First Day of School

August Update

Our hot tub plumbing leak has been fixed, and now we have 15 holes in our family and living room walls to show for it (we had to redirect the leaking hot water line from our foundation by adding a whole new line from our water heater to our kitchen sink through our walls and ceiling).

Hold onto your hats, we start school tomorrow!  Josh (above) starts Kindergarten (he's so excited!), and Sarah will be a second grader. This our third year of home instruction, and we will continue to school 3 days per week at home, and 2 days per week at our local charter school (we call those days our "workshop" days).  It's such a great balance for us, and we love love love our school.  I'm glad for the schooling break, especially so I can hang out with Zac and Rachel and really focus on them those two days.  

My toughest part?  Workshop mornings, when we have to get everyone (all 4 kids) up and at 'em and out the door waaaay too early by my clock.  We are not morning people, and tend to have way too much fun in the evenings as a family.  Thus, mornings are a bear.  Thankfully the devoted Mr. Garland (who faithfully wakes up hours before I even stir, I have no idea how) helps me out by getting the older kids dressed and fed, while I feed Rachel and prepare sack lunches.  At least that's the plan for now.  Then we'll head out to pick up our carpool (3 boys this year... we'll fill up our 8 passenger swagger wagon, the reason why we swapped vans earlier this summer), drop off school kids, and then the younger kids and I head to the gym. Good times.

Sarah has an ear infection.  Swimmer's ear.  Right now.  No fun.

Josh and Sarah take a day hike with friends this summer.

Bring on the new school year... charge!!!

AFC Half Marathon

Coronado Ferry

Tower

When the ride lines are long at Legoland, the devoted Mr. Garland finds something else to do.

Swingin' (and Droolin')

Sliders

Watermelon Floaties

No, these are not green floating dinosaur eggs.  They're our newest swimming toy.  The kids loved swimming, spinning and splashing with these watermelons.  Great idea, Cassie!  Who'd have thunk it...

Take off

Special Flight

We had a special treat when Julie was here... a friend of Jeff's flies airplanes as a hobby (oh, la, la), and took us all for a flight in a 4-passenger plane.  We started off practicing our plane flying skills on the simulator, you know, just in case our pilot backed out last minute.  Good thing.  We are not safe pilots.

Then we headed up, up, up!

Our pilot took two trips for us... Jeff took the boys (Josh and Zac) on the first flight, and Julie, Sarah and I took the second flight.  

A boys flight and a girls flight, of course.

Julie as co-pilot... and the backseat drivers...

We spotted our home from the air!

Legoland water park (we went for the first time recently, and love the waterpark!).

Carlsbad (you can see the Canon tower in the upper left corner).

Moonlight beach (lower right beachy spot with single palm tree) - the 'banner dragging' advertizing airplanes were below us as we soared over the waves.

Oh my what a rush.  When can we do that again?

Julie

Jeff's sister Julie came to visit us from Denver and we had the best time! We kept her busy with Legoland, a birthday party for her, time at the beach, Coronado Island, and a private airplane ride (more on that little ditty coming soon).

We love you Aunt Julie!

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrup...
Moo!
(The knock-knock joke Aunt Julie taught our kids that will live on in infamy.)

Half Marathon

I'm back in the saddle, running my first half this morning. "America's Finest City" (AFC) Half Marathon, San Diego.  I hope I survive. Alisa, my ever-lovin' friend and running partner and I are going to give it a go. 13.1 miles. And did I mention there's a hill at the end? A big hill. Here goes nothing...

Happy birthday Mom!!!

July I want to Cry

We've had a very bizarre summer so far. Usually it's May Gray, June Gloom, and by July, well... it's been cloudy and very cool the whole month. I've felt bad for vacationers who haven't see a lot of sun during their time in San Diego. Now that it's August, the sun has finally appeared... yeah! My mom came to see Rachel's baby dedication at church, so we hit the beach!

Notice Rachel napping swaddled in beach towels.

Bagels with just the girls and Grandmom.

Hot Tub

I love hot tubs, and have always wanted one.

I love the hot water massaging my muscles.

I forget about all my cares and really just simply relax.

My dreams came true this week... we got one, right in our own backyard!

Yahoo!!!

Wait.

What?

Uhm, that's not the hot tub I have been dreaming of.

You say that's hot water leaking from our home?

From pipes that are embedded in our concrete foundation?

That's not the kind of hot tub I wanted.

What's the return policy?

Josh's first lost tooth

My little boy is growing up way too fast.

What?  You say he's starting Kindergarten in just 2 weeks?

That's so not funny.

Tooth pillow.

Murray Family

These are our friends who live just 5 minutes from us, and we get together with them on a regular basis. They're the ones with chickens (they just increased from 2 to 8 chickens!) and two goats. Their kids play so well with ours, as they are very similar in ages with our kids. And... bonus! They're expecting Baby #4 to arrive in December, just a few more months. We love the Murrays!

Goggle Girl

(Sadly, I didn't snap these photos, the pro camp photographer did. I'm still trying to get better with my photo skills... maybe someday I'll take photos this good.)

Lake Day Face Paint

Relay Team

At summer camp, the devoted Mr. Garland teamed up with our friends the Sackers to compete in the Lake Day relay competition.

Team Bobzilla:  Jeff, Jessica, Scott, Michael and Alisa.

Zippin Zac

Yes, Zac just turned 3 on July 10.

And yes, he went on the zip line at family camp.

He is so brave!

Betcha didn't know they made harnesses that fit 3-year olds.

That's my boy!