July Update

Here's the update for July:

We have spent a lot, and I mean A LOT, of time at the pool this summer. It is so cheap and so fun, and Elsie just can't get enough of it. Her poor feet at the beginning of the summer were so sore and torn up from playing so much. It was quite the challenge to get her to put her face under the water. Aaron even bought her some goggles, but it still didn't really seem to help. But after spending some time with older friends, Elsie has become quite the swimmer. She loves to go underwater and swim around. She loves to jump off the side of the pool and will do it over and over and over again.

Whenever she comes up from the water, it is always such a production. She has to get her hair off her face, get all the water off her face, take a bunch of deep breaths, and then always a proud smile. Then she's back at it again!







There's the tongue! It's always hanging out.


ZOO:
We spend a day at the zoo with Pam, Ellie, Hailey, and Sam. It's always a good time at the zoo, but this day was especially nice weather and the kids were great.

The penguins were super active that day. We sat there for a quite a while watching them.
Elsie's favorite part was getting to touch the snake. She wanted Daddy to be there so badly just to freak him out.
She loves to feed the sheep and goats at the farm. She has no fear!! It kind of grosses me out.
We ended the trip off with lunch with Daddy at BlueSky Bagel. Oh, we will miss that place!

FRIENDS:
Elsie has made such great friends here in Nampa. We love spending time with them and doing fun things. I'm glad she's got kids to hang out with and have a good time.

Sam and Elsie's pre-engagement picture.
Elsie, Hailey, and Lauren
Elsie, Avery, Ellie, Hailey, and Lily at the Jumpin' Jungle
OTHER RANDOMS:
We spent an afternoon playing with playdoh and had such a great time. Elsie is always so fun to play with and always lets me know how much she loves me and how much fun she is having.
(I really hate when blogger puts the pictures up out of order when I took the time to download them correctly!!)

Anyway, a couple other side notes. We bought tickets to see Mary Poppins in Salt Lake in September, so we checked out the movie for Elsie to become more familiar with it. Oh my gosh! She loves it! We've been a little obsessed with the songs lately. Our ipod now rotates heavily between Mary Poppins, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Lady Gaga.

I was asked to speak at Girl's Camp this year. I was assigned the topic of enduring all things and was asked to talk about some of the trials our family has endured. I was dreading it...I'm not gonna lie. I was nervous, anxious, felt unqualified, you name it. But I put a lot of time and thought into it, and realized I needed to do it. It was an amazing experience. I had to present it to five different groups and each time I spoke I felt so much better. I'm really not one to get spiritual, especially on the blog, but I did want to make a note about that day and remember how I felt. I think it's Cali that I first heard say, "I can do hard things." That was my motto and still is my motto. It's all worth it, and we can make it through whatever we are given.

Fireworks

This was a rare year when we were actually home for the 4th of July. We spent the afternoon at the pool and did a few fireworks that night. We didn't want to spend very much, so we mostly got little things Elsie could do. We knew there would be so many other fireworks to watch in the neighborhood, so we weren't too concerned. Plus, we all know Aaron isn't a big fan of fireworks anyway. :)

Pasco

I had planned a little trip up to Pasco to visit Jared and family. It was just going to be Elsie and I because Aaron was staying here to work. But, at the last minute, Angie and Q decided to join us.

We drove up to WA on Tuesday after lunch. (Side story: While Ang and I were making lunch, the girls were having a good time playing. We called for them to come eat, and no response. I finally went upstairs to look for them. No response. I look in closets, we keep calling out for them, but nothing. So we are both getting concerned. We go outside and look for them and still no luck. By this time, we are both in a panic. I'm thinking "Oh my gosh, Elsie opened the door to go play outside. They went out and someone took them." It was so crazy because my house is not large and the kitchen is right there. Where could they have gone?! Finally, I realize I never checked the garage, so I open it from outside. I don't see them when the door comes up, but suddenly I hear talking coming from the car. I open the car door, and they were both sitting in there with their travel backpacks because they were so excited to go. I was so relieved!! And then I was mad!! And then I realized how funny it was!)

We had a great time up in Pasco. We got to hang out with everyone, let the kids play, watch some TV, listen to Jared's mellow music while we played games, ate great food (most of which was prepared by Lindsay), went out to eat minus children, went to a yummy bakery and got humungous doughnuts, went to see Cars 2, went to the park and the kids got to swim, played in the backyard, visited Jared at work, and got to see Mitch while he was in town for a wedding. (I know there's even more, but that's a pretty good summary.)

Love this picture of the three little girls after they finished swimming.

Angie does all sorts of cool stuff with the pictures she takes on the iphone. She took most of these while the kids were outside playing.



Yes, all the girls are doing guns, too. Oh, Jared!
Here's the whole group. I'm so sad Aaron wasn't there, but we'll make up for it when we all go to Disneyland!
Thanks for the great week, Jared, Lindsay, and kids!

A Visit from Friends

We came home from our trip to WA and got ready for my high school friend, Colleen, and family to arrive at our house for the night. They were making their annual road trip from Colorado to Washington for a visit with friends and family. We were excited that they were able to stay the night with us and visit. They are such a great family. Adam and Colleen are so fun, and their 5 boys are amazing!

As soon as they got to our house, we let the kids out in the backyard to play in the water and do whatever else boys like to do.


Elsie was a little tired by the time evening rolled around. This is her while they were all watching a movie.
I should've taken a picture with all of us, but I didn't. So this is the best one I got of Colleen and family. We really enjoy when they stay with us. I have always loved Colleen and still feel so happy and comfortable around her. I have always admired her, and am truly amazed at the mother she is to all those boys.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit

We were not planning any trips down to Utah for the summer since our big plan was to move down by the end of August. (It is still the plan!)

Aaron's parents planned a trip up to visit us. It was really nice to see them, and we are so grateful that they like to be with us, especially Elsie!

We were able to do all sorts of fun things. Gary and Aaron went golfing, we played outside, watched the Caldwell Air Show from our driveway, ate lots of yummy food (like Chung Hing...we definitely had to go there one more time!), played games, and went to the Farmer's Market.

While we were at the market, we let Elsie get her face painted. She chose to do a little butterfly, and she thought it was pretty cool.

Then we had the idea to do more at home with my paint. Grandma really went with it and did an awesome job. Elsie was in heaven!! I think we need to send Sylvia down to the farmer's market to earn some money.

Elsie also painted Grandma's hand. I see potential!


They also brought up these cool water squirters for Elsie, and we had some water fight fun with those.
It kind of started between Elsie, Grandpa, and I. Then Aaron was spraying some stuff on our tree, so we all decided to attack him while he was occupied. He was loving that...not really! It was great. Well, he went inside, but we were all a little nervous about what he would do to get us back. I finally went inside and ended up teaming up with him. Our plan was for him to come around the side of the house while I went back and "casually" turned the hose on. When it was ready, I was supposed to yell "Ca-caw, Ca-caw" and Aaron would grab it and spray. The plan worked beautifully, except he knew the whole time he was going to spray me first. I didn't even have enough time to run anywhere. I looked ridiculous! Then he moved on to spraying everyone else. Oh, good times!!

Sylvia is not going to love this picture, but it's the only one I have with Gary in it. Thanks for coming to visit!

JUNE

JUNE UPDATE:

The first half of the month is a bit of a blur to me. Not sure why. I know I was in a bit of a funk (I'm not the only one that has those times, right?!) But once the weather started getting better and we had more things going on, life was much more enjoyable.

Elsie and I (and Aaron when he could get off early) started going to our favorite swimming pool whenever we could. I still haven't remembered to bring my camera. Elsie was still pretty timid in the water, but she loves to jump off the wall in the shallow end and do the army crawl back and forth.

Elsie has really started to get in to sounding out letters and putting those sounds together. We signed up for the summer reading program at the library, so she is really excited about reading for 20 minutes each day. I figured it would be us reading to her, but she is reading her BOB books all by herself. It is so awesome to hear her read and figure out the words.

We got to see lots of family later in the month. Aaron's parents came up for a visit, and we had a great time. Then, while Aaron stayed home to work, Elsie and I took a trip up to WA to visit Jared/Lindsay and family. Angie and Q ended up joining us as well, so that was a nice bonus. Plus it made for a much more entertaining car trip. We had lots of fun...more pics to come.

Some random pictures from the month:

I always tease Aaron about this way he sleeps where it looks like he's chillin' and tanning in the sun. When Elsie was taking a nap one day, she was doing Aaron's pose.

I had to go to the dr. one day to get checked for strep, and just brought Elsie along. I love that I can do that without even stressing about it. We brought her Leapster and headphones and all was good in the world. She just sat on the chair with her cute, little legs crossed and played the whole time.

No matter how hard we have tried to get Elsie to play upstairs, she has determined that her playroom is the family room. Oh, and the TV is hers as well. I love to see how Elsie sets up her little play areas all over the place. This spot is one of her favorites.

Always being a funny girl!