Beach Trip (in pictures)!

There Goes My Baby......

Today was Kindergarten Orientation and I accompanied my last child on her path to life-long learning. It was a bittersweet day for me and I have to admit to tearing up a bit in the classroom as the teacher talked about what they would be doing this year. Savannah picked her outfit herself. The shirt says "I'm the cute sister" which she wore because she got Samuel's old kindergarten teacher! She laid all her clothes out last night and carefully matched everything from hair accessories to shoes! I don't know quite what to think of this little fashion queen!

She came home a little sad because two of her friends from our neighborhood are in another kindergarten class together and she is sure there are no girls who look like friends in her class. I encouraged her to give it a few days and things would get better! Now I have a few more days to enjoy my sweet innocent little girl before I send her off for good on Tuesday! And life marches on......

San Francisco

Since I am forever the cheapskate and I had to get tickets for 6 people to fly across country to visit Grandma and Grandpa, I jumped at round trip tickets to San Francisco for $160 each! Unfortunately that meant we still had a 6 hr. drive to Oregon......but on the flip side, we were able to go see some place new!

Here is Joshua making friends with the crab that I ate for lunch!

Fisherman's Wharf

Shelby loved this little take-out place!

My two favorite crabs.....

Pier 39 and SEA LIONS!!!!

The Golden Gate Bridge.....I tried to get my mom and dad to bike across it, but no luck! Someday, I WILL GO BACK and bike across this bridge!

Caleb being grossed out by the sights of China Town!

I don't think the hat was meant to be worn with sunglasses!

Farewell at the airport

Vacation Time!

We have been gone on a super fun 3 week vacation to Grandma and Grandpa's in Medford, OR! I took so many pictures, it is impossible to put them all on here, but if you are on facebook, check out my photos there.

Here are a few highlights from our trip..... We hiked Table Rock and on the way there, we had to visit the Oak Savannah, where our Savannah was so excited to find her name on a sign!

The view from the top!

Joshua made his driving debut (which was the highlight of his trip)!

We rafted the Rogue River which runs in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Chris wasn't supposed to be able to come with us, but he surprised us all by driving across country in 2 days (that's 2900 miles in just over 48 hrs!) to spend a week with us! The kids were all glad to see their dad.....so was I!!!

Since we haven't been in several years, this was Savannah's first trip down the river.

We did the waterfall hike with Grandma. Savannah got stung by a bee on her ankle, so it put a damper on her hike, but the kids were so impressed with Chris and his ability to pack mud on her bite. Samuel said "So when you get to be a scout you learn how to put mud on people? COOL!!!

We visited the airport and toured a military aircraft.....

where I snapped this AWESOME pic of Shelby looking out the window!

We spent quality time with cousins when Aunt Mandy's family spent the week with us. We set up the tent in the backyard for all the boys to sleep in!

Savannah and Gracie became best friends for life!

We played in the river nearly every day! The boys were working on making a water slide, but the rocks weren't nearly as soft as a real water slide!

We spent a day at the fun center with cousins where we had a massive family waterfight!

This is what happens when boys get together......

Shelby, Caleb and Joshua LIVED on the go kart track!

Best friend twins again....could this be dork twins, part 2???

We were fortunate to have such a beautiful place to spend our vacation! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Swim Champs

It was a great night at Swim Champs for our boys! Joshua swam in two relays and breaststroke. He placed 10th and 13th in his relays and 18th in his breaststroke. He improved his time by more than 5 seconds! We were so proud of him!

Samuel was so excited to go to champs! This is his second year and he was ready to swim! He competed in 2 relays, freestyle, butterfly, and breaststroke. He was a little too excited in his first relay and took off slightly before his teammate touched the wall, causing the team to DQ. In freestyle, he took 2nd place, losing first by .02 seconds! (His coach was SURE that he touched the wall first and won it, but that's another story!) Still, 2nd place out of 38 of the best swimmers in the league is something to cheer about!

In butterfly, Samuel placed 2nd again. He was incredible! Then he took on his favorite event....breastroke! Unfortunately, he DQ'ed in that because his kick sequence was off on his start. His final event of the night was another relay and his team placed 8th. All in all, it was a fun night and we are a little sad that swim season is over!

Last Day With The Fuller's

We have spent the past year having lots of fun with the Fuller Family while they lived in our area for their dad's orthopedic fellowship program. We have had sleepovers, campouts, Sunday night dinners, days at the pool and more games of "ghost in the graveyard" than we can count! We were blessed to have Dr. Fuller around when Joshua broke his arm a few months ago, and Joshua wouldn't go to anyone but him for the cast! We spent our last day together at Krispy Kreme enjoying the best donuts in the world! As you can see, Joshua ate a few too many.....

Shea and Samuel

Joshua, Haley and Caleb

Savannah and Trevor

We will miss our friends, but we are so excited for them to finally start their life in Colorado after years of medical school and residency! Good luck!