been signing all of our Christmas cards "The Laney Crew". Well now we officially have a Laney Crew, only he's actually a Waldron Crew. (drumroll please...) Now presenting Joshua Crew Waldron! Born April 10, 2009 at 4:20 p.m., weighing in at a whopping 6 lbs. 8 oz and 19 inches long. He is beyond adorable, and we all love to hold him but we have to get permission from Kadie first!

Little Crew was in an awfully big hurry to get here. His labor from start to finish was 45 minutes. Seriously! We barely got Leisa to the hospital in time - (Grammy, Kadie and Laney drove her there) - Josh got there about 5 minutes after we did and Crew was born about 3 minutes later - the doctor didn't even make it in time! Leisa was pretty ticked off that she didn't get there in time for some serious drug intervention, but glad that everything went smoothly, and even more happy that everything went QUICKLY!

Kadie was the first one to hold Crew (I think Josh might have held him for about 30 seconds first!) and she fell in love with him immediately! Then Grammy got to hold him, then Kadie, then Laney, then Kadie, then Josh, the Kadie...you get the picture. Kadie is an excellent big sister and very good at holding Crew and singing to him and keeping him happy. Laney has realized that Crew is not just visiting, but is going to be around for a long, long time and she thinks that's just great! She calls him 'Baby Cool'.


Kadie picked out this adorable little dinosaur outfit and the girls couldn 't wait to try it on him! I have the feeling he'll get dressed up in lots of fun outfits from here on out...

Mike, Kylie and Skylar came down from Reno for the weekend to see baby Crew and to hang out with the fam. Skylar and Crew hit it off and are going to be great friends!

Remembering Grandpa Laney

Grandpa Laney passed away just two weeks after his 89th birthday. What an amazing man. His funeral was probably one of the most spiritual and uplifting events I have ever been to. Everyone had wonderful memories to share, and it was so nice to see so many family members gathered.

Grandpa Laney served in World War II. He was in charge of the installation and set-up of all radio communication towers across the Pacific Rim Islands. He spent several years in the military before meeting Grandma Laney, sweeping her off her feet and settling down in Lehi. The Veterans of Foreign Wars honored Grandpa Laney and he had a military funeral with full honors. It was truly amazing and very heart-warming to see.

After the military salute, three of the veterans folded the flag on the casket and presented it to Grandma Laney with tears in their eyes. They told her that they were going to honor Grandpa this Memorial Day with a special ceremony.

Grandpa and Grandma Laney are very well respected and much loved in Lehi. So many people came to pay their respects, and the luncheon after the services was really wonderful. So many family members! It was wonderful to see them all and to get caught up.

We are so happy to have been able to spend time with Grandpa and Grandma. They came out to visit us just this last summer and we had so much fun. Grandpa's younger brother, Uncle Bud, came down from Chico with his wife Aunt Patty to see Grandpa and Grandma and they all had so much fun visiting and laughing.

We love you Grandpa and we will all miss you!

Shelter Cove

Hi there fam!!!

Requests have been pouring in for updated posts from The Laney Family Blog, so I guess I had better get a move on! One of these days I am going to have my life under control and I'll be able to do all the things that I keep putting off, in the meantime I'll try to keep the fam updated on the who, what, when, where and why of daily life in the Laney fam!

All of our hard work (mostly Gary's - he is a one-man demo team!) and efforts have paid off on the Shaker house in Shelter Cove. We spent a weekend there recently with the entire family (except Alex, who had to be a good girl and stay in school at BYU!) and we all worked very hard to get everything cleaned up, organized and put together. Now, whenever we go up there, we can just kick back, relax on the deck and watch the waves roll in...

Kadie and Laney had a blast! Playing mini golf in the driveway and searching for treasure at the beach. Morgan and Cade took Kadie to lunch at The Tea House, where she had a turkey sandwich, hot cocoa and scones, and when the waitress came by and asked if they needed anything else Kadie piped up and said, "Yes. Could you bring me another one of these?" as she pointed to the scone. She loved being treated like a VIP!

Skylar loved being outside. We took her to the beach, where she watched Kadie and Laney play in the sand and search for crabs and starfish in the tidepools. It was windy, and she didn't like the wind but she wanted to keep watching the girls play. When she starts crawling we are all going to be in for a lot of action!
One thing we learned was that when it comes to dining out, you really need to plan ahead. We thought it would be a good idea to get pizza from the little pizza shop at the Lost Coast Inn, but when we got there they were out of dough! Now we have their phone number on the fridge so we can call ahead. We ended up eating macaroni and cheese and a frozen pizza we found in the freezer at the Blueridge house.


We also thought it would be fun to go to the marina and get fresh crab, but we found out that the winds had been so strong that the crab boats had not been able to go out for several days, so there was no fresh crab! Luckily, Leisa had brought Rhodes frozen rolls and all the makings for mini pizzas - they were sooooo yummy!


(Last time we were in Shelter Cove we just happened to be at the marina on the opening day of crab season. Here is one of the little treasure we got from our "Crab Man" . Yum-O!)
The drive to Shelter Cove is just gorgeous. Just north of the wine country there are several fields filled with cows, horses and sheep, and there is a sign that says "Elk Crossing". Earlier this year we found out why. There, in the fields on either side of the road were hundreds of elk! Just grazing in the same field as cows and sheep! I haven't seen any of them crossing the road yet, but they are often in the fields.
We're looking forward to lots of fun and relaxing weekends in Shelter Cove this summer. Here is the view from the deck - Are you ready to come to the beach?!?

Welcome to the Laney Family Blog!

Contrary to popular belief, I am not quite the techtard that everyone thinks I am...I am just extremely busy and waaaaayyyyy overworked (my boss is an absolute slave driver, but he's kind of cute so I put up with it), not to mention the fact that the whole decimating-the-rain forest/scrap booking/stamping craze totally passed me by, therefore I am embracing all things gadget-y and high tech. Ergo, even though I have been blogging professionally for the past four years I am now going to try my hand at a little online jaunt down memory lane (drum roll please) with the long awaited and much anticipated Laney Family Blog! Hopefully I will be better at keeping track of the comings and goings of my wild and crazy family...

And now, for a little update:

The Waldrons: Leisa, Josh, Kadie and Laney are living in San Ramon, which is just a hop, skip and jump down the 680 (30 minutes by car unless Gary is driving - then it's only 20) and we love having them so close! We get to see those adorable little granddaughters and go to school events and birthday parties, and have sleepovers and cookie baking parties. Josh and Leisa are expecting baby number 3 in April (it's a boy!) and Kadie and Laney are looking forward to being fabulous big sisters. Josh is a CPA with Grant Thornton in San Francisco and Leisa has put her art degree to work by designing all of the products and web art for my website, http://www.shesheme.com/. She also creates gorgeous jewelry and amazing artwork.


The Comfolteys: Mike, Kylie and baby Skylar are living in Reno, just over the mountains and through the woods from the Bay Area, which makes it very handy for visiting as well! They recently had their first baby, little Skylar McCall, and she is absolutely adorable! She has acquired her first real talent - blowing raspberries! Mike works at PC-Doctor in Reno as a programmer, and Kylie has put her tremendous creative talents to work as a writer for the she she me website.


Morgan: Morgan has become quite the mountaineer and is working at Diablo Rock Gym in Concord, CA. She also attends Diablo Valley College part time and is preparing to transfer up to BYU this fall. She spends a HUGE amount of time with her boyfriend, Cade Peirce, who is also an avid rock climber. Their idea of a good time is scaling any vertical surface in the Bay Area, and they have the scars to prove it.


Alex: Alex is a freshman at BYU in Rexburg, Idaho and is having the time of her life (while keeping her grades in a relatively safe zone of course). She recently moved into a cooking dorm, and has extended her culinary repertoire beyond burritos, quesadillas and macaroni & cheese. She is enjoying her classes, especially geology (who knew all of that rock-throwing as a toddler was significant?) and will be back in California in April, when I will be thrilled to turn the shipping side of our business back over to her!


Nick and Josh: Yes, they are still as identical as ever and everyone still has a hard time telling them apart. That is, until Josh wiped out on the blacktop at school this past year and ended up with 7 stitches in his eyebrow. So now we finally have a way to distinguish them...until the scar fades and his eyebrow grows back! They are in 7th grade at Orinda Intermediate School and are active in their scout troop. In fact, they are going on a snow trip in a couple of weeks and will be digging snow caves and spending the night in the caves. (My idea of roughing it is a Holiday Inn.)

They both love computer games (World of Warcraft), video games, action movies and sketching and have recently inherited Morgan's old iPod, so they are becoming music aficionados. They are on the wrestling team at OIS and will soon be able to take down Gary. They love to go fishing at our beach house in Shelter Cove and spend time at the beach.

Gary: The King of Multitasking, he has at least 5 projects going on simultaneously. Gary owns and operates several websites, just completed a building project on our home in Orinda, and is getting ready to do a major remodel on our beach house in Shelter Cove. We discovered Shelter Cove early last year and have spent as much time up there as posssible. It's a bit of a trip to get there, but by the time we drive through the vineyards in Marin County, through the redwoods and up into the mountains, then down to the coast and into Shelter Cove we are totally relaxed and ready to hang loose. The views are breathtaking, the air is crisp and clear, the ocean is an endless blue and we can have fresh seafood every night! And I mean FRESH! Gary loves to go golfing on the not-quite-Jack-Niklaus designed course (which surrounds the daylight-only airstrip) and relax on the beach with the fam. If and when he does relax...

Carla: Never one to lie around wearing fluffy slippers and eating bon-bons...oh wait, I have on my fluffy slippers right now! And I just polished off the last of the Dibs! Never mind. Let me rephrase that: While wearing my fluffy slippers and eating bonbons, I spend most of my time at the computer, writing blogs and newsletters for our website http://www.shesheme.com/. While some people just have imaginary friends, I lead an entirely imaginary life! I write as the character She She Me, a "twirty" (anywhere between the ages of twenty and thirty-something) single working professional with a condo, a pet Westie, and an über-chic mentor/boss who often off-loads her designer handbags, shoes and goodies to She She (score!). She She Me has a cadre of equally chic and stylish friends who are all trying to survive the world of the female working professional...on a budget...sigh!

Anyhoo, as I said, my imaginary life. In my real life I am loving being a Grammy! And being able to spend time with my family and my best friend - Gary! So, there you have it - the life and times of the Laney Clan! Don't hold your breath - who knows when the next posting will be!