Sand Scenes

Even Kamdyn loved the sand...she was sitting on the chair, leaned over and could reach the sand with her hands...she couldn't get enough...ended up with a nice pile there between her legs.

The boys always enjoy burying one another!

Playin in the ocean

OUR BOYS LOVE THE OCEAN. They had so much fun boogie boarding, swimming, jumping waves, playing catch with the football, running away from the waves and everything else you can possibly do in the ocean...was so relaxing to watch them play. I think it was 3 days of no referring...was something we as parents enjoyed more than anything else. They were content and happy and just really good.

Sand Crabs

So memories of our own childhoods, the boys spent much of their time digging for sand crabs in the pacific ocean! They collected quite a few between the three of them.

Troys Fortress

Troy spent two different days constructing quite the sand fortresses. He spent literally hours building and thinking and engineering these structures. Then we all waited to see what would happen when the tide finally came in. They withstood the water amazingly well. Even so well that the second day we came back there were still remnents of the main wall from the first day's fortress. The second day the kids all wanted to build again...they all helped for about 30 mins and then left dad to finish the construction. All were proud...many stopped to watch and see the magnificant site. Although the second day the lifeguard informed Troy that there was a 18 inche deep rule!! So I found him, "filling" it back up to roughly the depth limit!!! Was very fun.

Vacation Sleeping

The kids all had a variety of sleeping spots and sleeping postions!! Kamdyn did great napping on the beach.

Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach here we come. This was our first day...driving...and then arriving at the beach. It was cold the first night but we went and walked for a few minutes. The salt air and the sand was perfectly welcoming.

Garbage

So I have to begin sharing our ongoing family saga of Matthew and our garbage. He has an obsession that has been growing for quite sometime now with anything to do with garbage. He is such a fantastic helper in emptying and taking out the garbage. I have had to stock up on boxes of garbage bags because we'll find him taking the garbage out after a brand new bag is put in and one person has thrown something away. He spends countless amounts of time in our side yard, rearranging the 5 huge garbage cans we have. He opens and closes them, moves things between cans and places them in different spots as he so feels at that moment.

He waits every Monday to put the garbage cans out on the curb...he can typically do it himself...you cannot see him behind the huge cans, but he is there rolling them out and placing them on the curb. He knows which week are the green (recycling) cans and which week the black (yard waste) cans go out. He keeps track of that each time he takes them out. He talks about it all week, til the next Monday to put out garbage. Once the garbage is out on the curbs, he can be found climbing up onto our neighbors garbage cans, opening the lids, checking what is inside...he gets very upset if the garbage cans are not actually all the way full. He knows and will correct anyone who gets the day wrong of when the truck comes to pick up garbage which is on Tuesday about lunch time. He hears the truck and runs out front to watch him collect the whole street. Matthew then goes to typically 3 other neighbors and pulls in their cans up to their fences. He has to place them perfectly against the fence. He does this every week and talks and dreams about it almost every other minute of the day.

So we were on our trip to Manhattan beach and Matthew was very concerned about our garbage. He wanted our friend, Dena to go put the garbage cans out. He knew it was the black garbage turn. We texted Dena, she did it for him of course. And for the two days before we got back the first thing out of his mouth in the morning was "i check the black garbage to see it empty"...we reassured him he could and that Dena had done a great job.

Funny enough about two weeks ago at one of the kids baseball games, after the game, Troy was talking to the other coach of the opposing team (we won by 7 runs) about whatever men talk about in that situation, and the other coach (name is Po)...asked Troy where he lived. Troy said here in town, he asked more specifically, Troy told him our street name and Po asked, on the circle....Troy said ya off Cabrillo and Po informed us that he picks up our garbage and had recongzied Matthew!!! Matthew was awestruck...the garbage man was right there. As we all walked to the parking lot, Matthew was concerned because he couldn't find Po's truck!!! We explained that it was at his work. Well, the next week, Po came by, picked up the garbage then came back to the door and gave Matthew a miniture green garbage can....which can now be found, out in the side yard, next to the other green garbage cans, usuallly with some kind of paper wadded up inside as garbage!

We love our Matthew. He keeps us all smiling!!! So despite our hopes for a star athlete...he may choose Waste Management as a career.

Funny Matthew

Ok, so driving down to Manhattan Beach last week and we are on I-5, goiong at a smooth pace and we come upon a slower vehicle in front of us. Troy has to noticably slow down and from the back seat we hear Matthew shout "Come on Grandpa, move it"...we all laughed so hard...wonder where he heard that phrase from?!!!! Troy proudly took all the credit. Well, since we all laughed, Matthew now quite often can be heard shouting something of a similar nature when we he thinks we are behind slower drivers. We did have a in dept discussion that "grandpa" wasn't really in front of us...Matthew clarified that as when we left our home for our beach trip my parents left from our home at the same time...so Matthew made sure we knew that "grandpa" was at our house not really on the road in a slow moving car. Matthew comes up with quite the things to say.

Is there any better than this?

I do not think so. Not from Lodi!! What a great thing for father and son to practice together. Matthew is awsome. Troy and I often comment "is he for real?" cause he is just the greatest kid ever. We both love that he has motivation, drive, desire and skill at just about everything he tries.

SURFIN' LODI!

Who says Lodi is not a surf town?!! I have pictures that prove otherwise. What a fun afternoon Matthew and Troy had as they "surfed" on the boogie boards we borrowed from grandpa and grandma Johnson for our beach excersion this weekend. Matthew is all ready now to surf those waves at Manhattan Beach.

Scouts Fire

Andrew's den was learning to start a fire with flint and steel...Andrew had the 'steel' part....did great to get a spark. The wind was so strong, they did eventually get a small fire going. Andrew loved it!

Scouters

Best part of camp is that we get to go with great friends and make new ones as well. Joshua and Triston's pictures are with their den flags...they choose a den name and make a banner/flag that represents that. Triston's den was the Sharks and Joshua's the Sea Wolfs. Great friend Christian Webb and other friends, Daniel and Conner with Joshua. Fun days. Fun days.

Cub Scout Camp

So our three big boys are great scouters...this week has been cub scout day camp in the 95+ degree weather. They are troopers but the awesome part is the love every minute of it, from start to finish each evenning. They make all kinds of contraptions and learn new skills, play fun games and best of all, all the while passing off requirements to earn their next rank. This year the theme is "Scouting the 7 Seas". They have really enjoyed themselves and we are proud of all their accomplishments.

Lollipop

We have always known that Kamdyn loves to eat. She never has been a quick nurser...she has remained at the 20 minute feedings since she was born, she loves food and she eats a ton. Well, the last couple weeks she has enjoyed quite a lot of regular people food. Today was a lollipop with Dad. Notice how her feet do circles and her hands don't stop. Those are her classic excited/I want something moves. Daddy also gave her a Nutrigrain bar a couple days and she loved it. So that now has become her daily lunch.

"MAMA"

Kamdyn started saying "mama" a few weeks ago. We just weren't sure it was for real...well it is. She says it the most around food time, so we think she thinks it means food. Just fun to hear her say it over and over and over again.

The LADIES

We are the ladies of this group! We enjoy being the referred to as 'the girls' and often are reminded that we are different from the boys. It is so much fun to have another girl to play with and be around. How lucky we are to have Kamdyn. How lucky she is to have 4 older brothers who more than adore and protect her. All 4 do a great job of taking care of her.

LAST DAY!

We are finally done with school. This was Triston's last day. We went as a family to pick him up from school. We all celebrated the last day of the school year for all of us!!! How we look forward to two months of no driving back and forth to either of the schools. Triston's report card came and was as expected...great. And he also was very excited and proud to show us the last page that indicted that he passed to 4th grade!! Kids are too too funny.

BIG 10

Andrew turned 10!!! We celebrated all week long. Birthday morning we had donuts. He took donuts to baseball practice to share with the guys. He got to go out with Mom to Target and look at a video game he wanted to buy...decided to wait to see if he collected any more money from other gifts, hopefully coming in the mail! Wednesday night Uncle Tyler came over. Thursday we had a family celebration with swimming, cake, gifts and the Webb family! My cake creation was supposed to be the Super Mario Bros Mushroom! Friday he invited two friends from our ward to go see Kung Fu Panda with us. Everyone loved the movie and he had a great week...ended up with quite the stash of cash/gift cards to spend at Target. After having more money to spend he know is unsure how he wants to spend it all...so he is enjoying thinking of all different combinations. Was a great week of fun. Cannot believe that he is 10 already. Time sure does fly by.

Heritage

This dress was handmade (meaning handmade in the old school way, stitched by hand, with needle and thread) by Kamdyn's great-grandmother Perry. It was orignally made for my mom by her mother...so it is somewhere in the 60ish years old range. Kamdyn looked beautiful in it. Was special to see her wear it and wanted to share the pictures.

Sweetest Thing

What more can I say? Went to check on Kamdyn and this is how I found her. Sweet as can be.