Happy Birthday

This evening we had family over to celebrate Grammy, Chase, and Bryce's birthdays. I wasn't together enough to shoot a picture. My blogging skills continue to slip. But it was was nice to see everyone and we had a great time.

Belnap family reunion

This afternoon Adam took all four kids to Lagoon for the Belnap family reunion. He didn't tell them where he was taking them and they were so excited when they got there! They all had a great time and kudos to Adam for making the trip alone. Not an easy job.

Hot Air Balloons

This morning, we got up really early to see the balloons take off for the balloon festival. It was a spectacular sight with the backdrop of the mountains behind them.

Celebrate

To celebrate the end of our summer school work, Adam and I took the kids to IHOP for lunch. They have all worked really hard and we wanted to show them how proud we were of their accomplishments. Good job kids!!

Craft Box

Today we got out the craft box. The kids chose a variety of different activities. The bottom picture is Isaac with flannel board figures my mom made when I was a kid. It's pretty amazing but they're still in great shape.

Warn Thin

I am feeling warn thin – “like butter spread over too much bread.” I will have the baby 3 weeks from today and I imagine the end of the pregnancy has something to do with it. Yesterday someone asked me “How overdue are you?.” I have had people asking “How many more days?” for the last 2 months. Caleb is betting this baby will weigh in at 11lbs. Thank you, Caleb.

But big belly aside, we are ending our grueling morning routine this week. This will not only give me time in the mornings again (which means I don’t have to spend my nights doing laundry and other chores); but more importantly, it will give the kids 2 weeks of pure summer before they are back to the grind. I have already told them this is the last week of “summer school” and the excitement has brought chaos and an infinite amount of indiscipline. Perhaps I should have waited. Is it bedtime yet? . . . . I mean mine.

Safety Day

Today was our town "Safety Day." The town and local authorities did a FANTASTIC job. Not only did we learn a lot but we also had lots of fun and scored cool free stuff. They had bounce houses, obstacle courses, a climbing wall, bull ride, face painting, K-9 demonstrations, the Jazz Bear, helicopters, police vehicles, and fire trucks for the kids to climb in. We also scored brand new Bell bicycle helmets, a new booster seat, lots of candy, popsicles, pencils, badges, sun glasses and other misc items. The kids also made ID kits with fingerprints etc. I learned about local hiking trails, the neighborhood watch program, car seat info, and about criminals in our area. The publicist asked if they could take a picture of Aaron with the police officers for the paper or newsletter or something (center left - We could retire if we had a dollar for every time someone wanted to use him in a picture for something). Caleb had football so he missed out, but we brought him home as much as we could. We are really glad we went, it was a super evening.

Scene It

Today we played a fun game of Disney's "Scene It." Aaron and Daddy won.

One Last Hurrah!

We had some fantastic friends when we lived in Walnut Creek. But our very best friends were the K family. Their oldest daughter Claire was only a month younger than Caleb and they were great friends. Claire's mom was my best friend and we are still good friends today. Our families shared a lot of fun times together, including two Disneyland trips.
When we moved to Utah we were lucky to live close to them again. We certainly didn't see them as much as we would have liked, but we are grateful for the times we did. They are moving back to California, so we had them over for one last hurrah. We will miss them, but we'll definitely see them in sunny California!

California Cousins

Today we had one last hurrah with our California Cousins. We went swimming at another pool and then came back to our house for dinner. We sure love playing with them and hope we can get together again soon.

Football is Cramping my Style

This cool kid and his new sport are cramping my style. He has practice EVERY DAY for TWO HOURS (except Sundays and Saturdays but he has his games on Saturday)! Is it just me or is that crazy? We can't go anywhere far or have evening plans with anyone because football rules our evenings. We've even had to rework FHE. I knew we'd have to sacrifice like this when our kids got into high school sports, but I never thought it would hit me this early!

Our league has 198 kids just in Caleb's age group. It's the largest Pee Wee Football program in the Nation. And people take is seriously. I feel completely lost in this new culture we are entering. I haven't a clue what to do with the pile of pads and misc. gear that he has to put on daily. Thank goodness he has Adam.

On the upside, Caleb LOVES it. It's also been a great outlet for Adam who never gets to do anything fun. It's not quite the same as playing, but they have asked him to help coach one of the teams. I think he will really enjoy that (and so will Caleb).

So here's to kissing the summer away to Football!

Cannon Ball!

Another fun day of swimming with cousins.