Capitola Beach

I had such a great time at the beach with the kids when I went with the other mom's from the ward, I wanted to take Daniel on a Saturday. So of course we had to invite our friends, the Gardners. They are our friends that are always willing to take the kids anywhere for a good time. Andy jumped over the waves that would crash on the beach while Daniel followed Lauren around. Susan and I sat on the beach and just talked. It was so relaxing.

Chloë decided to come rest on the beach with us.

The Gardners brought a bunch of sand toys. One of which was a shark truck. It was the coolest truck ever for a day at the beach. Sam pushed the truck up and down the beach making tracks in the sand. What a boy!

Finally Lu came and sat on my lap and just rested until we were ready to go. I think she actually feel asleep in my lap.

Just around the house

I thought I would share some of what happens day to day.

Lu has been taking her diaper off ALL THE TIME. So we had to duck tape her jammies on her at night!

We have been baking a lot. Olivia likes to help me make dinner biscuits from scratch. They are really quick and very good!

Sam usually sleeps with the older girls, but tonight he was bugging Chloë so we made him sleep in Lu's room. When Daniel and I went to check on the kids before we went to sleep this is what we found!
Sam moved the lamp and managed to plug it in BEHIND the crib!??

Family day

We had a great Saturday today.

In the morning, we met the Gardners at the Sunnyvale farmer's market. After shopping around for a while and buying some fruit, we sat down in the shade for some lunch and to talk. The kids got kettle corn and balloons. I ended up buying these beautiful dahlias.

Daniel and Sam found this HUGE glider plane at the store and had to have it! The plane was as big as Chloë, but that did not stop her from taking her turn.

I feel very blessed for all that I have...great kids, a fun family, a great job for Daniel and a testimony of God's church. Thank you everyone for your constant help and prayers!

p.s. happy pioneer day!

HPTB annual Giants game

I can't think of anything better than ribs on a summer day just before a ball game.

After a great dinner with some of Daniel's co-workers and now we are headed off to get ready for game time. The weather was perfect and the kids were angels during dinner. We ate most of the food we were given...and there was a lot!!

Of course, dinner was just the beginning of our food for the evening. As usual we had cotton candy, soda pop, a bite of garlic fries that went around, and the famous fresh churros! ....I think we might have had some ice cream and kettle corn, but this seems like so long ago, I can't remember.

This was supposed to be a beautiful mother daughter picture until Varun decided to pose! He is one of the associates at the firm. We sat with his fiance and him. They are a lot of fun! We even talked them in to going down to the churro stand.

We had a great time at the baseball game. I don't even know who won, but we had fun. By the end of the game the kids were not scared of Gigante- they even went and sat by him to watch the game. It was fun to see them imitate him. I hope this is a tradition the firm will continue to do.

Berry Picking

This Saturday we went to the Gizdich farm to pick berries. We have been driving to the coast weekly to go to the beach, so the kids did not mind too much. We started in the black berry patch. Lauren had her first black berry and LOVED it. Too bad most of it ended up on Daniel's back!

For some reason Liv likes to wear her hat backwards so the straps are in her eyes, then she had to wear the glasses, but not over her eyes....she is growing up with her own style!!!

Everytime Lu would see a strawberry she would say, "Look, I deed it!"

After some luck with the blackberries, we headed over to the strawberry fields. These were much more fruitful! All the kids got so excited when they found a strawberry because they were hiding under the leaves.

I don't think this smile is me, but I like the hat and the feeling I had this day, so I included this picture of me relaxed and enjoying the sun.

At first we were picking small ones, but the kids learned to be selective in the berries they picked because there were plenty of big ones. We found so much joy in each big (or not so big) strawberry!
The signs where you pick up your berry picking basket said we could "Sample a berry, but no grazing aloud". I must admit by the time we made it to the end of our first strawberry row the kids were grazing...so we had to leave!

But we didn't want to..."Look another strawberry, maybe I should taste it???"

By the end of our berry picking afternoon, the kids were filthy dirty. They all had sandles on, but their feet were still dirty. I love this picture of Lu, it captures the afternoon, dirty feet, dirty face, happy taste buds and tired eyes.

Birthday Party Crashing

Olivia was invited to a birthday party at Sky High Jump, (we went there for Bob's birthday). I was just dropping Olivia off and the other kids really wanted to jump. I thought it would be a lot of fun for them. So after thinking about Olivia's feelings I decided if we kept our distance from Olivia it would be fine to let Chloë and Sam jump. I thought they would only last a half hour or so, but they jumped and jumped for almost 2 hours!

The birthday girl's mom was very kind and let them have some ice cream cupcakes that were left over. I am glad I stayed to let the kids jump and I am grateful that Olivia did not mind sharing this fun activity with her siblings. (I did keep them away from her, so she did not feel like we were crashing her party)

Santa Cruz beach

Every Wednesday a large group of moms from the church go to the Santa Cruz beach for the day. It really was a great day. The kids loved it and I had a nice time in the sun as well.

Although it was a lot of work, I hope we can go every Wednesday for the rest of the month. As I cleaned the sand off each of the kids before we got in the car to go home, the other kids would eat some very yummy watermelon. After I got the kids all cleaned off and they were sitting in the car talking, I sat on the back of the bumper and ate what watermelon the kids left me. I felt guilty for leaving Daniel at work all day as I enjoyed this wonderful day at the beach. I know I live a fairy tale life. But then I remembered how hard I had worked to get the kids ready for the beach and watch them like a hawk on the beach, then clean them off and listen to their music (which right now happens to be Joseph and the Amazing Tech. dream coat) for the millionth time. At that moment I think I worked hard enough to enjoy the yummy watermelon and just sit on the bumper for a few minutes....then an hour drive home and a mad dash to shower and fix dinner before Daniel arrives.

Lauren in not in the picture because she is on my back.

Happy 4th of July

The 4th was on a Sunday this year, so for our family that means a low key 4th.
We went to an early morning church, napped, and then ate dinner.

The fireworks came faster that night than I remember. All of the sudden we were dishing up ice cream waiting for the show to be over, and yet the 5 shows we were watching just kept going and going.

Kira, Sam, and Olivia get along so well. All night they were popping on and off the catwalk looking for the fireworks. Then once the fireworks began they kept trying to fix/re-arrange their blankets and try to get snugly.

Sharky

Jim and Leslie bought a catamaran boat a few months ago. So on the eve of the 4th of July we spent the afternoon playing on Mission Bay and taking rides on their boat.
Leslie said at one point when Olivia was on the boat she thought it would be really fun to jump off the boat and swim like she did in Lake Pleasant with Spencer and Seth. Leslie said the boat was not going too fast so she told Olivia it would be alright to jump off and she did. Jim said the look of terror on her face said enough so he jumped in to swim back to shore with her. It must not have been too traumatic because she never mentioned this to me.
p.s. Sharky is the name of their boat....LOOK OUT KIRA!