Joseph's Farewell and Utah trip

Caleb's youngest brother Joseph got called to serve in the Mexico Cancun mission! We were so happy to be able to make it to Utah for his farewell. We are so excited for him and proud of him. He gave an excellent farewell talk and will be a great missionary. 

We also got to spend a fun day with a lot of the family. This is some of Caleb's family that was able to make it to the farewell. 

We were able to spend a couple days visiting in Utah. We started the trip at 2am after Caleb got a shift at work. He is always hyped up after a shift so figured he ought to just get driving while he is awake. So he woke me up, loaded the kids in the car and got moving. It worked fine except for the kids waking up at 4:30 for some reason. I love this picture, Joshua passed out from pure exhaustion only two hours away from Grandma's house!   

We went on fun little hike above Alpine.  They had some really heavy rain and thunderstorms the night before which washed away a huge chunk of the trail. It was amazing to see how much dirt could be moved by water in one night. 

 The kids love their Grandma and Grandpa and Uncles! They have so much fun with them. 

Abigail loves Grandma's birdie Sasha. Unfortunately the birdie does not love her as much as she loves it.  I think the kids wore her out. 

We got to go to my Brother Billy's farm in Lehi one morning. The kids had a great time feeding the animal and Uncle Big Toe was kind enough to give Joshua "Harry's" Jaw bone to add to his collection.  He told him all about how Harry was his cow and he was really tasty.... Luckily Caleb's parents have a very nice taxidermist for a neighbor who professionally cleaned and bleached the jaw. Now we have a fur and skin free clean white jaw in Joshua's treasure chest. I swear that boy is going to burry us in "treasures" one day. 

 The trip was shorter than we would have liked but super fun. Seeing Joseph off and spending time with family was definitely worth the drive. We drove all night home so Joshua wouldn't miss his first day of school. The kids luckily slept straight threw al night. 

Summer Happenings

 We have had a really fun and busy summer. The things we did a lot were go to the coach, swim, ride bikes, and play with cousins. We miss Redlands, and especially have a real home, but having family around to entertain and distract us has been a huge help. Also having the beach so close has been wonderful. 

We moved our chickens with us from Redlands. With 13 chickens we get about ten eggs a day! That is more than we can eat. The kids decided to have an egg/lemonade/fruits from grandmas' yard sale. They sold a lot of stuff and made 30 bucks. They were so excited. They were kind of distracted sales people and missed a lot of cars, but did well despite that. 

We had a BBQ and marshmallow roast at Grandma and Grandpas with the cousins. The big boys told some "spooky" boy scout stories that Joshua took very seriously.  He says he cant wait to go to scouts like Elijah and Isaac and get special badges and learn to build fires and camp out with daddy. 

We are planning a fun family trip in celebration of finishing medical training and getting a real job! We are excited and had to get passports for the kids. Their pictures turned out so cute. 

Daddy made special flower bread with Grandma Bailey's awesome flower loaf pans. The kids always love helping daddy bake. Joshua was asking me questions on how to cook the other day and I said well I can start teaching you some things that you can do all on your own... like make pancakes or something. He said no I want daddy to teach me. I never take offense because I love that Caleb cooks and can whip up a great dinner on the fly whenever I ask him to.  

The kids did the special library reading program at the library. Every time they read a certain amount of books they got a coupon for something fun. One coupon was for a free book at a bookstore in Santa Barbara, and a free sunday at Ben and Jerrys. So we made a fun day of it and had a picnic at the court house, got some amazing free books, and ended the day with a Ben and Jerry's. Cant get better than that! 

We took a one day "staycation" to Morro Bay. It was really, really fun and would recommend it to any locals. We rented canoes and paddled all around the estuaries. Then we paddled out this giant sand spit made of giant sand dunes and a private beach covered in sand dollars. Then we paddled back to the dock and drove to Morro Rock, and then to Montana de Orro. Montana de Orro was amazing! It is an old cattle Ranch right on the coast that is now a preserve. It had amazing hikes and beaches. The kids loved it! It was a wonderful little get away for the day. 

Another beach day was to Jalama Beach. Caleb rode his bike out to the beach. We were supposed to meet him for a picnic lunch and beach day. The beach is gorgeous...but way out in the middle of no where off a little windy and hilly road. Caleb teamed up with a guy from Ireland who was visiting the valley and ended up helping him after he majorly crashed on his bike and broke his collar bone. It was an adventurous day at the beach. 

 These three got to have one more special cousin sleepover before summer officially ended. Abigail thinks she is the same age as them and wants to be with them constantly.  She says mommy I am big not little. 

Zachariah's Mission Farewell

My nephew Zachariah was called to serve in the Mexico Chihuahua mission. It was fun to finally live close enough to go to the all celebrations. We are proud of him and know he will make a great missionary. We went to Zachariah's priesthood ordination, and his farewell talk. Almost all the grandkids were able to make it.

An attempt at a family picture after church.

The Saturday before he left we had one more little BBQ and celebration to see him off. 

Amongst the chaos of getting Zachariah ready for his mission my sister-in-law Susan invited these three super heroes over for a special play date. They had so much fun together with their aunt Susan. 

Our new Home

So we are all moved in and settled in our new Home in Solvang. Well our temporary new home...we our staying in a 800 sqft  guest house until our house is finished in November. It is a great little place, very cozy. It is teeny tiny adventure for our family and so far it is working out perfectly. Our new house has walls, and they are moving quickly. So we are hoping all goes according to schedule.

The best part is we are in the Valley, and Caleb is loving his new job. Being in the Valley we get to be with all the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents all the time. It is great to have everyone near by. On the 4th we went to the pancake breakfast, Solvang Parade, BBQ with the whole family, and then the best firework show I have ever seen. It was fun to be with everyone for a holiday and not have to drive for hours to get there. The kids have loved it, and have had to get use to the idea that we go home to bed and will still see their cousins in the morning. We have pretty much adjusted to everything and are starting to get back into our normal routing of life. We are excited to see what this new adventure brings.