Soccer

Soccer has begun. Which makes me realize that I never posted pictures of Baseball season. I'll have to back track.

This year Peyton is on the Dragons. He loves his uniform, he has the highest number (9) and is the tallest on the team. Its safe to say he thinks he's a big shot. He scored the first goal of the game and got player of the week. Although he has some tiny kids on his team they have some pretty fancy footwork and are great little soccer players. Peyton's also the only kid that doesn't speak Spanish and since the coach doesn't speak English its pretty interesting watching them communicate. Mark has also been able to come watch the games. We feel so lucky that he has a job that is 3 minutes from the soccer field and his boss lets him leave to come watch the games. He also texts Mark during the game to see how Peyton is doing. This job feels like a big family and has made our lives so normal again. It's a good feeling. I think it's going to be a great season.

Drew B-day Continued....

We also celebrated Drew's birthday at school with her classmates. The teacher makes her a crown, the kids bring gifts, they sing to her and once it's all done she sings a thank you song back. Very cute. I had lunch with her and handed out cupcakes and goody bags. A pretty easy party if you ask me.

Drew Turns 4

Drew is 4! I can't believe it. I have no idea where the last 4 years have gone. I realize I say that each time one of the kids have a birthday but, wow, time really does fly when you have kids. We spent her actual birthday at Disneyland. She was so excited by her birthday button, all the happy birthday wishes she was receiving, her special dessert at lunch and most of all, the fact that she is tall enough to ride all but 2 rides. She was fearless on Splash Mountain and loved Big Thunder Mountain. Her favorite is still Pirates of the Caribbean and the Carousol. She's for sure a brave little girl.

She wore her glow in the dark ears and got to meet Jafar from Aladdin, the witch from Snow White, Goofy and of course Mickey. Uncle Jesse even popped in for a few hours to say hi. It was such a perfect day with very short lines, good weather and 2 excited kids that were so eager to see everything that there weren't any meltdowns.

Wedding

Last weekend my cousin Trisha got married. The wedding was at the University of Redlands which I thought was strange but when we got there I could see why. The campus is beautiful and the architecture is amazing. It made for a gorgeous outdoor wedding. We got to visit with family, feel Cherie's baby belly and watch Drew dance the night away. She never stopped once the music came on. The best part of the night was the food. They had hambergers, chicken, hot dogs, sausages, potato salad, pasta salad, the works. The best wedding food I've ever had. I loved it.

Visitors

Carly and Sonny have made a great habit of coming to the desert for their anniversary. The first year it was just them. The second year it was them with adorable baby Reese. This year, the third year, was the newest addition, Cameron. I'm wondering if they'll be bringing a baby boy next year. The kids had so much fun dancing with Reese and making faces at Cameron. I have to hand it to Carly who has so much patience with two little ones who are 13 months apart. I'm not sure if I'd be able to do it as easily.

New Hobby

With Mark's job we're allowed to use a lot of the things the club offers. We're always looking for a new hobby so one moring we decided golf would be something fun to learn. Since I've never done it before we skipped out on going on an actual course and hit the driving range. I am now completely hooked and am taking official lessons in October. Yes, I spent more time swinging at air than acutally hitting a ball, but, when I actually connected it was fun. Not to mention I was sore for a few days after so it felt like a workout. And, it was so freakin' hot I sweated out any kind of toxins my mimosa may have given me. Mark didn't seem to have a problem and I was pretty impressed by how far he could hit. We also had to visit the kitchen. He can't be on property without checking on everything. This is his right hand "man" Sharon. She's great and does an awesome job of keeping everything in line when he's off.

Back to School

Another school year started and Peyton is now in Second grade. So much different than last year. He walked in liked he owned the place, saw his friends and couldn't wait for us to leave. Of course we wanted to meet his teacher, see his classroom and make sure he was good to go. I made him take a picture which is all of a sudden embarrasing in front of his friends. He is still a head above them. I have a feeling he'll stop growing in Junior high and everyone will then pass him. We'll see.

Birthday fun

Jen's birthday came last weekend and we celebrated with a fantastic meal by Christophe and great friends. Only problem was we never got a picture of Jen. She's usually behind the camera letting us all pose for her. Even the kids were happy to have their picture taken.

Del Mar

The Douherets plan a Del Mar weekend each year for their birthday. This is the third year we've gone. Spending a day out of the heat with friends and family is wonderful. We got to visit with Randy and Katie and bet a bit on the horses. Drew was the big winner of the day. We'd open the book, she'd look at it and pick a number and low and behold, that horse would come in. Yes, we "technically" letting our daughter gamble but only because she had absolutely no clue what she was doing. Notice though that her hair is long enough for pigtails! Finally. She had a meltdown at the end of the day when she realized she had to come home with us. She was adament she was going home with Randy and Katie. She called him for the next three days asking to come over. I wasn't sure if I should be happy that she loves her uncle and wants to spend time with him or be sad that she was upset she had to come home with us.

Peyton spent the day running around the kid area with his friends, playing on the rides and eating ice cream. It doesn't get any better than that.

Big Bear Weekend

In the beginning of summer my friend Tasha kept asking if I wanted to borrow her Big Bear cabin for a weekend in the summer to get out of the heat. Yes, she was asking me, not me asking her. I couldn't believe she was so willing to open her cabin so I kind of blew it off thinking it was just something being said in conversation. Well, she asked me about 4 other times and told me if I didn't give her a date we'd miss out because a lot of other people were going to use it. Wow. I was super excited and so thankful she is so generous. How many other people are telling you to go and use their house. Not many. We spent the weekend with the Douheret's and had the best time. We told the kids this was an outdoors trip. No T.V., video games or computer. They had to play outside, get fresh air and get dirty. We rented a boat, fished, had dinner on the lake, Mark taught the kids to skip rocks, took a hike, played games, bbq'd, had brunch and mimosas, toured the cute town of Big Bear and just relaxed at their adorable cabin. They don't have any houses behind them so the kids had a ton of room to play baseball, play in the tree house and drive Zoe's jeep all around. It was perfect. Mark and Drew were the only ones brave enough to get into the cold water. Drew being her normal fearless self, jumped right in but got right out after feeling how cold it was. She wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. The boys spent hours fishing but unfortunately didn't catch anything. We can't thank the Posa's enough for a great weekend.