sun rays and birthdays

We were so close to the sand, it was fun to be able to go back out on the beach right before sunset and play some more.  This particular night had a gorgeous sunset and I ran up to get my camera to catch some of the fun and the sunlight on their faces.

 This night they weren't just throwing the frisbee, but trying to catch it inside their arms and on their head.  Bill loves showing Dylan who is the best!

 Wish I had some audio to go with this picture.  I love the sound of the waves and was so blessed to have the room at the very top of the house with all those windows!  We kept them open every night.  It was the best!

 Here's Delaney coming down the steps from the house.  The steps were a little creaky and old, but stayed together for us during the whole two weeks.

 Here's Lori, Chris, Len and Shirley enjoying the sunset, as well as Grammy and Delaney.

 It's really hard to catch Gracie in a picture when she isn't looking at the camera.  She has amazing camera radar and has taken a huge interest in learning how to use my camera. 

 My sweet Lukey.

 I love how the light bounced off of Emi's hair. 

Dylan is reminding me more and more every day of his dad.  They are starting to walk, talk and write the same way. They are both fiercely competitive with each other, even down to playing slug bug in the car. Bill started waving his hands in the car the other day to block Dylan's potential view of any Volkswagon bugs.  They are crazy and I love it!

The next day, we were back out on the beach enjoying the perfect weather.  Grammy and Grandma Shirley really have a knack for building sand castles.  They helped the girls several times come up with new ideas.

 Caleb actually fell asleep on the beach a couple of times over the two weeks.  He has his hands covering his face and slept that way for almost an hour.

 Shirley came one morning to the house after shopping at Target and brought Emi some stretchy, bouncy balls that the girls gave names to.  Here you can see everyone throwing them to each other.  i will have to ask Gracie what their names were, maybe Fred and George?

 We were able to celebrate Caleb's fourth birthday while we were in Cayucos.  I didn't have any wrapping paper so Gracie and I wrapped his presents in newspaper.  Gracie didn't mind the idea too much until Shirley came in with real wrapping paper after we were done. Like I told Gracie, Caleb didn't care what his presents were wrapped in, because they only stayed wrapped for a few minutes.  Aunt Gail got him the Angry Birds shirt that he has on in the picture, Grammy got him an Angry Birds blanket, and Len and Shirley got him an Angry Birds game.  Yes, he does love the angry birds!

 Here's the whole gang including baby Owen! So happy I got this picture of them all!

My baby is four. I guess I can't call him a baby anymore.  He is so fun to talk to now.  He can carry on a pretty long conversation and is always saying things that make me laugh. He loves playing with Luke and can often be found doing whatever Luke is doing, down to copying whatever noises he is making with his cars or legos.  He is also content to play by himself, pretending all kinds of things with his toys, and if he doesn't have toys, he will use his fingers or his dad's shoe.  He seems too young to be four, but atleast I have a year to enjoy it!

Madison does not like to have her picture taken, and I do remember being much the same way when I was her age.  But, I did need a couple of pictures so that we would remember she was here with us.  Caleb adores her and I love that she adores him!

I'm going to head down to the coast...

 I put this picture on facebook right after we got to Cayucos.  It was a little cold and foggy but we couldn't resist going down to the beach because we were so close! We found out a few months ago that our favorite beach house, the surf shack, had been sold.  We were left with very few options of other homes that were big enough, except for this newly remodeled home with a beautiful view of the beach.  We have never stayed so close to the sand before, and needless to say, we loved it!

 I feel like lately I have been talking a lot about Caleb's fears and how he is learning to overcome them.  Even after our progress with swimming lessons, Caleb didn't want to touch the water that first day we were there.  I carried him and dropped his feet into the water and within two minutes he remembered how much he liked it! Every day he would tell me he didn't want to go to the beach, and then every day he LOVED it!

 We love throwing frisbees and flying kites at the beach.  Lori bought a couple of smaller kites from the dollar store and Luke quickly got the hang of flying this Buzz Lightyear kite.  He kept his kite up higher and longer than anyone else.

 One of the family's favorite spots is the Cayucos Candy Counter.  They make their own ice cream and everyone loves the "Cayucos Candy Crunch." Although Aunt Lori loves "Sand Pebbles" flavor and was so happy that they finally made some by the end of our second week.

 Aunt Lori had some work to do while we were vacationing.  Here you can see her trying to work on her laptop and enjoy the sounds of the beach without the glare from the sun.  She stayed like that for a long time!

 Len and Shirley came in their trailer for the first week and stayed in Morro Bay but spent a lot of time having fun with us at our house.  The kids loved making sandcastles with Shirley and Grammy. 

 If the kids weren't on the beach playing, they wanted to be in this spot in the house playing video games.  I kept pulling them away from the tv, to go on walks to the beach and to the park.

 On this particular day we took cars out to the beach and Caleb spent a long time just racing his cars up and down this rock by our house.

 Gracie is still not too old to enjoy snuggling up with Grammy. 

 "I don't want to go in the water..."  "Mom, I like the water"... "Mom, come watch me in the water"  ... "Mom, I'm hungry, do you have any food?"  I heard those phrases lots of times over the two weeks we were there.

 Gracie really got the hang of making sand castles.  She spent a long time working on this one all by herself.

 Bill brought his fishing poles this year to take the kids fishing on the pier.  This is the first time they went.  I came walking up to the pier about an hour after they left to see if they caught anything.  Nothing was biting that morning, except my boys eating up the whole bag of snacks I sent with them.

 These are the baby swings on the beach of Cayucos that both Luke and Caleb have been on every year since they were born. Luke was determined to show me that he can still swing in them.

This is what we call the "Sea Shanty" park because it is right across the street from the "Sea Shanty", one of the kids (and the dads) favorite places to go and have dessert. I have been taking them to this park every year for the past seven years, but this is the first time any of them have thought to climb this tree. It cracked me up to hear, "Mom" and I couldn't find Luke until he told me to look up!  I know it's not that tall of a tree but he was proud of himself!
Lots more pictures to come soon!

we love summer

For the past five years we have started each summer with a trip to Arizona State University to watch Bill's team play in a summer tournament.  It just so happens that there is a Cracker Barrel nearby, as well as a beautiful hotel with free breakfast and dinner.  It makes for a fun mini-vacation!  We also got the benefits of a wonderfully clean pool for three days!

 Right after we got home from Arizona, we started swim lessons.  We have had to change pool locations several times over the past 7 years, and thanks to Aunt Judy, we had a wonderful place to go!  Caleb did not like swimming lessons at all on the first day.  His crying was so loud, I was worried that the neighbors might think we were hurting him.  Miss Patty, our experienced swimming teacher, reassured me that he was capable and strong enough to learn, and to work through his fear.  After six lessons, Caleb swam on his own!  It was so amazing to see him let go of his fears and start to really enjoy being in the water.  What he also discovered was that my Aunt Judy provides an unlimited amount of strawberries as well as free Ipad usage! Caleb usually takes a long time to warm up to people he doesn't know very well, but it didn't take long at all with Aunt Judy. They became fast friends!

 Dylan decided he wanted to do two basketball leagues this summer. So we have spent a lot of time cheering him on.  Gracie decided she wanted to try out basketball for the first time also, and has been loving it!  I am so impressed how she gets out on the court, plays defense, and fights for rebounds with kids that are all older and bigger than her! I also love when family and friends come to watch Dylan, Delaney, Gracie and Luke.  It is such a fun way to spend time together.  Molly, John and Owen surprised us at one of the Upland YMCA games that Dylan and Delaney play on together.  This was Owen's first basketball game. He seemed to enjoy it! :)

 Another thing we have been enjoying this summer is trying out new vegetables in our backyard garden.  We had a huge harvest of carrots and beets!  I bought and used a pressure canner for the first time filling up over a dozen jars.  I guess the true test will be how they taste when we open them up.  Right now we are enjoying fresh tomatoes, and waiting for the zucchini and cucumbers to grow. 

 We got together with our homeschool group in July to start planning out our projects for the next school year.  Here Wyatt is showing the kids his hunting video game.  We enjoyed having Caleb Deniston around for a couple of weeks while he stayed with his Aunt Laurie.  Dylan and Gracie also liked their first sleepover at a friends house when they stayed with Caleb and Abby at the Woodside's for two nights while Bill and I went to Santa Barbara for our anniversary.

 Gracie wanted to try out the hunting game also. My mom couldn't stand watching her shooting at the poor animals!

 We have enjoyed our Disneyland passes so much this year.  We are all thankful to my mom for the best xmas present ever!  This was a day in early July that we went to go see what the new Cars Land looked like.  We were so impressed with everything but the lines were over two hours for all three new rides, so we decided to wait until another day to ride those.  We went over to Disneyland instead and enjoyed smaller crowds and lines!

 There is a wilderness park in the middle of California Adventure that the kids always want to do, and Bill is always saying it's a waste of time!  The kids won him over and we all climbed through the different trails and bridges.  He helped Caleb through all the climbing, which he loved!

 The first time we tried to take Caleb on "Soaring over California" he refused to let the workers measure him to see if he was tall enough.  He cried and cried every time they made us put him up against the measurement post.  This picture shows Caleb after he went through the line for the first time without being scared, and let them measure him three times.  It was a big deal for both of us!

When we went over to Disneyland we discovered that Caleb was also tall enough for "Star Tours" and I was thrilled.  For the past 12 years, I have always volunteered to stay behind with whatever child was too small to ride the faster rides, and it hit me... I don't have to do that much anymore. It was fun to ride it all together for the first time.