Vacation - Part 3 - The Boardwalk

Waiting in line to get our wristbands at the Boardwalk I caught this cute picture of Haylie and James. I think Haylie was just cuddling James and keeping him warm. They stood like this for several minutes. She is such a little Mommy - I love my kids :)

Fun - a PEPSI ride!!!

Daddy and Haylie went on the log ride - the rest of us were party poopers on that one and chose to watch from the side

One of these kids looks a little too big. Seriously I am a geek on kids rides!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Love that silly boy!!

This carousel was a mystery we had to solve. When we first got in line a whole bunch of people let us go in front of them. Then when we got on the carousel it was very noisy and people kept throwing things. We figured out the mystery of the big clown mouth - if you are on an outside horse you can grab rings as the carousel goes around and toss them into the clown mouth - we rode it a few more times and had fun taking our shots.

Haylie's favorite ride of course is always the ferris wheel:

The great thing about the Boardwalk is all the rides are overlooking a beautiful beach:

So cool:

We ended the very long, adventure filled day with mini golf:

we had fun playing in the black-light room:

And then the arcade!

Vacation - Part 2 - The First Day

We usually take it pretty easy the first day of vacation. First we had to do some laundry because we picked Raider up directly after his week at highschool camp (which was right by Santa Cruz) so he needed to wash all his clothes!

This is the closest I was able to get to a fun laundromat photo shoot (with my point and shoot camera nonetheless) :)

After the farmers market we headed to the beach in Capitola. This sea-lion crawled up onto the shore and looked very unhappy - there was an instant crowd of people watching as it tried more and more to dig itself into the sand :(

We didn't stay too long because it was pretty chilly - wish it were warmer in that area - it is so pretty!

Vacation - Part 1 - Aptos

We were originally supposed to go to Cabo for our summer vacation this year, but after adding up the cost of 5 flights we decided it would be better to stick closer to home. We ended up in Santa Cruz and specifically our condo that we rented was in Aptos right overlooking the beach. It was the most adorable little place. It was just across the street to the beach and just down the street from a market, video store and cute restaurants. Here are a few pictures:

It was fun to sit out on the balcony and relax:

The kids loved their room with two matching beds and a TV to watch videos on before bed.

Everything was very cute nautical decor:

This is a picture that was hanging in the house. Raider had been talking all week about ordering fish n chips from the place by our house and we finally figured out this is the "menu" he was wanting to order from. Poor guy had no idea it wasn't real :) We took him to Bubba Gumps for fish n chips later in the week to make him feel better (after we made fun of him for awhile and posted about it on Facebook). :)

Kindergarten

Oh it was rough - I cried! Haylie started Kindergarten and has to go to school every day now! I already miss her and can't believe she is getting so big. I couldn't be more proud of who she is. I know she will be a light in her class. She loves Jesus and loves to tell others how much God loves them.

For her special day, Grandma and Grandpa came and we took Haylie out to breakfast by herself. She had her favorite - IHOP pancakes - then we took her to school and prayed for her before dropping her off. Then I cried! :) There were other moms crying too. I am just going to miss my mornings with her so much!! I am so proud of my precious Haylie girl!

Loose Tooth

On Thursday (August 5th) Haylie lost her very first tooth! Let me start with the dentist appointment story first - A few weeks ago (on my birthday actually) the kids had a dentist appointment. It was James' first time at the dentist and Haylie was the ever-caring big sister, coaching him through the whole process, holding his hand and telling him it would be ok.

I was very impressed with the dentist office as I was with Haylie's first appointment about 6 months ago. First, when we got there we saw James' name on the welcome sign:

All of the people in the office were super friendly and so great with the kids. The hygenist was so good with James she even got him to let her clean his teeth with the automatic brush (amazing) - it took a lot of coaxing and he sat on my lap but he did great. Then the dentist came in to look at his teeth - James didn't like that one quite as much - the dentist did a great job but James screamed the whole time. Then the dentist asked if I knew James had a little chip on his front tooth. No I did not. Then the dentist checked out Haylie's mouth and asked if I knew she had two loose teeth - no of course not! After I accepted the Bad Mom award I checked out Haylie's teeth - one was very loose and the other just a little bit.

That brings us to this week. Haylie had been wiggling her tooth, waiting to get a visit from the tooth fairy. Then, the other day it looked like her tooth had already fallen out. We were sure she had lost it already and we told her she would have to wait for her other one to fall out. She thought it was silly that it fell out and she didn't know but she just went on. Then the next day her other tooth was about to fall out and we realized the original tooth hadn't fallen out it had just moved. Here is the picture before it fell out.

It finally ended up falling out while we were at Gilroy Gardens theme park. Haylie was sitting in the stroller before lunch and the tooth was just hanging. She started twisting it and out it came. She was SOOO excited. The next morning she came running into our room to show us the money the tooth fairy left her. I just love watching the kids grow and being part of their life events!!!

Here's one more picture of the kids at the dentist:

Meg

Micah's Mom was one of Meg Whitman's first supporters and she eagerly supported her through the Republican primary. For one of Meg's recent events in Sacramento, Sharon took me as her guest and we got to take a picture with Meg and Mitt Romney. As we walked up, Meg exclaimed, "Sharon!" And then proceeded to tell Mitt Romney about how much support Sharon has provided and how appreciative she is. In fact on the Republican Primary night, when we watched Meg give her speech after winning the Primary, she even thanked Sharon Runner for her early support and her work on the campaign. Go Meg - hope she wins in November!!!

Confidence Cup

Haylie got a little award at gymnastics class - they did a "Confidence Cup" day and gave all the kids little trophies. They had to tell their teacher what they wanted to say for an "acceptance speech" and then she read it to parents. Haylie told her she "loves her family and Jesus and wants to be a mommy when she grows up." The girl is ready for the Oscars!!

Accepting her trophy:

James did a good job too - he was surprisingly brave. James LOVES his gymnastics teacher. He always gets shy and silly around her and loves to hug her. It is very cute!