Random Summer Moments

Cooking S'mores at Grandma and Papa's!

We LOVE Gavin!!!!

Swimming in San Jose... all time favorite!!!

We spend lots of time coloring or crafting at this table!

River Baptism! We love celebrating this day with our church family.

The boys did a service project for the girls. They made the cookies and practiced serving others. It was really cute and the girls were thrilled to get a break from school to enjoy their treats. Now, whenever Kaden wants a cookie he asks "can I make cookie for sisters".

Daddy BBQing moms latest recipe... Orange Thai Chicken... 4 out of 7 liked it.

Too much work for those kind of results!

Adia finally gave in and let my dad give Sierra to an amazing program that uses horses, therapeutically, to work with disabled children. It was such a hard decision but she knew Sierra would be great at it. Her only condition was that she gets to have KC and here she is riding her new horse for the first time.

Adia has been having recurring ingrown toenails since the begining of volleyball season. Here she is the day she got half of it removed. She was super tough for the 50 million shots they but in her toe.

NASTY!!!!

River day with Tati and Wellington. The kids sure love these Brazilians!

Adia did this project with the little ones. They LOVED it!

I LOVE that my kids know how to really ware themselves out...

I swear Adia wants to steal this baby from me.

One of the kids new favorites. I freeze a bunch of little toys in a large bowl and they get to use spoons to hammer them out. It gives me, at least, a good 30 minute break. It's been a big hit whenever kids come over too. I usually make a girl block and boys one!

Well, those were random moments but I've been SO BUSY. I'll post Father's Day, Uncle Ty and Aunt Christi's visit, the Grand Canyon and a few other highlights soon... I hope!

Homeschool Convention/Beach Day

After being married to Kyle for 9 years I am starting to figure him out. So when I really want to go to a 2 day conference listening to homeschool speakers and checking out curriculum I have learned to speak his language. "Honey, do you want to go with me to a homeschool conference and then we can go to the beach the next day"? Of course, he said yes. We took classes on teaching children to serve, organization, Essays vs. Reports and so many other great topics. It was a refreshing time for us to rethink why we homeschool and get excited about the upcoming year. Oh and we got to go to El Burros for dinner!

Then the next day Kyle got his day in the sun and we went with both of my sister's families to the beach and had a great time! It was such a treat to be with them. Here are just a few of the many pictures of our day.

Adia has always LOVED the beach!
BFF's Avery and Lauren


Daddy enjoyed trying to teach Kenyon to skim board.

Princess Adison had a great time.


Kaden enjoyed it as long as he was next to me and far from the waves. He is our first kid to not totally LOVE the ocean! Bummer!

This picture was so cute I had to include it but really he had a great time and spent most of the day looking for food. I'm not sure if he ate more sand or food but regardless he loved it!

Lunch Time!

Auntie Tata was so fun and dug a big hole for the kids to play in!

Brookie has gone with me to the beach so many times in her life and she always spends the day wrapped in a towel complaining she is cold. For some reason though each time we go she thinks she is going to like it.

Little Erin belongs in my family. She LOVES the beach and isn't afraid of the water at all.

BFF's Erin and Adison

Hopefully someday these guys will be BFF's too.

DJ & Kenyon both had a great time but totally enjoy different things!

DJ was excited to learn how to "Buggie Board"

and some other cool tricks too.

And of course on our way home we stopped at Pizza my Heart for dinner and a to check out another beach. The kids looked so cute waiting for the pizza!


And this is my BEAUTIFUL Lauren on the way home with us. I snapped this picture in the car because sometimes her beauty catches me so off guard. Wow!

Fun with Friends

Last weekend we had a nice little trip to San Jose with our friends - The Holcomb Family. My parents were out of town and we took over their crazy ranch and house. It all got planned because the USA mens olympic team was in town to play and Kyle and David decided to make a family vacation out of it to keep the wives on board with the idea. I'm glad they did because it was such a treat to be with friends for an extended time. I will let you all know next time my parents leave town and we can take over again. Oh and if you are wondering why there are 12 kids in the pictures that would be our 5 kids, plus Adia's volleyball friend, plus my 3 nieces who I always get to have in San Jose and the Holcomb's 3 kids... it seriously felt like we were running a camp - especially at meal times.


Of course the kids started our time there visiting all the animals and riding horses. THANK YOU Louisa for helping make that happen! It was so cute when Stevie (Kenyons friend) after seeing the bunnies, goats, pigs, horses, donkeys and more said "I want to go see the giraffes now". Here are just a few of the fun ranch pictures...




Next stop - the pool!





And of course the highlight of the trip - THE BEACH!!! As you can see by the pictures my friend Carolyn is much more fun than me and sat in the freezing water catching crabs with all the kids.

Adia still loves it...

Adison and Erin - how can 2 beautiful girls be such trouble?

Sand baby!

Looking for crabs

Could Lauren get any prettier???

Kenyon and Stevie racing the waves

precious father son shot

Avery my camera loving gifl!
my beautiful neices really need to work on the whole being followed by a camera thing - they did NOT like it!

Yeah for good friends!

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