LITTLE SURFER GIRL...

Twice a year Joe's best friend comes into town from Utah to do one thing, spend every moment of his family vacation at the beach. Joe and Drew spent their entire youth at the beach surfing. They enjoy it even now well into their 30's and a little out of shape. We always join their family for a few of the days. What made this day so special is Anika went out there and got her first surfing lesson, she did great!!!

THE DAYS OF SUMMER…

Continue on and on. We are enjoying the beautiful weather and have been spending lots of time outside in the backyard and are having fun with a little extra room to go explore.



We also get fun visitors every day like Bambi.


When we are not in the backyard we are at the beach club.









This past Saturday we had a stake pioneer day where the kids enjoyed lots of fun games and reconecting with old friends. We have always thought that Courtney and Anika looked like sisters ever since they were babies.








I am not one to tell Taryn how to dress, that was a battle I gave up on a long time ago.

She just looks like a pioneer from the Hawaiian Islands, right.


The highlight of our past weekend was spent in Newport. I was able to get together with one of my missionary companions. They currently live in Idaho and we had not seen each other in a long time. Her last visit to California was when she had been home for a month and came out to be in our wedding which feels as though it was yesterday. They played a lot at Disneyland and I can not blame her for that :) but she was finally :) able to sneak in some time to see us so we met up at Fashion Island. We had so much fun catching up and watching the kids play. I kept trying to convince her to move here :) we will see if that works. Her name is Susannah but she will always be Lloydey to me and one of my dearest friends :) Her son Tyson is the cutest little guy ever and her husband is just hilarious. We had a wonderful afternoon.


This was my favorite pic of us primping for the pictures,

Jeremy was snapping away before we were ready to go.

My favorite thing here are all the fun fountains they have and this Koi pond is always cool for the kids.

We also took a walk down at the pier.

When in Newport I never come home without some of these.

Joe still says they are just cupcakes but to me they are so much more. YUM!!!!


I have tried them all and as much as a chocolate girl that I am,

the VANILLA are my absolute favorite!!

SAY CHEESE...

That was the theme for this year's Orange County fair. I have been going to the fair ever since I can remember. Besides swimming and the beach, summer = the fair.

It is now so much fun to see my kids enjoy it as much as I always have. It is an event they look forward to every year. My sister and her kids came along as well as Michelle and Kaleb, who had never been before.

Knowing all the unhealthy snacks we would be consuming at the fair, we started off our morning at our favorite bagel place for a yummy breakfast.


The kids were ready to go once we got into the gates and we stoped for maybe 2 minutes to admire the cool sand sculpture at the entrance. In that short time we lost Troy. Really I think he was just ready to go do his own thing, he has always been very independent. Luckily, we found him quickly, the fair staff were great and he had already been taken to the Lost Kids booth where he was having a fun time coloring. When we walked up the Sheriff asked who Auntie Barbra was. I was the only one he talked about leaving him. I however refuse to take that blame since I was looking after my own 4 little angels who would never stray from my side ever :). Anyhow, he walked away with the title of the first lost kid for the 2008 fair season. Just look at that face though, he always makes us laugh and makes life just a little more exciting. They did give us a good tip, that anytime you come to a big event where you could possibly become seperated from your child to slip a piece of paper with your cell phone number in their pocket.

After all that excitment we headed over to do kids crafts.

and play in the big sand pit .

Pretend grocery shopping is always a big hit. You will notice that Bryce is only wearing a shirt in this picture and actually he had to go the whole day like that. With all the excitement the fair offers, Josh decided to not tell me he had to use the restroom, that was a nice moment:). Luckily I had put Bryce in a pair of shorts that were a little big and very stretchy that Josh wore the rest of the day.

Then it was off to do the rides for a long time. It was 1.00 ride day.

The kids always enjoy the animals and the fair's petting zoo is the best!!!




The kids never stopped eating and O.K. neither did the adults.


Another unique fair moment was the kids milking a plastic cow.

Creepy or Cool, I will let you decide.

They all loved the baby chicks.


It felt like we had to stop for every single one of these, picture opportunities. With our group it was more of an invitation to see who could push hard enought to get the other kid out of the way and get the next turn.

After walking around so much, the kids loved the foot massage machines.

We actually made it through 9 hours with 7 kids under 8.

Overall it was a wonderful day and we walked away with another

great summer memory of the fair.

4TH OF JULY...

After a long week of unpacking boxes, it was such a treat to just relax and enjoy the 4th of July!!!

We started the day out with the city parade.




You can not have a great 4th without great food.






Then it was down to the lake for fireworks with cousins Hailey and Troy.

Happy 4th of July to all our friends and family!!!