Tuckered Out

 
It's not too often that we have all four sleeping in the car. We had some busy days and long nights.

The Not-So-Lonely-Lone-Cypress

 
So we got to see what Blake thought to be the most photographed tree in the world. Whether this is true or not, I would have to say "The Lone Cypress" had some company. I'm all for fun and games and my teenage years aren't so in the past that I couldn't help but struggle with what I witnessed. I teetered on disbelief that 2 foreign teenagers jumped the fence and ran miscreantly down to the tree, touched it, and then ran back with a look of victory on their faces. I was horrified because my children watched as they hiked near a sign forbidding such an act and thinking that I was young and stupid too and would have found that rather amusing. . . back then.

Rock Collage

 
Here are more pics from the previous posting.

Rock Piles

 
Ok, we paid the $9.50 to go on the 17-mile drive. At first I was opposed to paying that much money to drive on a road (the memories are too close to paying tolls on the toll road still) but I must say it was worth it. This picture was in Spanish Bay. They had all rocks piled up, which reminded us of Vancouver. We also got to see a few over-priced golf courses and some beautiful coastline.

Beach

 
We visited Dennis the Menace Park . . . an hour too early, so we drove down Cannery Row to kill some time. As we were walking we passed a bakery and smelled some lovely smells. Carter said, "I can smell the cookies growing." Then we walked along the water and collected sea glass and explored the mini tide pool. Needless to say we made it back to the park where we really enjoyed ourselves. What a fun place to visit.

Produce

 
I always thought where we live there is an abundance of fields and crops. I can't believe how much food is grown here. We saw garlic, artichoke, tomato, strawberry and lettuce. Lots and lots of lettuce.

camping

 
It was our last hoorah! We went camping last week with our family. We had a great time and really enjoyed the cooler weather. We stayed near Monterey and woke up to misty mornings and sweatshirts.

Farmer's Market

 
I love the L.A. Farmer's Market. There is so much to look at. It's a culinary dream. You want fresh meat, fresh baked goods, need a hair cut? If you're hungry, there are so many places to choose from to eat. Anything from tapas to gumbo can be consumed. There's even a fun gourmet shop here too. I've only perused their aisles. Unless you want to spend $43 on truffle-accented sea salt from the remotest part of the Mediterranean Sea, it's still very fun to dream up dishes in my head.

Indoor Track

 
Calvin rocks! I can't believe all they've done to the campus since I've left. We got to see the new gym and several new buildings, as well as the bookstore to purchase some Calvin gear for the kiddos.

wedding

 
Our world travels this summer brought us to Michigan and Chicago as well. Whew! What a busy summer! We were priviledged to attend and witness a beautiful union of my best friend and her husband. What an honor that was. They did such a wonderful job of making sure it was Christ-centered throughout the ceremony. There were so many really neat ideas coming to fruition that night. This will not be the last picture you see of this evening.

Amazement

 
This is a picture of Kenny-Cat watching the high-wire act at the circus.

hiking

 
We attempted to go hiking the 4th of July. We're almost to the age to be able to do that. The C-dawg wanted to be held a bit so we either need to toughen him up a bit or wait a little longer until he's older or go when it's not so hot. . . or a little of all three. It was quite the natural experience. We were lucky to have seen a deer, some mosquitos, a rattle snake, some mosquitos, and a wonderful, refreshing 'swimming hole.'

Postcard

 

5th element

 
This was walking around Cabo. Notice we have an extra child pictured. No, we did not have another baby in Mexico. It was kind of cute, this girl saw me taking pictures of our children and decided she wanted to be a part of it too.

Cabo

 
Our first stop was Cabo San Lucas. We walked around the marketplace and then found a restaurant to eat lunch. It's amazing how Americanized certain areas are. We saw Starbucks and many other American chain stores.

Great Expectations

 

Variety

The annual variety show happened last night. My husband was entertaining. He was a busy, busy man this week. Between getting all this organized and helping me out (I sprained my ankle this week), he was a man on the go. Last year, they started the tradition of handing out balloons to all the young audience members. Our children are always excited for this night. They were all in the car waiting for us to leave. I don't think we've ever had that happen before. Usually we are asking them to pick something up or get their shoes on or brush their teeth...They will remember a fun night seeing daddy on stage, Blake will remember the blood, sweat and tears, and I will always remember all four of my children in the car, ready to go.

Sibling Harmony

I love this picture. I wish I could say this is what it's like in our house all the time but sadly it's not. I'm glad I captured this moment forever. The only thing that would make this better is if there was a Bible in their lap.

Eye

We went to the Optometrist two days in a row. One was planned, the other was not. Jacie is fine, she doesn't need glasses like she thought. Carter is fine, after a drinking straw lacerated his eye he is lucky that he only has to use antibiotic drops to prevent infections.

Birthday

 
Avery turned 5 on Sunday. We had a party for her on Monday. I had a lot of fun planning for the party. The theme kind of happened by accident. Tradition allows them to pick a birthday cake. She picked flip flops and away we went. I just happened upon flip flop streamers and then a craft to decorate flip flops so a theme was born. We even got a helium tank to fill the balloons. We had a lot of fun. It's been quite the year for birthdays in this house.