Cali Kids

Some days, we are so far from matching. This particular day, I was able to get her to match the skirt with the bows. Strong minded 4 year olds are fun.
Darius is loving soccer. His best friend Zach plays, too. Lucky for Darius, he has two superstars on his team, so they've won every game so far. I'm just happy that Darius is actually getting some good blocks in this year. Big progress from picking at the grass when he was 5.
Eli stole Darius old Cub Scout hat in anticipation for when he gets to join next summer. You have to be 8, so he can't WAIT to turn 8. Mostly just to be able to do everything his big brother is doing.
Darius moved up to a Bear - cub scouts for 9 years old. He loves it!

Catching up... and First day of school for Mikey

Mikey helped me make a blueberry pie with the blueberries we picked when we were on vacation.

Mikey started these sunflowers from seeds in little cups at the beginning of the summer. I'm not a sunflower person, but these are beautiful... not huge and scary :)

Mikey decided to play with Katie's diaper cream. That stuff is so GREASY! It took 3 baths to get it all off him and out of his hair. Needless to say, he was extra clean for his first day of school on Tuesday.

No Happy pictures of Mikey were taken on the front steps of our house. He was "too tired" to go to school. We were pretty worried he wouldn't go in at all.

The theme for the week is Cowboys and Cowgirls.

He found his coat hook and hung his bag and coat. Then some frogs in a tank caught his attention. After that the train table. That was our cue to say a quick good bye and BOLT!

Here he is - First day DONE! Still alive after 2 1/2 hours of school!

Summer fUN

This is what happens when the kids play "house" in the pantry!

Zac in Grandpa's hat

London at her first Soccer game

Finger painting

More Big Bear Pics

Swarms of baby catfish we played with.
Riding on the tube.
Eli LOVED the hike, finding sticks, climbing rocks, etc. . Me - no thanks.
We also went up the snow ski chair lifts to go on the big slides, like at Park City. It was AWESOME!
Love this one! We went on go karts, too. It was so fun.

Relaxing in Big Bear

Oh well, I'm posting this crazy swimsuit picture that I swore I wouldn't. We took a little trip up to stay in a cabin in Big Bear, top of a mountain, about 3 hours from here. Big ski town. Our friends rented a cabin on the lake and they own a jet ski, so how could we refuse. We needed a little relaxation since our Utah trip was canceled. We're at the tail end of our escrow for buying the condo across our doorstep. Literally. It's been pretty stressful, but buying a place always is. Supposed to close Sept. 8th. Anyway, our trip to Big Bear was a welcome break.
The kids were in the hot tub the entire time. The lake wasn't too cold, but the hot tub is much more fun for them.
They caught a lot of little baby catfish to play with.
Here's our cabin.
We went on a hike, too. Not really my thing. Ya like my nice white pants for the hike, too? Not so smart on my part. Whatever - I felt cute.

Summer Summer Summer Time...

Time to Sit Back and Unwind...

Finally, a vacation! We had PERFECT weather all week. We hope to do something like this again.

Rise and Shine! The sunrises over Lake Huron were beautiful.

Here's a look at our condo from the beach. We were in the second unit from the left.

Here's Derek and Katie - relaxing on the deck.

Mikey's looking for food for the waves. They ate sand and seashells. They were very hungry and kept coming back for more.

Katie picked some flowers on our walk on the beach.

Derek's birthday morning... blue skies and beach combing.

On the public beach in Oscoda - there was a great playground and skate park right on the beach.

Katie and Derek in the COLD Lake Huron water.

Mikey wanted to see the waterfall that fed Lake Huron all it's water... Derek took us to see the Oscoda welcome sign.

On the banks of the Au Sable River.

We saw a U-Pick Blueberry sign on our way up north. We stopped there on our way home and had so much fun. Mikey and Katie were great at picking the berries - Child Labor at it's best. Even though we ate a bunch of blueberries, we came home with 4lbs on fresh berries!

London's Twin

Ok, so maybe not identical twin, but she really reminds me of London. After having this girl from our church over for a playdate for charlise, she asked me why I kept calling her "London." Oops. Her name is Ocean and she's in Eli's class at church. Funny, huh!?

P.S. I'm so slow! I JUST realized you can comment on people's pictures. So, too bad I've missed any comments you guys wrote on past posts. I read comments from our camping pictures, and that's it! Dang.