Joshuaism 101

"Mom, shopping is very good for you. It makes your heart happy. So go shopping right now."

Not sure if this is just a random observation or a directive in efforts to correct my attitude.

Cheap Shirts

Some friends of mine turned me on to this really great crafty project that is creative and inexpensive. They turned out so cool!
Expect to be getting this if you have a kids b-day coming up!

Farmer's Market

For the first time this year we went to the local farmer's market. The kids did some really crazy tumbling tricks...it's amazing that everyone survived with all limbs properly in tact.
Andrew prefered the birds eye view to the bouncing.
So here we all are a year later and not that much has changed...thankfully!


It's just not summer if you can't make time to go down town for some fresh fruits and veggies, snow cones, bounce house fun and a really cool tat!

Steve on at 6

A Day at the Beach

We escaped from the valley heat yesterday and went to cool down at Cayucus.
Tana and Christopher played in the water almost non-stop jump roping the waves.

Joshua spent most of his time running back and forth from the ocean to us making him self busy with what ever delighted his fancy.

Andrew finally worked up enough courage of go down to the water after a sufficient amount of persuasion.

As long as Andrew had Christopher to hold on to he was as happy as a lark.

When the excitement down at the water became impossible to resist, Wendy made her way out from under her blanket and down to the waves to dip her toes in and snap a few shots of her own.


Tana and I had a little bit of a mud slinging fight...which, as you can see, I did not win at.

In the end all four kids did their best to cooperate in bringing water to build a castle of sorts. Everyone pitched in to help Tana haul the heavy loads of water, which ended up being more work for her...it was questionable at time as to whether the little ones were actually helping or just there for the ride.

We conclude our escapades with a trip to the local confectioners for some sugary delights before making our way back home...sticky and sandy, tired but happy.

Crazy Shoes Day

Here is our best attempt at crazy shoes...Thank goodness for Crocs! I really had a creative mental block on this one. Of course it doesn't help that I was up 'till midnight last night...not all synapses are firing today.

Be your favorite animal day

Today at VBS they wanted the children to dress up as their favorite animal. I thought that this would be hard but the kids had a blast creating their own costumes.

Now I feel justified! I always thought my house was a little on the wild side.

Crazy Hair Day

Today at Vacation Bible School they asked that we bring the kids with crazy hair. So when Christopher requested to have crazy hair I had to get creative...well, what can you do when you don't have much to work with!? You cut some of it off, that's what you do! So here is our best churchy version of Two-face.

Joshy didn't want to have crazy hair. After all where's the fun in having crazy hair when every day is one for you?

Camping in the Sequoia's

It was Joshua's first camping trip and Christopher's third. We only stayed for one night to ensure that we would leave wanting to come back...Mission Accomplished! We had a wonderful time. We hiked three trails totaling about 3 mi.
The two dinosaurs you see here were the toys of choice that went everywhere the boys went.

This was the boy's (including Steve) first s'mores experience...they loved it! Steve crashed and burned his first set of marshmallows...just imagine, a grown man, and never roasted marshmallows before! What cave did you just crawl out of Steve?!

Look at this great family! On the top of the mountain...on top of the world!

This was the first bear sighting for all of us. In all of Steve's camping experience he has never witnessed a real bear encounter, much less a mama and two baby cubs! It was truly amazingly cute!

Notice, the two dinosaurs noted earlier taking a cool dip in the stream are being toted on our last excursion, also the last documented sighting of the two beloved toys. Now the dinosaurs are truly extinct! Not .30 mi. later we noticed that both of the dinos went MIA. I had already back tracked once in a search and rescue mission to save one of them by the side of the trail. There was no hope this time. This trail was well traveled. Any attempts would be futile. I suppose that we cannot claim to have abided by the old rule of "leave only footprints and take only memories". We left dinos and took walking sticks.

They're Home

My sister and her family came home from China last week. Aside from her kids innately wanting to relieve themselves outdoors, phobia of all patches of grass, Heather's insane craving for Jamba Juice, Jojo's irresistible desire to consume red meat and the whole family experiencing culture shock over the ease of getting around....everything is as it was.

Happy Birthday Elijah and Aiden!

My how big your face is!

The Parent's

Here is a great picture of my mom and dad. We stopped off at Casa de Fruta on our way to San Jose to pick up my sister and her family coming back from China. Happy times!

My How They Grow

Kate is sprouting like a weed. Like those in my veggie garden...everytime I turn around she is bigger. She looks so different than Christie's other two kids.