Monday, September 28, 2015

Swim, More 4th Birthday Fun, & Mammoth!

One of these days I will be caught up!

This summer we did a lot of swimmimg! M-Th for 3 months.  Both big kids are just fish now, and it has been so fun to watch them swim all over the pool.  Giada had a few swim meets that were fun to watch too. She is getting pretty good at all 4 main strokes.  She will happily critique you when you attempt Butterfly, for instance.  That stroke is NOT easy, I'm sure it was easy to come up with ways I could improve.  Gino is working on breathing and should have it down next year. It is nice to feel so confident with them in the water. 
Thanks to Lodi City Swim Club, Julie S and Nicole G for all their hard work with the kids the last couple years!
 Giada was so funny on picture day, she said I need to wear my cap and goggles; that's what I wear in the pool. So that is what I let her wear. She may have been the only swimmer with her cap on out of 150 +  kids; but that's okay in my book!


 Since all Gino wanted was a dinosaur swim party, we had a little weekday get together with family and a couple of his buddies.  The kids swam until it was dark! ROAR I'm 4!


 



 Part of our summer shenanigans included a visit with the softball girls. So great to see everyone and to meet Red's little man, Kevin Branch.  A couple more babies to add to the crew soon, KC and Dub have growing tummies!

Lorenzo and Kevin will no doubt be buddies! 
 HUGS!
 Tea parties with real cups, and Marissa's baking, I will always say yes to those invites!
 SF Half Marathon with KR.  It was a beautiful day, and so fun to run across the bridge.  Thanks for making it happen KR.  Mom, thanks for joining us and watching Lorenzo!

 In July little man turned 5 months. 
 All the kids have similarities at this age. That big gummy grin for sure. Lorenzo wins in the hair contest. His hair is getting lighter in color by the day. He loves to laugh at his big brother and sister.  I wish I could report he was sleeping better or through the night, but nothing to report there ;-). 

 One last celebration at Ran and Buddy's. So fun to have them living in town.  
It is a must to wear the official birthday hat.
 We finally got to go on a little adventure with the Schweitzers!  We met them in Mammoth for the Beers & Blues Festival.  Neither Mike or I had ever been there, what a gorgeous place.  The kids got along beautifully, another plus.  I have mentioned this before, but every trip we went on this summer it poured rain. This festival has never seen rain...until this year. Day #2 we got soaked, but the kids had a blast dancing in the rain, the bands played on and the brewery's kept pouring beer!
 Ella the eating machine!


 Nice to see James too!





From WAY on top of the mountain!  Neat Gondola ride. 
I had to pretend I wasn't freaking out; we were SO high up!




 Story time; Movie time!



 Such great memories made. So glad Jen left Arizona to come to Cal Poly!!  GO Mustangs!

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Gino turns 4! Adventures to Venice & San Diego too.

We headed to San Diego for my cousin Jackie's wedding this summer. It happened to fall on Gino's 4th birthday, so we celebrated that as well.  Also, in normal Julie fashion I thought it would be great to stop off in Venice to see friends as we headed down south.  I will say the road trip could have gone a number of ways, and it went pretty darn smooth!

1st STOP Venice Beach.  The kids loved the beach concert with Ben & Ella. 
Gino also learned how to take a selfie!


 Batman on the beach - SCORE!







Jamie braved the LA traffic to come say hi and have lunch with us. 

 Next stop San Diego.  On the way down it started pouring rain, I mean a real winter rainstorm. We had to laugh because every single trip we went on this summer it had a random rain shower.  The only problem with the rain this particular day was Jackie's wedding was outside.  But, it stopped just in time and was a beautiful ceremony.  Thank you to Nana Kitty Towers for taking care of the big kids with Stella while we went to the wedding.

Here comes the beautiful bride...
Mr. and Mrs. Kimsey
  
Brothers





 Gino fell asleep and woke up to a decorated hotel room.  Roar I'm 4 Dinosaur Theme.  He didn't want to go to Legoland for his birthday and wanted to just have a swim party, but once we were there he had a good time!
 Green Lantern gifts were a hit!


 I was most impressed with all the things they have built out of Lego's!
 Although we intended to have the girls dress alike, we did not intend to have ourselves dress alike! We showed up at the park matching and nothing we could do! LOL


 Mike and Matt did not know they would be totally drenched on the log ride. 
It looked like they had stepped out of the shower.


I guess one of the kids didn't want their picture taken??




 The girl who gets car sick on windy roads, loves rides and spinning around in circles as fast as she can. I still don't get how those don't make her sick.

 Thanks Nana Kitty for your help!

 And then it started pouring! We were drenched just trying to leave a ride and get under cover.  We played Lego's  for awhile and then when the rain didn't look to be letting up, we left the park. 

 But we didn't leave the park without some birthday treats....dipping dots, rice krispie treat bigger than his head, and the famous apple fries.
 Matt and Steph let Gino pick out something in the gift store for his birthday....did he pick Legos? Nope!
 The fun didn't stop there...dinner with the family...in costume of course!


 Being in San Diego calls for seeing my mom's side of the family that lives there. Never long enough, but a nice breakfast with the fam.  Bonus Wes and Charlotte were in town too!
 Lorenzo was a little unsure of the pool at the hotel, but the big kids loved it!

 While in PB my parents went down memory land and checked out the place of their first date! 


As if this wasn't action packed enough for a few days, we added in a baseball game. My cousin Jackie is a Padres Ballgirl, what a fun job!  Padres happened to be playing the Giants, so we all stayed an extra day to go to the game. It was SO worth it. Thanks again Jackie for the tour and special on the field treatment.  The kids still talk about their "friend" Brandon.  



















 FUN long weekend, and LONG drive back up north.  Kids did great, looking forward to the next road trip. GO GIANTS!