Five months

Yeah, I'd be blogging more, but I can't pull myself away from this guy long enough to put something together.
Sorry 'bout that....

Daddy's Home!!!

When Travis comes home from work, Adaline runs from whatever room she's in to come grab his hand. She barely says hello, she just grabs him and says, "Come play with me!" I was able to capture it one day...

 And then Travis gets to play with this guy...

We are so blessed.

The Slough

We have friends who's family has a private beach on the Delta by Elk Grove. Travis has been a couple of times with our friends to go wake boarding, and I've been invited for two years, but just couldn't make it happen until this summer. It was perfect for our young family! A great little sand bar for Adaline to play in, and a huge green lawn for her to run around on, and a massive shade tree for me and Spencer to lounge under. 

We had so much fun! Adaline was not quite ready to take a ride in the big boat, but she sure loved waving to all the boats cruising by. She wore herself out completely, and instantly fell asleep on the drive home- didn't even make it two miles before she crashed out. We can't wait to do it again! Thank you, Matt and Julie!

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!