Pearl's House

 A couple weeks ago I did a very brave thing. I packed the kids and the dog in the mazda (too bad the Land Rover isn't reliable enough to take on road trips, it has more than enough room for Bear dog and the kids...the compact 5 seat was well, compact. To paint a picture for you, Bear took the front seat and I had to barricade the space between his seat and the middle console or his head has been known to knock the gear shifter into neutral. no good. back to the story...) and we drove to Provo, UT to visit Pearl and Mona by way of Ontario, OR where Joe's parent's live. Bear was spending the week with his old buddy Rosco at Warren and Margaret's so Joe could join us for the following weekend in Provo by plane, and Bear wouldn't be left to fend for himself. Our overnight pop in at Warren and Margaret's was not long enough. Especially since I felt congested the night before, so I took some dayquil right before I went to bed... insomnia allllll night long. Regardless, I was determined to make it to Utah to celebrate my sister's brother in-law's wedding. We literally drove up 45min before the reception started in her in-law's backyard. Enough time to try and not look like we had not been traveling in the car for 2 days. The most amazing part of the trip was my kids were AWESOME car travelers. I was concerned about 8 and 9 hour days in the car with only the one-handed-backwards-reach to help with whatever they needed but they really did so well. Rosy didn't make a peep. Honestly.  If we thought it was cramped on the way there...Joe joined us on the weekend and we filled our 5 seater to capacity!

All the kids had a blast at the park.

 Rocky is 2months older than Ramona.

 Pearl is 4, and such a doll.

 This cute girl is always smiling.

 I thought these were the cutest pictures in their matchy matchy shirts until my mom said they looked like conjoined twins, now that is all I see when I look at it...

 Rocky's turn for a Grandpa's hat picture.

 I don't know if this is one of those things only parents think are so cute, just cause it's their kids. But Joe and I get a kick out of Rosy, every morning, and numerous times throughout the day she picks the blue chair and sits sideways just like this. I posted a while ago that she could occupy herself with these chairs going back and forth. Well the other day, she spend 45min still playing with these chairs. That just cracks me up. If it was Rocky at that age I would have been surprised if he spent 5 minutes on the chairs.

 Rosy in her new shoes looking cute!

Today an interesting series of events took place as I made dinner. Somehow, after going potty Rocky's pants didn't make it back on, and he let himself outside...

 Next time I went out there he had turned the water on and filled his rain boots...

 Then he put his feet in the boots, full of water, and tromped around...

 Lastly, he filled his rainboots with muck and mud and still tried to put them on... and his underwear ended up off and in the dirt. He is an interesting kid.

 Playing at the park today, Rosy was killin me with cuteness.

This is a terrible picture but it makes me laugh. We haven't gotten completely organized with our closet situation here, so Joe's unders are hanging out in a suitcase still. Rosy is magnetized to this suitcase and loves to get stuck in it. I couldn't get her to stay still long enough to get a good picture, but she was having the time of her life!

Labor Day

For Labor Day we drove out to the beach!  Since we're still so new to this area I forget that we are so close to the beach, it only took an hour and a half to get out there.  It's been in the 90's over here, but at the beach it was a frigid 60'.  We set up our tent and never took our sweatshirts off! Blue lips and purple toes we all still put our feet in the water.  There was a point where Rocky was dressed in sweats and his sweatshirt up to his knees in the Ocean.  That definitely defeats the purpose of wearing sweats. 

I couldn't get her to stop eating fistfulls of sand.  She would even sprawl out and put her face down in the sand to get a mouthful.  Unbelievable.

Rocky LOVED going in and out of this tunnel.

Rosy LOVED crawling all over the beach.  I followed her and we went all over the place.

I love this picture from Joe's perspective.

So that was our Labor Day, we also reminisced about past labor days, we spent last year at Joe's parents house while he started his first rotation for his last year of school.  Also of note, we missed the birth of Ian Nuckles, which was a big bummer.  The year before that, the Esplins, Nuckles, and Weatherspoons took a torturous hike in Oro Valley.  Waay too hot, and not enough water, but lots of good memories.  Everyone we passed just kept saying, it's only a little further....

This is a little bit of what Rosy girl has been up to.  She can entertain herself forever just going from the blue chair to the red chair and back.  She hasn't fallen yet.