Summer catch up

I've neglected the blog long enough. We had a busy fun summer. It feels kind of good to have a schedule now. The kids birthdays are coming up so I thought I better get caught up so I will be able to move on.

This summer we took lots oftrips to the zoo, spenttime in Utah and lake Powell with family, went to the beach, Washington DC, Massanutten (a 4 season resort), and spent lots of time on the lake. We had our fair share of natural disasters too, earthquakes and hurricanes. One would think that after spending 4 years in Los Angelesand 1 1/2 years in Chile, I would be calm during an earthquake but I have to admit that I wastotallycaught off guard by the earthquake that took place this summer. It wasn't a big earthquake and thankfully didn't do any damage to our area but it was loud and shook our house and I ran to make sure the kids were okay. I had never heard of an earthquake in this area anddidn't know thatwe live near a pretty big fault line. Next time I'll be ready.

Hurricane Irene also came through our area.Jared decided that we would go on a mini-vacation instead of sticking around, which turned out to be a great idea because we had no power and no generator for a few days. We spent that time at Massanutten resort. If you live on east coast I guess it's a pretty great place to go. We've been a couple of times but we talked to people there who came all theway from NY and New Jersey. They have a ski slope, down hill tubing year round and an indoor/outdoor waterpark open all year round. When we came back home to survey the damage we were happyand felt very grateful that only one tree fell (away from the house).

Utah was fun this year as it is every year. We spent time at Lake Powell with the Catten family doing lots of fun things:

paddleboarding

fishing

tubing and spending time with cousins

wakeboarding

and hiking.

I ran the Deseret News marathon with my sister. Itwas such a great experience that we want to run another one if anyone wants to join us.

It was so fun to see old friends.

Caleb got to meet Great Grandma Whatcott

And we met our newest niece and nephew/cousins. They were born the day before we left. Here they are less than 24 hours old.

The Norfolk harbor fest was so fun. They had pirate ships as Sam calls old-looking boats, patrol boats, lots of fun activities and great music. Green River Ordinance and Matt Nathanson performed one night. The best part, it was all free.

The kids love the Metro Richmond Zoo. They love feeding the giraffes

birds.

We love spending time on the lake. I tried wake surfing for the first time and I love it. I now think I know why people like to surf.

You might be wondering if Jared is wakeboarding, who is driving the boat...I am and I still freak out every time I drive it.

Well this pretty much sums up our summer. Yay, now I can move on to first days of school, soccer games and soon birthdays. Caleb will be 2 and Sam 5 too soon.

Preschool graduation

Sam still has another year of preschool but he looked so cute at his commencement. It has been amazing to watch and see how much Sam has matured and learned this year.

The kids sang a bunch of songs. They were so cute.

Sam getting his certificate from his teacher Miss Missy.

First year of preschool down...

One room down...

Hall bathroom

Before:

After:

I love my new bathroom.

Broken Road Farm: the last field trip of the year

Last week Sam's preschool class went on a field trip to Broken Road Farm. Other than it being ridiculously hot, Sam's last field trip of the school year was pretty fun. Broken Road Farm is a farm where they raise miniature animals. They had sheep, goats, pigs, horses, llamas, alpacas and miniature cows. They also regular sized animals; chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc. This is Sam's preschool class. He loves his teacher Miss Missy and is excited to do another year.

Sam started out the field trip, tired, hungry and really hot and was into the animals. This is one of the very few pictures I got of him.

Caleb, on the other hand, loved the animals and couldn't get enough of them. Both Sam and Caleb needed a little snack break during the trip so I gave them some cereal bars. Caleb shoved the last of it in his mouth while checking this little miniature baby horse out (soooo cute) and one of the parents thought he was eating some of the horse food off the ground (the cereal bar and the horse food were the same color). She kind of swung him around towards me and started screaming, "he's eating the food." It was pretty funny, I assured her he was eating a cereal bar and not the animal food. (Of course I wouldn't put it past him to try some kind of animal food some day.)

My climber. This guy keeps me on my toes.

Sam was not really having a good time at the farm so I suggested he could take a picture with my camera. Once I let him hold the camera it was all over; I couldn't make him give it back to me. He had a great time taking pictures of everyone and everything, except for the animals. He still didn't want to have anything to do with them. These are some of my favorite pictures that he took and I have to say, I think he is quite the photographer, better than me anyway.

(The kids got to feed the baby animals and this is what their bottles look like.)

Easter treasure hunt

The Easter Bunny prepared an Easter treasure hunt for the kids this year. Sam loved it. Pirate Mickey gave clues for the making of the treasure map.

The hunt begins!

Clue #1.

Caleb had a great time just being outside and playing with the dogs.

I love how excited Sam gets! His face is very expressive.

They found the treasure chest.

The bootie.

The kids had so much fun on their treasure hunt. I hope the Easter Bunny does this again next year.

Disneyland!!!

We love Disneyland, so when Jared was invited to a golf tournament in California, for work, I said, "Let's go!" It was a short trip but so much fun. It was the first time we had been back to California since we moved back in 2008. It felt good to be back even if it was only for a few days. Sam can't stop talking about Disneyland now and asks almost daily if we can go back. I think Sam was star struck by most of the characters. Even though he loves them all he was a little afraid to get too close to them.

Nothing like a lollipop on the jungle cruise. I think they've added some new jokes since the last time we were there.

Sam posing in toon town.

Caleb loved the Heimlich caterpillar ride. He was in complete awe every time we rode it.

My three action figures.

Sam was so excited that we saw Lightning and Mater. He asked me why they weren't moving or talking. I told him that they were playing a game of who could hold still the longest. He was appeased. They are really revamping California adventure. I can't wait until the Cars land opens up, along with all the other things they are working on.

By the end Sam was warming up to the characters and even held Goofy's hand. I think Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth and I can hardly wait to be able to go back.

Caleb

The last post was mostly about Sam, well this little man is pretty sweet too. He is a mama's boy for now and I love it. I know it won't last too much longer so I will take what I can get.