July update

Since school let out, we renewed our Happy Hollow memberships.  Happy Hollow is a great little amusement park/zoo/petting zoo for kids.  It's really only fun until about age 6, so we are cashing in on that fun this summer!  It's a super great deal to get a year membership, so I plan to take Daniel in the fall with some of his little buddies that are his age to enjoy the fun while Spence is in school.  School?!  Eeks.  I can't believe that is starting soon.

We have been going with Spencer's little girlfriend ("We are getting married mom, remind me when I'm older if someone else asks me - I need to remember I am marrying her!") and they have been having such a great time.  It really wears out this little dude, though.  He can never make it home without falling asleep.  Luckily, he transfers to his bed really well.  I thought it was so cute that he fell asleep holding onto the handle on his carseat.  :) 

We made a trip to Toys R Us for a birthday present and the boys had SO much fun trying out these power wheels.  Is that even what they're called anymore?  I remember wanting one SO bad when I was a kid.  Wow, are they expensive!  I'm glad they are happy just playing on them in the store.  

Summer time means grilling out!  My man can cook a mean steak!  And he kind of loves to grill, so it's even better.  :) 

This is out of order, but more Happy Hollow pictures from another trip there.  Daniel looks terrified, but he actually loved this ride.  It's a mellow little dragon ride that follows a simple track and has a lit up tunnel at the end.  

Daniel has no fear of animals.  I wish he had just a little bit of fear.  He will walk right up to dogs in the neighborhood and want to grab their mouths.  Yikes.  So, needless to say he loved feeding the goats in the petting zoo.  He is so fun to take places, he just soaks it all in. Both of these boys.  

This picture cracks me up because it sums them up perfectly.  She is sweet and calm and Spencer is a ball of energy!  But, also sweet and fun.  :) 

Ever since D was born, Spencer has impressed us with his ability to adapt and just love his little brother.  He is so great about sharing with him and looking after and helping him.  It is very rare that he is jealous of him or unkind.  I love watching them interact.  My favorite is when they play chase around the house.  Spencer chases Daniel and pops up and surprises him when he's not expecting it and Dan just giggles and giggles.  I love it.  

Some of our friends had a new baby recently and we had the pleasure of taking their kiddos for a morning.  We ended off the day with a fun lunch at chick-fil-a.  Yum!

Fun day out with some girls in the ward.  It was so fun to get away for a few hours.  We did pedicures and had lunch and ended the morning off with some shopping at Goodwill.  I found some great stuff!

                                                

Daniel dosen't have a ton of hair, but what he does have - grows in the back really fast.  It starts to blow up in the wind like a comb over and we have to take action.  He cheesed it up when I pulled out the camera.  I love that little smile! 

For all the sweetness that is wrapped up in Daniel, he will not hold our hands in a store or on the street, he is such a stinker about it!  But, he will always hold Spencer's hand.  We were at TJ Maxx last week and he held Spencer's hand for about 5 minutes!  Spencer was so excited about it and couldn't stop talking about how he was the only person who Daniel would hold hands with and kept asking me to take more pictures to show Dad.  So so cute! 

Dan loves to sit on my lap when I have computer work to do.  He especially loves it if I have music playing while I'm on the computer.  

Lunch is a ball of fun around here.  :) 

We had some friends over a few weeks ago and had the perfect amount of kids to play a game of sardines.  The kids loved it and I thought their little huddle while they counted was super cute.  

Lovely pink helmet, eh? 

We try and read scriptures with the boys every night before bedtime.  Sometimes it doesn't happen before Daniel is in bed.  And if it happens while he's awake, he usually wanders the living room or just plays while we read.  On this particular night he was enthralled with the pictures and loving it.  I had to take a photo! 

Spencer and Gordon went with some buddies from the ward on a campout the night before July 4th.  They had SUCH a blast.  I am not a huge fan of camping, but I have to admit I was a little jealous that it was just the boys going as they were packing up.  It looked so fun!  And the pictures were gorgeous - they were right in the middle of the Redwoods and had such a great time. 

When they got home from camping, our good friends, the Ditty's, arrived for the weekend.  We lived by them down in Valencia before we moved up North and we love them!!! It was great to reunite the kids and to have some game nights to recreate old times.  Thanks for coming!

We went with them up to Golden Gate Park in SF and played at this playground for about 3 hours.  It was awesome!  Eventually, Spence made it up to the top of this spider web climbing structure.  He was so proud!

Spencer and Finn were good scooter riding buddies.  

Caroline decided to race on foot.  

Marali and I.  We spent so much time together when we lived close.  We were pregnant with these two cuties at the same time and Caroline was born three weeks after Spencer.  It was so fun to have a friend going through all of the same stages with me!

More family fun.  We went to dinner at Boudin and Spencer got a turtle shaped bread.  He and Daniel devoured it.  :) 

We came home from playing outside one morning and I hopped into the shower.  When I came out, Spencer was making us turkey sandwiches for lunch.  He decided all on his own to do it, and they were delicious!  We were so proud of him!

Dan had his first slurpee.  We heard from a friend that 7-11 was giving away free slurpee's on July 11th (7/11) so we walked down and grabbed one for each of us.  He, obviously, loved it.  

The local "movie in the park" series has started up again for the summer.  Each weekend, they show a different movie on a huge screen at different parks around town.  It's so fun!  We take snacks and blankets and lay down and watch.  Daniel made it all the way through the movie and crashed on the way home.  

A few weekends ago, Angie, Suzanne and I headed out for our second annual Girl's Weekend!  It started last year when Angie's husband was deployed.  She came home from Utah (where she was living near family) and we stayed at a hotel nearby for a night and stayed out all Saturday and just had fun.  This year, we went up to Half Moon Bay and stayed at a nearby hotel and had such a blast.  Lots of girl talk, shopping, pedicures and beach relaxing! 

Spence discovered the fine art of ice painting.  :) 

The End! 

We just got home from a trip to Utah to see Emily's (Gordon's sister) new baby girl, Ella.  She is adorable and we had such a blast.  An update on that will be coming shortly!