Katelin's service project

About an hour before we were going to pick the kids up from school I remembered we had cleaned up the girls room for a surprise for Kaiya and were going to do Kaleb's , but I got busy and it didn't happen. I was making a fun after school snack for them and mentioned to Katelin that it would be an awesome service if she cleaned Kaleb's room for him. He had toys out, etc. She quickly said, "No. I don't want to do that." And then she walked away. Whatever. So a bit later I hear things happening back there and then she would come in the kitchen and then leave and so on. Finally I asked her what she was doing and she said "Cleaning Kaleb's room". Like I should have know because I asked her too. I went in and saw her great work and had to take a picture of the little cutie. Kaleb was so grateful. It was really sweet.

Playing at the beach

A few of us moms headed out to the beach after the kids were at school. It was really a last minute thing. We will do it again and actually plan it so more moms can come (and actually know about it). We had a good, hot time!

First we played in the sand in the good ol' shade.

Heather and the kiddos getting ready to play in the water.

Annie with her baby belly. Super excited to meet that baby boy! :)
A lot of jumping going on.
And a sand slide? Sure.
Annie marked the line where they were to stop and turn around. The water has dropped a lot and none of us wanted to see how far out we could go until it dropped. Could you imagine as one of us drops into the River and gets taken on down the river yelling - "that's where it drops!!!!!" Yah, we didn't want to do that.
Splish splashing.
Sitting.
And digging in the water.

1st day of school

Well another year has passed and we're here again at the 1st day of school! How does this happen??? Katelin is 4 and will party with me one more year. :) We are doing a little pre-school of our own with some other moms - Joy School some call it I guess. She's really excited for that - we start tomorrow. Kaiya is 7 and in 2nd grade. Her teacher is Mrs. Wilske. She is loving her class and being with her friends again. Kaleb is 9 and in the 4th grade. Yes, I said 4th GRADE!!! Man, he's getting big. He has Mrs. Swalberg in the morning and Ms. Durant in the afternoon. She is the principal in the morning. He is loving it too even though he didn't think he would. Each day is "AWESOME" he says. :) So happy.

They wanted to show me their backpacks too. Katelin turned around also even though she didn't have one on. Hahaha! Just wants to be like her big bro and sis. CUTE!

Mr. Rooster

Mr. Rooster, don't look at me that way.

Or THAT way!!!

If you continue to wake me up at 1 in the morning you WILL be dinner. Watch yourself buddy. Just because you are the only man out there amoungst the other 10 ladies doesn't mean that you are "the stuff". You're getting pretty cocky buddy. I don't think the way you cock-a-doodle-do or flap your big ol' wings is impressing anyone. You don't even lay eggs, so why you are still around, well just thank that guy that gives you food because if it were up to me you'd be a gonner!

Sincerely the lady that gives you the glare. :)

Campin' with the Holyoaks

The Holyoaks and us all went on an overnight camping trip up to their land in the LaSal Mtns. Beautiful place, horrible roads to get to their spot! Glad we made it in one piece!!!

Danielle started up the fire.

After I took this I was cracking up because it looked like her arm was IN the fire! Pretty freaky. Way to build that fire Danielle! I'm a GREAT supervisor.

Hanging out at the fire as the sun went down. That's always a good time. The boys were still at the lake. Burke caught some fish, came back and cooked it over the fire. He's allergic to fish. But some he's not. He just has to try a tiny bite and then wait a few minutes to see if he has a reaction. He didn't have one...here. At home we cooked some up and it was horrible!!! Good thing we were home I guess. No fun!

Silly sisters always have to strike a cute little funny pose.

The next morning we all headed down to Blue Lake after Cody made us a yummy breakfast. It is really such a beautiful place. We love to come here.

All of these flowers are just gorgeous! I wish they would just decide to grown like this in my backyard instead of weeds. That would be wonderful!
Collette and Kaiya, sweet friends.
Kaleb found a stream of water and couldn't get enough of it.
Um....I don't remember what this was about, but it looks cool anyway - GO Kaleb! Haha!

Sweet big brother! Kaleb helped Katelin down this his and found her a walking stick also.

Kaiya loves to fish. I love to see her sweet concentration face as she tries to reel one in.

Pretty little Kate. She's getting so big.

I think I get this same shot every time I say Burke and he sees I have the camera! Hahaha, what a silly cutie. :) We love to come here because it's the only place Burke ever catches fish!

This silly baby Chloe takes 20 minute naps and then...

she's up and happy. So funny. She did great on her first camping trip.

It's always great to be in the great outdoors enjoying all of our beautiful surroundings we have been blessed with.

Going HOME

We had so much fun, but HAD to say goodbye to it all. Burke and I have some great friends that now live near Las Vegas, in Henderson NV. Kenzy and Micah let us stay over that night to break up our drive and so we could hang out for a minute! It was really fun to just relax there, let the kids swim and play and just talk about whatever. They have three girls and our kids just love them! It took them a second to warm up to each other, well the older ones. Katelin and little Aliza are both 4 and they hit it off right away. Our kids were really sad we had to leave the next day.

So I didn't capture this very well, but this is Kaiya doing a Dolphin dive into the pool. It was so cute! I don't know if Avery taught this to her or if she just made it up, but she did it over and over and over.

I tried to get all the kids together to take a picture of them in the poos. It didn't work out so well. This is the best I got. And little Aliza was pretty upset with me for trying so she took off. Sorry Aliza!!!! :) Hahaha, she is so cute!
This was right before we left, they all gathered easily this time. Right when we left the kids wanted to know when we would see them again. SAD! Someday, someday. :) THANKS for having us!!!!!!

San Diego Part 11 - Harbor Cruise

We went on a two hour Harbor Cruise. For the first hour we went one way and then headed back. Most everyone got off, because they only purchased the one hour tour ticket. The second hour we went another direction under the Coronado Bridge, very pretty. BUT - the first hour wasn't crowded at all and the second was like this everywhere we went. Is was not so great, good thing the bridge was awesome!!! Katelin and I were saving a bench for our family while Burke went out with Kaleb and Kaiya to get a snack. Well apparently in Japan or wherever you don't save seats with bags, because they just didn't go for that and pushed my bag closer and closer to me to fit more people on. I kept telling her that I was saving those seats, but that was ho help - no English! We had to search somewhere else and luckily some people left a bench right when we were walking by. We snatched that right up happily. Whew!

The first hour I seriously loved. We walked around from the front of the boat to the back or downstairs or sat down wherever we wanted. It felt wonderful and was beautiful and the kids were enjoying it also.

Feeling the wind on our face was so nice.

OK, so there was a pirate ship there that was on the Pirates of the Caribbean. We'll ust say this one was it! Hahaha! :)

Luckily I brought a bunch of snacks because they wanted to eat the whole time!
I loved the daddy moments when he would show them things. He loved it all too.

The sea lions from the first hour tour - there were a ton of them!
The Coronado Bridge. So pretty.
A lady offered to take our picture for us. Why not??!!