Summer with Becky and Grant

Rachel and I spent a lot of time with Becky and Grant this summer. I have already posted some of the things we have done together and here are a few more.

Beach 7/22/11

We went to the beach 3 or 4 times. The kiddos started out clean, but didn't stay that way for long.

Poor Grant laid down and put his face straight in the sand. He was not to happy when he realized the sand got in his eyes.

Park 7/27/11

After riding doubles on this with Grant, every time Rachel sees one of these, she is trying to get somebody to ride with her (and if I am the only one there, she wants me to ride with her).

She ended up soaked from playing in the turtle. Grant preferred to play in the sand and spent most of the time digging.

Hodgson House 8/8/11

While waiting for Becky and Grant to get there, Rachel played with one of her new favorites, play-doh. She likes stacking them as much as actually playing with the play-doh. There are 10 holes but 12 play-dohs and Rachel gets upset that they don't all fit. It is so her character to try to make everything fit perfectly.

They had a blast playing on the swingset and picking and eating oranges.

They ran around and got nice and hot and then went for a dip in the pool to cool off.

Beach 8/9/11

Poor Grant slipped off of the playground and banged his face up pretty good. He had a large cut inside of his lip as well, probably where his tooth cut through the skin.

They had such a good time playing with the shovels and buckets. Rachel really liked the buckets because she could clean herself off in them. She was constantly going to them to clean her hands and feet.

Some of their habits have worn off on each other. Grant sucks his finger when he is going to sleep and Rachel looked over and saw him doing it. She tried it out, but wasn't so sure about it...it is one habit that she didn't stick with. However she has been sticking her whole hand in her mouth recently (I think because she is teething and she has 2 new molars) and slobbering all over her hand. They were both so tired on the way home, but neither fell asleep because they kept talking and making each other laugh.

When we got home I gave Rachel a bath and fed her dinner, which she did not make it through. She was asleep by 6:15 and slept until 6:30 the next morning.

Duplan Cabin 6/23/11

Rachel actually fell asleep twice this summer while eating dinner. She had a very busy summer and her exhaustion got the better of her. I forgot to post this with the cabin pictures, so I am posting it now.

Party at Crouch's House

Last weekend Rachel and I headed up to my brother's house and hung out with both of my brothers, their wives, Rachel's cousins, and my dad (all Crouches except Rachel and I).

Rachel was being really cute and smiling as I was getting gas and so I took a few pictures.

Then I turned around again and she looked like this. She has been doing this a lot more recently. Yippee!

The kids were really quiet for awhile and I went back and checked on them and they were hanging out on the bed and Rachel was pretending to be sleeping.

We went outside to do the pinata and while it was getting set-up, they played on the trampoline.

Jeff and June bought Allison a Tinkerbell pinata for her birthday and hadn't had a chance to use it yet.

Rachel was just so happy to get a lollipop. She has been talking about lollipop's ever since.

They had some of those gross jellybeans and Rachel liked them all, except for the centipede flavored one, which is the only one she spit out. In this picture, Kyle is smelling Rachel's breath to see if it was a good flavor or a bad flavor...her breath smelled nasty, but she ate it anyways.

A Night Out

Last week Tim's parents and Nana watched Rachel while Tim and I took off for a day. We headed up to Pechanga where we stayed the night.

The view from our room actually reminded me a lot of Valley Center.

Tim got us a driver and we went wine tasting and had lunch at one of the wineries. It was so nice for us to spend time together and not have to worry about anything. Rachel enjoyed spending time at the Hodgson house. What a great way to get away but not have to go too far!

Family Outing

We went to Lake Dixon as a family a couple of weeks ago to play at the park and feed the ducks.

Rachel really enjoyed feeding the ducks and the fish that were down below.

It was a nice treat to have Tim join us. He doesn't usually go with us to the park and she was so happy to have him there with us.

We didn't spend too much time at the park because it was just too hot. She couldn't go on the slides or anything because of the heat, but she still got to enjoy steering.

Because of the heat we left the park and got frozen yogurt to cool down. It was a great way to spend a Monday afternoon.

Jordan/Schlamp Wedding

Tim's long time friend Claire got married at the end of July and he was an usher in the wedding. Since he was an usher, we went to the rehearsal.

We had dinner at Tony's Jacal in Solona Beach while the rest of the Hodgson family was at another dinner in Carlsbad with Rachel. The wedding party met up with them after the rehearsal dinner.

The party was outdoors and Rachel ran around like a crazy girl to keep herself awake. On the way home I was shocked that she didn't fall asleep. Instead she was singing and laughing the whole way home. In the morning she woke up with 2 large blisters on her chin. She must have touched some type of plant outside that she was allergic to.

While we went to the wedding, my mom and David, and then Tim's Nana watched Rachel.

The view from the wedding was beautiful.

Claire looked beautiful and it turned out to be a wonderful wedding. Congratulations to the Schlamps!

Swimming/Parks/Dancing

A couple of Thursdays ago, Rachel and I had a pretty active day. Well, Rachel was pretty active and wet...

She started off the morning with swimming lessons. She was the only one in her class that day and so when another class was jumping in, she joined them and jumped in with some of the bigger kids.

We headed to Lakeview Park in San Marcos and I didn't put her bathing suit on. She got very wet as the "pool" filled up. We met up with one of my coworkers and his girls.

She had a great time and kept running circles around the "pool".

Then we headed to San Elijo Hills Park because my coworkers daughters were too big for the playground toys and enjoyed the playground here much more. The fountains here were a bit unpredictable and she got frustrated with the inconsistency of them, but I did get her bathing suit on this time.

In the evening, we sat down and watched some So You Think You Can Dance. Well, I tried to sit down, but Rachel really wanted me as her dance partner. I helped her with some of her spins, flips, lifts, and twirls, but she had her do it by herself so that I could take the video. She knows as soon as the host walks on the stage what show it is and dances throughout the entire show. When we deleted it after we watched it, she cried the next day because she wanted to watch "Dancing". At the end of every song, she gets very dramatic and says "dancing" over and over until the next song comes on. I am glad she enjoys it so much but am also happy she loves sports as well.

:)

Marie's Birthday

We got together a few weeks ago at Kristyn's to celebrate Marie's birthday. It was really nice to get together to see the girls.

Rachel absolutely loved Jillian's playset. She couldn't get enough of the driving.

The girls had a great time playing together and avoiding the sharks that were lurking in the waters below. They had turned it into a pirate boat.

They also had a good time inside as well. Jillian is all decked out in necklaces and bracelets, Emma is brushing her hair, and Rachel is putting on lipstick. See they can be girly too!

Happy Birthday Marie!

Pump it Up

We went to Pump it Up Murrieta a few weeks ago (aka Jumpy Jumpy) with Becky and Grant and the kids had an absolute blast. I took out my camera to get pictures a little too late. The 4 of us were all jumping together and Rachel landed wrong on her knee and tweaked it. She couldn't put weight on it for over 2 hours and when she tried she would collapse and say owie owie and grab her knee. She was then limping for the next week or so but seems fine now. I didn't take the camera out until after she was hurt so the only thing I got was video of Becky, Grant, and Rachel going down the slide together since Rachel couldn't do anything herself. Before that, the kids were doing all of it on their own, we would just follow them and catch them if needed. Even though Rachel got hurt, on the way home she kept saying "Jumpy jumpy fun". I will definitely get more pics/video the next time we go.

Birch Aquarium

Tim had to go get fitted for a tux for a wedding that he was an usher for and since we were down there, we decided to make a day out of it and go to Birch Aquarium.

While Tim was getting fitted, Rachel and I went to Starbucks and she got a pink donut and absolutely loved it. She licked the frosting off the top and was sooo happy to be eating it.

Since going there, she has been talking nonstop about everything ocean.

She loved the tide pools and kept saying that she wanted to touch stuff, but as soon as she would reach for it, she would pull back. She wasn't quite ready yet.

I think her favorite thing was the hands on with the toys. She didn't want to leave that area.

She did enjoy the see-saw as well.

Initially, she was really excited by the octopus, but after he moved towards us, she started to get a bit freaked out. She also was afraid the octopus was going to eat the starfish.

She was so exhausted after our day and after a couple of snacks, barely made it out of the parking lot.