Lifeguard training

Heart

Glass Blowing

Here is the guy that worked in Harmony. It was very cool because he talked us through all his steps of glass-blowing. He showed us all his other creations that were still in the kiln but cooled down. What a very neat art.

Harmony

On a whim one day in Cambria we stopped in Harmony. It's known for it's population, as you can see by the sign. I was glad we stopped though. It had a pottery place, a little chapel, and a glass blowing place. We were fascinated by the glass blowing.

Similarity

Hopefully when you see this picture posted we will be doing something similar to this picture on our trip. We are traveling up where the weather is cooler for awhile.

Ave

We don't have anything creative to call Avery. The best we've come up with is Ave. Perhaps because she is the simplest in personality too. She's very sweet, tenderhearted and sensitive. She's very inquisitive. She has never gone beyond the stage of many questions. Sometimes she asks questions that she already knows the answers to but most of the time she has questions about everything. Once I wrote a note in her lunch before she could read so it was in pictures. I wrote a D + (picture of a lightbulb). I was trying to say she was a delight but she thought I said she was a delight-bulb. That is exactly what she is. Oh, don't let her two little dimples fool you, she also knows how to assert herself when need be.

Hon-a-bun

Jacie hasn't been called that in awhile. I don't know if it's because she's older now and that name is more juvenile but either way she no longer goes by that moniker. Lately, we call her Jahs. She is turning into such a lovely, responsible young lady. She is very helpful around the house and with her siblings. It's funny though, because even as great as she is Blake and I were talking about how all of our kids can have a strong streak in them when they feel they need to be. It's good to see that they don't bend totally backwards all the time but choose to assert their way when they feel that needs to happen. It seems this summer with all of them home that they are all choosing to do that simultaneously but maybe that's just my imagination. :)

Hurricane Kenna

Kenna was dubbed Hurricane Kenna at a youthful age of 2 or 3. She has a fiery-ness about her that is both a lot of fun and a challenge. I can honestly say that she is more like a tropical storm now and hopefully some day I can say she is just Kenny-Cat. That's what we have been calling her the last year or so. I can't wait to blog about the times when her spirited personality is working for God's kingdom and is doing great things in God's name. She is a lot of fun and adds quite a bit to the overall level of excitement in the home.

Cards

Lately we've been calling him Cards instead of C-dawg. Just one day Blake started calling him that and it has stuck. This guy can be so funny sometimes. I found a bargain of a deal for him. It was a bathrobe. For some reason that is what I called it when I got it for him. He was eagerly waiting for me to wash it so he could wear it. I had it hanging on the door knob when he woke up the next morning and that is the first thing he put on. He told the girls, "You guys have robes and I have a bathrobe."

4th

We had a great day celebrating our freedom. We and a few other friends gathered at our friend's house for yummy food and swimming. There were a lot of kids (15) running around and having fun. Afterwards, they lit some sparklers.

Nostalgia

I hadn't thought it about it for years but all of a sudden, the girls wanted to choose someone to be it so everyone stuck their feet in, "Eenie meenie miney mo." I wish they would utilize that more with sharing things around the house. There would probably less fighting sometimes.

Junior

We were able to see a junior lifeguard group practice at the beach everyday. It was fun to watch all of them kicking and paddling in the water and around the pier.

Bubble Gum Alley

Ok, so I'm no Martha Stewart. First, she would not be pictured in Bubble Gum Alley. I'm sure she would be on a cobblestone rue that is over a few hundred years old where every town blacksmith has constructed some type of art work instead of an alleyway where everyone has discarded their gum. Second, she would have remembered to pack everything. Not only remember but giving 5 tips on how to do it efficiently, thus our trip to SLO. So one day one of my offspring tells me they didn't pack any panties. Hmmm...quickly my mind went to how long that could last. Then another of my children says he doesn't have any socks. (We all know what that means when we wear shoes with no socks, P U). So after much consternation and debating about where and how far we had to go we decided to drive the 30 miles to buy some of these items at a more affordable cost instead of buying panties that say, "My parents went to Cambria and all they brought back for me were these panties," for $29.99. Just to add insult to injury, the same young lad that didn't have any socks also replied to my inquiry of his wearing a sweatshirt, that "no" he didn't have a T-shirt on underneath. We made the most of the unexpected trip and checked a few things out. We were able to purchase things at a very good price and they are also stocked up for this fall for school. As an organized media mogul would pen, "It's a good thing!"

Elephant Seals

We were blessed by a generous family offering their home by the coast for a few days. The first day we went to the elephant seals. It's not their peak time to be on the beach but there were enough to watch. They throw sand up on themselves, for what reason, I am unsure. The last time we saw them it was raining so we enjoyed this time a little better.

Kissing Camels

This rock structure is called "Kissing Camels." We saw this amongst many other beautiful rocks in Garden of the Gods. We were delayed getting into Denver last Friday due to mechanical problems. So that made our quick weekend that much quicker. We missed one of the family parties for my Uncle Gerrit and Aunt Mary's anniversary party at Glenn Eyrie. So we packed a lot of thing in on Saturday. We ate a very quick breakfast and drove to Garden of the Gods for a couple hours. After that we were able to see all the family at my aunt and uncle's 50th anniversary party. After that we visited the Air Force Academy and Focus on the Family. From there we got to eat with all the remaining cousins and their families and then a few of us got to play a friendly game of miniature golf. It was so good to see all my family from there again. It had been 20 years since I had seen some of them.

Here is the chapel at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The smoke in the background is from the Waldo Canyon fire.

Shade

Summer's haven from the sweltering heat of the sun.

Amphibians

We brought our tent trailer to the dairy yesterday. It's always a fun time. We get to have coffee with Opa and experience rural life. I can tell though that my kids have not grown up on or near a dairy. At our arrival they were turning up their nose at the smell and asking if they were walking on cow poop (mud and rice hulls). First, let me just say that I can't believe they can be squeamish about it. Second, they don't know the difference between cow excrement and muddy rice hulls. Hmmmm, you may NOT be a redneck if. . . Anyway, after coffee time they got to catch some frogs. We brought 3 frogs home with us and put them in our abandoned fish aquarium. It is now an amphibian terrarium. Maybe living in the "city" produces rapid, resourceful thinking. Anyway, I think this frog is comforting the remaining frog, yes, I said remaining. The other has gladly escaped from our children's clutches. But not before consuming his fair share of baby crickets.

Family Jamboree

Our annual family trip to the coast was a nice, cool breeze in the midst of very hot temperatures at home. We enjoyed ice cream, swimming, and lots of family time. The annual golf outing ended up with Blake arriving and leaving with the family trophy. The yearly scavenger hunt for the kids was another success. The prize was a candy bar for all the participants. We had successful bike rides and yummy s'mores. What great memories!

Toothless

It's been a long time coming. Kenna has seen many classmates and younger, lose their teeth, one by one or two by two. She is finally starting to lose some. For the longest time she has only lost 2 teeth, up until this past week. The "tooth fairy" forgot to give her money, which is a shocker since she's been waiting so long for her to make her appearance. We were all happy to see the tooth fairy goes on vacation with us. She's just days away from losing another. She's going to get fitted for her second apparatus tomorrow at the orthodontist. Her first one wasn't working. I think it had more to do with her not remembering to wear her retainer which is suppose to work together alongside of her apparatus. I think the tooth fairy should dole out more money for the teeth because she's an extortionist in the name of dentistry.