Finally I get a chance to update!!

SO much has happened since my last real post so this will be a short version of our summer :).

With school ending and the days getting warmer, we bought the kids a slip n' slide to cool off with. They tried racing but found it was more fun to just do tricks as they slid down the slope.

We soon realized that it wasn't going to be possible to stay living at the house in West Sacramento (a huge, long, dramatic story I won't get into). So we spent a lot of time saying good bye to wonderful friends...
Irene was able to do one last sleep over with us while Kel went to the Gunns house for a sleep over. It was really fun to watch these girls hang out and talk. And to think it was just yesterday when these same sweet kids were in nursery together...man time flies!
We went to the Sacramento Zoo before taking Irene back home. It was great because it also happened to be free craft day, so they got to do some neat things.

Since Mark just graduated from Sac State and is still in the process of finding a real job, we decided it would be best to move back in with his parents until something more permanent could be figured out. So we packed up and moved back to So. Cal... Ok, lets be honest here...I had zero desire to move back to Simi. It was right up there with moving to Texas. Even though I tell Mark all the time that we will go any where a job takes us, I was kicking and screaming the whole way. No, it wasn't a pretty sight, but I wanted everyone to be sure to know that it was not my idea nor my plan to move back. Don't get me wrong, Simi Valley was a great place to grow up. It has a small town attitude (like Davis) but there are 9 wards that are each a pretty decent size. People are generally very friendly and you don't have to travel very far to get anywhere ~30 min to beach, hour to snow, 1-2 hours to Hollywood, bit more than an hour to Disneyland, you get the idea. But with So. Cal. comes the insane "I have to be there first" mentality. The pace of life is so much faster than I want or need its like a huge headache. Traffic I can deal with, after all, you aren't really moving lol. Its the driving 60 down city streets and zipping through the almost red lights that stress me out. Which is funny actually cuz in Davis I got speeding tickets and here, though my driving is the same, people are glaring at me to get out of the way. Anyway, after all my complaining, we get here and I don't feel like I've lived here at all. In 8 years the city has changed so much the places I remember don't even exist anymore. Like my doctors office was once the main movie theater here. BUT the people are the same :) For example, there are families in our ward that I grew up with. Brooke and Kels primary teacher is the mom of one of my very good friends growing up. And she was my primary teacher at one point too. And I am seeing old school friends all over the place. I went to Jr High with Beccas preschool teacher, my pharmacist went to my high school but I knew her husband better, we are able to get together with another of my very good friends (whose husband is also a high school friend) and our kids are getting to know each other (my mom pointed out that this will be a 3rd generation friendship since she and Natalies mom were friends before we met :) ). Its small things like that that make it easier to live "back home".

Ok, so on with our summer...there are parks everywhere but the closest one to our house has a neat water area. I took the kids a few times and they really like it. Below are Brooke and Austin.
Austin turned 2 the day after we got there. I was in no mind to have a party so we celebrated a couple weeks late. Good thing he is too young to know the difference.
Marks sister and her family came down from Utah for a short vacation too. Between her and her husband, they have 9 kids (4 are his, 3 are hers, and together they have twins) so we put up a tent for extra space. It was a ton of fun having all the cousins together and getting to know each other. It doesn't happen with these cousins very often. While they were down, we went to the beach and played. Here is Becca playing in the sand and cousin Ephraim (one of the twins) walking away.
Cousin Janae, Brooke, Kelsie, and Shayna playing in the sand.
Cousin Ephriam, Becca, and Austin enjoying building mounds together.
Girls in the water (I tried to figure out whose who, but just couldn't).


Soon after they left school started. We had lots-o-fun pickin gout school clothes with Oma. Here is Shayna...
Kelsie...
Brooke...
Becca...
And of course Austin had to pose too :)...
After school we went to the duck pond to feed the ducks, something I remember doing when I was their age :)
In between drop off and pick up times for the girls, Austin gets to play outside with Chip...Well, that pretty much sums up what we've been up too :) The kids love their classes and Austin is loving all the new hiding places in this house so all in all we are doing good. Oh, and mark did get a job at the local gun store (shocker I know). Even though its not enough pay to get our own place, he has made some amazing contacts through customers. One being the Simi PD sergeant how is on the hiring board. We found out that the pd is actually going to be hiring an entry lvl position in Oct and he is willing to give Mark any help he needs during the application process! Yeah!!