June Happenings

June always starts with a bang at our house because it's Nate's birthday!

Lucky for him, it fell on Saturday this year, so I gave him the best present ever and let him sleep in. And sleep he did, that's for sure!! When he woke up, I made his favorite breakfast, crepes, and we had a plethora of deliciousness for toppings: Nutella, powdered sugar, lemon juice, sugar, raspberries, strawberries, and cool whip. Yay birthdays! Later that day, we had friends watch Evan and I surprised Nate by taking him to see the new X-Men movie. We never go to movies anymore, since the child came along, and that is one of Nate's favorite things to do. We enjoyed being out together, and really liked the movie, too! We came home just in time to have roast and potatoes for dinner before friends were going to show up for treats and games, and found this in our kitchen!

 The picture is blurry because I was laughing way hard. I was just as surprised as Nate was to see this, because it wasn't me that did it!

Nate got a new backpack for hiking, since he is using the same one he received when he was 12, a Dilbert book from his parents, a Jack Johnson cd, and lots of cards and phone calls from loving family members. We enjoyed banana cream pie and orange dream cake with our root beers, and played some games. Nate says he has now "officially reached his prime". I just think he is old as mold ;)

The party continued with Stacey arriving the next day for a California vacation! We spent a few days in Ridgecrest, relaxing in the sun, blowing bubbles, shopping at KMart, getting frozen yogurt, and obviously, feeding the burros.

Evan is a pro at saying, "hee haw! and kicking like a burro. It's awesome!

We then headed down to the "land of milk and honey" where my other sister lives, so we could have some real California fun. :)

We got to see Addie sing her heart out in her 2nd grade play, Geology Rocks. She was the cutest little canyon I ever did see (she has the wavy hair, right in front of the microphone), and I still catch myself walking around the house singing her song about erosion. We also got to watch part of Kolby's baseball game, where he helped pitch his team to 3rd place! Go Padres! It is always a lot of fun to me to watch these kids performing in whatever they may be doing in life at the time. They are always busy doing something!

Evan really loves playing with his cousins, and it has been a lot of fun seeing more of them. They all are so good to Evan! Here Kolby was showing Landry and Evan how to play some soccer game he learned in school, and they were very impressed! They sat like this for probably 15 minutes! So funny.

 Landry had a pretty bad cough when we arrived and we would often find him like this at the end of the day, completely exhausted.

Some of us headed to the beach one night, because (in the words of my mom) "why be in California if you're not going to be at the beach?!"

 It was freezing! A combination of the sun going down and a strong wind kept us to just dabbing our toes in the water, but we basically had the beach all to ourselves. :)

 Evan never cares if it's cold; he ALWAYS wants to be in the water.

 This day was a day of animals. Earlier in the day, I was attacked by a rat (it's a story that can only do justice if told in person, so if you need more details, feel free to ask. I even have battle wounds to prove it.) And then this poor thing (pelican maybe?) looked like he had just been washed up right on our beach where the kids were playing.

 But it all ended on a very happy note, when shortly after this picture was taken, we spied a couple of dolphins catching some waves. It was beautiful. I've only seen dolphins at Sea World, never in their natural habitat! And they were as close as the wave in the picture above. I didn't grab for a photo, because I was totally stunned and in awe.

We had lots of fun having visitors and visiting, but shortly after we returned to the Ridge, Evan came down with the same fever and cough his cousins had, and the weather finally hit triple digits. It's been a miserable couple of days. 

 Besides having lots of fun in June, we learned a couple of new things. First, Evan is a popcorn-aholic just like his mommy. Maybe even more, actually, because at least I share.

I air-popped some popcorn one Sunday night, and it makes a giant batch. To my knowledge, Evan had never had popcorn before. He crawled up on the couch next to me to see what was in my giant bowl, tried one piece, quickly sat down and stole my bowl! And when either Nate or myself would reach our hands in to get some popcorn, he would get very angry! It was hilarious, and I'm quite sure he ate nearly that entire thing by himself.

I have also been getting my craft on (I go in major spurts), and along with some wreaths to add to my ever growing collection, a friend and I put this together:

I have always seriously admired edible bouquets, turns out they are SUPER easy! I wish I had tons of parties, barbeques, etc to attend this summer so I could make these all of the time.

We are looking forward to a yummy Father's Day, (let's face it, the best thing I can give Nate besides sleep is food) but not looking forward to Nate leaving for Scout Camp next week. Spending time with my sisters' this last week has me counting down the days until we get to go home to Utah and Idaho for a visit. Can't come soon enough!!