Summer

We have had a wonderful summer. After a crazy month of June, it was nice to have a little break for the rest of the summer. I decided to share several pictures to give a glimpse into what we have been doing. LIfe has been wonderful and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our second child. We are doing our best to talk with Jack about the baby. I know he does not fully understand what this means, but he really enjoys saying hi to the baby and kissing my stomach. It is so cute. He has been swinging his stuffed animals in the baby swing. Today he even kissed one of them. It was so sweet. So, what have we been up to. Well, we celebrated the 4th of July with my family and many friends from church. My parents had a BBQ and swim party at their house. We really had a wonderful time with everyone. We did not make it to the fireworks this year because Jack needed to go to bed and we were pretty exhausted.

Jack had a busy day keeping up with the other kids. He is quite the social butterfly. He actually interacts really well with children who are older. However, whenever he is with someone his age, he just does not know what to do. It is pretty funny. We are convinced that he thinks he is a couple years older.

What is Ashton eating? Man that looks good!!!!

Jack enjoyed a couple strawberries and then thoroughly enjoyed a mini cupcake. I made a flag design with different sizes of cupcakes. It was really so much fun. I shared one with Jack. The frosting was very red, but he loved every bite.

The first week of July was Fine Arts Camp at our church. This is one of my favorite weeks because we get to do a lot of fun things. I was in charge of the Food Art again. We did several fun projects involving pancakes, fruit loops, marshmallow robots and cupcakes. The kids loved playing with their food. Jack spent time with the preschoolers and found his passion. Each day he was able to drum on trash can lids. We know have a drummer on our hands.

At the end of July Charlie and I went away for the weekend. It was my 30th birthday present a few months late, but we had an amazing time. We left Jack with my mom and dad. He did a great job and we did not worry about him at all because he has spent so much time with them.
      Charlie and I left town about 11am Saturday morning. We headed to Roseville to have lunch and get a few things for the weekend. Then after the stop we drove the rest of the way to Murphy's California. We stopped in Angels Camp and walked around downtown a little bit. We explored antique shops and bought chocolate. Ten minutes later we were in Murphys and walked around a super cute little town. We enjoyed an early dinner and really enjoyed the time we had together. It was so nice to be on our own schedule and eat whenever we wanted and spend as much time together as possible.
         The concert started at 7:30pm so we headed over to the amphitheatre and made ourselves comfortable. The seats Charlie got were amazing. He did not even expect to be as close as we were. We were 8 rows back and had a great time. Reba McIntire was amazing. I could see every detail. She sang so many songs and they were all amazing. I even made eye-contact with her. I had a fabulous time. It took me about 20 minutes to stop being in shock. Charlie made this weekend absolutely perfect. I will never forget this weekend. A once in a lifetime experience.
           After the concert we drove back to Downtown Sacramento to the hotel that we had stayed at on our 1 year anniversary. Since we had a little bit of a drive and we were pretty hungry we stopped in for a few snacks. We stayed up super late and enjoyed our time together. It was so fun to feel like we were newlyweds again.

Sunday morning we woke up slow, enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then headed our for a fun day. We tried to go to Old Town Sacramento. We only lasted a little while because it was super hot, but we had so much. Every aspect of our weekend was perfect and it was a great time to get away  before the arrival of our second baby. Thank you my love for making my birthday so special.

The rest of our summer has been spent in the water. It has been an incredibly hot summer. We spent time playing in our pool at home and swimming at my parents house. Jack and I have enjoyed our long days of nothing to do. We play inside and out, watch movies, play drums, listen to music, read books and just laugh together. I would not trade these days for anything. I am so thankful to have so much time with my son. It is great to soak up these times before we add another in the mix. He is such a joy and growing up so fast. Our little boy is now 18 months old and has such a personality. He makes us laugh all the time. Yes, we have our difficult times because he has a mind of his own, but overall he brings so much joy to our lives.

Jack is all boy. He loves climbing, eating, wrestling, dirt and everything else that being a boy entails. I get so excited to watch him grow up. I don't want to rush it, but I love thinking about what things will catch his attention and how he will thrive.

The first two weeks of August we spent watching The Olympics. I am a huge fan. I enjoy throughing a party during the opening ceremonies. We had British food and played games. For two weeks we pretty much watched everything that was available. Luckily my parents have TiVo so we recorded everything and would then spend days at a time just watching so many different events. It was so fun to spend this time with Charlie and to share something I love to much with Jack. His favorite event was actually the horse jumping. He was fascinated by the horses.

The last big even for the summer was the Nevada County Fair. We took Jack last year, but it was uneventful since he was only 6 months old. This summer was so much fun. We actually spent the day with my cousins. Lisa and Katie were in town on their way home so we planned a day to go to the fair. So the 12 of us went...Lisa, Katie, our family, Adam and Leslie and my grandma. We had a great time visiting the animals, riding rides, and eating great food. Charlie and I always love the fair food.

Jack loved the goats...he made sure that he went to every single goat and said hi. He was trying to talk like them, but it was more like a grunt. It was super cute. I think they were his favorite. The pigs caught his attention, but we got distracted. The sheep were too load and the cows too big.

When we got to the horses he was a little apprehensive. I really wanted him to like the horses and he started to warm up...

He got pretty close and wanted to look at this particular horse up close....


Then the horse sneezed in Jack's face.....

Now he is a little apprehensive...actually scared. When the horse sneezed in his face Jack screamed louder than I have ever heard him scream. It was a terrifying moment. I don't blame him. That would have scared me.

Charlie took Jack on just  few rides. He was not so sure at first, but the next few got better.

Katie had to much fun playing with Jack and Hannah. She is our "little" cousin now playing with all our children. SO much fun to watch.

Jack also learned how to blow bubbles in the kids area. I am not sure how much of the soap he ingested.

Well that is our summer and I guess in some ways we are still amidst our summer. Luckily it has cooled off, but we are still enjoying our longs days at home. Yes, Jack is sweeping. He loves to help me clean. Sometimes it makes it more difficult, but it is fun to have him help. I love my cute little boy. I hope you all have been enjoying your summer and if your anything like our family, we are really looking foward to Fall...rain, wind and coolness.  AND of course a BABY!!!!