Marine Layer

Usually we see the marine layer coming in over the ocean in the late afternoon, but on one trip home from Santa Cruz, we saw it coming over the coastal range just north or San Juan Bautista. It was beautiful...it looked like a cozy blanket was draped over the mountain.  

Pardon the grainy photos, these were taken with my phone, through the incredibly dirty windshield, while we were driving :)

Dance Fever

One of my absolute favorite things about summer is the Concert in the Pines in Twain Harte. It is so relaxing to sit with people you love and enjoy the warm summer evenings with some good wine and good music. We started taking Adaline (here and here) when she was a baby and now Spencer is getting his turn.

He seems to like them... 

Even if it will be awhile before he fits into his chair.

Adaline has grown to love the concerts, too. She dances and dances and dances. 

She also became a groupie (thanks, Mom!)

Every time we go, Adaline can barely wait for the band to finish setting up. As soon as the first notes are played, she looks around for the first ready dance partner.

Of course she takes a break every so often, but then she's right back out there.

 Cousin Laura seems to enjoy dancing, too :)

 Spencer's still getting the hang of it, but he does love being snuggled up in my arms as we watch everyone else dance.

Adaline's First Race

My dad's cousin Michelle organizes a local charity run every year that benefits the local high school athletics department. It's in Hilmar and it's called the Udder Run. There is 2-mile and a 5-mile race as well as a kids fun run. Before kids, I did the 5-mile race and it was awesome- stinky, but awesome. It weaves through a couple of local dairies (and right by my great-uncle's farm) and MAN it stinks- but it's pretty darn cool to have the cows stampede the fence lines to check out the runners :) Anyway, now I do the 2-mile race and it's less-stinky. The cool thing is, every year I've run the race, the weather has been drastically different- one year it was 85 degrees at 8am, one year it was 60 degrees at 8am, one year it was raining, and this year it was a crazy windy...so much so that it hurt to stand outside because we were getting pelted with sand and dirt.

This year, the race was on the Saturday before Travis's birthday and our trip to Santa Cruz. So we ran the race, hurried home, cleaned up, packed up the truck, and took off to SC. It was only 8 weeks after Spencer was born, so I ran very, very, VERY slowly, but I ran the whole thing!!

Travis ran it after not training at all (per his usual style) and still beat me in my MANY minutes :)

This year was the first year Adaline was able to participate in the kids fun run and even though it was really windy, she seemed to enjoy it!

(Cousin Trace in the red hat, telling her how it was going to work)

Yay! Our first medal! 

(Anyone want to guess what the kid in the background is doing?!)

Can't wait for next year- it's my goal to run the 5-mile course again :)

Happy Fourth of July!

Yeah, I know it's the end of July, but it's been a crazy busy summer and I'm usually so exhausted at the end of the day that I can't convince myself to blog in a timely manner. I promised myself I would post these pics before the MONTH of July is over...and I'm running out of time!!!

We started the holiday off a few days early with the annual kids shoot, something that my sister started with her kids and has kindly allowed us to join in on :)  

 

This shot was the goal of the afternoon, but we had to get through quite a few other pics to get it...

Trace's favorite pose...

Adaline looks so blonde!!

Awww...

Look how different Spencer and Adaline look

 On the actual 4th of July, we rushed downtown for the morning parade. Good thing we hurried, I think it took a whopping 20 minutes for the entire parade to pass us by.

Spencer wasn't all that impressed...

Adaline loved her perch from her "packpack"

Hayley's patriotic crew

After the parade, we spent the afternoon trying to stay cool in the pool

And in the shade tent we had posted on the lawn

We did not do fireworks. Both our kids go to bed fairly early and I thought both kids would just be scared by them. I know Adaline was, she woke up crying so many times throughout the the night because of the surrounding neighborhood fireworks. Maybe we'll try seeing them next year.

All in all, it was a great holiday~ hope you enjoyed yours, too!

Swim Lessons

Travis and I both enjoy swimming and being in the water. We've had Adaline in the pool since she was  a few months old and we've been working with her being comfortable in the water and general pool rules/water safety all summer in our pool and my parents' pool. But we thought she could use a bit of practice from a non-family member, so after much consultation with my good friend Julie and my sister, we enrolled her in the city swim lesson program. It runs in two-week sessions for most of the summer, four days a week, 40 minutes a lesson. Adaline was one of the youngest in her pre-school class, and by far the smallest. We know she's a slow-to-warm personality (meaning it takes her quite some time to get comfortable with new people or new things, but once she is comfortable, she completely relaxes and comes out of her shell), so we talked it up for a few weeks before the lessons started. Not too much, just to let her know the experience was coming and what it would look like and what she would be expected to do. 

On the first day of swim lessons, I could NOT get a smile out of the girl. She was definitely nervous about all the new faces. I kept telling her where I was going to be sitting, and I wore my big brown sun hat so she could easily pick me out of the crowd, but she was still VERY clingy. 

(see, no smile...)

She refused to even scoot up and join the group :(

When she finally did, the rest of the kids were jumping in and she sat on the edge. It was at this point that she broke down and started crying. I almost started crying. I promised myself I would give the instructors time to work their magic, so the whole first day, I just stood there wringing my hands.

She cried at least 30 of the 40 minutes.

We talked about it on the drive home and for the rest of the evening we kept revisiting it and talking about what to expect the next day.

It must have worked, because she only cried for 10 minutes the second day (although it felt like an hour for me). She was able to stop crying but still refused to join in and do the moves. The instructor didn't push it, and we all walked away with hope for the next day.

It must have worked because she didn't cry on the third day, but she still separated herself from the group...

 But the instructor slyly put her closer to the group when her turn was over... and she did try a few of the things the instructor asked her to do. By the end of the week, she was totally engaged and completing the tasks! Major improvement!


And by the start of the second week, the Adaline I know and love was starting to come out at swim lessons:

 (major kudos to the instructors for handling all those kiddos at once!!!)

 She was willingly sitting closer to her new friends and listening to the teacher :)

And by the last day, she was hopping all around the waiting area, super excited to start the lesson!

Thank you, Miss Violet, for all your patience and persistence! The most frustrating part for me as a parent, was knowing she could do all the things the teacher was asking her to do because she will do them at home with Travis and me, but seeing her refuse to do them for another person. By the end of the two weeks, she was really getting into it and showing that she had the skills AND that she would follow the directions of a fairly new person. That's all I wanted her to take away from the experience- the ability to listen to the adult in the pool, whomever that may be.

Because it was painfully hot at 11am the first week, Spencer stayed home with Travis, but the second week, they joined me in cheering Adaline on...okay, Travis helped cheer Adaline on, Spencer spent most of the time enjoying the unseasonably cool weather by napping in the shade :)

Hopefully we'll continue on next year and make even more progress and I'll get to see the new friend I made in the waiting area! (Let me know when you're in back in the area for a visit, Ann- we'll go for a walk or coffee or something!)