California Here I Come (Back)

To start off July we headed back to California. This time with my family and we headed south to Newport Beach. My parents rented an awesome house that had eight bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a bunk room, and a pool. All of my sister's and their families came as well which made it the first time we were all together in three years. Of course, as a result, we had to do family pictures on the beach.


My cute niece holding Rachel.


Lizzie wouldn't cooperate and this is about as good as we could get. Her refusal to look at the camera was really shocking because Lizzie would never refuse to do something we asked her to do simply because we asked her to do it... ever.


See her eyes twinkle. Every once in a while I can catch it between the goofy faces and grimaces that are her usual trademarks.

All the grand kids.

The 4th of July was on a Sunday so after going to church and walking around the temple we decided to go see the boat parade. Instead of a boat parade though we saw a "people parade" and our kids were all educated in ways that we hadn't planned. After that enlightenment we headed back home and enjoyed the view from the house instead which, as you can see, wasn't altogether that bad.

The Rest of June

A quick catch up. June was cold and rainy and I really don't know what we did for most of it, but Nick did run his second marathon in the cold and rain.


Addie kind of learned to ride her bike without training wheels (She still needs a push to start and is kind of afraid, but hey, she can ride down the street without them which is improvement for our timid girl.)

Sam, Taryn, and the boys came into town and we hung out a lot (insert one of a hundred pictures here)

Sam got a mohawk which is much much better then the bleach and his Billy Idol look.


And everyone went on a really cool hike that I didn't make because of Rachel and kids and that sort of thing.

Moab (June) #2

Now here are some pictures of Addie and the rest of the crew.

It was a great trip. We were glad to be able to go out with Sam and Sara and have a good time, despite the temperature gauge that read 109 degrees. The other thing worth noting was that we rented a raft and went down the river. When I say "we" I mean Addie and the grown ups with Nat and I taking turns. Addie was a little nervous at first but as soon as we put a stick in the rope in the front of the raft that looked like bull horns and called the raft the "Blue Bull" she was good to go.






This is a crawdad we found in the river. Yes it is alive. There is a very funny story about this particular crawdad. If you want to make Addie happy ask her why her Aunt Sara was doing the boogie dance in the river shortly after her Uncle Sam threw that crawdad after her. $100 says Sam couldn't make that shot again.

Just the goofball Addie doing what she does best on hikes.

Moab (June) #1

OK, we are too far behind for words and now will be resorting to posting only pictures. Yes, I know this could be annoying to some of you and great for others. It is a child of necessity. If we do anything else we will never post here again because we will be so far behind. I know that would just be a terrible thing for everyone, right? RIGHT?

So here are some pictures of Lizzie in Moab:

Lizzie's Quote of the Day

We have so much to catch up on in this blog and yet I just find myself writing random quotes because I think they are hilarious. The latest...

Lizzie is in the process of potty training. Yes she is coming up on three. Yes we have been trying since January. No, I don't want to hear about it. Really. Anyway, we have one of the books that teaches parents how to potty train their kids (as you can tell it gets minimal usage) (also, yes this is a second set of parenthesis, who takes the time to research and write a potty training book? I know it is helpful and obviously a big part of the development of a child but it does seem like an odd field to specialize in. I am trying to imagine a bunch of guys sitting around an apartment at college and one guy suddenly deciding to specialize in good potty training habits...)

Anyway, back to my story. Lizzie had a bit of a hard time going to bed tonight. A lot of the time when she is having a hard time laying down we give her a book to get her to sit still long enough for her to get to sleep. Tonight she asked for "Those potty scriptures." An hour later we came in and found her clutching the how-to-potty-train-your-kid book like a life preserver from the Titanic. She is a funny girl.

Backfire

At lunch today:

Addie: "Mom try a blueberry with Ketchup its sooo good."

Me: "No that's gross!"

Addie: "Mom you have to. Those are the rules of the house. Everyone HAS to try something once and you can't break the rules."

Result: Blueberries with ketchup are very very gross.

Memorial Day

Wow, we are behind. As usual we had a busy day. It started with a 5K. The Harrington Memorial 5K. The proceeds for the race went to the Million Mothers for Haiti, an organization that Natalie is involved with. I had a PR and a good race and we were able to be there with the Kings which always makes a good morning.


Then we did the obligatory Memorial Day yard work. We trimmed hedges. Addie was left wondering why we wait until fall to jump into leaves. We are just barely getting space in the garbage can now.


We went on a hike up towards Horsetail Falls with the girls. It was a low-key hike and they both walked it the whole way. Rachel did not... pansy. Even for a small time, it is great to get out and hike.


Finally we had a little family party and finished the day out with some good food and company.