i love summer!!

i love summer! it has been such a nice summer so far. i have REALLY enjoyed the down time from our regular crazy schedule!! i have tried to make it just simple and fun. we have spent quite a few days at the beach so far and plan to go a lot more before summer is over! patrick is LOVING surfing and is getting really good!! he has gone a lot! he tries to squeeze it in before or after football practice. by the way...he had such a great time at efy (see prior post for explanation). the experience was life changing for him!! he had so much fun that corey decided to go this last week to efy in santa barbara as well. we hadn't registered her ahead of time so we made a bunch of phone calls and finally got a hold of someone on sunday night. they ended up having room for her so we drove 4 hours to santa barbara on monday morning, dropped her off and then had a 4 hour drive home. she had a fabulous time as well...what a neat spiritual experience that they both had! i am sooo thankful they were able to go!!! corey ended up taking the train home on friday for only $38.00. it cost me $140.00 in gas when i drove her there on monday and drove home. gas prices...uuuuugh!!!

yesterday my cousin joelle, her son aidan and her boyfriend, dave came to our house to stay for a day and a half! i love it when she comes. we are so much alike and spend most of the time laughing!! as tradition calls for we have to make a yummy dessert and watch a scary movie...and we did both. we made pazookies (I don't know if i spelled that correctly but it's a yummy dessert they make at bj's restaurant) and we watched "the forgotten". it was fun and it was really nice to meet dave and to get to know him! today we went to the beach (west mission beach) and had a blast!! although the waves were lousy for patrick and nathan (patricks long time friend that went with us), they seemed to have more fun boogie boarding today! we were by the jetty and joelle, dave, julia, aubrey and i went over to look at the little tide pools and crabs on the rocks. we came home and had dinner and then went to see "journey to the center of the earth". what a fun movie, although we didn't get to see it in 3-d which would have made it even better! after the movie joelle, aidan and dave had to head back to visalia. darn it!! we both wished we could have had more time together because we enjoy being together so much. we are hoping to take a trip to visalia some time before the end of the year ( i promise joelle!! ) so, here are some pictures from today! enjoy!

south mission beach

Happy 4th of July!!!

happy 4th of july to everyone! we had such a fun day. we got up in the morning and got everything ready to go. on our way to the bay/park/beach we stopped and got in-n-out for lunch (in honor of you, steve!! lol). it was a quick and inexpensive way to have lunch. we brought water, soda, and snacks to have at the beach. we went to glorietta bay (in coronado) and found an area that was grassy and only about 20 feet from the beach. it was perfect!

mike and dena brought the boat over to where we were and anchored up. the kids could swim out to the boat...and they did! the kids jumped of the boat and it was a blast! mike and dena bought 2 really nice jet skiis just about a week ago and they brought them. we took rides on the jet skiis all over the bay. i was the official taxi driver as i was always wanting to give someone a ride around the bay...it was so much fun! mike (pat's brother) barbequed chicken on the boat. yummy!

at dark those who were on the beach went out to the boat and we all watched the fireworks together. they shot the fireworks off right in front of us over the bay. it was beautiful. listening to the moving patriotic music and being in such a beautiful place with fun family, really made me feel thankful to live in the united states. we are truly blessed for our freedoms and to live where we can worship our Father in Heaven as we want.

i have been watching some specials this week that they have had on pbs about our founding fathers. one in particular about benjamin franklin. these men were truly inspired. how beautifully they were able to articulate in the declaration of independence the freedoms that we needed and that our Father in Heaven wanted us to have. i am thankful to those men who were willing to put their lives on the line to give us separation and freedom. and to those soldiers who serve us all today, i am thankful for each of them and their willingness to put their lives on the line to maintain those freedoms. happy independence day!!!

julia's new hair cut!

julia got a new hair style today! she has been wanting to get her hair cut for a long time, but i didn't want to cut her naturally wavy hair. it seems like when i cut my other girls hair when they were younger they lost their pretty curls! julia literally runs from me when i want to do her hair. so, i decided to make her life (and mine) easier and cut her hair. she loves it!!! it matches her sassy little personality too! what do you think?