California Trip

The day after my sister left, we went on vacation to California to visit my parents and sisters and their families. It was such a great trip. We live so far away from my family, I cherish every moment I get to be with them. It was so great to go talk and relax and remember who I am and where I come from! My parents were so great... we got to their house at 11pm and they were up waiting for us. My mom had made the yummiest strawberry cream cheese dessert... we literally had a midnight snack! They have such a fun house with a huge backyard with so many fruit trees, a swing set, and a gazebo... It was so fun to see Grandma and Grandpa make memories with the kids like picking and eating fruit from the trees with them, eating breakfast in the gazebo, etc. We also got to go to both of my sisters' houses to hang out. I feel like we got to spend quality time with everyone! Thanks for making our stay so enjoyable! Steve got sick for 3 of the 6 days we were there, so we didn't get to go to SF, but we went everywhere else we wanted!

Boarding the Airplane (my kids were sooo excited to fly)

The boys got their own row!

Big boy, Austin kickin' it by himself on the plane
(Dad and Noah were in the potty)


First Day: Train ride & Merry-go-Round at the Park

Grandma, Aunt Stef, Aunt Kris, Mom, Austin

The "big" cousins riding the train
Spencer, Parker, Kelsi, Afton, Emily, Taylor
(Grandpa, the loaner :), in his own car, so he can take pics)


Trevor and Noah


Riding the Merry-go-Round

Kelsi

Emily


Second Day: Santa Cruz Beach & Boardwalk

Emily and Spencer playing in the water

Grandma & Austin building sandcastles

Emily's shell from her shell hunt with Grandpa

Austin, a little leery of the water!
mom, Austin, Grandpa

Digging for sandcrabs... check out the big one in someone's hands

Wading in the water: Emily, Afton, Spencer, Taylor

Cute cousin Brenna

Emily, Austin, Dad playing in the water (Austin finally decided he like the ocean)
notice there are no pics of Noah anywhere near the water... he was afraid of the "sharks"


The Boardwalk

Emily


Noah

Dad and Austin on the log ride


Third & Fourth Day: Hanging out at Grandma's & Grandpa's

Picking apricots: Grandpa and Emily

Em helping Austin on the swing set

Grandma and Noah showing off their "roly-polies"

Drying Apples with Grandpa

Washing the apples: Em, Noah, Austin

Peeling & coring the apples: Austin and Grandpa
(Each of the kids got to take a turn)

cool apple spiral

Em dipping the apples in the cinnamon sugar

Grandpa and his apple dryer

Noah and Austin "washing" the windows.
It was like 104 degrees in California while we were there... the kids played for hours in the backyard with spray bottles spraying each other and the windows and any and everything else

Taylor, Austin, Spencer watching a movie

Noah and Austin taking a bubble bath in Grandma's jetted tub


Fifth Day: Hiking and geo-caching at Bel Gatos Park
This was Steve's first day back among the living, but there are no pictures of him...
he obviously had the camera on this excursion

Grandma, Mom, Austin, Grandpa, Emily, Noah

Cute Austin

Beautiful view of where I grew up: San Jose, CA

looking at the view
Grandpa, Noah, Grandma, Mom, Emily


6th Day: Castle Rock
Castle Rock is this cool rock formation with lots of caves and high rocks to crawl around on

Shelf Em found to sit on

Mom and Aunt Kris

One of the Caves:
Brenna, Austin, Noah, Parker

Noah and Trevor being monkeys

Monkey Boys: Noah, Parker, Trevor, Spencer

Leaving

Shuttle at the airport
Noah, Austin, Mom

Emily got to stay in California for 4 extra days at Grandma and Grandpa's house! It felt so crazy to leave her there. It also was so weird to only have 2 kids for a week! She had a blast and got really spoiled with all the 1 on 1 attention she got from Grandpa and Grandma. They at breakfast in the gazebo, went miniature golfing, went to the children's museum, went geo-caching, watched movies, and she got to choose a toy at the toy store... and got to hang out with cousins!

Here's a cute one Em at the Museum with Grandpa and some of her cousins

The hardest part of leaving her in Ca was she had to make the 4 hour plane trip home all by herself! She did great and the flight attendants took great care of her. Grandma and Grandpa walked her to her gate in Ca and had to stay at the airport until her plane took off. Steve, me and the boys got to meet her at the gate here in Austin.
Here she is walking off the ramp after her 4-hour flight all by herself! So BRAVE!

Emily Tumbling and Swimming

This past school year Emily took tumbling at the Y and then she swam on a summer swim team with the Cedar Park Typhoons. As most of you know, Emily is shy when it comes to talking, but she constantly amazes us at how brave she is at trying new things! We are so proud of her... She did a great job in tumbling and swimming!

Emily doing her tumbling routine at the YMCA mini-Olympics

The medals ceremony

Emily's First swim meet
(swimming the breast stroke... this is her favorite stroke)

Freestyle

YAY Emily!

May is for Noah

Noah had quite the month in May. He graduated from Preschool (yes folks, Noah will be going to Kindergarten in August), turned 5, and had his birthday party! We love you, Noah!

Noah, acting shy, on stage with his teacher, Ms. Laura. She asked him what he wants to be when he grows up. He said he wants to be a Dad... how cute!

Noah's graduation

Noah decorating his birthday cake for our family party

Opening presents

The loot

blowing out the candles

Did you know spidy rides a scooter?

The friend party

Noah wanted a basketball party... the cake and pinata were basketball... then we had magician "Steve" perform his mysterious magic tricks and everyone got to splash in the kiddie pool in the back yard. (thanks, Rachel, for being our videographer... video of the magic show coming soon!)

I'm Green

Yesterday at the Rockin River in Round Rock Janet was carrying Austin through the kiddie pool.

Austin noticed a little bably playing in the water.

Austin: "That's a baby"
Janet: "Yes it is"
Austin: "That's a black baby"
Janet: "You're right, the baby is black"
Austin, very matter of factly: "I'm Green"