Vacation Bible School

This week all the kids except Falyn, who is too young, have been busy with Vacation Bible School. Talia and Kayli are both group leaders this year. They have all been having a lot of fun are were sorry to see it end.




Picnic and Playtime in the Pool

In an effort to have the kids enjoy the pool this summer, even though it isn’t done yet, we had a picnic on the reef step. I then let the kids play in the pool. They got cars and had fun rolling them down the slide. They also played with a frisbee, trying to get it into the spa. We had all hoped that the pool would be done by now. Aidan got the saddest look on his face when he realized today that the pool won’t be finished in time for his birthday next week. The twins and Kayli are now worried that it won’t be finished for their birthday’s either.












Kayli put together a little video showing all the fun:

You stepped on a bee at the beach?

We have been going to the beach once a week since school got out. All the kids love going to the beach. The boys have become quite good boogie boarders this summer. Falyn still isn’t quite into boogie boarding, but insists on bring her pink Tweety Bird boogie board with us each time we go to the beach. We had no sooner gotten to the beach, dropped our stuff on the sand and taken off our shoes, when I hear Riley say, “Owe!”. He then starts screaming that he stepped on a bee. I looked down and see a bee thrashing about on the sand. That pretty much confirms that he did indeed step on a bee. He says he can’t walk, so Talia and Kayli carry him over to the lifeguard (we also set up right next to a lifeguard tower). The lifeguard makes sure he got all the of the stinger out, cleans it up and puts a band-aid on Riley’s foot. Afterwards, Riley sat on a towel on the beach complaining about the pain. That only laster for about 10 minutes, when he started playing in the sand. It wasn’t long before he put on his wetsuit, grabbed his boogie board and headed out into the waves.

Afterwards he made the comment that it didn’t hurt nearly as much as he thought a bee stung would hurt. I’m hoping that will mean he isn’t as terrified of them now. We also now know that he isn’t allergic to bees. It’s a good bet that Jared isn’t allergic to them either, since DNA seems to play a big part in whether or not a person is allergic to something. Since Falyn is allergic to bees, it is a relief to know that Riley and most likely Jared, are not allergic to them. But seriously, a bee sting at the beach? I could understand stepping on a stingray, but a bee? Why do these types of things only seem to happen to us?

Dyeing Summer Eggs

This morning we dyed “Summer Eggs”. I saved dye from Easter to use in July and today we brought it out for some summer fun. The kids all enjoyed it and afterwards we had boiled eggs for lunch.






Slip-N-Slide Fun

Since it was such a hot day today, we took our slip-n-slide over to the grandparent’s house for the kids to have some wet fun. Kayli was sick and Talia was on a hike with her dad, so they didn’t come with us. Since our backyard is full of dirt and concrete, we couldn’t use it there. The kids had a ton of fun, but Grandpa Ron didn’t like how flooded his backyard got. I guess we will have to figure out some place else to use it the next time the temperature heads into the 90’s.








Here’s a picture of Dan and Talia on their hike. They went with Dan’s Uncle David and David’s son Ben. Samantha was also there.

Day 25 – Pool Construction – Ledgestone Started

They started putting on the ledgestone today. It looks absolutely gorgeous! There is definitely an art to putting on the ledgestone. There are a bunch of pieces and they have to be arranged just so, to get a balanced look. The guy doing our ledgestone puts a lot of effort into making it look just right. He does an awesome job.




Ron and Nancy’s 50th Anniversary

My in-laws’ 50th wedding anniversary party was held today. Two of their daughters were able to come from out of town, bringing the number of their children in attendance to 5 out of 8, with 11 of their grandchildren there. We had a wonderful lunch and then they renewed their vows. Everyone agreed that it was a lovely day.

Here’s the slideshow Samantha and I created for their anniversary.

Here’s the video of them renewing their vows and the speech from the children given by Dan afterwards.

Renewing their vows

With 5 of their kids

With their grandkids

With Fr. Joe

Falyn had so much fun playing with her cousin Ella.

Gwen’s Baptism

We attended my niece’s baptism today. Since they live out of town, it was the first time we saw her. She is such a cutie! After the baptism we went over to Dan’s parent’s house for a party. We all had such a fun time.






Happy 4th of July!

We had a wonderful 4th of July! Dan and Aidan started the day out marching with the Cub Scouts in the Huntington Beach 4th of July Parade.



The rest of us participated in the annual neighborhood bike parade. The kids all enjoyed decorating their bikes and then riding around the neighborhood with all their friends. Afterwards we had a picnic at the park and stayed a while so the kids could play.





Falyn had fun playing with Mary.


The twins and John Paul spent most of their time on top of the monkey bars.


We had a BBQ with the neighbors and then brought out the firepit to keep us warm while we did fireworks. Samantha even did facepaint for the kids.