Sunday we went to church and then had a delicious birthday dinner for Brenn. Here is Kimbre and I doing dishes together probably doing more talking than cleaning. Love that girl, seriously love that girl :)
We spent the evening watching old family movies and well that was hilarious to say the least. Christin if you are reading this we have some really funny movies of us with Dacia doing talk shows and other interesting things they are quite a kick. The next day Deke and I took the kids to see the Cabrillo national monument.
It is a really neat lighthouse that has now been turned into a museum and they also have a military museum as well. I had never been to a lighthouse before and was amazed at the intricacy of the glass inside the lighthouse light.
They even had a program that the kids did as we toured to become Junior Park Rangers which they loved. At the end of the day they had to raise their hand and repeat the oath and then they got their badges. That night we had these little mini pita pockets called "Pitettes" which I of course thought were so adorable I had to post a picture of them to show how small they were.
We also spent a lot of time having girl time. Speaking of girls here is a cute shot of my girls amazingly with my balding little Emma not having a bow on her head which is a rare occasion :):)
On Tuesday Deke kept all the kids and the girls snuck away for a lunch at Claim Jumper for their delicious salads. Time without kids with the girls is always one of my favorite treats of the vacation. We always have so much fun and get to just visit. I love them so much. Why is it that Marley who is the youngest actually looks older than me? I loved getting to spend time getting to talk with her I can't believe she is going to be graduating this next year.
On Thursday we took the kids to a different kind of beach. A very cold one but still fun including the seals and tide pools.
Even though it was way to cold to get in the water we all had fun with buckets in tow finding all kinds of creatures inside the tide pools.
Crab seemed to be the most populated animal of the day however which was excellent in Hunter's opinion.
He found all sorts of creatures including this little tiny hermit crab and some large crabs.
We also found a couple of anenome's that were purple. Deke and Hunter chased crabs all afternoon and once Hunter buddied up with a little boy that had a crab net they were catching the larger crabs left and right.
Avery however was not at all interested in catching crabs and was very content to find seashells and collect them in her bucket all day long. Throughout the week we also enjoyed other things like Toy Story 3 which Kimbre and I cried in :) Of course the ever so fun playing of the Wii Super Mario Bros.
Family games, movie nights, the girls took us to H&M which I had never been to before but loved and was excited to hear that we will be getting one in AZ soon. We have been running non-stop packing in every second with fun.
Sorry I had to post of recent San Diego trip in three posts to get the pictures in so continue down to see all of them. Okay so by this time of the trip we are all happily exhausted because we have not gotten to bed before 1am in the ten days that we have been here :) :) I love it :) On the next Friday we went to Balboa park. 
We are going to try to hit up at least 1-2 museums each trip until we see them all. This place is so beautiful. Next time I want to take a picnic lunch down there because I could just sit and stare at the buildings they are so beautiful.
This time we decided to go to the model railroad museum. It was so cool. The whole museum was filled with model railroads. 
The kids were fascinated. I loved all the small details like the crops in the fields and the tiny light posts and minature people. Again if you get a chance go and see it it is great. 
They had a section for kids with trains that actually puffed out steam and they let the kids take turns running the trains.
We then headed over to the Botanical building to check out all the different types of plants and other various foliage there. Again another beautiful building.
On our way in the kids spotted this little turtle sunning himself.
The favorite section however was the touch and smell section which included plants that smelt like everything from Rosemary to Lemon to even Chocolate. There was also this giant tree which made for some great climbing.
Again another cute pic of the girls. Again in matching outfits :)
They had everything all decked out in celebration of the 4th. We enjoyed taking a couple of family shots on the train. 
We also toured the little shops and stopped and enjoyed a little gelato before hitting up a local scrapbook store.
The next day was the 4th. We went to church and then came home and played games and made homemade icecream. A cute shot of Avery and Kaulin. 
We went to watch fireworks at the high school and laid on the field. The fireworks were right above us it was awesome. 
Emma was scared of them if we put her on the blanket or in the stroller but if we were holding her she stared bright eyed at them a little unsure. Her eyes remind me so much of Hunter when he was a baby. 
Some pictures of the kids. Boy do we love these three and they are the best little buddies.
Hunter is such a good big brother and Avery is a great big sister. They both love Emma to pieces. 
Avery fell asleep about halfway through I swear that kid can sleep anywhere through anything and Hunter snuggled up with Brenn and Kaulin to watch the show. 
We headed out on Monday after ten days of non stop family and fun. Here is the whole bunch of us. We have such a great family we are so blessed. We LOVE you guys so much!!!
It had been over a year since I had been able to go home to San Diego and visit my mom. She had to make trips out to AZ to see us while I was pregnant with Emma. We headed got there on Thurs. evening and went to see Eden's dance recital which was adorable. The next morning we went downtown to the newly renovated Mormon Battalion. If anyone if going to be in San Diego in the near future you have to go it is really neat. 
They have made it very interactive now as you go room to room learning the story of the Battalion. They also have some fun activities for the kids like old fashioned family photos, panning for gold, pumping water from a hand pump, washing clothes with an old wash board etc. etc. 
The kids had a blast and we ended up spending most of the day there enjoying the activities.
On Saturday morning we headed to the beach, the kids had a blast boogie boarding, running away from the waves, splashing in the water, building castles and digging in the sand.
They especially loved taking turns burying each other in the sand. Everyone was anxious to take part in burying Aunt Brenn in the sand. 
Then of course Avery wanted Kaulin to bury her in the sand. 
Kaulin is Brenn's boyfriend. He is such a great guy, we really got to know him over the course of the trip. He plays football at Berkeley and is a business major there. He is awesome and the kids love him. Emma enjoyed lounging on the beach with her little sun hat kicking around on a beach towel. She of course loves conversation with Grandma as well.
I think she loved the sounds of the waves because she just smiled all day and was so happy. 
However, the sound of the waves hitting the beach also became very soothing to her so she also spent a good portion of the day napping in her little umbrella hideaway that daddy made her. 
I had to take a picture of her all bundled up in inside because she looked so sweet just sleeping all snuggled up. Look at the delicious chub on those cheeks. 
Kaulin also is a wonderful surfer and agreed to teach Deke and I the basics. Brenn went first and of course had no problem getting up. 
It was fun to stand on the beach and watch Kaulin teaching her. They are really cute together. 
Then it was my turn. Kauling was very patient with me and my currently uncoordinated postbaby body. Surfing is way harder than I expected and takes quite a bit of upper body strength with I definitely do not have. 
Kaulin would carry the board out for me and then tell me when to get on and start paddling then I would try to stand up. Here we are practicing on the beach. I love Brenn's pose for the camera :) 
After eating it like a million times this is the closest I got to standing up on the board. 
What is up with my hands? Yeah I don't know but I am sure it was entertaining for the people behind me to continue to watch me wipe out. 
Deke seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly. Obviously he also maintained better form. 
Later in the afternoon we decided to try going out together and see how we did. We were doing great until a wave hit us and it knocked the board out of Deke's hands and shot up and hit me square in the head and I went down. Now thinking back it probably looked quite comical from the beach. However the amount of salt water I ingested and the rockin headache I had for the rest of the afternoon was not. That night we got a babysitter and took Brenn out for sushi for her 21st birthday!!! My sister's always seem older to me than they actually are so it already feels to me like Brenn has been 21 she is so mature and has so much ambition. Here we are that night all sunburned from beach fun. Kimbre, Brenn and Marley such pretty girls its kind of ridiculous.
