Nolan and Ashley come to town!

We had so much fun with Nolan and Ashley when they came to visit in November. Nolan was working up north of here in Vacaville, so Ashley and kids stayed with us for the week. We had a fun time going to the jr. museum and zoo here in Palo Alto, the San Francisco children's park (in Golden Gate Park) and Japanese Tea Garden, and the Jelly Belly Factory. Ashely is SO helpful and has an amazing talent of seeing a need and just jumping up and taking care of it. I loved having her around and the kids had so much fun playing together. It was great to get to know Gracey girl and Thomas better.

Halloween 2009

Don't pass out, but I'm finally getting around to posting some Halloween pictures. I had to get a few shots of the kids on here. I was pretty happy with how their costumes turned out. Jack looked pretty scary. Jordan decided that she DID NOT want her face painted. We had a great time at the ward trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treating in a nice neighborhood in old town Palo Alto. After that we took the kids to Jim Welch's spookey organ concert.

Jack's Five!!!

Jack had a great birthday. I can't believe he is five. I feel so lucky to be his mom. He is such a great kid. He's happy, mellow, fun, tender, and tough. He was honored in his class at school and I could tell he felt so special. Then after soccer practice we took him and his friend Ben Asay to Chuck-e-Cheese's. They had a great time playing the games. After, we came back to our house for cake. The boys chased each other around the house and were having so much fun shooting each other with nerf guns. I hated to break it up, but it was after 9pm and a school night. The main thing he wanted was a bow and arrow. Ever since the pioneer themed primary activity day back in July that is what he asked for. He also got some more legos, which he loves and is a better builder than I ever was. We love Jack!

Labor Day Fun

On Monday we went up to the city and rode the ferry over to Angel Island. We were able to catch-up with the Asay's (almost by accident) and had a great day with them. We rented bikes and rode the 5 miles around the island. The view was spectacular. You could see all around the bay. I was really proud of Jack for biking that far and for not complaining one time. It was a fairly difficult ride in some places. We had to walk our bikes on some really steep parts. After the ride, the kids played at the beach. I don't know how, it being Labor Day, but we had the beach to ourselves and the kids had a great time cooling off.









When you can't go camping in the woods, your backyard is just as good. The Woolf's hosted a "camp-out" in their backyard the weekend of labor day. I wasn't sure about 4 tents all within inches of each other and how bedtime would go. But, luckily the kids were worn-out by 9:00ish and the adults were able to stay-up and talk and laugh around the fire. We had tin foil dinners, samores, and pancakes the next morning. We love our Palo Alto friends!

Tide Pools at Half Moon Bay

I dragged the family out of bed early on Saturday morning and we went to the Fitzgerland Tide Pools in Half Moon Bay. You have to get there early before the tide is too high. We had a great time walking around the rocks and looking for sea anemones, star fish, little hermit crabs and fish, and watching a group of about 12 seals play in the water.

Jordan!

Jordan loves her ballet class. It is mostly fun to dress-up and twirl around like a princess. She is learning a lot from her teacher Miss Heather, my good friend. Her class is made-up of all her ABC school friends plus a few more girls from the ward. They are so cute!






This is Jordan's dream, a huge bowl of strawberries. Whenever I buy them she searches the flat over for the "big one." The bigger the better in her little eyes. She LOVES strawberries.




I need to try and post a video, but Jordan is swimming now! I have to admit that I am a pretty proud mama. She can go about 6 or 7 feet. She'll jump off the steps and kick her little legs so hard. She doesn't use her arms much, but manages to move. She will jump off the side of the pool and swim to me too. Thanks to her little friend Jackie that has been our inspiration.

Jack's First Day of School

Jack is loving school. He goes everyday from 8:30am to 12:15pm. He has made a lot of new friends already and loves to get-up and go everyday. One day I asked him to tell me one good thing and one bad thing that happened. The good thing was that he got to eat lunch on top of the castle and the bad thing was that a girl told him that she wanted to marry him. Then another day he came home and hold me that a girl told him that he was handsome. He wasn't sure about that either. It's funny to hear of all these little happenings. I love that I get to be in his classroom once a week and see first hand what they do in a day and get to know all the kids in his class.

Camping!

I had to post a few pictures of our quick camping trip to Camp Lehi in Big Basin. We just stayed one night (which was good enough for me :) The funnest part was watching the kids perform to Kent (the never ending jukebox)singing "Ghostbusters."

Crazy Kids

It seems that finger painting always turns in to body painting.

Half Moon Bay

Janet, Katie, and I hit the beach on a beautiful day. The kids always play so well on the beach. They can entertain themselves forever. They had fun flying a kite and building sandcastles.