Lucky #7

For Brynn's birthday we went to Pismo Beach for a couple days and had a blast.  My kids think staying in a hotel is super fabulous so Brynn was perfectly happy to oblige us on her birthday.

Tanner went to work for a portion of the day while I took the kiddos to the beach.

What little boy can resist running through a flock of seagulls?

This poor little poopsy was covered from head to toe in super-fine sand that stuck to everything

Opening presents in the hotel room.
This is her "I-already-know-what-this-is-because-I-looked-through-the-presents" face.

At Chili's for dinner

It was not very hot down in Paso Robles but fortunately the hotel had a heated pool that the kids got a lot of good use out of.

 If you can't tell, it was super bright, even without the over-exposure

Hudson's classic picture face

 Walking to the caves

 Baby sure loved the sand

 Brynn's pool/pony/ice cream party.

I was trying to find a good time to have it with all the stuff we've had going on and it just wasn't going to work until August. Then my daughter made her heartfelt plea about how she wasn't born in August and she's never ever had to wait till August to have a party and . . .

so I threw this together at the last minute. In July . . . because that's when she was born. Not August.

 Trubbbbbbble!!!

 This was supposed to be a topsy-turvy cake. FYI, when they say "use whatever cake you want" they're lying. The super moist cakes completely fall apart when you try to shape them. And DON'T use them as your base piece. 

Someone thought it looked good though and couldn't wait till after dinner :-)

 Brynn's really never had much interest in horses until about a month ago. Now she wants riding lessons and boots and the whole bit. I told her I know a guy who's probably the best teacher and will give her free lessons.

 I like this picture!

Let Freedom Ring!!!

Bass Lake Ward Pancake Breakfast and Bike Rally

Flag ceremony and Pledge

 Bro. Hopson had a puppet that sang God Bless America 

 The kids wore their shirts we had made the week before. The boys had ring pops and underneath it said "let freedom ring" and Brynn painted fireworks on her shirt and it said "Country Girl". They turned out cute but it just reminded me that I hate doing crafts with my kids.

 The ridiculous heat wore him out so flippin' early in the morning

BBQ and Swim Party at Barnes'

 Showing me his blue mouth from his ring pop

 Tanner always gets grill duty

 I had to try this idea that I saw somewhere. And my kids were more than willing to 

drink a few Jones' sodas

 Sketty loves the water. He was in the pool more than he was out

 Watch out! That's a mean look he's got, along with his water squirter

 Hailey and Lucy

 1-2-3-GO!!!

 He looks like he got like 3 ft of air on this one!

 Hudson found a million frogs in all the pool traps

 Um, guess who's winning this game 

 Hudson and Ryan became besties

 Lucy likes to taste-test all the food to make sure its okay to eat :)

 And of course these two are always off by themselves

 I saw the idea for the "sparkler" toppers and had to try it

 Addi wanted to try the slip and slide pretty bad

The look on his face is priceless

Someday he might totally love this photo

Does the word 'intense' come to mind??

Fireworks in the Park

 Instead of trying to find a spot to watch the city fireworks we hooked up with Lea and Ralph:) and Ali and her sibs for our own fireworks party. We all went in together and got 100 lbs of loaded gun powder! It took us quite a while to go through it all and all the men had fun being pyros for the night!

  . . . because why not give your kid a lighter and send him toward a box of fireworks???

 Sis had no problems lighting one either

 Tubby slept through the first half in the car and then came out to sit with me. Never moved and eventually fell back asleep like this. Lovvvvvve him!

 She looks all cute and snuggly right here but this was right before she went polar on me. It was a long day and Brynn was a hot mess by the end of it.

Our month has been crazy! Tanner and the baby and I flew to Vegas the first part of July so I could take some private photography lessons. I had a blast and I learned so much. We rushed home from the airport to pick up our kids and watch fireworks over CP Lake Saturday. Sunday we went to visit a cousin who just got home from the mish and early Monday morning was the 4th.

More to come on the rest of our jet-setting summer!