Happy 1st Birthday Gavin!

On Saturday, our sweet, happy baby boy turned 1! This year really has flown by and I can't believe Gavin is 1, already. We celebrated his first birthday by having some family and friends over and we rented a waterslide for the kids. We also got a small pool for Gavin and the little kids. Everyone had such a great time and the weather was perfect!

This was our first time renting a waterslide and it was so much fun! The drop was a little steep and fast for the smaller kids, but the older girls had a blast! Owen went down it once and he went so fast that he was too scared try it again. Oh well, maybe next time!

The girls would go down the slide then hit this curve and drop into a small pool at the end. I even tried it after everyone left and it was fun!

Savanna loved it. She was on the slide from the minute it got to our house to the minute before they took it away.

Here is the birthday boy enjoying his little pool with the other kids.

Some pics of the cute party decor:

Lola with her grandson, Mason:
Me and Gavin:

A big thanks goes to Tita Penny for her wonderful cooking!

Then it was pinata time! I didn't get many pictures of this since I was holding Gavin, but I'm hoping to get more pictures from some family members soon.

And of course, here is the fabulous cake that my sister-in-law, Emily, made! She is so talented! Isn't it awesome:

Gavin got his own miniature version for his smash cake:

Time to dig in!


Want some?

It's yummy!

It's so fun being ONE!

Aren't I cute covered in blue:

We love you so much Gavin and hope you had a ONE-derful day!

Back to School

School has started back up for Savanna and Owen. Already! Savanna started 2nd grade last Thursday and Owen started Pre-K this past Monday. They are both loving being back in school! Yay! :)

Gavin and I are still getting used to the new schedule. It's a little tough on him because on the days that Owen goes to school, his nap schedule gets a little thrown off. But he's a tough guy and always happy to just go along with the flow! I guess that's what happens when you're #3.


Here's our big 2nd grader:

Savanna's school had Back to School Night on the first day so I was able to attend and take a few snapshots of what she did that day.

Here's her super cute self-portrait:

This is a height chart of her class, she's right in the middle somewhere:

She's got great handwriting (just like her Mom, hehe):

Here she talked about our trip to Pismo Beach (I love the hippo):

We love this preschool so much! Owen has grown and learned so much there.

He was so excited to start school. I can't wait to see how much he grows this year:

Waiting to make his bee hat, just like last year:

What a cutie:

Sand, Sun & Lots of Fun!

Last week, we took a week long trip up to Pismo Beach! We haven't taken a family vacation for this long in a really long time! We wanted to take our new toy hauler and Rzr out for its first inaugural trip so we chose to go to Pismo Beach. Pismo is like the best of both worlds for the desert lover and the beach lover. We knew the kids would love it!

It's officially called Oceano Dunes and it's the only state park in California where you can drive on the beach. We arrived on Monday evening. Justin and I were a little worried about getting caught during high tide but the ranger that worked at the entrance said during summer the tide doesn't get nearly as high as during the winter. Whew! We were relieved. Once we got to the areas where you can camp out, we decided it would be best not to park along the beach for safety purposes. Plus it was kinda crowded and we're not into being right next to other people. We like our space! So we found our spot near the start of the dunes and started unloading and setting up camp. The kids were so excited to finally be there and started immediately digging into the sand. They acted like they'd never been to the beach before! We also caught the sunset during that time. It was beautiful!


The next morning we knew we wanted to take the Rzr out for a family ride. We drove around the dunes for a little and then ended up at the beach. The kids were excited to build sandcastles and search for seashells! I was pleasantly surprised to find a ton of sand dollars out there! Savanna and I made it our mission to find the ones that were still alive and toss them back into the water. It's so cool to turn them over and see their tiny hairy spines moving back and forth. Some sand dollars had hermit crabs living on them too!

Even though Gavin is still small, he still enjoyed himself. He loved watching the seagulls fly by and all the quads go by too! He is such a happy baby that he just enjoys watching his big brother and sister.

On Wednesday, my cousin, Ariel came out to visit us with his two boys. They live close by so I was happy that they were able to come out to see us! Justin took them for a ride in the Rzr and they loved it!

On Thursday, we started the day out like every other morning by heading down to the beach. Savanna always brings an empty bucket and always manages to fill it at least halfway if not all the way full of seashells. This girl loves to collect seashells! She filled up an empty water bottle with some sand and stuffed a few seashells and feathers in it and called it her homemade souvenir! I thought it was perfect! Owen would sometimes try to join her in the shell collecting, but he didn't like getting his feet wet so he would run away every time the water would come close. I don't blame him, that water is cold! Brrrr!

Then that afternoon, the wind kicked up. It was so nice and calm that morning that we had no idea it was coming. We couldn't do anything but stay inside our toy hauler and hope that the wind wasn't blowing the sand out from underneath us! I felt really bad for some campers near us that were tenting it. Now that would make me super miserable. Justin had to use the Rzr to pull his quad out because it was pretty much buried up to his chain and we wound up having to move our toy hauler to another flat area next to us. Luckily the wind finally died down that night and we were able to stop worry about tilting or sinking. It's kind of hard to tell how strong the wind was in these pictures but hopefully you can see how much the chairs are buried and some of the toys too. And also how the flag is waving.

Then came Friday, our last day there. We debated staying one more day but checked the weather and it said it was going to be windy again, so we said, "We're outta here!" The kids were sad that we were leaving and wanted to stay longer. Sorry kids!

That morning I took Savanna on one last ride in the Rzr down to the beach. It was pretty foggy still and the beach was empty! It was nice and we were able to collect a ton more shells! We also found a live clam and it was pretty big! I thought about keeping it, but then it took me back to my childhood when my brother got caught digging for clams with no license so I quickly threw it back into the ocean! :P I love spending some alone time with Savanna where I can. It was just the girls in the Rzr! When we got back to camp, she spread out her shells to show everyone.

Once we got back, Justin took Owen on a boys ride to the dunes. Owen was so excited to be able to sit in the front seat and tell Justin which way go. He loved it so much! Can you tell in this picture? And here's cute little Gavin just hanging out!

The ride home was really quiet. Everyone was tired and there was one point where all the kids were asleep at the same time! Now that rarely happens, so I had to take a picture of it!

We had a great time and hope to go back again soon! (When it's not windy)