Pinewood Derby

I found these pictures from Pinewood Derby that was held in March. I meant to post them before now, but I forgot. The boys all had a great time, as you can tell from the pictures. Cole wound up winning 1st place in the Bear Den. He got a cool medal and a certificate. Jacob made himself a car, but of course he didn't get to officially race it, but he did race it for fun. Next year he will get to race one officially.

Here's Cole showing off his Tankity Tank before the race and Jacob showing off his Bumblebee car.

Here's the winning cars! Tankity Tank comes in first place and the smile on Cole's face shows how excited he was about that! I thought Tanks were supposed to be slow? :)

Here's Jacob getting to race his fast car for fun.

Back to School

Summer is officially over and the kids went back to school today. I'm having mixed emotions about that. They were really starting to get bored and needed something to do and I was really wanting them to have something to do everyday. Swimming in our pool was even getting boring for them the last few weeks. Now that they are gone and it's quiet, it's weird and so now I'm thinking that I wasn't quite ready for them to go back, LOL. Of course the school that they are at isn't quite done, so they are only going for 3 hours a day right now while they finish completing it. So, the time that they are gone is really going to go by fast and when they are finally done with the school and go back to full days, I will probably be MORE than ready to have them gone all day. It's just weird to think that my baby is already in 2nd grade. Time has gone by too fast. I never thought that we'd only have two children though so it's been a struggle for me to accept the fact that that may be all we have and to move past it. I wasn't ready to be done having kids, but the Lord had other ideas and who knows, maybe we'll still be blessed with one more.

I do have some stuff at home that I can get to now that they are gone. Cleaning my house for one. It really didn't stay clean at all this summer and I have to admit that I even stopped trying to keep it clean. Now I can clean it and maybe have it actually stay clean for more than a day. I also have a project that I need to get done. I am going to clean and organize the den. It's a mess and it overwhelms me. I want to get it arranged and set up nice so that I can have easy access to my scrapbook stuff. Once I do that, then I can be better at doing scrapbooking for the kids.

Jacob, 2nd grade - Cole 4th grade.

Here they are at home getting ready to go. They were so excited to go back to school.

Here is Cole in front of his classroom with his good buddy Dylan, and here is Jacob in front of his classroom.

This is when they were heading back to their class after flag ceremony. Jacob's teacher told them to be very quiet when walking back, to pretend they were blowing bubbles. He took that literally it looks like. At least he pays attention. HAHA.

Fun with Grandpa!

The cousins were getting bored after Church one Sunday, so my nephew decided to decorate Grandpa! He grabbed the M&M's and went to work. Soon all of the cousins joined in on the fun. Guess what.. Grandpa slept the whole time. When he woke up he had a little snack to enjoy. He was a good sport. How did he sleep through that?

They even put some on his head and on his nose!

Guess he really didn't care cause a couple of days later he went with us to a Padres vs. DBacks game in San Diego. There we were sitting amongst all those Padres fans rooting for the DBacks. On top of all that, Cole was decked out in DBacks gear. Thanks dad/Grandpa! We had a blast!

Beach Days

Here is some more fun that we had in California. The boys loved playing in the sand and on the big rocks.

This is Cole getting started on burying Jacob.

This is the end result. Cole thought it was pretty cool that only Jacob's head could be seen!

They were looking for hidden caves in these rocks. They didn't find any though.

Is that a shark we see? Mom, there is a shark in the water! This is what I'm being told when they go out there to boogie board. There was something in the water, so I got up to inspect. I took pictures of it as it started floating on to the beach. What do you all think it looks like? I thought it was a seal, but I was wrong. Check out the progress as it comes up to the beach.

Tons of people gathered around to check out what it was. The lifeguard said it was a giant sea bass. Giant is right, and it was still alive. So then we watched as three men hauled it back out to the ocean to try and save it. The lifeguard said it was dying and probably wouldn't live long. It was so weird to see that. When we got home my dad wondered why we didn't bring it home to eat for dinner. Right...how was I going to carry that thing off the beach exactly?

So, after that excitement, and after knowing that it was NOT a shark, they went out to the water and had some fun. Cole surfed again by himself, and Jacob decided to give it a try this time. My oldest nephew took Jacob out to show him how to do it. He didn't stay out as long as Cole did, but he did get up. Here is a picture of him showing that.

Lookin' pretty good....

then Wipeout!

Guess he felt like riding in laying down.

Lifeguards in the making

Surf day was also lifeguard day. My parents neighbors son is a lifeguard so we were surfing around his tower. The boys thought that was awesome! Here are some pictures of them with their wetsuits on hanging around the tower.

Future Super Stars!

The boys were being funny at their grandparents house and wanted to test out their rapping skills. Don't mind me in the background!

The boys and their cousins put on a rock show for us when we first got here. They were a garage band and so they used whatever they could find for instruments and microphones from the garage. And yes they were in their PJ's!

Cole had a solo part.

Superstar!

Surf's Up!

So the boys and I are in California, and my parents awesome neighbors love to surf. They took us out yesterday and taught Cole the basics. He got up and surfed in all the way from quite aways out. It was awesome! Here are some pictures. Nick is at home in hot Arizona, so I am posting these so that he can have proof that our nine year old did some surfin'. After seeing how fun it looked, Jacob now wants to try it. Cole told me that I need to get out there and try it. Should I dare? I'm kind of scared too. If I do, I'll have to get pictures for proof!

Here they are getting warmed up to be surfers at home before heading to the beach.

Cole looks a little tired here paddling out to the waves.

Not sure if he's going to make it. :)

Now it's time to show off Jacob doing a little boogie boarding. He didn't have an interest in surfing, but now after seeing how fun Cole had, he's ready to give it a whirl!

The surfboard is bigger than him!

Cole carried that big board pretty well. Jacob thought climbing on the huge rock was just as fun as the ocean. The wet suits they borrowed made them feel like real surfer dudes! :)