Disneyland with Family

We had a couple of visitors this last week!

First Grandma Bonnie, then Papa Jeff and the Larsens joined a couple days later.

We tried some new to us restaurants with grandma Bonnie. 

South of Nicks right off Del Mar in San Clemente is delicious!

Saturday was soccer games. It was super hot and humid. 

In fact, the week everyone was here was by far the hottest week of the summer...and fall. 

The two days of Disneyland was 100 degrees or more!

We decided to be responsible and do school on Monday, while everyone did California Adventure, then Disneyland on Tuesday.

Ben even came!!

Mackayla and Callie are so cute together. They pick up right where they leave off. Cute little cousins.

Bonnie and Jeff took the little girls on little rides while we hit all the roller coasters.

Mackayla had the time of her life, it was so nice to know they were enjoying themselves too. Grandparents are the best.

Funny little photo bomber friend.

Mackayla Loves the merry go round.

We even had the band join us on our go around and play some live music:)

(back there)

I really wanted to see what all the hype of Tower of Terror was about.

Macey, who hates the feeling of dropping, even on swings, knew I really wanted to. I tried to talk Cody into going with me, but he wanted to do a different ride. Macey volunteered to go. She is so sweet, cause I reminded her it was the one that dropped really fast and she said it was fine, she wanted to go.

We are in the middle on the left. I am checking Macey because I literally thought she may have passed out. She did awesome, but was so freaked out she didn't even scream.

Afterwords she calmly and confidently declared that that was not her favorite ride.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed she went.

  Kevin even joined us from Palm Springs for a little while.

 This radiant glow sweaty sheen on my face is the result of being outside all day in 100 plus degrees. 

It was Blake's birthday that day! She got a little birthday ice cream at Tony Roma's.

Macey told Bonnie that for her birthday she wants to go to Tony Roma's and eat the bones (aka ribs.)

(this is in addition to her other 297 birthday requests)

Such a fun day at Disneyland.

We're so glad Bonnie and Jeff joined us and it was fun to have Ben there too.

The next day we joined up with Amy and Luke and the girls at Doheny Beach.

Luke rented some surf boards and taught Blake and Cody to surf. 

Cody Loved it!!

Luke and Ben (after work) got some time surfing too.

Callie and Mackayla were perfectly content digging in the sand.

So fun to see everyone...come again soon!

Cowboy Up Class

We're doing our best not to totally urbanize our children:)

This summer Cody had the opportunity to go to a little class with four boys. A cowboy class.

They did a lot of horse back riding, a lot of water gun target practice, a little roping, a little chicken chasing, some tree climbing, mostly just a lot of fun.

Kathy is the manager of a horse boarding facility and grandma to one of the cute boys in Cody's class.

Ben works there somewhat often - whenever a horse needs him:)

She put it all together and really just has the gift of teaching and letting boys have fun.

 This is them roping...behind that fence!

 They took their target shooting seriously.

Stand, shoot. Kneel, shoot. Roll, shoot.

It was so nice to give him a little exposure to something his dad loves, since we (as in the kids and I-Ben sees them every day) really haven't been around horses since we moved from Utah - and sold our horses. (Ben's. I know nothing.)

Such a fun class!!

And Just Like That

Summer is over.
School is finally here!

Cody is in second grade.

He has Mrs. Serrano.

He has a bunch of friends in his class from last year and of course played handball at recess.

After school he went and hugged his first grade teacher

and told me later that he really misses her and wished he could still have her as his teacher.

He loves his teachers!

I'm sure he'll love Mrs. Serrano too.

Macey has Mrs. Bentley.

She has a class full of friends and is thrilled to be starting school.

After school as people asked her how she liked it she scowled and told them she didn't get enough time to play at recess. ha. But she liked it.

The parents stayed with today, so I got to be in class with her. She is so independent though, I really just sat back and relaxed.

Last night at dinner Macey was giddy and just Happy in anticipation of today

I love her belly laughs and we got a couple of those

I literally think she is going to be right in her element

Although tonight as we sat to chat she wasn't particularly interested in talking about school or her tooth, just about birthdays and birthday plans.

She was sweet and cheerful all day long.

Miss Mackayla played at her friends' house and met us at school when it was over.

 We went swimming with dad and the Bleaks this evening to relax and unwind.

I'm fairly confident that I was the one most stressed about today.

It was just so stressful last year...but it was a new school and new place after all. This year went way smoother.

 This year I saw my last year self in a new friend who just moved from Utah.

She kind of motioned around, bewildered, as we walked away from the school and said, literally with tears in her eyes..."what is this?"

I casually but jokingly told her, "Oh, you mean you wish you would have gotten up at 3:40 am and gotten a manicure, pedicure, hair done and new outfit for the Ladera Ranch fashion show?" Yes, it's an unofficial fashion show for the parents on the first day of school. A little culture tip for anyone thinking of coming. (eye roll :)) Last year I rolled in with my sweats, ponytail and stroller to see the spectacle. And I hate to brag, but I did my hair this year. But that is about it.

It's also just so crowded - this is a humongous school- and kinda overwhelming at first.

AND THEN--

Macey lost her first tooth tonight!! 

On the first day of school:)

 Her new tooth was already growing in, all nice and crooked behind it!

 Off to tooth fairy duties!

Week Before-Countdown to School

This is one of our favorite parks

I love that it has a secluded outdoor workout area...for adults (but kids love it:))

 This was our last ward beach day before school starts.

Hurricane Marie had just hit south and brought in some crazy waves.

We had fun watching them and only stuck out toes in this time because the rip current was too strong. 

 We had so much fun building sand castles and burying the kids!

 And we finally (Macey would say) got a treat at the beach.

 Huge waves!

 Mermaids and Sharks

 Little Superhero

 We went to a birthday party at Jumpin Jammin with some cute friends of ours.

 Literally the funniest little three year old I have met. Every time I see him he tells me the pirate ride at Disneyland is broken...he loves pirates to put it mildly. 

 I recovered some antiques from my sisters from the depths of storage.

 Steph is my best girl

 Since the waves were wild, we got to try a different beach - The Dunes at Newport.

It was perfect for the kids to splash in. The sand wasn't nearly as good as beach sand but it did the trick.

 We swam out to the whale and slid down it

 Among the critters that creep and fly around here there are TONS of crows that fly overhead each evening around this time of year.

 Another park...I brought some rocket balloons thinking it would be fun.

 We happened to come while another family were blasting off their rockets...they were a LOT cooler and went about 300 feet higher than our swell balloons. Fun to watch!

 Cody got a hair cut

 It looks a lot tamer but isn't a whole lot shorter?!

 Went to Big Air this morning as a final day before school starts activity...now we're off to see who teachers will be for tomorrow's first big day!