To Utah, California and Back Again - Part 2: Cali

After spending a few days in Utah we got back in the car and headed south to California to visit Ashely and the girls. 

While we were there we visited the Santa Monica Pier.....

...and spent a lot of time at the beach.

Coen and Carter were the best of friends on this trip!

 

The kids loved catching sand crabs. 

I liked burying the kids in the sand best.

Especially when we buried the Navy Baby Lady.

Riley O.

To Utah, California and Back Again - Part 1: Utah

Kam had to use all his vacation days to recover from his surgery so when it came to vacations this summer if we wanted one, we had to leave Kam behind. Kelsea, Kam's sister, decided to bless her baby in Utah so the kids and I packed up and headed North for a visit.

While up north Riley had her first experience on the swing. She wasn't too sure about it. When she swung back she would smile and when she came forward she had a look of terror and uncertainty on her face.

 

I didn't take many pictures of our activities but I should have because we had a lot of fun and I definitely wore these kids out.

A Hot, Hot, Hot 4th!

Our Fourth of July festivities weren't overly spectacular but we did have a great time. We made a yummy breakfast in the morning and then spent some time hanging out in the attic to see if we could fix our air conditioner. Later in the day we had a BBQ and went swimming with our friends and then lit some fireworks in our backyard before going to bed (technically we weren't allowed to light any in our neighborhood).

Carter thought he was cold while swimming and wanted to get in the hot tub. Although, as soon as he put his feet in he decided it was too hot and then headed right back to the pool! 

This is the only picture I got of Sis in her 4th of July outfit.

(She had a blowout shortly afterwards)

Carter liked watching the fireworks best behind his chair.

Happy Independence Day!

Mr. Fix It

I am so very grateful that Kameron is so handy when it comes to fixing things around the house. I consider myself rather capable but when it comes to certain things I am clueless. While I was out of town early this summer Kam decided to jump up in the attic to investigate a banging sound that we could hear when the AC came on. He saw that a gas pipe was hitting against the fan motor in the furnace and started seeing what he could do to remedy the situation. While he was working on it though the pipe just broke off into his hands causing the gas to just flow freely. I kind of wish I was there to see Kameron fly down ladder and out of the house in record time to turn the gas off but am so grateful that I was not. He was scared and we were blessed that the whole house didn't explode. Kameron was able to fix the pipe but the banging sound was still heard whenever the air would turn on.

We decided to turn off the main AC unit upstairs so that no further damage would happen to the unit until Kam could get around to fixing it. A few HOT weeks later he was able to get back up in the attic to see what else he could do to fix the AC.

Unfortunately after all his efforts he couldn't fix it himself and we had to have an AC guy come out and replace parts. $300 + later and we had a cool house again! I am very happy we have 3 AC units in our house because with the 110+ temperatures we were facing this summer we would have melted!

Let's Eat!

The little sister is eating solids now. When I was at her 4 month well check-up the doctor told me it was time to introduce solids into her diet. I wasn't ready. To me Riley was still too small and I certainly wasn't ready for her to be "growing-up." It took me a few weeks after our visit to the doctor to finally purchase some baby cereal and then a few more days before I fed it to her. Just like any baby learning to eat solid foods Riley was messy and didn't really open her mouth but by the last few spoonfuls she was attacking the spoon. I guess she was more ready than I thought. We have since introduced several different types of fruits and veggies and she seems to like everything we have given her.