The Start of Something New...

This past weekend I dropped McKay off to college. Both McKay and I have been looking forward to this time...I have been very excited for him to begin this new journey of his life...so it came as a surprise when tears sprung from my eyes when I woke him up Saturday morning...

What is up with that? The thought of sleep filled nights, not being privy to all of his choices and doings only brings me smiles...But as Saturday progressed and as the trip was made to Long Beach, and a dorm room put together, I found the moment to be bittersweet...I watched him Saturday embrace his new environment, his new friends and roommate and his new school...and I realized he looked really happy...and that made me very happy...but I also knew that his smile, his sense of humor, his stubbornness, and his presence would also leave a hole at home...

For the record...Long Beach States Men's Volleyball team ROCKS...why?...we had stuffed the suburban full of ALL things McKay would need for his dorm and college life...an email was sent out from the coach for all players to be at the dorms to help unload and carry all the things of the new freshman recruits...I was seriously sceptical if any would show...to my surprise MANY showed and the unloading happened in ONE trip...yep...how awesome is that??? A BIG thank you to McKay's teammates! I was so impressed!

Smart boys, using a small flat bed to drive car full to dorm which in turn made the trip into the dorm room short...

I could tell right off that dorm life is going to be a change but I believe a lot of fun...McKay is in a suite of 4 rooms, each room has 2 boys, 7 of those boys are on the volleyball team...4 freshman, I think 2 sophomores and a transfer...the eighth boy plays in the school band(trombone player, I think?)...the rooms are tiny and there is NO air conditioning (it was so hot!)...but whether they got lucky or there was an athlete connection they are located RIGHT by the laundry room and dining hall, score!...

Cooling off in front of the fan...

Dorm mates and Teammates...


McKay's home for the next 9 months...

When I left Saturday night McKay and new teammates were dressing up in different attire to go support the Women's volleyball team at their first home match...mmm...no comment, haha...

The boy in the orange shorts is McKay's new roommate, all of them are the 4 new freshmen additions to the Long Beach State volleyball team and all very tall...this was their outfits for the women's volleyball match, missing from photo is McKay's superman cape...yep.

Last night we decided as a family to bring McKay his last home cooked meal in awhile...his siblings also wanted to see where their brother was going to be residing this next year...when I told McKay this I told him we would NOT make a habit of this, just dropping by, or would we????...ha...regardless, he seemed very happy with the dinner and treats...

In front of McKay's dorm, bringing him his treats...

So my dear son...here's to starting something new...to new friendships...to new memories...we love you much and wish you the best of everything...and when you are feeling the need to come back to your roots, the bed might have been claimed by another :), the door though will always be open...GO BEACH!!! :)

Saying goodbye for now...

Birthday Girl!!!

Happy 12th Birthday Kendall!!!

It has been awhile since I have seen somebody soooo excited for their birthday to arrive...in our household Kendall has been keeping track or I should say counting off the days until she is twelve since January...it started out to be a weekly reminder to us how many weeks left until her bday...the last couple of months we have been getting a daily reminder...this last week...an hourly :)... in fact she had it down to minutes the last couple of days knowing that she was born at 2:24 in the morning...
Yesterday I came downstairs to this at our kitchen table...


Haha Kendall...thanks for ALWAYS making us smile...hoping your day is everything you were expecting it to be...hoping you liked your birthday song that Greg and I sung to you after waking you up at 2:24am this morning :)(we thought it very appropriate considering)...I know you can't wait for your first Sunday in Young Women...can't believe your old enough for YW's...
Love you lots.

Summer Saturday Afternoons

Relishing in the end of summer...loving Saturday afternoons after cleaning house, grocery shopping, etc...grabbing a book and a chair and heading to the beach...enjoying my last Saturdays without scheduled games/back to school commitments...being able to take deep breaths...relaxing in perfect weather while enjoying the view.

Happy Birthday Steve!!!

Hoping your 17th birthday is AWESOME...

Wishing we were there to spend it with you...

We love you...

Enjoy!!!!

Skipping for a couple of days because...

My boys went on a kayaking trip to the Channel Islands National Park...

They went with the 14 yrs and up (teachers&priests) boys from church. We are lucky to have leaders at church that are adventurous and always planning different campouts for the boys. I was thrilled that all of mine wanted to go. And YES I am ALWAYS excited for them and whatever adventure is in store for them...but I am also guilty of having a little extra skip to my walk with the thought of a quieter house, not having to worry about organizing kids schedule while i am at work, not having to feed all and knowing the house was going to stay a lot cleaner (no offense boys) for a couple of days.

Kendall celebrated the news that the boys were going to be gone for a couple of nights with some dancing moves and stating that the 'G & G's' were going to party...I asked her who were the 'G & G's' and she looked at me and said Greg and girls...(duh)

And though there was a slight glitch in the skipping, (Kenya had to go to urgent care with a very painful stomach ache that resulted in having a cyst... that ended up bursting a day later while getting an ultrasound...which was cool for the technician who said it was first time she ever witnessed a live burst...but not so cool for Kenya who was actually experiencing the pain...but then the bursting seemed to eventually solve the pain issue...) the 'G & G's' really did have a nice weekend...

As for the boys...they ended up on Santa Cruz Island, kayaking with sea lions, hiking to gorgeous views, enjoying being boys...and when asked if the trip was fun I was told that it was "sick"(grandma this means it was REALLY cool)...and usually when the boys come home from trips it is just a given that not all stories are shared...they apply the saying what happens in__stays in__to their campouts...but I did send my point and shoot camera with them this time with one request...will you bring back a photo of all 3 of you in it...and because my boys always do what I ask:), they came back with exactly one shot of the 3 of them...but thanks boys for the other shots because it was fun to have images to go with the stories that you were willing to share...

Thanks Sandon for the photos!!!

Orange County Fair '09

Basically Kenya ROCKS as a big sister...

So the Fair has been in town for the past month...last year on a whim Kenya asked if she could take Karch, Sandon and Kendall to the OC Fair...they went and had a blast and came back with a photo booth pic to commemorate the visit...so when the Fair came back to town this year it was decided that it would be fun to do it again...

So yesterday I left money in an envelope on the fridge with the explicit directions to have fun, eat lots of fried food, keep track of each other and go on the craziest ride ever...oh, and to bring me back a '09 photo booth pic...

I believe mission was accomplished...I received this text from Kenya's phone on my way home from work...

"Were having soo much funn thank you momma"

Last night as they came walking through the door with smiles, laughter, tummy aches, (lame) plush toy:), stories of the craziest ride and photo booth pics for their mom I knew that plans were already being made for the OC Fair '10...

Apparently this ride called 'Speed' was the craziest ride...

Not to sure what this is or what Kenya is doing???? ha!
Kenya thanks for providing another reason in why you are best at being a big sister!

Photos taken by Kenya, Karch, Sandon & Kendall

A last dinner (at least for now)

I woke up this morning to fewer people in the house...it has been a whirlwind of a summer with Greg's kids and out of town guests...yesterday Andy and Natalie (plus a couple of friends) left to head back to Arizona (Steve left a few days ago;school started for him this week)...We love having a full house...we especially love it when the house is filled with all of our kids...so knowing the summer was coming to an end and Greg's kids were going to soon be heading back to their home in Arizona we forced I mean we gathered all together for a 'last' dinner all together...we also took the opportunity to celebrate Steve's upcoming birthday...we ended up at the Irvine Spectrum for some dinner at Wahoo's and back to school shopping for some...I also took the opportunity to pull the camera out for some pics which is ALWAYS greeted with lots of enthusiasm especially by Greg, Andy, McKay and Karch...