July!!

SO much to catch up on and I'm not sure where to begin! I have thousands of pictures - from 3 different phones (two of which are no longer functioning) plus my "real" camera. It's quite maddening! But I'm going to do my best with the limited time I have to catch up on life this past month. We had an awesome east coast trip and it's definitely going to need a post all by itself!! We said our good-byes at the Raleigh airport on Saturday, July 4th. Spencer, Elle, Cal and I flew back home to Camarillo, while Madi stayed to play in North Carolina for a few extra days.
She and my mom flew to Oakland the following Tuesday and played in Brentwood for a couple of days before getting home the day before her baptism! Of course Madi was spoiled rotten and got to do all sorts of fun things with Gram.

Madi requested to go to a museum with Gram and had the time of her life at the Big Break Visitor Center at the Delta.

I love my little science lover!

Lots of big things happened for us at home that week we got back from NC while Madi was away. Elle had swim lessons with Deby Malan every morning (still trying to figure out where the pics I took went) and while there were a lot of tears shed the first day, Elle was swimming across the pool (head under water) by the end of the week! HUGE success!!

Second big news from the week was Cal getting potty trained! I had run out of diapers on our trip and  had no choice to get started. I was pleasantly surprised at how fast and easy it was for him!

Date out with Dad for donuts to celebrate his success! 

Bonfire/smore making with Elle and Cal 

It was a sweet reunion back with Madi on the 10th.

July 11th was Madi's baptism. 

It was such a special day and I felt blessed to have both sets of grandparents there to love and support her.

Gram and Papa left Sunday after sacrament meeting, so we had a morning breakfast celebration with them for Elle's upcoming birthday. 

It was a big birthday year for Elle as she was given her first American Girl doll! 

Gram Rox got Elle matching outfits for her and Julie!

Doll School from Aunt Tisha!

July 14th was Madi's very first activity days. She was super nervous about it but ended up having the time of her life! Sure made my day to see her so happy and playing so great with all these older primary girls!

July 15th was our first "Picnic in the Park" of the summer. Sister Sanchez was there to do face painting which always makes it extra fun for the kids and they insisted I take a bunch of pictures!

Elle's birthday was Friday the 17th and we celebrated with having 3 of her closest buddies over for a tea party (post coming soon)!

When the weekend rolled around, we realized this was our first time in a whole month of being all back together on a Saturday. We figured that called for a Carpinteria beach day! It ended up being some of the craziest beach day I've ever experienced - complete with thunder and lightning!

A little rain didn't stop us from having fun though! 

Good thing we had our umbrella set up for the rain that we did get. 

It rained on us a couple of times while we were at the beach, but then it would pass and be perfectly gorgeous. 

Cal and his buddy Knox!

Towards 5pm the thunder and lightning started up. Huge bright bolts were striking over the ocean. It was pretty amazing to see! We all packed up as fast as we could and headed to Padaro Grill for dinner. As soon as we got there it started poring down on us! Then a super bright bolt of lightning hit immediately after a super loud crack of thunder! We were right in the middle of the storm! Since the majority of the seating at the grill is outside, we all crowded together under the awning and ate our food standing up, and since we came with at least 10 different families, it was pretty hilarious! I have never seen a storm like that while living in Camarillo and even crazier that it happened in the middle of July! Made for an extra exciting beach day!!

Lucky for us, we got rain the next day too! It was after church and the kids immediately ran and put their swim suits on!

Yes, we celebrate any rain that we get here!!

The next day the kids and I packed up and headed to Brentwood for the week. It was such a fabulous week and will also be getting a post of its own!

We got back on Saturday the 25th and spent the last week of July doing our regular summer outings - library, pools, running club . . . 

Wednesday beach day . . . 

flying kites at the park . . .

We also squeezed in visiting teaching and a Friday field trip to Santa Barbara. 

Museum of Natural History

Madi and her buddy Alexandra who met us there!

Driving out to the Santa Barbara Sea Center . . .

A great way to end the month! Now I just gotta come up with some more fun stuff to do for our last 3 1/2 weeks of summer vacation before school starts back up. All this vacation has made for one tired mama!