Summer Adventures 2

This summer has been super busy and fun. I left off just as we were starting our first week of house/child sitting. We went to the park, went swimming, made obstacle courses with sidewalk chalk, went on bike rides, played board games, went to Andrew's soccer game, read so many books, and much more. It was fun for our kids to have extra people to play with and to be in a house instead of an apartment-although my legs and feet were so sore from all the extra walking around.

I think Andrew was telling them something goofy and they were trying to decide whether or not to believe him

Matthew is still SUCH a snuggler

We had a few days at home before our next babysitting adventure. Gram sent the kids some new clothes and Adaline was more than happy to try them on and model for me.

The girl who always wants to ride her bike

Adaline has this big sister thing totally figured out.

My pre-haircut baby

We tried out a new restaurant down the street and Matthew was being Cr-A-zy. I don't know if it was just hilarious for him to try and get the noodles in his mouth, or what, but he was being nuts and the pictures don't do it justice at all.

Adaline still loves to eat whole pieces of cilantro apparently

Three days after we got back, we headed to another family's house to watch their four kiddos. I brought them over to our pool a couple times and they swam for so long. It was awesome! We also played games, went to the park, made part of a Star Wars movie, and so on. It was a blast; our kids love playing with their kids and in a lot of ways, I didn't even have to watch Matthew because the oldest girl wants loves taking care of him. We all went swimming again on Monday after their parents were home.

She'll make a great kindergarten teacher/librarian

I just have to brag for a second here. Both Sundays that we were babysitting, we got to church 5-10 minutes early. One of the Sundays we went to pick up another boy who needed a ride. He was in his pj's because his mom had forgotten it was Sunday. So we waited for him to get ready, and still got to church early! I couldn't believe it.

They happened to have a very similar dress, so I made them match

Some random pictures from after we got back home and were getting into our normal routines again.

Why can't all shopping carts have 2 seats? These kiddos are typically either best friends or trying  to kill each other. I much prefer the former.

Working on our rocket ship for one of the library summer reading activities

She's so cute when she's telling a good story.

Making and eating popsicles is one of their favorite things, and I like how long it occupies them on a hot afternoon.

The next weekend, we went to Contra Loma pool on Andrew's day off with some of the Moon clan, and on Saturday to House of Prime Rib in SF with some friends and Fenton's for dessert-I want to get ice cream at Fenton's every single day. yum!

All of these pictures crack me up. Also, I didn't realize how well they coordinated their outfits

This picture is a little trippy

On Monday, Independence day, we went on a 3 mile hike with mostly the same group. Adaline was constantly in and out of the hiking back pack, but Matthew stayed happily on my back the entire time. He was so content sucking his thumb and rubbing my hair on his face. Haha he's still such a momma's boy, and I don't know except that 30 pounds is a lot to carry around all day. After lunch and naps, we went swimming, then showered and went to Sue's for dinner. She has the best view from her balcony. When the fireworks started, we could see ones in Pittsburg, Antioch, Oakley, and Brentwood. It was awesome, the food was delicious, and we love our friends out here.

They decided they'd just hike up to the top real fast by themselves-they made it a little higher than  they are in this picture before deciding that walking almost straight up a wall isn't that fun or that quick.

So cute. I love when other kids take mine under their wing

This might be the best family picture we've ever taken. Haha

Some things during the week:

Bike ride turned tree climbing. Adaline always wants to climb the trees outside our apartment, but they're all redwoods so there aren't any low branches. She was so excited to find this tree and then got scared once she stood up on the first branch.

They both LOVE to wear backpacks everywhere

And to play with dead bugs

You'd think I would learn, but this has been the summer of really awesome farmer's tans

 A couple weeks ago, we went to the movie at the park when they were showing Inside Out. We picked out a couple candies, brought all the chairs and blankets, and Adaline played in the sand while we waited for dusk. We all had fun. Since the movie didn't start until dark, and it's a couple hours long, the kids didn't get to bed until 11. They were fine that night, but were a little cranky the next day. It would have been no big deal, but Andrew ended up working all day the next day even though it was Saturday and he's never had to do that! We survived, but it reminded me that my kids go to bed at 7 for a reason.

I changed them into their jammies (in this pic  he's actually wearing Adaline's jacket) and put Matthew in the wagon, hoping that they would fall asleep. No luck, they both stayed awake all the way to the end.

Andrew's work dinner on Saturday was cancelled, but since we already had a babysitter and had to spend the whole day apart, we went out to dinner and ran an errand I'd been putting off because I didn't feel like taking the kids to the store. We came home pretty early, but it was nice to have a couple hours just the two of us and to not have to put the kids to bed. LOL

Adaline did two weeks of swimming lessons and she loved it. She was hesitant to go a couple times, but by the end she was saying, "please go sit down so I can go by myself." She loved her teacher and friends in the class. She passed the level (not a very difficult feat) and is already talking about next year.

There is a duck pond right next to the pool that the kids always want to go walk around when we went to her lessons. We never had enough time, so a couple of days, we went 30-45 minutes early and had a nice long stroll exploring as much of the surrounding area as they wanted. They still wanted to go look at the ducks every morning after, but at least I didn't feel guilty saying "no" anymore.

I switched it up with my yoga people and we tried a 6am class one Friday. It was good, but that's not the most convenient time for us, so we haven't been back to that one yet. Instead, I mostly go in the evenings and I'm still really liking it right now.
After the morning yoga, we mostly just hung out and by late afternoon we were kind of itching to go somewhere, so I decided that if we washed the car we could earn ice cream at Costco. Adaline loved helping, but all Matthew wanted to do was splash in the puddle we made and try to drink the water out of the road.

Both feet off of the ground!

No idea what this pose is about

The next day, we got to babysit another awesome kid. He is SO cute and my kids could not stop doting on him. I went to his house in the morning to wait for him to wake up (his parents needed to leave before 7), once he woke up, I brought him back to our house with the plan to all go to Andrew's soccer game. Well, Adaline was still sleeping, so Andrew and Matthew got a ride while I waited for Adaline to wake up to go meet them. She hadn't feeling well and ended sleeping until 9:20 (!) and there was no way we were going to make it, so the 3 of us went park hopping and tried two new ones. We met Andrew back at the house for lunch and then all 3 kids had naptime in the same room and at the same time. It was awesome. The baby's parents came to pick him up soon after his nap and we were all kind of sad to see him go. It was so fun watching him.

Seriously, he's so cute!

I think my kids drove him crazy just a little bit, but mostly they had a blast together.

Besides all that we've been riding bikes, having swim days with friends, meeting people at the park, and going to the library. We'll be so sad and lonely when everyone goes back to school in a couple weeks.

When she wants to, she takes great care of her brother.

Another summer reading project. We all turned in our completed forms today and got our free books. They had to go find the adult free books because, apparently, not many adults do the summer reading. It was fun to work on with the kids and I'm excited to see if we win anything.

"Draw your favorite book character" Another summer reading activity. I picked someone with very recognizable features so that Andrew could guess it right and I'd feel good about myself.

This is Adaline's Pinkalicious. Mom helped a lot.

One last thing: This past Saturday was our Stake picnic for Pioneer Day. They had a parade for the kids to participate in, so Adaline rode her bike and I pulled Matthew in the wagon. Andrew got to play his clarinet with the band which he loved doing because it's been so long since he's played it. We also had dinner, sno cones, and ice cream. And the kids played in the bounce houses/slides which had water running on them. I was a little jealous since, even though it didn't start until 5pm, it was still 101 degrees.

Random thought: Being a parent is fun! It's fun to plan stuff to do with your kids and to try and pick things that they'll really like. I love watching them accomplish something and get excited about different things. It's so fun to just get to watch them explore and learn about the world. I'm amazed by how long they can spend lying on their bellies staring at a bug or trying to figure out how to buckle their own car seats. They want to figure out the world and it's so fun getting to watch them do it.