Happy Halloween!

Check back soon. We have been busy this month and there will be many new posts as soon as I catch up on a little sleep. :)

Dan's Bday and the Fair 2010

What a man! Dan turned 32 on October 5th. We had a great day and Elena helped me make a yummy cake for him. Isn't he adorable (in a ruggedly handsome way of course)?
We love going to the fair each year. This was our third time. My sweet family has made a tradition out of coming into town and going with us. Bethany, my dad, and my mom were all hand to help out with the kids and enjoy the tractor pull (our favorite event). It was a great day!
I have a short video of this at the bottom of the post. This character at the fair was hilarious. The best I've ever seen. He was following Kevin around and copying him and Kevin loved it!

Elena is still usually too scared to sit on an actual carousel horse, so she and Bethany are in the carriage and my dad and Kevin are behind. Bethany and Dad later went on the Ferris wheel (above). Elena wanted to go too, but I thought it was wise to talk her out of it. :)
I couldn't get the video to work, so this description will have to do: Elena was so excited to go on the swings. She was begging me to go on the big set of swings, so I brought her over to the kiddie ones. She was adamant that she wanted to go on them. We watched them while we waited in line and pointed out how they went high and spun pretty fast and they even tilted. She was psyched. I was nervous because I know her pretty well. This is her before it started. She's happy.
She's starting to look less happy here, but she's doing great as they start up.
She screamed in terror nearly the entire ride (once it got up to full speed). Dan later said he was so tempted to make them stop the ride. I felt so bad for her, but she stopped screaming and just held on tight towards the end. Then I went and helped her out of her seat and told her to be proud of herself because she did it. You have to enlarge the photo to see her hollering.

Motorcycles! Elena liked this better than the swings, but she still screamed a little. Her absolute favorite moment of the day was getting to steer her very own bumper car! I don't have any pictures of that because I was sitting in the passenger seat pushing on the gas for her.

Little cutie on a train. This ride is more her speed.
My big man is enjoying himself on the fast bird ride with Aunt BB. I didn't get to see this because I was with Elena in a different part of the park, but I heard he was very brave.
Kevin also went on the this ride with Dan. He loved that it was a fire truck. I can't believe my little man is big enough for a big kid ride like this! It's the kind that circles around quickly, so that you are constantly either falling down or flying up.

I love my kids!

We had a family race down the slide!

The End of Summer

Funny story: One afternoon Elena asked if she could exercise using one of my DVDs. She even changed into her version of workout clothes. She spent 17 solid minutes copying Denise Austin's every move (to the best of her ability). It was impressive and adorable.
When Dan came home, she told him that she had exercised. "Aw, you worked out with Mommy today?"
I was then forced to admit that, no, Mom didn't work out, only the 3 year old did.
We had our last beach trip of the summer. I'm so glad Dan was able to come with us. We had a great time and were able to avoid all the tourists on Labor Day. I guess I am technically a tourist now, since I have to drive 5 hours to get there. It sure was a gorgeous day. We got to see dolphins several times, and Dan and my dad actually had a couple come super close while they were out in the water.

Granddad, E, and Dan: How beautiful is this walkway to the beach? It's on 80th street.

Aunt BB and Kevin
I love the beach and I love that the kids do as well.

Notice how there are never pictures of my mom with us at the beach? It's definitely not her favorite. A week ago Elena drew a picture for my mom and dad. She drew everyone at the beach and drew my mom on the other side of the page at the store alone. I should have taken a picture of it before I mailed it to them. It was hilarious!

Could he be any cuter?!

This is Elena's first-day-of-school photo for this year. We are so lucky to live here and have such great friends. Elena is once again in a class with a few really fun kids, and the moms take turns teaching each week. I love getting to teach, and everyone else does an awesome job. We do our own curriculum and it's perfect. Thanks Melissa, Aimee, and Marianne.
I also want to say thanks to Emily and Wendy for doing Dance and Music on Fridays!

Elena's first day at dance:

I have an obsession...

I love watching my kids sleep. So much so that I take pictures (often) and post them on my blog (occasionally). I just love checking on them multiple times before I go to bed each night. It's part of my bed-time routine.
The checking on them part may be normal, but the taking pictures part...not so much.
Here are a couple of my favorites from the past:

Elena in April 2008 (15 months old)

Kevin in March 2010 (9 months old)The next two are Elena and Kevin September 2010:

I have to explain the jumble of Elena's "friends" that you see. Elena is holding her triplets:
Baby Liam : yes, he's a boy, but pink is his favorite color
Teddy Pig: her favorite of all, he was also in the picture from April 2008
Sally: also known as "Paci Baby" (short for pacifier)
Behind her you can some random things including her sleeping hat. One day she decided that her Santa hat could be a sleeping hat because "sometimes in books, people wear hats to bed" (i.e. The Night Before Christmas). I've even caught her asleep with it on her head before. I wonder what she was so deep in thought about before she fell asleep? :)

Kevin is asleep with his favorite friend Teddy Dog and a musical seahorse which he loves to roll over in the middle of night. He sleeps right through the noise, but it occasionally wakes me up when I hear it on the monitor. He's such a sweet boy! I want to crawl into the crib and cuddle up to him sometimes!

This all reminds me a little of the book, Love You Forever. The mom loves peeking at her sleeping son and singing to him. I love this book and I get emotional each and every time I read it.
But you have to admit, when you stop to think about it and don't "suspend disbelief", the book starts to get a little creepy as the son gets older. I don't think I'm to this point yet, but you'll have to check back in few years when the kids are away at college.
Yep, she got a ladder, drove across town, and crawled in his window.

Girls Camp

Before I could leave for Girls Camp (I chaperoned at our 4 day/3 night church youth camp), I had to drop the kids off at my parents house. I was only there for a couple of days to get Kevin settled (Elena needs no "settling" when it comes to Granny's house), but we managed to squeeze in a trip to the beach. Shelby Condon joined us there with her three kids. It was so nice to sit on the towel and talk and relax with the babies while my dad had a blast playing with the big kids.

Shelby's Benjamin:

My Kevincito:

Okay! The rest of the post is about camp! This was a pretty area on our 5 mile hike. We arrived, ate lunch and hiked. Then went to the camp (thankfully the tents were already set up by the time we got there), ate dinner, played games, and totally ran out of time for fun before it got dark. We camped at the Apple Tree Campgrounds in Nantahala National Forest. It was gorgeous and very shady and a whole lot cooler up there than down here. I loved snuggling up in my hoodie and sitting by the campfire for our devotionals each night. It was a blast.
Day #2 we went white water rafting. The leaders in charge planned awesome activities for us because we were tent camping and usually Girls Camp is at a 4H camp and we stay in cabins with ceiling fans. Tents mean more money for fun stuff! Well, they are geniuses because the girls had a great time and there were NO complaints about the tents. :) This was my first time white water rafting believe it or not. When I was a teenager, I was at field hockey camp/California/something when my own stake (group of several congregations) went. It was so much fun. I want to go to WV and try the Gauley/New River soon. This was not our bus, but I didn't take my non-waterproof camera when we went, so I took a picture of a bus that looked kind of like ours on the way back to camp.
I was in charge of this awesome group of girls. They were all 13 except the Youth Leaders were 16 and 17. They are in a knot and untangling themselves. I never got a picture of the girls that I camped with: the 7 young women from the Spanish branch (congregation). I could kick myself!
This is a view from the field were we played various games during the late afternoons. Gorgeous! We went over here one night to look at the stars and it was amazing. I wish my dad had been there to point everything out to me. The moon was either new or had set because it was clear and pitch black. Nothing quite so humbling as millions of stars and galaxies staring back at you. God is good. :)
Day #3 was horse back riding. I haven't done this since freshman year of college. I went to NM with Ann and Beckie and rode horses on Ann's ranch. I remember it being intimidating and awesome. It was the same this time. We went on a great trail with ups and downs and trees everywhere. We even had a cross a little creek. I can totally see why some people just love riding horses!
I look like a giant in this picture and Hermana Rivera looks so small, but really I am less then a foot taller. We went to a high ropes course after horseback riding.
Do you see me walking across that telephone pole? I had a lot of fun on this part of the course. I am really quite scared of heights and felt proud that I made it all the way to the top on this one. The first part of the ropes course that I tried, I chickened out and only completed half of it. So I was extra proud when I finished and enjoyed this section! I guess I'll never be a tight-rope walker. :)
I'm so glad that I went. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Bethany for your help with the kids! And thanks Dan for letting us all leave you lonely for a week. Sorry about that, Babe! You're the best!

A Very Relaxing July 4th

I love holidays. Always have. Christmas is, of course, #1, but I love them all! And since I grew up in Virginia Beach (with lots of military around), Independence Day has always been a big one for me. This year however, I decided to go low-key. We ate hamburgers and watermelon after church, talked about living in the USA and how lucky we are. Then we did sparklers in the backyard. Elena decided a few days prior that July 4th was Baby Liam's birthday too, so we had a cake and little party for him as well as America.

The girls in red, white, and blue. The boys were coordinating too, but Kevin was asleep at this point in the day

For some reason, Elena was in her pajamas by the time we took the rest of the pictures. Here she is being adorable.

Skip ahead to after dinner:

This is what happens when Kevin realizes that we have to dispose of the sparkler when it is done sparkling:

Happy birthday to Baby Liam. He is Elena's #1 baby doll (although Teddy Pig is her #1 toy overall). She's so attentive to her "babies".

It was a nice afternoon and everyone got to go to bed on time. :)
Don't think that I'm not already planning how to celebrate next year...

June 29th & 30th

Abuelita went back home. :( We knew it had to happen eventually. Dan put a hold on his studies the night before she left and played games with his mom and me. I got this cute picture of them.

And these funny ones:

The next morning, we went to the airport. Instead of coming right home, the kids and I stopped at Kristin's house near Charlotte and I got to enjoy her hospitality and company while the kids all played. I didn't get any pictures of the children playing together because I was too busy chatting, but here are a few of them sitting/standing. :) Thanks for having us, Kristin!

Will and Elena:

Kevin wanted to sit in the chair too. Now, whenever we go to a friend's house, he will rush right to the kid-sized chair if they have one.Beautiful Audrey:

Penske and his new biggest fan: