If you are going to San Fransisco . . .

Be sure to stay out of jail.

(That is Alcatraz in the background.)

Be sure to wear a nice hat

- flowers optional.

Be sure to get some

awesome pictures.

Be sure not to fall in.

Be sure to get crab.

Be sure to go to the beach

when the fog has not rolled

in and the temperature is

above 50 degrees.

Be sure to go to

Ghiradelli square.

Be sure to wear sunscreen.

Be sure to hang on to your booty.

Be sure to say hi to the locals.

Be sure to take your family.

The Dance

The music is too loud to hear Garrett say, "I kissed her. It was gross."

Poor Garrett

Caifornia is beautiful. Life is good. But Garrett isn't really noticing.

Sunday before church:

"Mommy, Daddy tied my shoes too tight."

"Okay, I will fix them in just a minute."

Sunday after church:

"Ow! Ow! Ow! My foot hurts."

. . . Mommy forgot to fix the shoes that are too small. He got a blister that looks worse than what I captured here.

Then today in San Fransisco, he jumped over Lydia on a downhill and landed wrong on his knee. He can't really walk on it so I think we will be taking a trip to the doctor tomorrow. He is really hurting. Unfortunately I took the family to the beach for our perfect family portrait at the end of our San Fransisco day. Lydia was done posing for pictures. Garrett was in a lot of pain. Weston was freezing. The only shot of the whole family smiling has people in the background. I will post it later . . .

Caden's Baseball Season

Our summer finally started mid-July when Caden's All-star team, after winning district, came in third place in the state tournament. I think I was a bit baseball-ed out by All-stars because I did not take one picture! Whoops. I will have Caden get his uniform on and go stand by the sign at the field or something later. For now, here are a bunch of shots of the regular season, which was

AWESOME!!!!

Our great coaches:

One of the moms made shirts for everyone . . .

Having fun at the party (Here are your nine-year-old all-stars folks):

The team/The cake:

We are the champions!

I promise they played baseball. I guess all we got were celebratory pictures. Maybe next year . . .

Caden was truly sad to see the season end.

And SO SO excited to make All-stars!

Family Reunion

Our first family camping trip never would have happened had we not invited other people along. I knew this to be true so I decided to make our family reunion a camping trip. If I got other people involved I couldn't back out-and consequently let my kids down. Until I get more in the groove of this camping thing, we will do it purely because it is so memorable. (I do not have to organize another family reunion for 7 years. We're hoping by then one of us will strike it rich and we can do a five star hotel reunion . . .) Fishing is the only place I took pictures, but we did a little hiking, eating, golfing, volleyball, and campfire.

It was freezing on the first night (literally below 32 degrees Farenheit), but got a bit more bearable the second. Being the only three campsites occupied was nice the first night. We tried our best to make a disaster of breakfast Friday morning but somehow everyone ate something. All the other meals were delicious and seemed to come together easily. It was a great couple of days together, but I'm not feeling very wordy . . .

Sunflowers

We started taking pictures of our mammoth sunflowers on July 2, when they were as tall as Lydia. Well when we left for California a month later, they were about to bloom and ranged from six to nine feet tall!!!

Before we knew it, they were taller than Garrett . . .

And then Weston . . . And then Caden . . .

And then Mom and Dad . . .

Hopefully when we get home there will still be some blooms and we will post another picture.

Happy August!

Wow, we were good bloggers in May. I have time for blogging when on vacation (beware - no time for cropping), so here I am counting my blessings that we were able to get away again two and a half months after our last little trip. I can think of nowhere I would rather be than here in California for the next two weeks. I have to say my favorite part so far was not nursing a baby every two or three hours during the eleven-hour drive. (It turned into fourteen-hours last year.)

My least favorite part was the electrical fire that threatened to start while we were in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. It's always something. Can

anyone describe that smell for me? I cannot put it into words. Aaron says formaldehyde, but I strongly disagree. (MOM - EVERY ONE IS ALIVE AND I ONLY HAVE A TEENY LITTLE BURN ON MY FINGER.)

My other favorite part is that Lydia is growing out of most of her clothes. We "had" to go shopping for her today and except for the kicking and screaming (Lydia, not Aaron) it was fun. I have trained my children so well that Weston (7, and usually living in another world) was able to find shoes that he loves all by himself, on the clearance rack, IN HIS SIZE! I even have a hard time doing that.

Lydia got her first Disney Princess merchandise. I don't really go for the "officially liscensed products" unless it is for sports, but Daddy couldn't resist the slippers. Ever since we got her dressed for bed Garrett has called her "Princess Lydia." Of course, I was at the computer in the middle of the night when I thought to get a picture. I didn't think it would be right to wake her.

We gave the kids each their own envelope of "vacation money" (ideas for a better name welcome) and wise

advice on how to spend it. Aaron asked if I would print up a thousand of them for him. I said no.

Aaron's Parents are on a major league baseball roadtrip (Mariners, Rockies, Diamondbacks) so we feel like we have a summer house of our own. It is good to have a couple of days to train the kids not to hang from the chandelier and smear jelly on the couches. (EVERYTHING IS FINE HERE MOM AND DAD.)

The kids have plans of the beach, amusement parks, and swimming every day. They might get Aaron on board . . . what do you think? (In his defense, my insanely fanatical athletical husband is heroically doing without satellite or cable in the name of saving money at home, so I am totally for him being a couch potato here. at least for one more day.)

I actually volunteered to take the three boys swimming and he was kind enough to stay home with Lydia so she could take her nap. He got to watch the A's almost win and the US beat AUS. Or at least I assume they won.

Oooh - I checked out Martha Stewart magazines from the library for some vacation reading. I have to say I am loving reading them. Last week got new shelves and started to redo (I guess it would be "do" in our case since we haven't done anything to it yet.) my music/living room and some of her ideas will really help it come together. ***Melissa do not check out the Sept 07 issue and see her converted attic craft room - it is unbelievably perfect.***