California reunion # 2 Wednesday

 Wednesday morning we posed for family pictures.  My mom and dad had to leave the reunion early so my dad could have eye surgery.  We were glad they could come for a little while at least.

 After morning naps were went to a really cool park.

 misters - very cool

After lunch of sloppy joes and naps we went to the pool at the condo.  It was a great sunny day and everyone had fun in the sun.  I let the girls dip their feet then let them crawl around in the rec room that was nearby.

 The kids had fun throwing airplanes off of the third floor walkways - and got a little rowdy and had to be told to be quiet from the manager people. whoops :) (it wasn't that late in the evening, but I guess they had some complaints from other vacationers).

We had a great dinner of chicken and steak tacos from Marcus and Annie and played Gridlock after we got the kids to bed.  

California family reunion # 1 (Sunday - Tuesday)

So the beginning of our California trip begins with two long days in the van.  We left Sunday morning at 8:30 and didn't get to St. George until 7:30 PM (11 hours if you didn't figure that out).  The kids did pretty well.  We watched movies, played on the iPad/dad's phone/mom's phone, listened to stories, and napped.  We of course had to stop for lunch and gas and dinner.  The girls did ok, they had a harder time sleeping in these car seats.  This was the first long trip with their older car seats.  We had the one in the back facing front and the one behind me facing back.  They would take turns in each seat.  Monday morning we left around 8:30 again and were traveling for 7 hours.  We pulling into the Solvang WorldMark the same time as Marcus and Richard.

Solvang is a cute touristy town that is made to look like Denmark.  Monday evening we had our family home evening lesson and visited.  Mom and dad gave the kids lots of fun games and toys as a mock birthday party for all the up coming celebrations.

Tuesday we girls went shopping in the morning around Solvang and had some great danishes and puff pastries.  I could have eaten at least a dozen more - they were so good.  I got a new sweatshirt, some hair clips, and a Christmas ornament.  Soon I will insert some pictures of our outing - send me some please Tannie.

After lunch we went to the beach.  The boys went on surfing with a groupon that Marcus arranged.  I tried to put the girls down for a nap in the tent with pack 'n plays, but they didn't go for it.  So they were kind of grumpy and we kept them happy by feeding them lots of Chicken in a Biscuit crackers.  Jenna did not like the sand at all and Kaylee loved it - eating lots of sandy cheerios and seaweed.

 We had a great day at the beach and had some yummy hamburgers from Richard and Tannie when we got back.  We surprised my mom with a birthday celebration for her in the evening.  We made a book from the grandkids, and had some other gifts too.  I forgot my card at Shelly's in St. George - ugghh, but mom picked it up later.  After the kids went to bed we watched the slide show movie that I made for mom.  It was so frustrating that it didn't work in the DVD player or Doug's laptop.  Finally got it to work on mom's laptop, sigh, oh well.  We again visited late and enjoyed everyone's company.

Tyler - stitches and 2nd tooth

 On Thursday July 25th Tyler tripped on our deck and cut his chin.  So I drive him to the Urgent Care in Longmont and helped him get 6 stitches.  He did very well.  He screamed really good for the shot that numbed him up, but other than that he was really calm.

The Dr. said that the stitches needed to come out in 5-6 days, well that was when we were going to be in California for our family reunion.  I called a local Dr. there and they said they could take them out and it would just be the price of an office visit.  But since we were from out of state they would not take our insurance so it was going to be $125.  The receptionist said we could try and ask for a discount when we got there.  Well, we decided to try and take them out ourselves.  So Doug and my brother Richard worked together to take out Tyler's stitches.  Tyler did really well holding still and thanks to some scissors and tweezers we saved $125!

Then later that day Tyler was on the couch next to a cousin and they bumped somehow and Tyler got his loose tooth knocked out - crazy day.  The tooth fairy found Tyler even in California.

Bee Family Farm and end of T-Ball

 Finally put up our family motto on our wall: "Give your Best Effort and have a Good Attitude"

Our garden has been great.  The boys help me pick the beans and peas.  They shell the peas while I snip the beans.  I think quite a few peas get eaten along the way, but hey that's ok.

 Fun pin-wheel cookies I made for a friend's birthday.

 Tyler did a great job at T-ball.  He really improved throughout the year.  We were gone the time they had professional pictures done, so we did the best we could do.

 Tyler and his friend John.

 Jenna likes to push cars too, she even makes a vrooom sound.

 One of our summer saturday trips was to the Bee Family Centennial Farm.  They had a lot of cool things to look at.  Our guide gave us the full tour, which was a bit lengthy for our crew.  It was a pretty hot day and we were all getting tired of walking around.  But the kids liked looking at the animals and tractors and milking the pretend cow, and gathering the pretend eggs.

 The girls liked the sheep and even tried to baa at them.

Fourth of July and summer stuff

 The fourth of July was pretty hot this year.  We went to the parade in the morning and set up our shade, it helped for those sitting in the chairs, but the curb was still hot.  The parade was not that great, and most of the candy was gone - which was ok by me, but maybe next year we will pass.

After the parade we had a quick picnic then went to the booths that they had set up.  We discovered a play area with bouncy houses, a petting zoo, and pony rides.  The kids played for a bit, but we were all hot and tired so we went home for some quiet time.  We had hamburgers and ate outside then did our few fireworks in the evening.  The sparklers were a different brand and actually burned a couple of us while they were going off - we didn't light very many because of this.  The boys loved the snaps the best.  The tanks were fun, but weren't that impressive.

A few other things we have been doing this summer:

Jump City in Westminster - the boys had a lot of fun and were very sweaty.  Doug was really sore the next day - I guess it's a bit of a work out.

 The girls had a blast having some much space to crawl - they always went in opposite directions.  I swear they did this on purpose.

A walk to our nearby park for some playing catch and baseball.

 We are fixing up our backyard a bit.  We removed all the bark from the borders of the yard and now we filled it in with dirt.  It only took us 3 days to fill it all in.  Doug did most, but I did do a few loads myself.  I mostly spread the dirt out.

The boys had a lot of fun playing in it and were actually sad when it was all gone. 

 Before:  (I will have to get some after shots - we haven't planted any plants yet)

 Check out our garden - I picked 7 zucchini today!  And we ate a few peas.

 It's always fun to gang up on dad with water guns!

 Something to do, hmmm?  Fold our Star Wars paper airplanes!  They had fun throwing them and just role playing with them.

Saturday outing to the Golden Ponds.  We discovered a small dam that made a fun waterfall.  The trip ended on a sad note with Chris tripping and getting some pretty good scrapes on his palm and elbow.  

 I checked out a book called: Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day.  It was a fun recipe to try.  You mix it up and put the dough in the fridge - no kneading.  Then just round up a loaf and let it rise for 40 minutes and bake.  My first loaf was a bit tricky with the baking.  Some cornmeal spilled in the oven and made my fire alarm go off.  You also bake it with water in the oven for the steam effect.  It makes the crust really crisp and yummy.