We have, overall, had a fabulous summer. It has taken us a while to settle into the new house because between Family Reunions we were able to squeeze in a trip to California to visit my parents and some of our old Morgan Hill friends and family. We knew that Jared would not be able to take a vacation with us, so he booked us a hotel in Nevada both directions and I braved the trip with the kids and myself. It went surprisingly well splitting the trip like that, even though on the way back we had Lillian AND Jonas throw up (hold on until I can make it to an exit!!) and I had to ditch an old car seat right there at the gas station. LOL. It was not even worth trying to clean up and bring home.
We had a quick stopover at my parent's house for Sunday dinner then went to Morgan Hill for a couple days to see old friends, go to the beach and stay with Greg and Maren. The kids were having a hard time putting it into words, but they kept saying "doesn't this just feel like we are driving to our school in the morning?" or "doesn't this just feel like a regular day?" It really did feel like it was our home still. We had such a great reunion with old friends. I set up playdates for the kids with school friends and church families and it was so fun to see all their faces!
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| Hanging out with Claire (cousin) |
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| Staying at Greg and Maren's Apartment |
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| Jocelyn's playdate with Trista |
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| Jonas with his boys |
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| BBQ at the Evans |
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| Visiting my dad at work and going to lunch with him |
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| Jane and Emma at the beach |
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| Older kids at the beach |
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| Lillian's playdate with Maddie |
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| Visit with the Lomas Family |
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| Jocelyn and Kendall at the beach |
When we came back to Dixon it was right in time for Nate and Tausha to arrive with their family and Lara to arrive with her kids. We had a blast hanging out for the week going swimming at the Stone's house, going to six flags Animal Kingdom (thanks mom for sponsoring), celebrating Cosette's first birthday, hitting up pedrick produce, doing an art class with Aunt Tausha, catching up with my long time friend Sarita and her family, playing tennis with grandpa and generally letting the cousins hang out. I even fit in a day or two of work and had to rely on my siblings watching my kids while I caught up on some year end work for the Foster Care program with Cherie.
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| Emma and Rin playing |
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| Dolphin show at 6 flags |
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| At 6 flags watching the tiger show |
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| Cosette's first birthday |
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| Playing tennis with grandpa |
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| Catching up with Sarita |
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| Art class with Aunt Tausha |
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| Jonas and Maxwell playing in the sprinklers |
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| Emma and Evelyn hanging out |
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| Miles and Anderson cousins after sprinkler time |
When we returned from California we tried to establish some new traditions here. We repeated our Chic Fil A "cow appreciation" day from last year and got free meals (yum!). We went to the local rodeo, just a mile down the road. It was the first time the kids had been to a rodeo and we had a blast!! Between the rodeo clown and mutton bustin', the barrel racing and rodeo queen, and the snow cones the kids were enamored. We hosted a BBQ for Jared's Family and signed up for the library summer reading program. We are continuing our "ticket" program so we've had some fun date nights as the kids earn enough tickets. Jonas and I went to A&W with some coupons then got him some new shoes, Lillian and I went out for fro-yo and to pick up some firewood for our backyard fire pit. The main thing our summer is lacking is flashcards and math practice. Yeesh! I better get with the program in the next week or it will show when the kids return to school.
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| Chic Fil A Cow Appreciation Day |
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| Jared and Lillian at the rodeo |
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| Caitlyn and kids at the rodeo |
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| BBQ with the Otterstroms |
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| Jonas and Caitlyn on a date night to A&W |
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| Getting our library cards and signing up for summer reading program |
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| Meeting up with cousins at Ashton Gardens |
On Pioneer Day, which is a state holiday here, the kids and I slept on the trampoline, we went on a local family hike and got Einstein Bagels (the Monday deal), then finished the day with swimming and fireworks with Jared's family wherein the kids prepared a family home evening about pioneers.
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| Rocky Mouth hike to the "waterfall" |
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| Pioneer FHE with the cousins |
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| Sleepover on the trampoline |
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We are super excited to have my sister Kelsey move in with us next
week!! She will rent the basement "apartment" from us so we have been
cleaning, buying a fridge for it and generally getting it prepared for
her.
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| Aunt Kelsey will be living with us soon!! |
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