Week in Brentwood

With Spencer busy at work, I decided to spend our last full week of summer in Brentwood. We had a rough start to our trip with a nail in one of the tires (luckily found it the night before we left), an hour delay waiting for a new tire, and then stuck in traffic with an overly tired little boy (both things I have very little patience for). On top of all that, the drive seemed a lot longer than normal - probably cause I was really tired. But I snacked my way through and made it safely! It was good to have a change of scenery for the week (I think we were all getting tired of our regular outings). Bob, Amy, and Matthew got in just a couple hours before we did and we were really excited to hang out with them all week! Normally my trips to Brentwood are totally relaxing, but with mom working at the school now, this trip was different. I didn't want to be a brat cause I knew she couldn't get out of her responsibilities, but it was a bummer not having Gram around. We're so used to having her there to entertain us. Plus, my dad usually works from home, but he's been exceptionally busy and was traveling for business most of the week. We loved having Bob, Amy, and Matthew around but I found myself worrying that my kids whining and/or Calvin's tantrums were driving them crazy. So it just seemed like a lot of extra work. I'd usually take Elle and Cal on my morning runs just to keep the house quiet and allow Gram time to get ready for work. She'd leave at 7:45 and I'd usually take off for a park right after. One day we hit up 4 different parks within the span of the day! Gram would get home by 3:30, but with the kids 7pm bedtimes, it didn't allow a lot of time to play. One night they were all asleep by 6:30pm (early wake up + action packed fun will do that). It was nice to be able to go out on the town and go shopping with mom and Amy though (something I never do). A couple times I was able to leave the girls home with Bobby while Cal napped so Amy and I could do some shopping. That was a treat! I think the hardest thing was just how much work Calvin was. He throws crazy tantrums now and is afraid of strangers (didn't warm up to everyone til the end of the week), so dealing with him was a full time job. The best part of the week was hanging out and playing games at night. Family night was a pretty big hit too. Madi planned Family Home Evening Monday night which ended up carrying over to the next 3 nights! Good times!

Some iPhone documentation of the week:

Brentwood has great parks!!

The splash park was my favorite!

Love that they're both plugging their noses to run through that little bit of water!

Elle at the end of the rainbow!

Uncle Bobby took Cal through a couple times. Cal preferred just to walk around and splash in the puddles though.

We went swimming with Gram, Rox, Zachary, and Faith Wednesday afternoon. Everyone but Calvin had a great time!

SO relaxing!!

Gram's got a great dress-up box!

I was dying over all Elle's costume changes, not to mention her awesome face expressions! Love that girl!

Madi's FHE of the iron rod (one of her favorite scripture stories), followed by spotlights of everyone with goodie bags to pass out. 

Loved our game nights! 

Dad demonstrating the "hack paddle" which was used on my siblings and I when we were little!

Snuggle time with Gram Rox while playing an iphone game (a novelty for my girls since I don't let them use my phone).

Brentwood peaches are the best! Mom had picked extra to send home for Spencer. Gotta make peach cobbler this week!

Saturday morning bike ride to get out energy before heading back to Camarillo

Thanks Mom, Dad, Bob, and Amy for all the fun!

We had a great drive back- Papa had bribbed the kids with $5 a piece for perfect behavior. Only Madi earned her $5, but just minor outbursts from the other 2. We got in a little before 5pm and had lots of surprises from Spencer- new Pottery Barn bedding on our bed and pictures of the kids hung in the family room to name a few!

Camp-out!

Trying to fit in all the summer fun that we can, Spencer and the girls decided it was time for some backyard camping. Last year was such a success (minus the 4am sprinklers) and it's great practice for when we actually take the entire family camping.  Cal's still not ready to sleep outdoors, but he enjoyed all the set up.

Our fire took awhile to get going. At first it was just a lot of smoke:

The girls couldn't wait for s'mores:

Finally Spence got a fire blazing and we were able to make real s'mores.

The girls couldn't hardly wait to get into bed. They all snuggled up with Spencer who's the best story teller! He told story after story until it was dark and the girls were falling asleep. I talked Spencer into sleeping in the house cause I knew he wouldn't get much sleep out there with the girls rolling around all night, but he felt totally guilty about it the entire time. I guess he woke up tons, listening for the girls, and when I finally heard Elle waking up around 7am, he ran out there and jumped into bed with them!

And of course Cal was excited to join in on all the fun!

Backyard camping is the best! Totally the way to do it with little kids!

Then I made pancakes and hot cocoa for a cool foggy morning breakfast (before I ditched out on everyone to go on my run).

Now we just gotta get a bigger tent for Cal and I to join in on the camping action next year!

Ventura County Fair

I was excited for the fair this year. Spencer was given box seat tickets to the Saturday afternoon Rodeo and I was totally looking forward to going with the kids and watching their reactions. I was so excited in fact that I left early from a "Mama's Retreat" baby shower up in Santa Barbara where we as guests were showered with pedicures and a poolside lunch. I made it for the pedicures, but only had time to scarf down a bit of lunch before heading back towards Ventura. I was  sure the rodeo was going to be a huge hit and I didn't want to miss it! Boy was I wrong, and at first completely annoyed that I'd cut a completely relaxing afternoon short to come listen to whining children! It didn't help that Spencer had forgotten to pack the stroller either. We had to high tail it over to the rodeo, practically running to make it on time. We were exhausted from lugging Cal and a heavy diaper bag around, and the girls were hot and tired by the time we sat down. Plus, I don't think they really knew exactly what a rodeo was cause they were both visibly disappointed as soon as it started. Elle kept complaining about it "not being any fun" which drove us all crazy. Spencer and I tried staying positive, and enjoyed ourselves for awhile, but we finally gave in and left early. 

From the rodeo we headed off towards the rides - which I didn't want to do, but Spence let them pick just one to go on. They both chose the Ferris Wheel. Spencer stayed below with Cal while the girls and I hoped on and had a blast!

I had a little too much fun taking pics with my iphone!

From the rides, we splurged and shared a funnel cake, then headed over to the animals (didn't take many pictures, but it's always my favorite part)!

After we'd had our fill of the Fair, we walked back along beach, stopping to play at our favorite beach playground before heading home. Definitely a great ending to our 2013 Fair experience!

Saturday with Spencer

Oh how I've missed family Saturday outings. Spencer worked late last night and decided he didn't need to go to work today! We were all thrilled! We had all sorts of fun today, but my favorite was climbing the sandhill as a family. I doubted the girls ability, but they were first to the top!! Then Madi did a nice face plant on the way down. Ouch! 

The evening was topped off with Stake baptisms for two kids from our ward, dinner at Olas, dessert at Johnson's, and home for date night in with Spencer (red box and twizzlers)!

Elle's 4th Birthday!

Just a bit late, but wanted to make sure Elle's big day didn't go undocumented. Calhoun cousins got into town the afternoon of the 16th. It was such a treat to have them at our house (their first and maybe only time coming to this house). I'm pretty sure Elle believed their visit was completely in honor of her birthday and I'm totally ok with that. With the craziness of company in town (the day before her birthday) and busyness of getting ready for a week long trip (leaving the day after her birthday), I tried extra hard to make it a super special day. She woke up to streamers, balloons, presents and a house full of fun! Her request was pancakes for breakfast. To accommodate our large crowd, we ate outside. The early morning sun was much too bright though so all the kids packed onto one side of the picnic table.

Spencer had to leave for work by 8am and Calhouns had to get on the road by 9am, so there wasn't much time to mess around. Right after breakfast Elle opened up presents.

She loved the new shoes from Aunt Tisha and all the dress up shoes from Calhoun cousins!

Elle also opened up barbies and a barbie car from Spencer and I, and more barbies and barbie doll clothes from Gram and Papa.

There was a little bit of time to play before we had to say goodbye. At least it wasn't a sad goodbye, we knew we'd be seeing the Calhouns the next day. But oh how we miss living close to these cousins! 

And love the shot of Elle holding herself here - it'll always help me remember how she was at this age. She'll hold it till the very last second!

At 10am Elle headed off to a swim lesson and special birthday play date with Lily Hays while I got to deal with a flat tire, a Costco trip, and getting 4 new tires on the van. Then it was home for Cal to get a nap, Elle to play with her new birthday toys, and me to start laundry, packing for our trip while also making cupcakes for our ward picnic at the park that night.

At 5pm we picked up Eric and Tyler before heading over to Valle Lindo Park. The kids ate hot dogs for dinner and were entertained with Nancy Sanchez's extra special games and face painting. She'd even gotten a special crown for our birthday girl, but Elle didn't want to wear it. The kids were having so much fun that we stayed past 8pm (totally unlike me - I'm a major stickler with bedtime).

Cupcakes for birthday dessert!

I got home with the kids around 8:30pm and Spencer still wasn't home from work. I was bummed that he had to miss Elle's entire birthday, but taking off a full week for our family reunion had it's cost - he worked till 10 or 11pm everyday for a week before the reunion, the week after the reunion, and even put in about 20 hours at the reunion. But by the time I'd tucked all the kids into bed, Spencer walked in the door and was able to say goodnight to the girls and hear all about Elle's special day.

Plus, we had done an early birthday celebration at Boppi and Grandpa Al's just 3 days earlier with presents . . .

. . . and her requested flower cake (which I made and Spencer decorated while I was gone at a Sunday morning meeting)!

Then the celebration continued when we got to Vegas with a present from Gram Rox. . .

. . . and the honor of being the first cousin to hold baby Leila!

Pretty sure Elle had a fabulous 4th birthday! 

Surviving Summer

Another summer month down, one more to go! I am so ready for school to start! I'm tired of having to plan out every single activity week after week. Ya, I could never home school - at least not all the kids at once.

Three things have saved me this summer:
1) Having lots of family in town
2) A family reunion away from home
3) Friends with pools (I totally miss having a pool and have decided it's a must in our next house)

While going through all our Vegas reunion pictures I started getting really sad, wishing we could go back for another week. Luckily, my parents live a short 5 1/2 hour drive away, so I'm planning a week trip to Brentwood before school starts back up. One of the best parts of summer is getting away and I wish we'd been able to do more of it. I guess I've still got August to plan some fun day trips. Unfortunately anymore family vacations this summer are totally out of the question with Spencer's current work schedule. He's got his first trial coming up at the end of the month and he's totally swamped. We get to see him for a few minutes every morning and on Sundays. He'll get home at night anywhere between 10:30pm and midnight (sometimes without having even taken a break to eat dinner- and all I pack him for lunch is a PB&J - don't know how he does it!) and then heads out by 8am the next morning. And unfortunately it won't be getting better anytime soon, as he's got 2 more trials scheduled for September. At first I didn't mind the quiet evenings - I'm able to get a ton done and I love my alone time, but I'm totally over it now. I miss my husband! I miss our family time! But, I am very grateful that he has a job, doing exactly what he's always wanted to do. It's a good feeling.

And I really shouldn't complain about summer here in Camarillo. The weather is heavenly! It's August 1st and check out this weeks forecast:

Seriously, who can complain with temps like that!?! 

Elle's swim lesson got canceled this morning and for once I didn't have anything planned or anywhere to go. It was great just to lay low. Sometimes I wonder if I over plan my days for fear of going crazy at home. Either way, it was nice to do what we wanted when we wanted to do it.

Also, wanted to include a few things that hadn't been documented yet- like getting zoo passes (one of the kids favorite day trips):

There was a lot of construction going on one day we went - couldn't resist the picture.

We love the "hill"! 

Below: my friend Amber with all our kids minus Calvin

An early morning outing I got to spend with my dad when he was here at the end of June. We went for a ride down the PCH to the sandhill (one of my favorite things to do with out of town guests) and had a nice climb. Love you dad! 

My sweet Eleanor with such an organized mess of baby doll accessories. One of the hardest things this summer has been experiencing how fast a perfectly clean room can be destroyed, and then how long and grueling the clean up task is.

Summer backyard BBQ's are the best - except when you've got an overly tired 16 month old. He'd undressed himself and was more than ready to get into jammies!