Friday, August 10, 2012

salty breeze, relaxing, waves crashing, dolphins, uncontrollable fun, deep thoughts, sand in my toes ..... why I love the sea

My favorite week of the year, summer vacation in Newport Beach.  
The kids loved searching for crabs on the rocks.




Brinley turned them all into mermaids!  Bear is into mermaids and kept wondering if he would see one at the beach, so he was in heaven here.
Shep's into boogie boarding.  It was scary to watch my baby go so far out.
Bear got tossed in a wave early on in the week and decided unless someone was holding him, he preferred playing in the sand.  Bear loves Henry.
Meda and Brinley got matching suits at downeast when we went to the Spectrum.
Kathleen "lived up to her name" as Travis said.  She is definitely sea-kindly.
Elsie, Meda and Annessa
love whiffle ball on the beach
The Fun Zone.  After our week at the beach house we stayed a few extra days in a hotel with Anney and Chris.  Travis had to leave for work so Chris showed the boys how to be men on the ferris wheel!

It wasn't long before we were all covered in this snow cone.
Our first family pictures with Pipa.  (Did I mention Bear has nicknamed Kathleen Pipa and it has kinda stuck.  It started with Kapaweena, then went to Papa to Pipa.)  On Saturday we were at the hotel and decided to go to Laguna and take pics.
Pipa's not so happy in this one. 



I adore every bit of her.  My little lady.
The morning Travis left to go home we went to fun zone then sat in the parking lot outside Cafe Rio with Anney and Chris (Chris was also about to leave to go home.)  We were talking about what to do that day and I jokingly said, let's just go to Disneyland.  And then we thought, Why not?  So we did.  Thank heavens we had Brinley (who is amazing and helpful and we love her) staying with us to help out with the kids.  I still can't believe we just went to Disneyland.  No planning, no preparing, and sadly no pics, really.  These are really the only two good ones.... Shep after riding and loving Space Mt.,  he is now a lover of roller coasters and everyone else dog tired on the tram back to the car at midnight after we closed the place down.  We had a lot of fun and will probably never get to do anything that spontaneous again.  Good memory.
We also saw Brave at the Spectrum in the beginning of the vaca.  All the kids loved it but especially Bear.  He fell in love with Merida and was so happy just to see posters up of her at Disneyland.  We barely missed a meet and greet with her, so sad.  

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Kathleen's blessing day

 Travis blessed Kathleen the day before father's day, at our home.  It was a beautiful blessing.  She was blessed to have a beautiful life, strong in faith and family, to look to and follow her grammy for who she was named. 
 I love that her name is Kathleen.  I love it anytime I am asked her name and I get to say, "Kathleen".   I love that it was my mom's name.  I cannot express the amount of love I feel for this baby girl and I know heavenly father feels the same.  
 We were so grateful to have so much loving and supportive family there with us this special day.


Fathers and Sons

Bear's first father and sons.  Daddy said the boys had a blast and that Shep was always looking out for Bear and making sure he was having fun and included with all the boys.

Monday, June 11, 2012

The Hooks

 Go #11.  That's our guy!  Shep played coach pitch this spring and loved it!  The Hooks was a well oiled machine.  The team and coaches have played together for a few years and they knew what they were doing.  Shep learned a lot and had fun.

 Catcher and short stop are his favorite positions.
 They gave out an mvp award at the end of every game.  It was a nice necklace.  Shep was dying to get it.  The last game and fathers and sons were on the same day.  Shep said if he didn't get the necklace by then, he wasn't going on fathers and sons, which is huge because camping and his dad are two of Shep's favorite things.  
 Luckily second to last game he got it and couldn't have been happier.