The Glitter Pit

(October 2017) 

We have been to St George so many times.

I swear every time we go visit my parents we discover something new.

This trip we discovered the GLITTER PIT....

We drove outta town with some cousins, shovels, picks, and buckets.

We drove down dirt roads for a few miles and then we came across a massive crater that sparkled like a diamond mine.

It was so cool and so bizzare.

We didn't go down into the actual pit to find our gypsum,

we dug around it.

And we found so much of it.

Some were small pieces like the one in Romneys hand.

We even scored a HUGE one like the one Miles is holding.

The guys worked on that big piece for a while.

Don't mind little miss.

 She apparently wasn't into digging.

Which was a bit surprising, because she loves dirt and is always dirty.

 

After we got back home, we got to soaking and scrubbing our gypsum.

And now we have beautiful clean, clear stones.

Glitter pits....who knew?

Yosemite

(September 2017)

Oh my goodness.

Yosemite, you are beautiful.

We got to camp with our dear friends the Williamsons for a few nights and we all agree we needed one more night.

The kids were so excited to just be together 24/7!

 

These kids have literally known each other their whole lives and they love each other!

We walked through a field to be able to see Half Dome better.

It was glorious.

Hiking Vernal Falls was awesome!

Well...it was kind of a doozy.

It is straight up hill for over a mile.

We did not take the baby carrier and Andie handled it just fine.

She ran thee entire hike.

Poor Romney had to speed walk up that beast to keep up with our little hiker.

 Miles loved getting up to the waterfall because a random man caught a lizard and handed it off to him.

 This boy and his love of reptiles kills me everyday!

After our outings we'd ride our bikes back to camp for lunch and/or dinner.

I actually loved this time with Miles.

We chatted about school and his new friends he is making.

These are the times that you simply just enjoy the moment.

We would prep food while the boys would go on bear hunts.

and the little ladies looked for bugs. 

The kids stuffed their faces with smores every night 

and I got my face stuffed by smores every night. 

We all thoroughly loved our weekend.

The kids were so happy...wait...all of us were so happy be outside, sword fighting with sticks, being with our friends...

...and getting to be together as a family!

Boston comes to California

 The week before school started (back in August)

 my sister and her family came to stay with us for a week.

I loved EVERY second of their visit.

I just adore my sister and her 4 girls.

I think the kids swam every single day.

(This was the first summer Miles didn't use floaties for thee entire summer) 

They bounced between the pool and  hot tub for hours while sister and I sipped on LaCroix.

 

We gobbled up drumsticks and popcicles daily.

 We ventured out to Oak Glen.

 I just love that place.

The kids picked berries and ate berries, picked more and ate more.

 And somehow we came across a fun sac race for the kids.

All had a blast...they even got candy at the end.

win, win.

We also went to my brothers for endless amounts of entertainment.

He is hilarious.

The littlest babes jumped on his trampoline

and giggled as they jumped up and down.

 

We wanted to go camping, but time didn't allow it so the next best thing was to get out and go on a hike.

We went up to Forest Falls for an afternoon.

It was great.

 The stream was so clear and pretty crisp.

The shoes came off and the toes got wet!

The weather was perfect!

 And everyone was happy!

and then that fast they hugged us and left.

 I hate when our time together has to end.

I hate that we live on completely opposite sides of the country.

Oui, it hurts.

But it makes those reunions sweet.

We love you Boston, and are so happy you came to play with us.

(but now, we need to catch Miles up on sleep because he starts kindergarten in 2 days)

Kindergarten

We are so behind in our life but give me some time and I'll get caught up.

In August Miles started Kindergarten.

When did he think that was okay?

He was so anti school thee entire summer.

We'd talk about it and he would shut it down so quickly.

BUT two days before school started he flipped a switch and was excited. 

He picked out his shark backpack and was complete.

He did great walking up to his classroom

and hanging up his backpack

and then he got a little hesitant to let go once we got back out to the playground.

But to our surprise he got in line and waved goodbye.

THEN THE PLOT TWIST-

We were trying to get Miles into a charter school but the waiting list for it was so long.

At the lottery drawing he was number 18.

 All summer we'd check in to see if he was moving up on the list.

Sure enough the week before school started he was number 3.

And by 9:30am on the first day of school, the charter school called saying a spot opened up and he could start tomorrow.

Ahhhhh!!!!

Horrible timing!

We had just dropped Miles off at his new school and he did great at drop off.

We knew we wanted Miles in this charter school long term and it's so hard to get in.

So, we picked up a happy Miles after his first day of kindergarten and took him to lunch.

He told us all about his day.

We then told him he got into the school we were waiting for.

So we drove him to the new school where he would meet his new teacher.

He was excited and ready to make the move.

Miles got two first days of Kindergarten

 and here he is on his second first day!

 

Beaching Camping

Camping at the beach for a full week is never a bad idea.

Our little family had such a great time.

Surprisingly, Andie was content bouncing between mom and dad under the umbrellas.

She loved feeding dad chips!

I'm pretty sure dad loved this game too.

And surprisingly Miles wanted to get buried everyday.

Some friends came down and play for a day.

They played in the water and looked for sand crabs all day

They built sand castles  

and made huge sand bellies.

Still so surprised by her, Andie stayed close to home.

We love the Brashear family and were so happy they came for the day. 

We got spoiled with friends on this trip.

The Tangs and Frys joined the party and camped with us a couple of nights.

Miles, Tyson and Adele are buddies and we sure hope this friendship will last a lifetime.

Eden and Hollis are exactly a year older than Andie.

But she's starting to follow them around here and there and we look forward to these three becoming great friends too. 

We had great week.

It was so nice to have no schedule and sit back and relax.

We are excited to book our next beach trip for next summer!