A long awaited beach day

We finally had a free Saturday where we could make it to the beach.  We went with Tory and Preston and their kids and set out to have a great time. I had been checking the weather and it was supposed to be 77 and sunny.  As we got closer and closer to the beach, we saw increasing amounts of fog and the temperature reading in the van was going down not up.  Not a good sign.  We assessed the situation when we got there, and decided to stay because we were already there and the kids were beyond excited about finally getting to the beach.  I am ashamed to say that we hadn't been since our camping trip in April.  As we were packing the car Andrew asked about his boogie board and it was no where to be found.  Luckily Tory had it in her garage from last summer and Andrew was thrilled.  Almost immediately Carter, Abby and Andrew set out for the water.

Andrew and Carter had a great time in the water and kept going out over and over.  As usual, the water was really cold, but they didn't seem to care.  Andrew finally came in when he got dunked in a wave.

 

Claire played it safe on the edge and played and ran around in the surf.

Claire and Abby tried different methods of boogie boarding/surfing, but only in the surf.

As usual, Danny brought his shovel and dug a trench and later a tunnel for the kids.  A shovel in indispensible at the beach.  I can't get over how much fun the kids have digging a hole.

We offically have a new lover of the beach.  Grant saw it as a giant playground to crawl around on.  He had a great time.  He loved being mobile and was flinging the sand as he went by.

He hit the surf and wasn't too thrilled with the cold water, but loved crawling on the hard sand.

Pretty soon he was covered in sand and some snot, but he didn't care.

He takes after his big sister when it comes to his love of eating sand.

Claire jumping over Danny's hole - she would not pose for a picture for me.

Andrew and Carter saw some type of small animal in the sand and started digging for it.

And here is what they found, I don't know what it is, but they were pretty excited.

The sun did eventually come out for about an hour or so, but the kids did not seem to mind a bit.  Andrew is already asking when we can go back.  Hopefully we can go again in September after baseball.  

Andrew's first day of 2nd grade

Andrew started 2nd grade today.  He was unusually nervous on Sunday night about school starting.  When we got to the bottom of the issue he was already worried about math homework.  I said that they don't give math homework on the first day and that we would work on math extra hard this year.  All of the jitters were gone on Monday morning and he was excited to get to school, but not without the obligatory first day picture in the backyard.

He recently lost one of his front teeth, but it is a bit hard to tell from the picture.

We got to school and he lit up when he saw his friends.  They all hugged each other and were excited to be in the same class.

Andrew has the only male teacher at the school and he thinks that is pretty school.  His name is Mr. Barnhardt and Andrew seems to really like him.

Ever since preschool we have asked Andrew if he wants to go out to dinner of his choice on the first day or out to ice cream.  Last night he chose frozen yogurt.  He was so excited to show us all how it "worked".  He has been there with my mom, but the rest of us hadn't.  The exciting part for the kids is that they got to choose their own toppings.  Can you tell from the picture below which two are Andrew and Claire's cups?

Then we sat outside and ate.  Of course, once the yogurt was done there were attempts to play in the fountain.

I asked Andrew to take a picture of Danny, Grant and I and other than cutting me off he did a pretty good job. 

Overall, it was a good first day.  Claire is quite disappointed that her first day isn't for a couple of weeks.  I hope that she is as excited as Andrew was on his first day.

Almost there...11 months

Grant turned 11 months old this past Wednesday and is powering towards one faster than we want.  Here are some highlights of the last month.  Of course, we have the obligatory picture with the sign.  Danny put him down right in front of the whiteboard so I thought that this time I might get a good picture because he didn't see it, but no, I got two quick photos and then he turned and saw the words.

And then wiped them all off with his hand.

Grant loves to clap, especially when he is happy.  As you can see in a few of these pictures he also loves his pacifier.  He now has 6 teeth, but he hates to show them to people and it is virtually impossible to get a picture of them.  He got his top two teeth just after he turned 10 months old.

He is into everything!  Notice the two cabinets behind him with locks on them.  We had to purchase more locks because he kept getting into the cabinets without them.  Claire never did that, so we weren't really prepared.  He also loves to mess up this rug in front of the kitchen sink.

He loves to push things all over the house.  It started with cars, of course, but has moved into basically anything.  In this picture he is pushing a pan from Claire's kitchen, but he has been seen pushing the remote, a ball, blocks, and even a bottle of ranch dressing that he stole out of the fridge.

We found out this week that Grant has amazing skills on the slide.  He can climb up the slide at the park all by himself.  He must have some type of super grippy feet, but after I helped him a few times he can do it on his own.

He loves playing on the jungle gym at the park.  It is hard to let him do it because he gets so, so dirty, but he has a great time.

He really surprised us this week by standing up on his own.  We were playing in the family room and he stood up from sitting on his bottom.  He wasn't even holding onto anything!  Maybe he will be the first to walk before his first birthday.

I found this picture on the camera and when I asked Andrew about it he said that they were all having a fashion show for Natalie and that Grant wanted to get dressed up as well.  He looks a lot like Claire did as a baby in this picture.

I had to go on two business trips in August and Danny told me one night that Grant had gotten a scratch on his head while playing in the back yard.  Apparently this is what it looked like when it first happened:

And then when I got home this is what I saw:

Yeah, kind of a big difference!  Everyone at church asked me what happened, but Grant didn't seem phased by it at all.  Now a week later, it is virtually gone.  It is strange to think that next month he will be one year old and trying out some birthday cake. 

Time with Daddy and Grandma

The last week in July and the first week in August Natalie was on vacation. We had planned this a while back, so Danny was able to use the last two weeks of his paid family leave during this time to stay home with the kids. The bowling alley hands out a card so that kids can bowl a free game every day. Danny took them almost every day. I was able to meet them one day during my lunch hour. Andrew had been before with some friends so he knew what size ball to get and how to get shoes. Claire had never been bowling before so we had some challenges with getting the ball all the way down the lane.

Despite the challenges with the ball, Claire had beginners luck and ended up beating Andrew 82 to 68. This was due mostly to the spares that she got, so once we explained to Andrew how it worked, he tried really hard the next time to get spares.
Danny took Andrew to a camp the first week in the mornings, they came to see me at lunch time and he arranged play dates. To bet the heat in Texas, Danny's mom came for a visit. Andrew and Claire were so excited to see her. Andrew even made a list of all the places he wanted to go. I think they actually got most of them covered. They went to Gilroy Gardens, the movies, out to breakfast, bowling, and miniature golfing. It makes me tired just thinking about it. Jan got to see Grant's love of water. They played in the backyard pool and of course Claire had to get in as well.
Jan also watched the kids for us so that we could go to dinner alone. The first time for quite a while. She held Grant over and over while he went down the slide and even got Claire to "catch" him.

Andrew really needed a new backpack and shoes so Danny, Jan, Andrew and Claire went in search of these things. Claire didn't really need a backpack, but she fell in love with this Hello Kitty one. Claire wouldn't turn around in this picture so that I could get a good view of the backpack. She proceeded to fill it full in anticipation of school starting - which isn't until after Labor Day.

I had to go on two business trips during this time, so it was great to have Jan's help with the kids.

Luckily we can Skype, but it is always nice when Grandma comes for a visit!

Garden, golf, and good times

Last weekend Ryan and Mandy came up for a visit. We were all happy to see them since we hadn't seen them since we went camping in April. According to Andrew, "that is a really long time Mom!" On Saturday morning my mom wanted to show the kids the community garden. I hadn't been there yet so I tagged along. Renee's plot was much larger than I thought. Everything
was growing nicely. There were many items to harvest which the kids were excited about. Here they are walking through the plants. There are peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, onions, squash, corn and probably others too.Here are some cucumbers that Andrew picked. Claire loves these.

Isabel and Mia holding tomatoes. There were only a few tomatoes so far, but there were some of the small cherry tomatoes that we ate right off the vine and they were great.

Here was our harvest for the day. I made zucchini bread that day which is one of my favorite summertime treats.

We also went miniature golfing, this was Claire's first visit. They were beyond excited to go. Here are Isabel, Andrew, Landon, Claire and Mia waiting at the first hole.

The kids definitely learned some patience with some of the holes. Especially ones like this were you have to put it up a hill into the hole.

Ryan tried to help Mia with her technique but she wasn't having it. She liked to put with the back end of the club instead of the face.

Once she got the hang of it Claire really enjoyed playing.

Of course there is always the fun of fishing your ball out of the water.

I just observed and took pictures because I had Grant in the stroller, but everyone else played.

We also went over to the club for some swimming. Landon, Claire, Andrew and Isabel were all excited about going off the diving board.

Andrew wanted to show how he can dive off the board now. He hasn't perfected his technique yet, but I thought he was pretty brave for trying it anyway. I caught this picture just a tad too late.
Landon is on a swim team now and can dive really well.

Then there was Claire - she really wanted to do it and she did, but the dive was more of a belly flop. She didn't complain at all and went off several times. My mom was in the water with her just in case. I don't know why she didn't go in feet first, but every time she did it this way.

Then there is our water loving baby Grant. He loves the pool and especially splashing.

Claire is showing Grant her swimming skills.

We brought along a blow up floaty for Grant to sit in. At first he didn't like it, but once he realized that his legs were just free in water he liked it.

Monday night Ryan and Danny took Landon and Andrew to the SF Giants game. The boys could not have been more excited. Despite my request, no pictures were taken of this event. Andrew was bummed that Tim Lincecum wasn't pitching, but they still had good time even though the Giants lost.