Anotherhale

He takes mealtime so seriously.

I finally did it!  He was wigglier than I ever would have imagined but we got through it!

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We went to the Festival this year.  The kids always like it despite the heat and lots of walking.  While in the kids section, they made themselves crowns, watched a Magic Show, had a snow cone and built a wooden project at the Home Depot booth (Alexis made a flag pole, Jeff made a ring toss game and Tyler made a sailboat).  This year we volunteered in the Free Water booth on behalf of the ADB Violin Program.  It was a nice cool job in the shade and everyone thanked us and praised us the entire time.  Jeffrey even received a $1 tip!.  He definitely deserved it.  I like volunteering because I feel like part of the Festival and I love the free admission and free food!  This year I tried the chicken stir fry-so good.  Alexis loved everything but her favorite was the calamari-no thank you!  After our shift was over we headed up to San Jose.  Grandma Anne had Nathan up at Grandma Lewis’ with her (Thanks mom for watching him for us, he wouldn’t have had a fun time with us!).  We let the kids jump in the pool as a reward for working so hard at the water booth.  They were so excited to go swimming in the dark!  Becca, Karen and Jacob swam too.  I didn’t make them get out until almost 9:30! Tomorrow, Andy is signed up for a 5 1/2 hour shift in a lemonade stand.  We didn’t use Tyler’s ticket today since he’s only five so I’m sending Jeffrey back to help Andy.  Actually I think they’ll be on the golf cart restocking the lemonade booths throughout the Festival. I remember riding on the golf cart with my friend Valerie and her dad when I was 10 or 11.  We were restocking water-the big Alhambra jugs-so I don’t know how I really helped but we did it a couple of years.  Once or twice a drunk guy tried to jump on for a ride. It was kind of scary for a little girl.  Should be pretty fun for Jeffrey.

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The Gavilan Hills Ward invited us to join their YM/YW group for a baseball game.  We saw the SJ Giants play Bakersfield.  I love it when we do combined activites.  I’m looking forward to Sept. when we will be combining permanently.  It will be nice to have so many kids coming to the activities.  This picture has less than half of the kids that went to the game!  I guess most of the boys took off before we could get a group shot.  Thanks for the tickets Bishop Dave!  We also were able to participate in some of the “in between innings activities” like musical chairs and a dance contest!  After Dave won the dance contest, they brought him back out later for an encore -dancing with Gigante, the Giants mascot!

Only one day after posting this, I have had numerous requests to add these videos. . . I hope you don’t mind Dave.

Obviously we can’t get enough of the beach.  This time we went with some friends to celebrate Kadie’s birthday.  When we got there at noon, it was still a little cold but it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We stayed until just after 5.  I love the beach because my kids are so easy to take care of.  I basically get to sit around and eat!

Marcie was so thoughtful and brought Kadie her favorite kind of donut with a birthday candle.  Kadie was excited.

Then I had to try to outdo Marcie by bringing out this fancy octopus cake with a fancier candle.  Well that may be what it looked like, but really I was just trying to redeem myself after Alexis’ octopus turned out looking like a spider.  I thought the gummi candies would do the trick.  It didn’t work though!  As I was carrying the cake down to the beach, a lady walking by said, “Now, that looks yummy” and as she got closer she said, “Oh, cool spider!”

Oh well, I tried.  The kids loved it anyway.

I let Nathan play in the waves for the first time.  He loved it as much as my other kids do. It wore him out.

It was a great beach day. I hope we get a few more in before school starts.

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Amber and Nathan are here for the weekend so today we went to the beach. Last night we didn’t get to swim so we had to come back!  Jason and Jeanna met us there to.  The weather was a little on the chilly side but that never stops my kids (including Andy) from getting in the ocean.  After a while Andy talked Jason and Trevor into swimming too. Alexis and Katelyn had a fun time playing in the waves.  They get along really well but they always have to warm up to each other first.  We need to see the Brizzees more often.

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After the beach, we grabbed some pizza and went back to Larry and Ruth Ann’s to play some games.  Rob and Christy and their kids came too.  We played Mafia for a little while.  Then we played Couch.  Here’s a picture of the winners (the girls)!  We love hanging out with these guys, they’re all so much fun.

Happy Birthday Alexis

Alexis turned 11 this year.  I can’t believe how fast she’s growing up.  I can’t believe I have an 11year old!

We had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  Alexis chose southern fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  Aunt Aimee and Uncle Glen came too and brought gifts for all from their trip to Japan!

Then this weekend we had a party.  This year, Alexis wanted a beach bonfire party.  We had a lot of fun-we always do at the beach.  I tried to make an octupus cake to go with the ocean theme but it kind of turned out more like a spider.  I forgot the candy topping which would have helped, oh well.

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We were really glad the Wallworks were able to join us on such late notice and that the Brizzees were able to come down for the weekend.  Thanks to all who drove over to the beach with us to celebrate Alexis’ birthday.  You all made her day.

Nathan’s birthday lasted about 2 weeks…well sort of. We woke him up at 4 am on July 2nd  and stuck him in the car for a LONG ride to Utah! It was his first time in the forward-facing car seat so he was a little too excited to go back to sleep right away.  He survived the trip and was relativly cooprative until the last 2 hours!  I guess he had had enough.

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The first place we stopped was Uncle Tom and Aunt Diane’s house in American Fork.  Aunt Angie had a cake for him and we sang Happy Birthday but that was the extent of the festivities on his actual birthday.

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While we were in Utah, he recieved a couple of gifts.  We opened one a day to spread out the fun.  Thanks Sam & Sarah, Ed & Meggie and Chuck & Angie for thinking of him. Especailly since we didn’t even think to bring him any baby toys to play with.  You saved us and gave him hours of entertainment throughout the rest of our trip!

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We got home  (Saturday) the day before Alexis’ birthday.  Our nice Grandma Anne invited us over to her house for a b-day dinner for our 2 July birthdays on Sunday.  Alexis blew her eleven candles out carefully and left him one candle.  He didn’t catch on though, he just wanted to grab at the flame.

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The next day we decided to really celebrate by throwing him his own birthday party.  We had a BBQ at the park and invited our friends with babies his age, and one couple with a baby on the way (that’s why Shelly’s in the picture…Glen’s just in the picture ’cause he’s attatched to Gage!).

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We did a Doggy theme since he LOVES dogs so much.  I even made his own little puppy cake to dig into!  We had Scooby snacks (bone shaped graham crackers) and doggy treats (beef sticks) on the tables to snack on and we sent the kids home with doggy bag party favors!

We made it through the night alive but it was tough.  Of coarse it was a lot easier on the kids (Nathan specifically) so I guess that made it worth it.  We were in Fairfield about 8am.  Andy and Nathan were asleep but I decided to make a stop anyway.  We’ve talked about going to the Jelly Belly Factory sometime so why not then?  We could avoid having to drive all that way again!  We pulled into an empty parking lot and found out it didn’t open until 9:00.  So, we put a movie on for the kids and took a nap!  Once they opened the doors we headed in for a tour.  The kids really enjoyed it so I think it was worth the stop.  It also kind of refreashed us for the last bit of the trip.

It’s nice to be home.