Happy 4th Birthday Ryder!!

 

We are constantly saying how lucky we are that you're such a great kid!  

We celebrated your birthday today by spoiling you at the State Fair with rides and treats :) 

A few notes about you at this age:

-You still live and breathe baseball (and also love X Games) and have learned to throw the ball up and hit it yourself.

- You are so helpful with Logan, hug him, kiss him, and always want him to play with you

-You start Friday preschool in 2 weeks (2.5 hours long)

-You're a good eater and drink lots of milk.  Your favorite food is mac & cheese.

-You are great at using please and thank you

-You are potty trained (since last Nov) but we still have to remind you to go a lot.  We haven't attempted night-time potty training more than a couple times...but hopefully this will be soon.

-You are better with separation anxiety.  You still have a tough time with the kids class at church, but you did great this weekend with a new babysitter in Walker.

-You like to snuggle

We have so much fun playing with you, exploring with you and watching you grow!

Love you little buddy!!

Camping

At the last minute, we decided to ignore our fear of camping with a 1 year old and join a bunch of friends camping in Zumbrota this weekend.  Sooo glad we did!!  The kids had fun together, the adults had fun together and Logan did just fine!  With our crew taking up 5 sites and surrounded by campers with closed windows and AC, we weren't the only ones up at 6:30/7 in the morning :)

My fav highlights included watching Elsa & Ry bomb hills on their balance bikes, being launched on the 'blob' by Shawn and Ben, bonfire with adults only, the millions of giggles shared at the beach on the floating obstacle course, a run with Kelly [& Bergen & Elsa] and Logan & Ry sleeping through the night both nights!!  What a great trip!!

Being launched by Shawn & Ben! Weeee!!

Again, tons of giggles!

Logi looooved this!!! Soo many giggles!

Nate (I went right before him)

Logi was able to hit the ball off the tee!  He must have seen Ry doing it b/c he seemed to know how to do it!

Billing family, Foxx family, Grenier family, Bonde-Gleonde family, Peterson family

Thanks to our crew for such a great trip!!

Handyman

Working on raising a couple live-in handymen :)

Summer Swim

Embracing the heat:

   Ring around the rosy :)

This Crazy Life

It has been a bit of a crazy weekend, so with Shawn gone golfing (and making taco meat only to find out we don't have tortillas, tomatoes or salsa), we landed on cereal for dinner.  Easy. Fast. No mess...right??

Not in this house!!

Baby Frankie

A couple images from today's photoshoot with baby Frankie.  

so.in.love.

Things Kids Say

Ryder: "Mom, I told Autumn maybe when I die I'll turn into a girl and then I'll do blue ones on my fingers - haha"

In response to Autumn and I talking about what color we're going to paint our nails - lol!!

Also today:

Ryder: Autumn, are you going to have a sister?

Autumn: No.

Ryder: Don't you want a baby?

Autumn doesn't respond...doesn't seem interested in the conversation...Ha!

California: Day 5 - Huntington Beach

Wow...this day was amazing. A perfect sampling of what life was like when we lived in HB. It almost felt like we lived there again. 

Our first priority was renting a surfboard.  We all gave it a shot (except Logan - but he did enjoy the board on the sand). It was so much harder than I remembered! Mikayla was the only one who caught a good ride, but we all had fun attempting.

The rest of the day included solid beach time, walking Main Street, browsing surf shops, stopping at our old apartment, happy hour / late lunch at Dukes, flying a kite on the beach, and malts at Ruby's on the pier. Such a perfect day - I loved every second of it!! Totally made me miss living there. But Shawn and I agreed that we took advantage of our couple years in Cali.

Back at the hotel, the kids crashed without a peep and Mikayla and I enjoyed another evening swim before bed.  

It was our last day of vacation and, in my opinion, the best day of the vacation :)

A few notes about our hotel. The kids went to bed without a sound every single night. Same for naps for Logan. Everyone slept soundly through the night...all 5 of us in one room. We had a separate livingroom, which was key. We could see nightly Disneyland fireworks and Angles game fireworks from our room. We walked to the Angels game from our hotel. Thanks Shawn :)

   So sad I missed the shot of Mikayla catching her wave!! 

   Sand training...

    Ryder's first wave!!

    Our old apartment on Main Street!

    Aloha Hour at Dukes!

    Logan - my HB beach baby :)

    Some tackle football at the beach.

    Flying our kite :)

    Mom and Ryder

    Mom and Logan

   Ahhh! Is Mikayla taller than me?!

    Focused on their malts at Ruby's diner at the end of Huntington's pier :)

    Logi in his red vinyl highchair repeatedly signing "more" (above) and "please" for another taste of milkshake!!

    So tired at the end of each day!!