Cousins, Parade, Birthdays, Slumber Party... What Fun!!

We had such a good time being with family this past weekend. Many of us were there together. We enjoyed seeing Leif and Jenn and their family, recently moved back nearby, and Steve and McKenna were there along with Tera and Jared and their kids, and of course Grama and Grampa. We enjoyed spending time with Morgan, but missed seeing her family as they arrived after we left on Saturday. I did see Chris for a few minutes at midnight when he sleepily came in while I was looking for my camera to take a picture of the kids sleeping. Aren't you up looking for your camera at midnight? We squeezed in so many events and had so much fun and came home utterly exhausted! Jacen asked today when we're doing it again. I'm so grateful for my family. We love them so much!

The kids riding on a recreation department float in the parade.
Albert and Jennifer at the parade.
Will and Jace and Leif watching the parade.
Grampa Jim and Tera watching the parade. For those of you who aren't acquainted, this is the Horned Toad parade! Don't you all have parades celebrating Horned Toads?
Albert and Will watch the parade.
Grama Shirley is riding her horse in the parade! Go Grama!!
It's party time and all the cousins are ready to party! They love to be together.
Happy Birthday to Carter and Maila!!
For a party game, the kids had little colorful plastic swords and they had to try to get as many mini marshmallows on the tiny sword as they could. They loved it! I think as many or more marshmallows ended up in their mouths! Jacen won with one hundred or more! They were all very ingenious!


Jennifer and Tera did such a great job making balloon things--swords, flowers, etc. I was very impressed!
Linnea and Sydney with their balloon swords.
The children had so much fun playing together that it was quite hard to settle them all down. They were excited just to be together. However, they finally fell asleep all over Grama's living room--it's a good thing it's so big!

Birthday Party at Grama and Grampa Zuniga's House

We had a party at Grama and Grampa Zuniga's house for all the cousins with birthdays in the past few months, which would be Lauren, Emily, Colton, Jacen, Gavin, and Dezmon. This is the line waiting for the pinata at Grama Maria's house.
Gavin swings at the Pinata hoping to score a treasure of treats!
Linnea taking a swing at the Pinata!
Grama Maria holding sleeping baby Emily

Let's Play Dress Up!

My beautiful princess Linnea
(back: Haley, Linnea, Sydney, McKenna, front: Maila and Will)
Girls love to look beautiful!
Cousin Morgan wears a crazy wig!

All the cousins had so much fun at Grama's house this past weekend! One of their favorite things to do is drag out the wonderful collection of dress up clothes that Grama has collected just for them to play with. Fun! Fun!

Beach Bonfire

After spending all day at the beach, we came home long enough to gather some fixings for hot dogs and smores and picked up Jacen from a Scout activity and headed for Pebble Beach for a bon fire. We had so much fun! Jacen and I played frisbee, the younger children loved jumping off a sand dune, we all enjoyed company of our friends. A seal crawled up onto the beach just a few feet from us--probably wondering what all the fun was about! It was a perfect ending to a great family fun day!

What's more fun then spending time with friends at the beach?
Linnea roasting a marshmallow
Jacen sitting by the fire
Our friends, Mark and Rochel
My two lovely friends, Sarah and Brenna

Beach Bums

Actually these pictures are from two days of going to the beach. We had some unusually warm days! Even record breaking: 94 degrees in Monterey!! That is very warm for here. So what did we do? Leave the dirty dishes in the sink and dirty clothes in the hamper and headed for the beach--all day long! What a blast!!
Gavin and Lily
Gavin loves finding hermit crabs!
Isn't this a funny one? Gavin had put his shorts on himself backwards!
Gavin and his friends
Linnea and Cal
Albert trying to get a tan?
Gavin was completely worn out! He came into the house and collapsed right on the ottoman! A sure sign of a fun day!

Hair cut!

Today I got a hair cut! Yay! A couple of months ago I was in desperate need of a cut and made the mistake of going to Great Clips thinking, "How can they mess up a simple trim?" Boy, was I wrong. I got an awful haircut and then made an appointment with a great stylist in our ward. I don't often splurge on this stuff but love my once or twice a year hair appointments. I'm so glad I'm a girl so I can have fun with hair appointments! Anyway, here are the pictures--after walking around in crazy wind! The wind has been so wild for the past few days--not helping the terrible Santa Cruz fires! I am diverging. I remember in high school my brother thinking it was so funny that a girl barely trims her hair and every girl in the whole school notices. He couldn't tell any difference and didn't know how any one else would. So, here's to girls and their hair!

Goat Rock!!

Last Saturday Jacen went on an excursion to the Santa Cruz mountains to climb Goat Rock! The weather was perfect and he had a lot of fun. It was difficult and Jacen did a great job! It is an annual tradition and I am thinking of going next year!!

Poor Beetle

When I picked up Gavin from preschool today, Gavin saw a beetle on the sidewalk. He thought it was so cute and he stroked it's little back, petting it. He spent several minutes observing it and then said, "Little beetle, go find your mommy!" Then we left the beetle to walk over to the playground. After playing for a while, we walked again past the place where the beetle had been and Gavin saw it squished on the sidewalk. He was very upset and sad that it had gotten squished. Tears started to form in his sweet little eyes. I felt so sorry for him. So, to people everywhere, watch out for little bugs! They may have captured a little boys heart!