Snapped Them Asleep Together! - August 5, 2011

Just a cute photo I snapped of them together since they fell asleep together in the same bed. ;)

New Playground in the Backyard! - August 1, 2011

Now we don’t have to leave the house to play on a playground thanks to "Backyard Playgrounds"!  They came and built this awesomly compact structure for our narrow yard in just a few hours.

First Day of 1st Grade for Ayden! - August 1, 2011!

With only a few weeks off after the Kindergarten school year was complete, Ayden has already started his second year at Alston Ridge.  It is time for 1st grade with Mrs. Beck!  Time is flying!

Lil Kickers Soccer Program at Net Sports - July 28, 2011

Both Gabriel and Ayden participated in the Lil Kickers program from the time they were eligible, which I think starts around 18 months.  Here, Gabriel finished a session with his good buddy, Jake along with a couple other kiddos.

Baking with Mom! - July 27, 2011

Gabriel Gets Better at Riding his Two Wheeler! - July 27, 2011

For the longest time, Gabriel didn't want to give up on his little Mickey Mouse scooter (he was way too big for it, but still dragged his long legs behind after pushing really fast down the street because he was good at it). He never really wanted to ride the tricycle that we had for him. He gave it a try a couple of times, learned to peddle on it, but sort of skipped ahead to a two wheeler. He is about 3 months into his big 3rd year in this photo as he is beginning to really get the handle of peddling a big boy bike! :)

A Quick Trip to the Library! - July 27, 2011

We have spent many hours at the West Regional Library since it opened not long after we moved to Cary!  Luckily both boys are really drawn to books and reading.  We have such great memories from our trips to the library!

Swim Lessons! - July 26, 2011

It has been six years since I kept up with this blog, I will not lie!  I have decided to go back and blog the last six years so that I can turn my entire blog (will be 10 years in total) into photo books!
So, picking up where we left off, it is the Summer of 2011.  Ayden is 6 and Gabriel is 3 years old.  Ayden participated in swim lessons/clinnic to get ready for swim team and Gabriel enjoyed some play time in the shallow end of the pool by the water play structure.

Durham Rescue Mission Summer Program - July 25th, 2011

A friend of mine at church asked me if I wanted to help her lead a program for the kids that would provide some Summer activities for the children (who were out of school for the Summer) who live at the Durham Rescue Mission (a local womens shelter) while their parents are working/doing their recovery program. We ended up doing a few different themed activity days including water play, a couple outings to Build a Bear, Chuck E. Cheese and craft day, which is pictured here below. The photo above is of a volunteer reading a bible story about Jonah and the whale to the children on that same craft day.

We made sun visors. We had a few tables of different craft activities that all the kids enjoyed, including some of the volunteer's children!

We did canvas paintings!

Here's my friend Wendy who lead a yarn cross craft! It was such a fun program to lead and of course I love event planning and helping those less fortunate, so how could I go wrong! :)

Hike to Humboldt Peak - July 15, 2011

It was approaching the end of our trip and since we weren't able to go on the RV trip with my sister and her family (their RV broke down the weekend before we came out to CA), we decided to drive up towards Mt. Lassen and do a hike with the kids and Granny and Papi. We drove up quite a bit of the ways, so on the beginning of our hike, we already had quite a view!

My three hiker boys!

It was July, but there were still patches of snow here and there on our way up the mountain.

This stake says "To Humboldt Peak." It was a good thing we noticed it because there were a couple of different directions we could have taken and this stake kept us on track.

Here we are at the top of the peak (plus Granny who is taking the photo)!!

We found a permanent marker (gold circle by Gabriel's left hand in photo above) on the rocks at the top of the peak that tell you where you are and how high the elevation was. Ayden won't let me forget how high up we hiked...it was 7,082 feet (we didn't hike all that way...we started out most of the way up)! Gabriel is pointing to where we were on the map. :)

I had to snap a photo of the little red tin that we found also that was hiding in the rocks. We could barely get the lid off, but we managed to pry it off and find a little notebook that served as a guest book for those who had hiked to the top! The notebook was started about ten years prior. There was a little pencil in there as well, so of course we all signed it.

Ayden wanted to write his own name and draw a picture as well.

Chico State & Thursday Night Market! - July 13 & 14, 2011

On Wednesday, we took the kids and headed down to campus to see Mom and Dad's old college!

The Administration building!

We had to stop by the old Bell Memorial Union and the Bookstore for some hats! :)

After our visit to the campus, Granny and Papi took the kids to Annie's Park (right next to campus and Bidwell Church where we got married) to have a picnic lunch. Julio and I headed downtown to do a little shopping. We met up with them at the park a little later to have some "Upper Crust" lunch goodies.

On Thursday, we went to a fun park near Upper Bidwell with the whole crew, including Franklin, Christina, Erica and Sharon for a picnic lunch. Then, later that day, we headed down to the Thursday Night Farmer's Market. On the way there, Gabriel found a dandelion. Mom taught him what to do with these earlier in the Summer, so he made a wish and...

...blew!

Rick came downtown to the market with us too!

We happened upon this adorable cart that served these amazing homemade cookie icecream (homemade also) sandwiches (that I couldn't eat because I had a stomach virus all week! :( ). We were living it up in Chico on this trip for sure! :)