Hales Reunion in California

In early July we headed to LA for the Hales Family Reunion! We left on a Thursday and the whole week leading up to our departure Kate was SO sick. She was hardly able to hold anything down other than water. I kept thinking she'd for SURE be better that night, or the next morning, etc, but she had some nasty bug that kept her sick for 5 days! Poor girl. Anyway, we left on a Thursday morning and I didn't really let Kate eat much other than Pedialyte and crackers because I was trying to avoid her getting sick in the car. Luckily the drive was pretty uneventful. We kept shows on and got there as fast as we could. She seemed to be on the mend, though definitely tired.

And we were so happy to get there! The kids ran around happily and played with cousins. It is always SO nice to be able to go somewhere where we can be outside during the summer. :-)

Kate DID (sadly) throw up one more time (outside, thank heavens) that evening but recovered in no time and was totally better after that.

Friday we went to the beach with the Wirthlins and Grandma and Papa. (The Hales got there that evening.) We were so happy to be there! Matthew surprised me by playing in the waves - this was the first time that he wasn't scared! Nervous for a few minutes, sure, but he definitely warmed up to it quickly.

Joshua would've liked the ocean a lot better if it had been warm. He prefers water to be bath-warm. Haha. He did enjoy playing in the sand though, and even tolerated the ocean on his feet if I held him.

Kate was pretty anti-the ocean this trip, but I didn't mind. She'll learn to love it soon enough and was perfectly content to dig in the sand.

Oh, and she and Sadie had matching swimming suits. Aren't these cousins the cutest??

Friday night was Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium. My mom was nice enough to babysit so that me and Michael could go. It was so fun! Even though admittedly the Diamondbacks have a better stadium, I still love the Dodgers the best. :-)

On Saturday we all went down to Newport Beach. I wasn't expecting to play in the ocean so I didn't dress my kids in their swimming suits, but we decided to eat lunch on the beach which turned into some of the kids heading for the water... including Matthew. His shorts were falling off and as a result he was showing the whole world half of his bum.... So funny. But he was having the time of his life!

Then we did some shopping and I finally tried a chocolate dipped cheesecake, which I've always thought looked amazing but had never tried. Umm, not that amazing. Haha. At least now I know.

And then some people rode the carousel on the pier. Matthew went with Papa and Kate went with Grandma. They both loved it.

A couple nights Michael played Risk with the people who can tolerate that game. ;-) It got pretty intense which the rest of us found hilarious.

My parents put this slide out front and Joshua could've lived on it. It was probably one of his favorite parts of the reunion, after the family and the food.

Also, at some point I walked out to find Joshua in this. Hahaha! Apparently he'd brought it to Michael so Michael put it on him... though not very well. Michael's not so good with girls swimming suits. ;-)

Sunday morning the kids got to go on a treasure hunt. There was a clue specifically for each grandchild leading to the next clue. They all loved it, and especially loved that it led to a shark pinata. Matthew talked about that shark pinata for a few weeks afterwards.

Side note: I love that my kids have cousins their age! Matthew bonded with Benjamin over a mutual love of looking for rolie polies, (sp?) and Kate liked playing with Sadie. And the older grandkids are so good about playing with the younger ones too. I have the best family.

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent at church and just kinda hanging out. Monday was the 4th of July! It's fun being in CA for it, and this was the second year in a row that we were there. We started off the day at the Manhattan Beach Ward pancake breakfast. The food was delicious and my kids liked stuffing their faces and running around.

Looking for bugs, as usual.

Then we went back to the beach. I even finally got in and went boogie boarding. :)

Kate talked Emma into turning her into a mermaid. :-)

And then we ate dinner and headed to El Segundo for fireworks. Matthew and Kate loved it (and Kate wasn't scared this year! Yay!) and Joshua liked it okay but couldn't sit still. (As usual, ha.) At least he wasn't scared and screaming!

We had to leave the next day so that Michael could get back to work.... though he ended up finding out that he got a new job on the drive back to AZ. Ha! I was a little bummed that we couldn't stay one more day but oh well. The kids were too - look at this sad pic of Matthew I took once it hit him that we really were leaving -

At least we'll be back in September! We had so much fun!

Kate's Gymnastics Performance

This summer, Kate took a Beginner's Gymnastics class. She ended up missing a few classes because of illnesses and traveling but she still had a blast and learned a lot. In late July they had a little performance for the parents so I put together this video. Love my little gymnast!

Summer in AZ

Seriously from October to April I just love where I live. The rest of the year I am absolutely ready to move at a moments notice. ;-)  It is just so not my style to have it be so, so hot ALL THE TIME. I know I complain about summers a lot but seriously, can you blame me? It is just about my only real complaint about living here.... but it's a big one. Yikes.

Anyway, I always try to make the most of it. We swim a lot and I try to make plans the night before of things we can do the next day. It can be hard to have all our outside activities that aren't the pool or splash pad taken away but we make it work.

This summer has been pretty good. In May we had a couple milder days so we capitalized by spending some time outside in the shade. This picture cracked me up - they grabbed a grocery store ad I'd just pulled out of the mailbox and enjoyed some light reading. ;-)

Michael and Matthew went to Father's and Son's and had a blast. Matthew loves camping SO much. 

While the boys were gone, I really tried to make it fun for Kate. I have grand plans for things we can do in the future during Father's and Son's, but since we had Joshua with us this year we had to keep it pretty low-key. 1-year olds tend to be pretty high maintenance. ;-) However, I put him down nice and early and then me and Kate had a fun Girls Night In that involved s'more dip and The Little Mermaid.

Matthew and Kate took swimming lessons with Miss Judi, who lives about 2 minutes away and gives lessons in her backyard. It was Kate's first year with her and Matthew's second. They both did really well. Matthew can pretty much swim unassisted and Kate will be getting there soon. We've spent a lot of time at the pool. I especially like to go on Saturdays so that Michael can be there and it's not quite so difficult. Having 3 kids under 5 at the pool by yourself is no joke.

Donuts by the pool:

And clearly we're big fans of throwing pictures, haha: 

I got a great deal on Groupon for a family summer pass to the Arizona Science Center. Not as fun for little kids as the Children's Museum or an aquarium, but cool nonetheless and we've enjoyed going there a few times.

There was a random free Preschoolers Yoga class at the library one day that I signed Matthew and Kate up for. I watched through the window and it was hilarious! Kate told me after that she "felt peace" and I almost died laughing.

Mommy/Son date to see Finding Dory. Matthew had been looking forward to it for MONTHS and it did not disappoint!

I also finally took Kate to see her first movie in the theater this summer. She, Matthew, and I all went to see The Secret Life of Pets. It was also really cute. Kate did okay but got pretty antsy. Might be another several months before I take her to a movie again. ;-) (She did fine though.) 

Splash pad fun-

Father's Day 2016. These kids are so, so lucky to have such an amazing dad.

Kate took gymnastics! She missed 3 classes from traveling (one of the trips was super last minute) and was late to a couple others due to it overlapping the tiniest bit with swimming lessons (argh! I didn't know our swimming lessons time until a few days before we started) but it was still great. She learned a lot and had a lot of fun. (More coming on that later.)

And unfortunately, we seem to get hit the hardest with illnesses during the summer. Pretty strange! We do quite well in the winter and then get slammed with awful bugs in the warmer months! I seem to always forget this and end up surprised when we get sick a lot. About time I learn. Anyway, in June poor Joshua got the flu. As much as I loved the snuggles, (which are basically unheard of at this point) it was so so sad. I just wanted to him feel better. :-(

Pretty much as soon as Joshua got better, Matthew and Kate were both hit hard with the same flu. I set them up on the couch and they pretty much just watched shows for 2 days straight. Joshua loved way too much that he was no longer the weakest and kept trying to hit/attack them. Stinker.

 Neither of these two nap anymore, so it was crazy to have them both napping in my bed. And it only took a few minutes to get them to sleep. SO sick! Poor kiddos.

And then, just four days before our Hales Family Reunion in LA, Kate got slammed with a stomach bug/flu. I kept thinking it would be a really quick illness, and then she'd start to act better so I'd give her some food.... but then she'd throw up the little food I'd given her and go lay back down. It was so so sad. The flu lasted for about 5 days and she'd usually throw up about twice a day. The poor girl was on the mend when we left for LA but it took her another day in LA before she was fully better. Miraculously, NO ONE else got this illness! Praise the heavens! Also praise the heavens that Kate loves medicine (?) and would always take Advil or Pedialyte or whatever I'd give her, including plenty of water.

And then we finally escaped the heat for LA!

Preschool Graduation

Matthew absolutely loved preschool with Miss Debbie. He made great friends there and learned a lot. I am so glad he got to have this experience. It was so good for him.

From left to right: Anna, Matthew, Caleb, Claire, Jack, Blake, Stella, Jaxon, and Cason

Graduation was in May. His teacher put on the most adorable little program at her house. A couple weeks prior to graduation Matthew was sent home looking like this:

And this is what the "diploma" was when I opened it:

Cute huh? Anyway, the whole thing was just too cute. She gave them all a line to say about what they did that year and they performed a few songs. She gave each of them a diploma, a candy lei, and gave each of them an award and spoke about why they got that award. Matthew got the "Chef Award" because he was always talking about how he wanted to be a chef and took his job as the snack helper very seriously whenever it was his turn to be the snack helper. :-) It was funny that she knew Matthew well enough to mention that he was quite a picky eater for wanting to be a chef. ;-) Haha!

After the ceremony we had snacks and mingled and Debbie had a little book for each of us with pictures of what they'd done that year as well as goodie bags for all the kids.

Matthew and Debbie

Matthew has one more year until Kindergarten since I don't want him to be SO young going in, and he won't be going to preschool next year since Michael will only pay for one year of preschool, ;-) (and I can't fault him too much for that!) so he and Kate will both be doing "Mommy School" next school year. ;-) We're all excited!