Summer Fun

I apologize for the total stale blog! I just can't seem to get my act together enough, or find enough time to sit down and post. Summers are supposed to be relaxing right? I think when I was trying ensure that the kids would have a fun summer, I may have over scheduled us. Things have been non stop with their various activities, time at the pool, fun with cousins and some trips. Between our busy schedule and not being able to sleep at night, I feel pretty exhausted at the end of the day. Since it's almost August, I thought I better try and post some of our fun before the summer is over. Here's the long recap:

Lake Shasta

Right after my last post where I found out we were expecting a girl, we took off for a week long vacation to Lake Shasta with my family. This is seriously everyone's favorite trip and we look forward to it all year. The boys are still asking when we can go back.

The boys love to help Papa drive the houseboat.

Travis helped Carson catch his first fish! It was a smallmouth bass, and caused quite the excitement. Carson wanted to cook it up, but Travis and I thought it best to throw it back! I know, we're whimps!

Later that same day Carson lost his 2nd tooth!! He's lost two teeth now and he's not even 6 or in Kindergarten! Slow down buddy!

Enjoying some family swim time.

I did a lot of "this" on the trip. I did wakesurf once, but everything else was off limits for me, so I got to be a spectator, photographer, flag holder, and pillow for the kids since the boat always lulls them to sleep.

Travis enjoying some ski time.

Jumping from the boat was Holden's absolute favorite thing to do. He was quite the daredevil.

Cute cousins. After spending a week together, Avery and Carson were sad to go their separate ways.

New Bike

Carson has really mastered riding his bike this summer. He learned to ride on a small 12 inch bike and could ride 4-5 miles while Travis or I ran and pushed Holden in the stroller. For those of you that are familiar with the big West Union hill, (the one that intersects with Bethany Blvd) he is able to ride up that all by himself! We thought that it was time he graduated to a big boy bike, and he was fitted with this cool 20 inch bike from Sunset Cycles. He was most excited about it and is learning how to handle such a big bike quite well.

Chris and Cassie got Engaged!!

Chris and Cassie got engaged on July 1st and are getting married the end of August!! We're so excited for them, although I don't know if I'll ever forgive them for making me attend their wedding 8 months pregnant. :)

4th of July

For the 4th of July we went to visit our parents in California. We like to select and let off our own fireworks and the kids had a great time.

It's not fun unless you risk burning your crotch on a firework.

San Francisco

Travis had to work in San Francisco while we were visiting our parents, so while he worked, my parents and I did our best to give the kids a tour of the city. Here the kids are watching the Sea Lions at Pier 39.... they're stinky!!

Carson is fascinated by Alcatraz, so he wanted to make sure I got a picture of it....there it is in the background. Hopefully the next time we get down there we'll have time to take a tour.

Carson was feeling adventurous so my dad bought him some crab to try for the first time and he liked it.

The kids had some delicious sourdough bread in the shape of a turtle.

Since we were eating our way through San Francisco, we had to stop at Ghirardelli Square for the best Sundaes ever!

If you're in San Francisco, you have to drive down Lombard Street.

We made a quick stop and tour of Coit Tower.

A trip to San Francisco is not complete without a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge, so we made a quick stop there and walked about halfway across. I have to say that it made me a little sick to my stomach looking over the edge.

Travis is a big Giants fan, and we were fortunate to get the most amazing seats to the game that night. We sat right behind homeplate, next to the dug out. It was a great game and the Giants won!

This last weekend we drove up to Seattle for a Mariners game. We had pretty good seats, about row 34 behind home plate and on this particular day, there were a few foul balls hit our way.

The Mariners played lousy, but that was all forgotten when Travis caught his first foul ball! He describes it as a spiritual experience and one thing he can check off his list of "Things he wants to accomplish in life." I don't quite understand that, but I'm happy for him.
When the ball was coming our way, I kind of ducked, but thought it was going behind us. The next thing I know Travis is clobbering me. I was actually kind of annoyed, he had clobbered Holden too, and then I realized he'd caught the foul ball! As he analyzed his amazing catch later, he thinks he lunged to catch the ball and after he caught it, fell on me and Holden. He said the crowd cheered for him when they realized he'd caught the ball, but I didn't notice because I was a little embarrassed with everyone staring at us, Holden bawling and me feeling disheveled.

The boys are totally obsessed with this ball for some reason too, it's become the bane of our existence. They fought over it the rest of the game and the whole way home....each having a turn to hold it every 5 minutes. Carson asked me to take this picture of him acting like he's going to throw it. So cool..... :)

When Holden woke up the next morning, the first thing he asked me was if he could hold the ball!! WHY??!!!

Meet CHEESEBALL.