Warm September Days...

We love September in the O.C. And it's especially even better now that we live 1.5 miles from Huntington Beach. We bought an annual parking pass and can come and go as we please at the beach.....and we definitely go alot! The great thing about September is that the weather is still nice and warm, the water is nice and warm BUT the crowds are gone! Awesome!
On a warm, late Sunday afternoon we headed over to the beach after Summer's nap. The water was so warm, clear and blue it reminded me of Hawaii! I love this picture of Brian throwing Summer up in the air:

And look how beautiful the clouds are with the sunrays shining through:

My cute little boy, taking a little snack break before heading in the waves again.

The Artist

Summer loves to paint. She loves it when I draw a simple picture of a flower, cupcake, balloon, etc. and then let her paint it. We even painted cards for grandma and grandpa.

Happy 3rd Birthday Summer!

My little Summerbug is three! Crazy!! She is the sunshine in my life and is such a joy to be around. I am so happy that she has such an upbeat personality. Sure, she can throw a king kong sized temper tantrum if she feels the need, but after a quick timeout she is immediately over it and is as happy as can be. She is quick to laugh or do a little dance and is full of enthusiasm. We just love her!

For her 3rd birthday we threw the usual park birthday party. She said she wanted a "pink princess cake" so this is what I made: She LOVED the cake and giggled and giggled when I showed it to her.

Thank goodness I took pictures of the cake before the party. It was so HOT....it always seems to be hot the first week of September. Anyway, the cake just started to melt almost as soon as we arrived at the park. The kids didn't care and after some pizza they had nice big pieces of cake.

But look how much the tower on the cake is leaning!!! Anyway, the kids all had fun - cake, pizza, the park...what more can you ask for?

Summers' Family B-day Party

We had a small family party for Summer later in the week....nice and mellow. We had a small chocolate cake on our traditional birthday plate and we had Summer open her family presents. A little help from Dad removing the candles so we could dig in!

Hanging out, enjoying our cake on a nice warm evening.

I think Ben was just as excited as Summer was on opening presents!

Mormor sent money for us to buy Summer a bike. We bought her a "princess" bike and she was sooo excited! I still can't believe she is three! Summer is sooo happy and upbeat. She is super busy and gets into all kinds of mischief. But she is still full of sunshine and such a character. I feel so lucky to have such a cute ball of energy.

First Day of School - September 2009

Ben's first day of KINDERGARTEN!!! I can't believe it? Where did the time go? It seems like it was only yesterday that I was watching him crawl around getting into mischief. We moved to Huntington Beach in July so he is attending Eader Elementary school. He was so excited to go to school. Look how cute he is: Summer wanted to be involved so she diligently carried his lunchbox for her Big Brother.

Utah Vacation - August 2009

I took the kids to Utah for a Summer Vacation. We were gone for 10 days and we spent time visiting with family. I wanted my kids to get to know their cousins since they are all close in age and I have such fond memories of growing up near my cousins. We spent most of the time with Carol and with Ann and then a little time inbetween with Steve....and we squeezed in a pool date with Karolen and her kids. It was a fun and busy 10 days.

Here's Summer on the airplane. She loved it and was pretty well behaved for a three year old (only one melt down that lasted only about a minute and one incident of spilled Orange Juice down my lap). Carol picked us up at the airport and we went straight to Cafe Rio! YUM. Afterward we went to her place and swam in the pool. Plus, she had fun art projects for the kids.

By the end of the first day, the kids were pooped!

Carol works 12 hour days as a therapist, so I spent the weekends with her and as much time inbetween as we could. We had fun hanging out, going out to eat, shopping, etc.

Liberty Park

Carol and I took the kids to Liberty Park and the loved it! What a great park!! Ben thought the tunnel slide was sooo cool. He climbed to the very top and then looked down into the slide and noticed it was pretty dark (since it was a bit of a ways down). He kind of looked a little nervous about going down. Meanwhile, Summer was running up the stairs trying to catch up with him. Once she did, you could see Ben light up. He said, "Hey Summer, I'll let you go down first." She was so excited that she didn't hesitate and went right down. Once Ben saw her make it safely down he decided to give it a go...and of course loved it. Summer enjoying a nice day at the park!

She loved this swing...I think because the swings at our park are just your basic, every day, plain old swings. Nothing fancy like this blue one:

I'm glad Carol was with us because Summer was running all over the place, just excited to try the next piece of equipment and checking things out.

Ben shimmied up thing in seconds. He loved it!

Park City

We spent the weekend up in Park City. We stayed at a fun hotel/timeshare with two nice pools. The kids took swim lessons over the Summer so they were so excited to go swimming as much as possible. We went to lunch, made a nice dinner in our condo and enjoyed the pool. It was so much fun. The kids LOVE to stay in hotels so their enthusiasm made it even more fun. Summer loved the big bubble bath. It was like her own private pool!

We had sooo much fun spending time with Carol. She is the best aunt ever and such a great sister. She totally spoiled the kids and bought them toys, treats, etc. She is so patient and loving to my kids and she is just so fun to hang around. Thanks, Carol, for making my trip to Utah so much fun!!!

Fun With Steve's Family

I timed it just right and was in Utah when Jaime had her baby. She had a little girl and they named her Anna. So now Steve is the proud Dad of 3 beautiful girls and one handsome little boy!
We didn't spend as much time together as we had hoped, but we sure made the best of the time we had together and has so much fun. First we headed to the hospital to meet the newest member of the family. Awww...what a cute family picture! Doesn't Jaime look great!!

And then we spent the day at Steve's house playing with all of the cousins. What could be better than a popcycle on a hot summer day?

The kids had fun playing together. And of course my kids were in heaven playing with all of their toys!!

We also had a little birthday party for Michael. Ashli baked him a cake and the kids loved singing happy birthday to him. In fact, Summer wasn't in the room when we started singing happy birthday, but when she heard us, we could hear her running as fast as she could saying, "wait, wait, wait, wait - I want to sing, I want to sing." Whew! We started the song over once she arrived so she could happily sing along with us.

Summer is as happy as can be sitting on her Uncle Michael's lap.

Thanksgiving Point

Steve and I took all of the kids to Thanksgiving Point. We thought it would be a good way to give Jaime and Baby Anna a little peace and quiet AND it would be great fun for the kids. I have to also admit that I was looking forward to petting the little pony that was only a few weeks old... The kids thought the jail was fabulous. Steve and I were trying to think of a way to lock them in...sadly there was no lock....so I'm not really sure you could call this a jail..ha ha ha.

Summer loved petting the animals. We actually were able to pet the baby pony but I wasn't able to get a very picture of it. Summer kept climbing into the corrals with the animals so I had to keep a careful eye on her!

Summer was in heaven riding this horse. She actually rode the horses twice and thought it was fabulous.

Ben was a little hesitant but after he saw all of the other kids riding, he decided to join in and he even enjoyed it.

Snack Break with the cousins!! Summer, Ben, Ethan, Gracie and Elsa.

Ice Cream !!!

Steve and I thought it would be a great idea to end the trip to Thanksgiving point with an ice cream! The kids thought it was a fabulous idea as well. The all ordered their favorite kinds and then took turns tasting each others. It was really cute!Awww, such a cute picture of Steve and Elsa. I just love Steve! He is such a good dad and so patient and loving to his kids. He is so easy going to be around and I just wished we lived closer so we could spend more time together. I'm so glad I was able to spend some time with him and my kids just loved spending time with all of his kids.

Wheeler Farm

Now onto all the fun activities we did with Ann, Jesse and Clara. They have a big, beautiful home between big cottonwood canyon and little cottonwood canyon. We spent time at the park nearby, at the pool nearby and just hanging out at their nice home. Of course we were able to squeeze in some time to go out to eat and we did several fun activities: Wheeler Farm, Hogle Zoo and an afternoon boat trip.

Here's Ben in the treehouse at Wheeler Farm. He thought it was so cool. Summer went up with him but had a hard time getting out of the top house...kind of a big step down. But big brother Ben helped her out.

Very cool tractor....we don't see many of these in Huntington Beach so it was exciting to Ben.

Awwww, my cute little niece, Clara. She was in on all the action and has so much fun just watching my kids and hanging out with them.

The girls thought the pigs were fabulous!

Hanging out by the small creek! What a cute smile!

Hogle Zoo

Ann and I took the kids to Hogle Zoo and had a great time. We rode the train, looked at the animals and just enjoyed the day. Look how cute Ann is! She is 9 months pregnant and in AMAZING shape. We went for a jog while I was there and I could barely keep up (I'm saying it's due to the altitude.....). Of course we also had to stop for snacks along the way too!

And it was pretty hot so the kids talked me into an Icee Drink.

Summer loved the Lemurs.

Cute little picture of Ben, Summer and "Baby Clara" in front of the zoo. The kids have known Clara since she was a baby so they can't help but still call her "Baby Clara."