Summer Fun

Here are some of the little things I want to remember from our Summer.

Our new neighborhood crew:

These kids love running around the neighborhood together, and especially playing Wii. We're so glad to have friends close by!

 We had a fun beach trip with Marsha while she was here:

This summer was the first time Nate really got in the ocean! It was fun to watch him play in the waves so of course I had to capture it.

We had to introduce Marsha to the deliciousness that is Marianne's:

Marsha and I also met some of my friends at Gizdich Ranch one day, too, to pick some berries.  It's always a fun time at that place!

The crew:

My four monkeys:

The girls having fun with their stuffed animals one day:

Pretend play makes me happy.

Eli loved this dollar store purchase (and no he didn't come close to finishing it :):

I saw scallops were on sale one day so I picked some up and attempted to cook one of my favorite things for the first time.  It wasn't bad!

We had a fun 4th of July.  We hit the downtown parade this year again and the girls even sold popsicles to try and earn some money.

Unfortuntely they didn't break even.  At least they got some popsicles/ice cream for cheap!

Boys snuggled up together:

I saw a facebook ad for an obstacle course/mud run for kids and signed the older three up on a whim.  It ended up being not as cool as they'd hoped but they still had fun.

Before:

The best part was definitely the mud part at the end:

After:

Natalie really loved the mud. :)

They loved cleaning off in the bay afterwards:

Then we managed to lose two of the kids briefly and we were all hot and cranky. Thankfully, we made it home in one piece.

We finally instituted a regular one-on-one time with our kids every Monday night (we now do FHE on Sundays). Eli and I were up first and had a fun trip to Menchies for yogurt, followed by some arcade games.

 I tried to sneak this picture of Eli after church. It must have been rough since he was covered in chalk and completely disheveled. :)

 A plank contest one morning:

 Natalie and I went to Petsmart for her one-on-one time and she was excited to discover that she almost had enough money to buy a hamster, including the supplies.  So, she raised some more money, and with some donations from her siblings was able to buy a little dwarf hamster that she named Misty.

So far, she's been a good little pet and they've taken good care of her (despite a couple of near-disasters--one when she hid under the washer until we finally caught her).

 We had fun watching Luke again while Mary and Andrew were in the hospital welcoming their new baby girl:

 We even took Luke to the beach and he LOVED it.

He is definitely a beach bum.

Amy and Derek came into town and we had a great visit with them. Sadly, no pictures, but Elizabeth did get one of their cute puppy, Riley.  It was so fun to catch up with them!

 I took the kids to my parents' house to swim one day (with a stop off for Cafe Rio in Stockton).  We had some friends join us (Ashby's, Oldroyds, and Allreds) and it was a blast! I also found my old Geosafari and it still worked! :)

We had a really fun neighborhood potluck one night.  We ate delicious food, got to know a bunch of our kind new neighbors, and even got to have a visit from the fire department!

 

 

 We hit Half Moon Bay for another beach day with friends.  The kids loved playing on these dunes:

 We went to the Arts and Crafts festival this year. It was really fun.  The girls got to go on this ride and Joe got a super-delicious pina colada.

 

 I don't know if you can tell from these pictures, but this was the extent of our experience with the solar eclipse.  Next time, we might have to travel to see totality.  It sounded like it was really cool!

 One last beach trip, back at Half Moon Bay.  This time Lisa, Emily and Lily met us there!  It was so fun to see them.

 We saw tons of whales! It was amazing.

Joe and the girls also got memberships to the climbing gym and have had a lot of fun practicing there. I went one night with Joe and experienced just how incredibly hard it is. I also figured out that I have quite a fear of heights these days.  I was seriously paralyzed at first and couldn't make it all the way up.  I'm getting a little better, though.

Joe doing some tough walls:

 

 Me, terrified:

Before we knew it, it was time for back to school paperwork and the summer was officially over:

Goodbye, summer!  See you next year. :)

Brain Chase

I wasn't planning on doing Brain Chase again this year but when it came time to decide, the kids were all really enthusiastic about it so we did it again.  We weren't on top of the puzzle at all this summer but they did keep up with their challenges pretty well.  We tried some new electives, too.  Elizabeth did coding, math, and language (French).  Natalie did math, cooking, and service.  Nate did math, art, and cooking. Here's all of our submission photos of their challenges...

Natalie gave a gift card to a homeless person outside of Target for service:

 Scratch art:

  This was probably our favorite food to make.  Homemade hummus and pita chips.  They gobbled them up! So delicious:

 An Australian meat pie:

 (Nobody really liked that one)

A homemade coaster made with rolled up newspaper:

 Natalie made peanut squares for a man in our ward who was getting deployed soon with the Army:

 Baked Italian eggs:

(Another winner!)

 This was a big hit, too. Decorating t-shirts with crayons and sandpaper:

 Lizzy made one, too, but I didn't get a picture.

Abstract art:

 Visiting animals at the animal shelter:

 Stir fry:

 Natalie loved this one:

 Super-delicious horchata!

Monster bowl made with clay:

 Swedish pancakes:

If nothing else, it gave us some fun things to do at home this summer!

Allen Reunion

We had another great Allen reunion at Old Greenwood.  It was full of swimming, biking, hiking, golfing and fun family time.  

Lots of fun keep-away games in the pool:

Joe got to go on the big mountain bike ride this year.  Except for all the snow on the trail, they had a lot of fun!

 We had another wonderful temple trip. It was Elizabeth's first time participating:

A few cousins having a blast night swimming:

 We took a really beautiful walk along the golf course with Gus one evening. The kids loved chasing him around everywhere.

 We went to the lake one morning to try and get some skiing in.  It was really windy so the water was choppy but it was perfect for tubing.  Elizabeth and Natalie had a blast with that!

They don't mind the cold!

 Natalie and Ivy were in charge of the FHE lesson this year and they did a great one about missionary work. The returned missionaries in the family answered some questions and talked about their missions and Emily got to talk about her decision to serve a mission, too.  Then they passed out pretend mission calls to everyone.  It was a great night!

S'mores!

 "Chubby bunny":

We went on a really fun hike through the old abandoned railway tunnels above Donner Lake one night. 

 

All too soon, it was over. What a great week, though!