Summer Highlights

OK, I get a big FAIL for not blogging more often. So I will now bombard you with a ton of pictures to sum up the last few months. Sorry for the overload! Again, my pictures are awful because of my horrible camera, but I am hoping to get a new camera for my birthday/anniversary/Christmas gift this year (the joy of having all of those events in one month!!) so I can stop complaining about my pictures. Just about everyone else in the blogging world has gorgeous pictures they post and I get embarrassed about how bad mine are! I wish I could afford a really nice one but I think another point and shoot is what I will end up getting. Does anyone have any recommendations? Anyone have a nice camera they want to sell to me for dirt cheap? ;)

Back in May, yes, that's right, five months ago, my sister Danielle came for a visit. The kids and I took her to the beach for an overnight trip. We had so much fun! My friend Cheri happened to be in Cayucos with her girls so we were able to crash with them for an afternoon. Cheri's husband's grandma lives right on the beach and we had our own quiet little beach area to play! We had lunch first since we had arrived around noon and it was fun to walk down to a local seafood restaurant and walk back to the house.

The boys were so excited to get to play in the water. I didn't know if they would like it but they both loved it and wanted to play in the icy cold water forever!


They loved running away from the water and screaming their little heads off!


My pretty sister!

It was really windy and very cold so Nathan was soon shivering and wanted to snuggle with me.
After playing in the ocean, the kids jumped into the hot tub, which was not hot at all.
The view from the living room. This is heaven!
Lauren showing off a balloon.
Emma nicely posed for me.
After we visited with Cheri and her girls, we drove over to Pismo Beach, where we had booked a night at a hotel. I don't really know my way around Pismo and we saw a Marie Callenders really close to our hotel so we decided to eat dinner there. HUGE MISTAKE! Danielle found a rather large living bug complete with antennas waving at her in her food. We gasped in horror and started laughing. She was thankful she had not eaten any of her food yet because she was sure she'd be sick if she had after seeing the bug in her chicken alfredo. We flagged down our waitress, who apologized and asked if she could get Danielle something else to eat. Dani was too afraid to order the same thing, so she asked for a different meal. Jonah was then afraid to finish his grilled cheese sandwich, even after we took it apart and showed him it was fine. The manager came and told us our entire meal was on them and said she hoped we had not lost our appetites. We explained that Jonah didn't want to eat anymore so she offered us all dessert as well. After that, anytime we drove by the restaurant, Jonah said, "There's the restaurant that had the bug in Dani's food!" What a crazy dinner! Dani was only upset that we had already agreed that she would pay for lunch the next day and I'd pay for dinner. I lucked out on that one! ;)

Thankfully our hotel was really nice and each room had its own balcony and overlooked the ocean. I used my credit card points to pay for the room so it was a free stay!



After a good night's rest, we ate breakfast at the hotel since they offered a free breakfast. They had a heated pool and we were able to eat right by it.
Overlooking the pool was the ocean! It was so beautiful!
Jonah took this picture of Nathan while Danielle and I were getting ready.
We checked out of our hotel and headed to the beach. We did a little bit of shopping when we first arrived. The plan was to play on the beach for a while and then get lunch at Splash Cafe. We would drive home after that, hoping the boys would nap in the car on the way.

Walking on the pier.
We went on a Wednesday and it was so quiet and peaceful. There was hardly anyone there!
The boys still wanted to get their toes wet even though I couldn't STAND the cold water! How do kids do it?!
The seagulls kept flocking to our spot and terrorizing our things. We kept trying to scare them off but they were undeterred.

Sisters. :)
Nathan eventually took a tumble in the water and Danielle rescued him because I was laughing so hard I couldn't move. Yes, I'm such a nice Mama. Nathan became so cold that he wanted to lay completely wrapped up in towels.

Nathan is the little blue bundle on the left side of the picture.

We had the best time on our little mini-vacation. Raymond was sad he had to stay home and work. Besides, we couldn't fit him in my green Honda Civic anyway. While Danielle was here, she helped me pick out new glasses! I had been wearing the same pair for 7 years and it was definitely time for me to have new ones. I also got contacts right before she came to visit so that I could see what I looked like when I tried on different pairs. I haven't had contacts in a few years and I was anxious to get them again. I don't wear them everyday because they dry out my eyes and irritate me, but I like having them for when I want to go non-geek for a day. ;)

In other news, we got a swingset! My father-in-law found out about a free swingset being given away to anyone who would come take it apart and haul it away. He thought Raymond and I might like it for our boys. Yes, please!

Raymond was getting tools out of his office at home to assemble the swingset and moved a 24 pack of soda that was in there and the biggest black widow I have ever seen crawled out. I am pretty sure I screamed. Raymond quickly killed it and we threw it outside. I took a picture.
The sun washes out all of these pictures, but here are the before and after swingset shots. Please take note of the old fence in the back because that is another project we did. Yeah, and after living here in this house for 4 years, we still do not have grass. Someday we will, right?!
The swingset all loaded up in my father-in-law's truck.
After hours of sweaty work in the hot sun, Raymond and his dad finished putting it together!

Isn't it nice? Apparently the original owners bought it only a year ago for $900!! And then they were moving and had to get rid of it so they gave it away for free! Their loss is our gain! I really need to get better pictures of it...

In June we traveled to Oakland for a friend's wedding.
OK, finally a picture of me with my new glasses. Not that you can really tell the difference.

Raymond was in the wedding as a groomsman.
We were so excited, after the wedding we were going to stay at the beach 1 night since Raymond didn't get to go with us the month before. We arrived at our hotel (the same one Dani and I stayed at) on a Sunday night and planned to be at the beach on Monday. Nathan ended up throwing up ALL NIGHT LONG and it completely ruined our plans. A bunch of people from the wedding had also gotten sick that same night, so it looks like we were exposed to some stomach bug. I was devastated! Sleep deprived after being up most of the night, I cried and cried because Raymond and I had not been to the beach since my SIL Angela got married there 3 1/2 years ago! We never get to take fun little vacations and now that we finally were, it was ruined. This is going to sound awful but it is honest so I'll say it, but I was pretty mad at God for allowing this to happen. It was terrible. UGH! Since we drove all that way to the beach, I didn't want us to drive home without Raymond getting to do something at the beach, so Raymond took Jonah for a couple of hours as Nathan and I slept in the hotel room. We then found out about the other people that had been sick so Raymond and I agreed to leave asap and get home just in case one of us was about to come down with it too. Thankfully no one did and Nathan made it barf-free all the way home. I covered the back seats, floor, pretty much every space of my car, and the kids up with beach towels just in case. It was pretty much the worst night and day of my life. Again, UGH!

We had some pretty bad wind that knocked down part of the back of our fence. We are pretty sure the fencing is original to our 50+ year old house so we knew it was time to replace it. Raymond had a friend and his brother help him put up a new fence. I didn't think to get before pictures so you'll have to use the ones from the playground.

Here's the after.



On the 4th of July, we went to Raymond's uncle's house up in the mountains. We had a lot of food and fun. The best part was getting to ride in a little boat on a lake by their house.





Ryan, Rick, Raymond.
Peyton.


The house they live in. It is really nice!
I went on a weekend women's retreat in July which was held at the beach, and took about 2 pictures the whole time I was there. Ugh, sorry! It was really fun and just so nice to get away. I really wanted a break from reality! I didn't ever even go to the actual beach but I enjoyed spending time with other ladies and friends. I did get some shopping in though. I was able to get a pair of jeans at The Gap for $8.99 which delighted me to no end!

Cheri's MIL Pam, Cheri, and my MIL Shanna

Summer also brought us closer to the start of my homeschooling career and Raymond and I decided that we needed to get rid of some of the boys' toys so we could put some bookshelves up. Raymond's parents gave us 3 bookshelves, and so to make room in our guestroom/toy room for them we gave Angela our wooden train table and all of the accessories that goes with it. My life right now is all about homeschooling, working, cleaning the church, and trying to fit in normal household chores and fun outings with our homeschooling friends. I've been working a lot more than usual lately (which averages anywhere from 1 to 3 times a week which for me is a LOT!) but it is all for a good purpose. We bought plane tickets to fly to Chicago for Christmas!! I can't wait! The boys are so excited and have been counting down the weeks till we go. I am praying hard for a healthy Christmas for all of us. The last time we flew for Christmas five years ago (I can't believe it has been so long!) we caught a stomach bug (I think from the plane full of people) and almost everyone got sick while we were there. It was awful. Please pray with me that we don't have another experience like that!

I know that was really long but I've procrastinated so much on blogging that I wanted to get it all in!

Thanks for reading if you made it through to the end! :)