So I have some more catching up to do...

The Friday before Father's Day the kids and I went out to Griffith observatory to meet my sister Angela. She was getting ready to go on her trip to Costa Rica so we wanted to hook up before she left.



Taylor was thrilled to be there... I told him if he wanted to go to the movies later (Toy story 3 in 3d) he had to come with us to LA and NOT COMPLAIN.



He was so excited to learn that we read the website wrong and the Observitory didn't open for 2 more hours. We decided to hike. He was more thrilled...I told him he didn't have to do the hike with us so I sent him back to the car and he read his book.



We met up with Angela...


and went exploring hiking towards the Hollywood sign.



Jacob kept asking "Can we be done now?" I showed him the ridge where we were going to end before we came back and he practically ran ahead to get there :)



Me - "Look at the Hollywood sign!" ....

Jacob - "OK can we go back now?" ...

Ashley - "I need a piggyback ride"...



Then we came back and had a picnic lunch.



After Taylor's rest in the car he was in a better mood so we could explore the Observitory.




Checking out the earthquake machine...creating our own earthquake...



"Look what we just did!"



Potential souvenirs...



All of us (except Ashley) agreed that the planitarium movie was the highlight of the trip. It was very impressive. Ashley complained it made her dizzy and gave her a headache :)



Afer the movie we said goodbye to Angela and checked out this car covered in holographic flower stickers...interesting



We were trying to make Ashley's photo session for her dance class. I had brought her outfit and makeup and everything in the car so we could go straight to the photo shoot but with traffic it took us almost 3 hours to get home...so the photo shoot was out the window.

I'll show you our homemade photo shoot later in the post.

Our trip home also included a desparate pit stop in the scariest unisex bathroom. I followed a questionable, large hairy man and practically had to feel my way to the toilet since it was lit by a broken light that illuminated less than a birthday candle..lets just say I tried to touch as little as possible and washed my hands again as soon as I got home.



This year the Father's Day celebration was at Steve and Tahna's house. We were so grateful to them because so we tried to think of some father's day stuff to help celebrate.

We gave the dads soda, candy and popcorn with a note that says "Pop, Pop, Fizz, Fizz...Oh what a great Dad you Is!" I was hoping to get Dad's rootbeer to go in the bag but I couldn't find any.



Here are the Father's Day cards Ashley and I made. I got the idea on the internet from Martha Stewart or something. It was a little tricky following the directions...seemed like there was a few more steps they could've included...but once we figured it out it was a lot of fun.



We put Angels/Dodgers tickets for those who were available to come. So the next Thursday Jeff and his brothers, and nephew-in-law all went to the game.

I laughed when I heard that Dale decided 5 minutes into it that he was now a Dodger fan since he lived closer to them. I'm sure that made it interesting as 3 of them were cheering for the Angels and one was rooting for the Dodgers (who ended up winning).



And now for the actual Father's Day... thanks Steve and Tahna for hosting...




Here is our newest father...



And our father to be...



...and some other random pictures of us at the celebration...:)









The week after Father's Day Jacob was signed up to attend a soccer camp at Cal Baptist. Right before it started I found out that Lori Borcherding was having her son Nathan go as well. So we got to carpool...Yah!

The had fun going together.



They would learn soccer techniques, have scrimmages and get popsicles...



and then the last hour they got to swim in the pool. Jacob also passed the swimming test so he could go in the deep end, he had to wear a wristband all week to prove it.

He told me that he would be very happy to have his wristband cut off...but then sad because it would mean that his camp was over.


He enjoyed it all week but his legs ended up hurting by the end of the week.

It didn't help that Andrea and I took them to Knotts again on Wednesday after soccer camp.

This time we thought we'd go in the late afternoon and see if the lines were better. They had summer hours to we could stay until late.

It was much better!! We just brought the boys and they had a lot of fun!



This was Jacob's new favorite ride.



The later it got the sillier it got...the boys started wanting to go on all the camp Snoopy rides. Silly boys we ended up having a late night...11:00.




OK now for Ashley's homemade photo shoot with her dance recital costume...



90% of them she posed herself :)











On Thursday we had a dress rehearsal and I got to go spend a loooottt of time down at the Riverside auditorium watching Taylor and then Ashley do their dress rehearsals.

Taylor was first since he recital would be on Friday.



He danced the tango and did great.



While he was waiting to go on a couple of girls that he knew from school came up to him and started to talk to him. They asked him why he was so dressed up. They were suprised to hear that he was dancing too. They were even more suprised to see that he was wearing pants!

So of course we had to stay and watch them too.



After Taylor was done I went home and got Ashley dressed and put on her makeup and then went back down to downtown Riverside to wait for Ashley's turn.



Here's the father and daughter dance...absolutely adorable!



Ashley waiting her turn to go up...I was able to finish 2 baby blankets while I was waiting...

We didn't get home until 10:30 that night. She had a long wait!



The next day before the recital we were scheduled for haircuts for all the kids. Ashley decided that she wanted to cut her hair shorter, just past her shoulders...this is actually the first time Norma has cut her hair.



When I showed Ashley these before and after pictures she didn't think it looked like much of a difference but it's a big difference in person. I think it turned out adorable and she likes it too.



That night was Taylor's recital. Here is the link to a video of his recital... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYFxuNcXW_M

(he didn't want to make it public on youtube since he thought there was embarassment potential but with the link you should be able to see it :)



We saw the Gunnell's the McClellans and all kinds of friends there that night.



Our neighbor and friends had their daughter Kaitlyn dancing too.

Before the recital Taylor was glad to be done doing dance...he had so much fun at the recital and hanging out backstage with friends from school he hadn't seen in awhile (boys dancers are rare and get a lot of attention) he said he would consider doing it again.

Don't know if you can see it but his haircut is now spikey..he got a lot of attention from that too. :)



Ashley's recital was the next night. She did great on her recital too. Her link to her dance is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E50NFryt_jI



We left on the second intermission on this night. After 4 late nights in a row we were all pretty spent.



This week Andrea and I took the kids to Soak City out in Palm Springs. It was nice and hot out there and nobody complained about being cold or the water being cold. In fact when I left to come home it was 111 though I never felt it while were were actually hanging out in th water.



The "taller boys" all went on all the big water slides and Andrea hung out with the "shorter kids" who were content to stay in the younger kids area. There was plenty of water and craziness in this area for them too.



Madison loves these waterslides!



Jacob didn't mind them either.



We brought Sole to throw another girl in the mix. It was her first time going to a waterpark and I think that she had a great time.



A fun day but a little sad since Taylor decided he didn't feel up to going about 1/2 hour before we were walking out the door.

I'm finding that it's getting harder and harder to drag the kids out of the house. The first pool day... only Ashley would come with me.



She had fun for awhile but then I feel pressure to get back home.



So when the children complain of being bored they can't say I didn't offer to take them anywhere.