Hidden Villa

We went hiking at Hidden Villa farm with some friends last week. The trails are really beautiful. We picnicked by a creek, and the kids mostly played in the water rather than eating their lunches! We also learned a little about poison oak, but thankfully the kids never found any since a nice old man named Bob keeps the trails clear of the itchy weed!

At the end of the hike, we stopped by the chicken coup and saw a dead chicken outside. He must have escaped. Very sad. Next, we stopped by the pig pens and saw the new piglets. Very cute! Thus is the circle of life, I guess!

Soccer Camp

Ellie started a soccer clinic last week, and she really loves it. All weekend, she would randomly say, "I am so good at soccer. I just kick the ball and it goes. I am so good."

When she came home from her second session, she came running through the door saying, "I scored lots and lots of goals!! I just kicked the ball, and it went in! It was kinda hard to do that, but I could do it. I am really good at soccer!

Half Moon Bay

We went to Half Moon Bay again last week with some friends. The weather was perfect, and the beach was beautiful as always! Kevin took a nice nap on the beach, while the older kids made "soup" with sand, water, and other random things they found!

On the way home, we stopped at a local strawberry stand and bought some of the yummiest strawberries I've ever had! Strawberry season here is amazing. The strawberries taste like sugar and are so, so yummy!

Chris Meets the Stars

Chris participated in a program where professional football players came to campus for seminars to improve their business skills. Chris was excited to work with these football players. I think the most well-known among his group was Ken Dorsey.

We also attacked some Stanford football players who came to the baseball game in full uniform. Ellie looks pretty funny here, and her expression is priceless. She wasn't too thrilled about taking this picture - especially since she "doesn't like mans"!!

Kevin - 8 Months

I am so late in posting this! I'll try not to include the new things he is doing and stick with what he did at 8 months!

He started to get his first tooth - the bottom, left front tooth!

He learned to play peek-a-boo, but he hides when you say peek-a-boo and looks when you say "Where is Kevin?"!

He also began tossing all his toys on the floor waiting for us to pick them up! I guess this means he's learning cause and effect!

He learned to crawl on his hands and knees on Easter! This means that he spits up MUCH less often. In fact, it's pretty rare these days. All the army crawling was putting too much pressure on his tummy, I guess!

He learned to pull himself up to standing and all he wants to do is stand - on anything and everything! He also began cruising - walking around using the furniture to keep his balance.

He loves to play under the table. I can't keep him out!

He loves to be wherever Ellie is!

At his 8-month checkup (we were a few months late for the 6-month checkup), he was 28.5 inches tall and weighed 20.5lbs. He is somewhere in the mid-60th percentile for height and weight. The doctor said he was exhibiting "complicated babbling" - whatever that means! She said he was using lots of vowels and consonants together - I can't hear anything special, however!

He is just as cute and sweet as ever!

Lunch at the Oval

We played keep-away, baseball with Ellie's glove, tag, and just ran around. We're going to miss this place!

Naked Chef

Get some clothes on naked chef! I took these shots especially for a friend who shall remain nameless. I think you know who you are!!!

I Thought My Eye Was Going to POP!!

I really doubt you want to see this, but I want to post this so my long distance friends can see that I was not exaggerating! I dont even know if these pictures show how bad it actually was, though!

After the camping trip, I developed the worse case of pink eye I've ever seen! Even the white of my eye (which turned into the "red" of my eye) was swollen as you can kind of see in the pics. It looked like my iris (the blue part) was sunken in. I thought my eye was going to pop! When I blinked, the swollen tissue would move around and kinda mush between my lids (you can see it starting to mush in the first picture). Even my upper cheek area was swollen, and I had a hard knot near my cheekbone and by my ear - a swollen lympth gland I'm told. It still hurts to look to the left, but it is getting better. This is one of the reasons I have taken so long to catch up blogging.

Now, 10 days after symptoms began, the eyeball is no longer swollen, but it still hurts and is fairly red still. And when I wake in the mornings, my lid is still swollen. The other eye caught the bug, too. But it only lasted a few days in that eye and never got anywhere near this bad! In fact, the second eye is clear now and the first eye is still healing!

Big Sur Camping Trip

The morning after we arrived in California, we packed our bags for our next adventure! We went camping at Big Sur with two other families. The kids had so much fun at the campsite. They were old enough to be able to explore the surrouding areas (well within sight) without adults, and it was obvious how much they loved nature and their independence within it! I don't think the poor catapillar they found was equally excited, however. They tried to touch him, threw rocks at him, and yelled at him. I guess that's what he gets for being by "their" logs.

We had the tiniest tent that four people have ever slept in! It was triangular, and there was just enough room for mine and Chris's feet at one end and all four of our heads at the other end. We all four snuggled through the night. In fact, if one of us rolled over, everyone else had to shift around, too! At least we were warm all night despite the near freezing temperatures!

Ellie had a rough time adjusting to all the time changes, travel, and lack of sleep. The first few days were a little tough for us because Ellie was a major whiner! But after we took an afternoon family nap in the mini-tent and once Chris and I turned off the "whiney switch" that we discovered behind our ears, the trip was much better. Ellie begged for us to turn the switch back on and even tried to do it herself, but to no avail. As her whines went unheard, she began to use her "big girl" voice again. The whiney switch saved the trip, so we're really glad we found it!

We had a camp fire every night - thanks to Newel and Travis - and even made smores! We threw rocks in the ocean, watched the sun set over the ocean, discovered several beautiful hikes and often stood in awe of the beauty. I have said many times that everyone should live in California for at least two years, and even that doesn't seem like enough time!!