Beach Day-Les Shirley

 This seems like a lifetime ago but my friend, Heather and I went on a beach day trip with our kids. It was absolutely perfect. The weather was amazing, the beach wasn't crowded, the kids could play in the water without getting swept away with the waves and Heather and I could just sit and chat while our kids played nicely. This was a new beach spot called Les Shirley park, attached to Canon Beach, I hadn't been here before but it was amazing and we are excited to go back!

The boys got right to work moving sand around.

And our friends joined us soon after!

All the kids. It's amazing how smoothly our outing went considering we have all these rascals. 

 

Our friends had to leave after awhile due to a grumpy baby but we still had some time so we kept playing for awhile. 

I think this is my favorite photo of the day.

He makes that face to push up his glasses...

Sand, sticks, and water....that's all they need!

He likes finding lines or trails and walk up and down them..this one was extra special since there was a splashing puddle at the end.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that this was a very good day, and resulted in more beach trips before the summer ended.

Date Night/Ear piercing

We've made the goal to go on more dates! I will actually say that we've gotten pretty good at having home dates and setting apart at least one night a week to focus on each other and do something unique or fun that isn't netflix or housework or something. But we also have the goal of an out-of-the house date twice a month. One of those being a temple date. Thankfully we have a found a super responsible 15 year old boy that is great with our boys and the boys love him so dating has been a bit easier recently! Anyway, the other day (okay like, well over a month ago) we had plans to go to dinner than the temple, at the last minute we decided to go get my ears re-pierced instead of dinner before we went to the temple. Apparently I stopped wearing earrings when Edwin was born and my ear holes of 30+ years grew in. I ended up getting my ears pierced at Claires where all the preteens get their ears pierced. Worth it! Then we realized we needed to eat quick so we grabbed something from the food court. We rushed to the temple to make it in time for an 8 o clock endowment session, only to find out that we were late and on Friday nights, the latest endowment session starts at 7:30. But we still had time to rush in and participate in the sealing ordinance. They needed another couple to come and help them complete some ordinances and we arrived just in time. During the sealing ordinance I was thinking of my green Grandma the entire time, she was nearing her 94th birthday and her husband had passed away nearly 30 years ago. I thought of what a joyous occasion it would be for them to be sealed in the eternities after death and how much my grandma must miss my grandpa. About 27 hours after this, my green grandma passed away, and we have plans to do her temple work next summer. Anyway, it was a peaceful date and we were where we needed to be. 

So naturally we take awkward selfies outside the temple.

I'm also realizing this is our last temple date and it was over a month ago so maybe not doing super great on our goal...however, we have both attended the temple separately since then so maybe we're doing ok? Doesn't really matter, I just like dates. Rambling done!

Bubble Run

 My boys have been wanting to do the bubble run. Charlie did it with us 4ish years ago and it was a little stressful .Especially when every little child is dressed the same and buried in bubbles and you lose a kid or two. (And we only had one kid with us last time!) But we decided to try it because we do like doing active things together! And we kept getting e-mails saying free registration so we officially signed up and realized nothing is free after all the fees and insurance...but whatevs! Anyway, we arrived and the price to park had doubled since last time, which was also annoying so I went into the run with a really bad attitude. haha. This free run cost our family over $50 dollars! ha, and as far as I can tell the proceeds didn't go toward any good cause, like many other runs. Ok, apparently I'm not over it.

It took us awhile to get to the starting line. But we eventually were able to start the run/walk. We jogged and stopped a whole bunch.

 

There were checkpoints with piles of bubbles where people would stop and take pictures and I'm pretty sure I plowed over a couple of hidden kids with the stroller since I wanted to take Edwin through quickly, (since the bubbles were over his head) 

Anyway, we made it! There was more walking than jogging in the end. And it was exciting because it was at the international raceway and they were racing motorbikes which the boys thought was great. At the end, the boys all got a medal and had fun playing in the bubbles.

And our cousins treated us to some shaved ice which Edwin felt he needed to feed me. haha!

His open mouth...hahaha

 Thanks to Lisa who took most of these pictures.

 But overall the boys seemed to have fun and we did enjoy being outside together in the perfect weather.

Maybe we'll just stick to our own free family bike rides and jogs followed by a bubble bath. That sounds like a better plan to me. ha!