Caydence starts Kindergarten

Caydence's first day of school was August 29, 2013.  She was sooooo excited and had a GREAT day!  The day ended up going slightly different that I had anticipated, due to the fact that Danny's car was stolen the day before!  Seriously, how does that happen?!?  Anyways, due to the theft, I was left without a car so I had to walk her to school.  This wasn't a big deal because the school is only a mile away, but I left a little later than I should have, so I was part running, it was at least a MILLION degrees outside, and I was pushing both kids in a stroller.  I got there just as the kids were heading inside, all covered in sweat, so I only got one quick shot as she was heading in.  I was so upset!  But she had a blast and loved running home after school.  It's pretty surreal to have her in school, especially since it is the same elementary school I went to!  Crazy.

Siblings!

Mike's homecoming was the first time we had been together in a LONG time, so we took a couple quick pictures.  We are having formal family pictures this weekend, so hopefully they will be a little better, ha ha, but here are a few we snapped really quick that night.

Paige (13), Mike (21), Matt (23), Richie (25), Me (27), Nicki (29)

Michael comes home from Tijuana!

After 2 long years my brother returned from his mission in Tijuana, Mexico.  We prepared by making posters.

 And awesome shirts (do you see we are the Mexican Flag?)

 And the moment finally arrived!  I am not a short person (5'9") and I look so short next to him!  We measured him that night and he is 6'5", by far the tallest in our family.

 The banner on the garage.

 Mike left when will was just 1 month old, and it's crazy what a difference 2 years makes!  I would always point to Will and say, "this is how long Michael has been gone."

This is how he acted the whole time we were waiting.

 The funny poster my mom made.  She used it on Monday when my brother Matt got home from a summer in Alaska.  Then she crossed out Matt and wrote Mike for his return on Tuesday, and then she used it again on Saturday when Nicki returned from her summer in Europe.

Yep, you read that right, everyone was ALL OVER the world, but it's so great to finally have everyone home.  In the last 8 1/2 years it has been a pretty rare thing for us all to be home at the same time.  Nicki left on her mission in 2005, and we got married while she was gone.  Richie left soon after and that's when Caydence was born.  Matt left 8 months before Richie got home, so it was over 3 years that they were apart.  And then we got a few months before Mike left (when Will was only 1 month old) and he missed Claire's birth.  WOWZA, it's nice to finally be back together!

Up next:  Caydence starts kindergarten!

San Francisco

We were able to spend ONE day in San Francisco and we maximized our time there.  We happened to be there during the America's Cup sail boat race, which I had never heard of, but I guess it's a big deal :)  It made the city REALLY crowded, but it was kind of fun to see some of the festivities.

We started by checking out Pier 39.  Caydence rode the Merry-go-round

 And played on the musical stiars

 Trying to get a picture of the kids with Alcatraz in the background

 Then we hopped onto the boat to Alcatraz.

 We had to take the very long scenic round to get to Alcatraz due to the race.  Here is just a small sampling of all of the sailboats out to watch the race.

 Once on the island we started the audio tour.  It would have been much better if the kids weren't both terrified and screaming the whole time.  But we still enjoyed it.

 A view of SF from Alcatraz.

Bike much?

 We waited 45 minutes to drive down Lombard street!

 We walked down by the beach after lunch.

 A couple shots of the Bay bridge.  They are actually tearing down half of it after Labor day, they built a nice new bridge to replace it.

 On Sunday we went to church with Danny's uncle.  Their building is right on the grounds of the Oakland Temple!  It was gorgeous.  Then we had a fabulous dinner and birthday cake for his Grandma.  I can't believe I forgot to get a picture with Danny's grandma and the kids!  It was the first time she had met Will and it had been 3 years since the rest of us have seen her.

Sunday evening we jumped in the car and drove 6 of the 12 hours home.  This portable DVD player saved our lives!  And Cars, of course :)

We drove the rest of the way on Monday, and worked like crazy to get ready for my brother coming home from his mission the next day!  More on that in the next post.

Buck's Lake

Danny's family has a cabin in Northern California that his grandpa built in the 50's and we were able to spend almost a week there this month.  We headed out on Saturday morning and arrived about around dinner time.  The kids did great in the car and we only stopped to let them out once!

 A few mornings while we were there I went for an early jog and I had to stop and take a picture of the amazing view.

 Every day we would walk down the dirt road to the "quarry" and throw rocks all along the way.  All the boys and kids loved throwing rocks every chance they got!

 We spent every afternoon at the beach.  It was so beautiful.  A tad cold, but still refreshing.  Will would spend hours sitting just barely in the water.  He cried and cried every time we had to leave.

 We did a lot of lounging.

 And one afternoon we went on an amazing hike.  Will and Caydence were such troopers and walked the whole way in (we had to carry him out)

 We stopped for lunch and to throw some more rocks, of course.

 Will fell asleep on the way back.

 One afternoon we rented a boat and enjoyed the scenery all around the lake.  It was so beautiful!

 The last morning Danny took a little hike and got some more great shots.

 I got Will these adorable jammies while we were there.  It was impossible to get a good shot- I chased him all around and this was the best I could get!

We left Friday afternoon and drove about 5 hours to Danny's uncle's house in Piedmont, CA just outside of San Francisco.  We spent Saturday in San Francisco, but that will be the next post.