Jacob's birthday and more

 

This year New York Life invited spouses to go on a dinner harbor cruise in Newport beach as a reward. All summer I have been taking weekly trips to the beach with the kids but Jeff is always at work. It was nice that he had an evening to enjoy the beach too.

 

Right before we were heading down to the beach the clouds cleared leaving us a beautiful evening.

 

 

 

 

Here is our boat we are boarding

 

 

 

It was fun watching the other boats on the water and looking at the unique and gorgeous houses in the harbor. It made me wonder why we didn't go down there more often.

 

 

 

Tiffany and Daren got to join the cruise as well.

 

 

 

We cruised around the harbor until after dark enjoying good food and reconnecting with New York Life friends that have known us for almost 20 years.

 

 

 

 

Jacob turned 15 a couple of weeks ago and he finally agreed to let me throw him a birthday party!

 

The party wasn't on his actual birthday but we had a present for him to open.

 

 

 

 

The ipod touch that he has been wanting.

 

He uses it with headphones now to do his homework and I don't have to listen to a loud TV. Hmmm maybe it was a present for me too  :)

 

 

 

Someone else left him a present in the front yard that night!

 

The drive way and sidewalk was decorated with messages to Jacob.

 

This one reads "We love you Snake man"

 

 

 

A Happy Birthday message spelled out in balloons was left on the garage door.

 

 

 

I used the balloons to decorate for his party a few days later.

 

 

 

Jacob went with me to WinCo where we bought all kinds of candy by the pound for his friends. Would you believe that by the end a good portion of it was gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of the girls that Jacob invited couldn't come (next time we'll do a party after school is in and everyone is back in town) so Taylor's friends Denise and Priscilla came over to celebrate too.

 

 

 

 

Jenae, Jolene (and Ashley) were the only other girls there...but there were lots of boys to celebrate with.

 

 

 

We played cheesy games, fun games and some that worked better than others.

 

 

 

This was the paper bag game where they had to grab the paper bag with their mouth while balancing on one foot. The bag kept getting smaller and smaller and the last ones that could do it won.

 

 

Some of the games went really fast but others the kids seemed to enjoy.

 

 

 

Jacob blowing out his candles...so we could all eat cake.

 

 

 

He got some presents, candy and money.

 

 

The cookie face game.

 

Overall Jacob said the party wasn't as good as Taylor's 16th birthday party but he still had fun. I can't believe that he's already 15!

 

 

 

 

The next Saturday we tried taking the jet-skis that we own with friends out to Lake Perris. We've owned them for probably 2 years but I've never ridden them. There has been repairs and problems and this was the first time I would get to enjoy them. We got out to the lake and they broke down. I was on one jetski with Ashley and Jacob and Taylor were on the other. The boys drove out a few minutes at full speed and then they were dead in the water. Ashley and I had to tow them back. Long story short it took us a looooong time to get back to the beach and they must have flipped off 8 times or so in the process. After Ashley and I tried going back out but we were out of gas.  

 

I think we're ready to sell them and go in on a new one without problems.

 

After a frustrating morning we called the Bagley's to see what they were doing. They were down at Newport and they invited us to come down and go to dinner and hang out with them.

 

The boys were tired from that morning but Ashley came with us. After dinner we walked on the pier and got some donuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last group beach day of the summer. Our church has a yearly youth beach dinner at Huntington Beach and I decided to let them take some friends and make a day of it. So with a car full of boys we headed down in the early afternoon.  

 

 

 

The cousins were down there too and they had fun taking Ashley out to where the water was shallow and finding starfish.

 

 

 

Ashley found this big one complete with shells that were attached.

 

 

 

The boys had fun playing cards in the sand.

 

 

 

They used the boogie board as a table.

 

 

 

Ashley had fun hanging out with cousins and enjoyed eating hot dogs, corn on the cob cooked in sea water and smores that night.

 

 

The only thing that stunk was the cold wind that blew the whole time. Luckily I had packed the car with sweatshirts for us all!