Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Summer 2012 in recap

Be warned this is a long blog post. In June we went to Adventure Playground in Berkley with our favorite family the Holmes. They are practically family. The kids get along so well and we loved our adventures with them. The kids had a blast there and could've stayed all day. It is free to get in in and basically it is a junk yard full of wood and creations other kids have made. They had to pick up trash in order to get nails and a hammer and then they could make anything they wanted with wood they had there and saws(which was alittle scary.)  It was quite the place.


Conner and Bridger found this barrel and loved rolling down a hill in it.

We were fortunate enough to be there for the Olympics. Which included a few relay races and they loved going down this zip line.
They also had paint and they let the kids paint anything they wanted to. The younger kids enjoyed painting this boat they had there. I decided we need a boat for our backyard. I can only imagine the creations they could create.
Kate miss sassy.

Conner was so excited to make this sword and the good thing is we came home with all of this fun stuff.



Swimming lessons
We did swimming lessons this year at the Dublin Pool. I debated where to the lessons, but Dublin was close and we even walked half of the time. The kids did great and loved it. We did three weeks this year. Taylor did great.

Lucky Kate and Cooper got to hang out and wait with me.

Justin did great and loved it.
Conner came along way. He wouldn't even put his face in the water at first but he did awesome by the end. Well his last week of lessons he didn't want to get in the water the first day, but after that I couldn't get him out.
Kate rode her scooter to swimming lessons.
Poor kid got hungry.
Kate did lessons that last week and loved it. I don't know how much she learned but she sure had fun.
We had Julie with us the last week and she sure is great. We love her.
Cooper crawling in the grass at swim lessons.
It didn't take him long to learn how to get up on his back legs and now there is no stopping him.
All of us venturing out to swimming lessons. Yeah!


Our first campout of the summer
We went to Orinda with our favorite family the Holmes. Mason's family owns a ranch there and we camped there for one night. We ate dinner at our house and brought cereal up and they was 2 houses with bathrooms there so it was much easier. The kids loved it. Mason brought up his bb guns, and bow and arrows and the kids loved doing that.

Cooper was such a trooper and slept in the tent with us.

We did have smores which was awesome.
This is what my playroom looked like all summer. Kids have a sorts of fun with no cleaning and all playing at the snow's.
Computer games were always being played except usually they are 20 kids sitting around it. I am so glad we got a bigger screen but there are still complaints about limited vision. Whatever.
Kate and Hailey loved playing together.
Her shirt should say I love dirt. She brought me outside one night to tell me to look at her squiggles she made in the dirt with a rock. She was so proud of herself. My showers were always brown after they showered from all the dirt.
We had Shonah over to play and these girls are so cute together. Whenever you ask Kate what she wants to do she says, "go shopping with Shonah."
Just playing in their room which usually includes trading baseball cards. At 4:00 every Sunday afternoon they trade cards with Jon and almost every Saturday Jon takes them to the card store. This is Taylor's bed as of now. All three of them sleep on the ground and Taylor was lucky enough to lay claim to this cubby corner in their room.
Jon even taught me how to shoot it was alot of fun to do.
Grandpa Holmes came up and gave the kids a ride in his jeep. We had David Travis with us for a week and boy was he awesome. He loved sitting in the front seat and was hilarious and would talk the whole time.
Kate tried shooting. Good  luck with that girl.
David and Taylor were pros.

Adventures in the Snow Yard.

The kids made this with the Holmes. A net filled with dirt and junk a 'trap" that was suposed to fall on someone if they walked under it. Awesome.


Mud slide on a hot day. Why not? Kate had her swimming suit on pretty much every day as well as the other kids. Buckets are made for filling up with water and dirt and slides are not just slides is what I found out this summer. They always seem to get so creative in the backyard so I don't mind. Our summer wasn't really too hot but water was always on.

The Legos came out and so did the creations and bases, forts you name it. Jon made the put the smaller legos so Cooper wouldn't eat them so they spent hours building with these blocks.
Cooper loves his stuffed giraffe so much  that I found him like this one day. Precious.

We made a fun trip to Joanne's and they all picked out something to paint. Kate loved it and wow had a blast painting.

Conner picked this out I thought it was a sword but realized later it was a cross. Oh well he had fun painting.

Baseball Games
Jon took them to Oakland Athletics games and they loved it.  They get into the games so much that now when we get in the car they want me to turn on the baseball station so they can listen to the games instead of music.

An awesome smile from Taylor. Jon has taken them to 5 games this year.

We had like 12 kids over one afternoon. Kids just keep coming. So luckily Niko brought her nail stuff and we did glitter nails on the all of the girls. I felt like I was home with my sisters. I am excited for Konad nail stamping parties in the future.

We had Dallin and Jocey over for a couple days. Jocey loved Cooper and was always holding him. I went from 5 to 7 kids. Thanks to the Jensen's and Holmes we were able to get out to the park.
The kids made bows and arrows and shot them around the yard. They actually worked and had a blast with them.

The Camouflaged trap the kids made with the Holmes one afternoon complete with branches and all.

We had the Jensen kids over as well as the Holmes. While the Mom's were talking and relaxing the kids were working hard to fill the bottom of the fort with water and mixing it around with their feet. At one time they had a contest going to see who could get the dirtiest.
Another fun afternoon spent making squirrel traps with their friends. We had them here so much that we fed them dinner 2-3 times a week.
Mckenzie and Taylor loved walking around in Jedi robes and climbing trees.
Hunter and Justin put dirt on their faces to camouflage themselves from the squirrels.
How can you not love this kid and his big smile and his excitement over eating a banana?


Del valle park with Hunter and the Berry's.
Their is a fun roped off beach the kids enjoyed swimming in the last day of summer in Livermore. We took Hunter along with us. We can't have fun without the Holmes.

Kate and Olivia soaking it up.
It was nice they had rocks instead of sand on the beach but the boys put it in their hair just the same.
Conner made me watch him over and over while he put his head under and swam. He is doing awesome because last year I couldn't even get him in the water.

I let Cooper put his feet in the water and he would kick and kick and loved it and would have crawled in it and ate sand and rocks if I had let him go.
We had a great time with Sarah and Olivia. We enjoyed our summer and are into school. Yippee! I guess I will miss being able to do crazy and fun things with the Holmes. I didnt' get pictures of our hike in Sunol, a Half Moon Bay trip,  and Santa Cruz as well. It was a blast and went way too fast. I will miss my crazy boys.

1 comment:

Kimberli K Yost said...

What a fun summer! Kate is Miss Sassy pants. Your backyard looks like even more fun than the farm, they have turned it into a farm. Cute kids