July Wrap-Up

Another busy summer month bites the dust.  I'm now a few weeks from going back to school, so we are squeezing in some last minute summer fun!

We've spent a lot of time swimming....These pictures are from when we went swimming at Dominique's mom's house.  Ayden is getting to be such a confident swimmer.  It's nice that I don't have to have him hanging all over me when we swim, he just swims around and jumps in on his own.

...and then they jumped - I was a little nervous, but Ayden was thrilled!

 We we lucky enough to get a visit from my grandma who lives in Texas.  She hasn't seen Ayden since he was about 2, so it was fun to watch them get to know each other.  Ayden got to spend a couple days at my dad's house while she was there, which was great!  He is already asking when we get to see her again!

 While my grandma was in town, Jill threw a birthday party for my dad...

Ayden (not looking at the camera, as usual) with Uncle Matthew & Aunt Dominique

His present from us, Matthew & Dominique, Andrew & Sheena, & Matthew & Lindsey - a new tablet computer!!!

Waiting patiently for dessert

The birthday boy with his grandson

The birthday boy with his mom

 The next day, we met up in Sacramento for a picnic in the park and a trip to the zoo

playing a little baseball with Grandpa & Grandma Jill

got to feed the giraffes again

and ride the carousel

A Festive Fourth!

We had a Festive and Fabulous Fourth of July yesterday!  We started the day with our neighborhood's 3rd annual bike parade and pancake breakfast.  It was the biggest turnout yet and it's so fun to see so many of the kids in our neighborhood all in one place!

He's got his bike all ready to go.  See pictures from previous parades here and here.

Ayden with some neighbor buddies - Zachary & Jessica

We took a break for the afternoon and relaxed, before having our neighbors over for dinner, then heading to a nearby park for some fireworks fun.  The kids played a little, then we enjoyed two fireworks displays.  We know that one of the displays was the city's fireworks, but we still don't know what the other one was - no complaining though, we had a full 1/2 hour of fireworks to watch (for free!)

Ayden & Zachary playing baseball - which was quite an interesting thing to watch!

Waiting patiently for it to be sparkler time

FUN

WITH

SPARKLERS!!

 UNTIL.... The scream heard 'round the park.  Ayden had a few stray sparks hit his hand and he screamed and screamed.  We had all kinds of other people from the park coming over with ice and one lady even offered to go home and get some flour(?).  I think it mostly just scared him and once he calmed down, he was fine.  There are a few little bumps on his hand, but no lasting effects!  He's got a whole year to get over this and be ready for sparklers next year!

Our little patient - he wanted nothing to do with the sparklers after his little injury!

Zachary trying to cheer him up

He was back to normal in no time....The kids didn't have the attention span for all of the fireworks....watching on the blanket turned in to a dogpile on Zachary.

Soccer!

We have entered the world of soccer!  Ayden loves it so far.  He goes once a week for 8 weeks, we have had two classes so far. It's a fun, non-competitive class that teaches the kids basic skills.  No matter what day it is, he is always figuring out how many days until Wednesday when he has soccer again. He even overheard me making plans for Wednesday and interrupted saying we couldn't do it because "Wednesday is Soccer Day."  It's so cute and he is so tired afterward, he sleeps very well on soccer nights!

Summer Fun

We have been having so much fun this summer, I haven't had time to update the blog!  Here are some highlights from the last month...

Fun Trips...

Ayden and I accompanied Grandma to San Francisco to take my brother and sister-in-law to the airport for their big vacation to Europe.  Afterward, we took a yummy detour for some ghiradelli square ice cream!

We also took a trip to Ken's moms house.  Ayden spend the night with Grandma Newton while Ken & I went wine tasting for our anniversary (12 years!).  No pictures from that trip - man am I slacking!!

Playdates with Friends...

We went to Funderland for the first time.  I couldn't believe we had never been there before!  It's right across the street from the zoo and so much fun!


Ayden and his buddy Olivia driving what the kids called "the old car ride"



Ayden & Tyler on the log ride

Miniature Golf

We have also gone to the sprinkler park, we've been swiming a few time at different friends' houses, went to the movies, and went bowling.  We've got to keep boredom at bay (and save mom's sanity)!

Swimming.....

After an unseasonably wet and cold spring, by Mid-June we finally started to have warm weather, so it was time to set up the pool.  We bought a new version of the little pool we have had for the last two years, but put it in a new spot in the backyard.  We have had some fun times at other pools too (where I didn't take any pictures) and I can't believe what a good swimmer Ayden is this summer.  He is completely indepedent in the water!

While we were filling up the new pool, someone was not very patient, so we got the little froggie pool out to appease that.

Can I swim yet?

Ready for a swim!

Showing off his swimming skills