Fish, fish and more fish!

Catfish Hunter Blake!

Wow did we have a great time on our last camping trip! I found the campsite on the internet...it had a small stocked lake full of various fish, a nice swimming pool, free tiled showers and campsites on the lake...perfect! Even better they had last minute availability.

As some of you know, Blake is obsessed with fishing. The only problem is he has yet to catch anything. Patrick and he have been on several outings and have come up empty handed every time! Blake was really starting to get discouraged and felt he would never catch a fish, so this vacation was all about getting that fish. It really didn't matter the size or what kind, he just wanted to bring one in.

Well, thanks to some very friendly neighbors in our campsite who actually invited Blake over to their site and taught him the secrets (they have been to the lake several times) of the lake, Blake finally caught his first fish!

Blakes first fish!

Needless to say he was ecstatic and we couldn't get him to do anything else the entire three days. He is now a pro at casting, baiting the night crawler or mill worm on the hook (he even did mine for me), catching the fish, and taking the fish off of the hook. He is so cute he wants to do everything right and Patrick had a great time teaching him all about his (Patrick's) favorite pastime...what can I say, Like father, like son.

He was very proud of himself for holding the fish by it's lip.

Fun Day in Del Mar

Beautiful Del Mar coastline

After spending three days camping, we weren't quite ready to head home. We decided to head into San Diego since we were so close. Our first stop was in Old Town San Diego to go to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. The boys also love playing in the park and getting candy at the candy store. Here is a picture of the boys on the old covered wagon.


We contemplated heading to a baseball game or Sea World until we realized we would have no place to keep Charlie. Instead we found that Del Mar had a beach that allowed dogs. We cut over to Pacific Beach and headed north up the coast. Explored La Jolla....definitely want to go back. Passed UCSD and ended up in Del Mar. The beach was absolutely perfect for the boys. Very small waves and very shallow, clear waters. Everyone had a great time.

The boys had a great time digging for sand crabs.

Playing in the waves.

Although Charlie is not much of a water dog, he sure enjoyed the cooler temps.

Summer Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

With Patrick's work schedule, we have been able to spend most of the summer out of the desert. What a relief! We are so lucky that my mom has a pool and lives very close to the beach. We are also super lucky that she doesn't mind us intruding on her quiet, perfectly maintained home! It is truly like being on vacation at her house. We eat all of our meals outside on the patio (great for clean up), spend all day in the pool listening to the oldies, playing rummie tiles or Mexican train, and never really get out of our suits. We have also been able to spend a lot of time at the beach. The boys have become much braver in the ocean and finally we got Blake and Ryan to body board this past weekend. I even got in on the action and went out for a dip in the ocean. I haven't done that in years! It was so fun to take each one of the boys out in the waves. Even Evan came out with me for a short while. The kids love playing in the sand and looking for sand crabs.

Thank you mom and dad for allowing us to spend so much time at your house. Blake wants to live there permanently and I would not have survived this summer otherwise!

My little fish!

Ryan has become quite the little swimmer this summer! He is very much like myself when I was that age and has no fear of the water, which scared us a bit at the beginning of summer. He thought he was a better swimmer than he really was and would jump off from the side of the pool and get stuck in the middle. Just these last few weeks he has really started swimming... it is quite amazing really! His kick propels him super quickly from one side of the pool to the other and now he is using his big arms and we are just amazed! He is able to swim one length of the pool all by himself. His favorite thing to do in the pool although is cannon balls from the top of the retaining wall behind the pool. It has been so nice taking all three kids to the pool and only having to hang on to one...my little Evan, who is super careful, but loves to put his head under water, can blow bubbles and will hang out under water for quite awhile. He also ventured out onto the third step this weekend all by himself. I am so proud of all of my boys...they all truly love the water and are great little swimmers.

The end of diapers is in sight!

So after almost six years of nonstop diaper changing, endless runs to Costco for more diapers and wipes we are almost free from it all! Like the other two, Evan just kind of decided he was ready. This summer he became interested in watching the boys in the bathroom and one day just decided to go sit on the toilet himself. We have had many successes, but due to the amount of traveling it has been difficult to fully rid ourselves of all diapers as of yet. This is more my doing in that I don't want to have to stop every 30 minutes or so for a bathroom run. He does tell us he has to go in the car and we just tell him he has a diaper on. The other big accomplishment....he actually get's out of the water to go to the bathroom...Yeah Evan. Now that I am going to be home for a few days...I have decided it is time to fully focus my efforts. Hopefully in just a few days, we can rid ourselves of dirty, stinky, wet diapers forever!!! So proud of you Evi!