Our Summer In Pictures Part I: Water, Sand & Family

The summer started off with swim lessons for the twins.  Chase's new trick: going ALL the way under water.  Ella just likes wearing the goggles (notice I said "wearing" and not "using").

 

Apparently Chase & Ella have overcome their fear of the ocean and moving water.  So much so that Chase is willing to take on the waves and Ella likes the challenge of trying to jump over them.

 

 

Brian couldn't wait to put his new boogie board to good use with the boys.

 

And sand crab hunting is a must....

  

just be careful where you hunt!  This jellyfish was dead and luckily no one got stung, but that's a close enough call for me.  Yikes!

 

And, of course, our trip to the beach wouldn't be complete without building sandcastles with Aunt Nee Nee.

 

 

Not quite the beach, we spent the day at Lake Perris with extended family.  It turned out to be a perfect (albeit hot!) day.

    

The lake water was perfect for playing in for the kids (shallow and no current or big waves).  And when they weren't swimming, there was fishing.  Chase & Ella got their first lesson from Brian.

 

She's a natural.

   

The good news is that they both got to experience catching (tiny) fish.

 

But I think they were more excited to be doing what the "big" kids were doing.

   

A little more family and a little more beach, we headed back to Torrey Pines to check out the tide pools.  The beach is fun, but everything is more fun with cousins!

  

  

Truth be told, we probably could have skipped the tide pools and just let the kids climb on the rocks...

  

or search for shells, or examine the green algae that washed ashore...like I said, more fun with cousins.

  

Speaking of cousins, we were treated by a rare visit from TWO beloved cousins- Jane from Colorado and Michael from Ventura.  You couldn't find two more genuine, sincere people; I'm lucky to call them family.

 

 

By the way, this what happens when you don't worry about putting sunscreen on perfectly because it's cloudy and you forgot to put it on first thing (meaning the kids are already wet and sandy).  Yes, we had FOUR raccoons and funny looks from strangers for a few days.  Lesson learned. 

  

Our final trip to the beach this summer was with Nana Sharlene who had been begging to go so they could build sand castles.  

 

Garrett took this task very seriously and spent quite a while digging trenches and building his castle (which, of course, I didn't get a picture of).  

   

Chase got in on the action, too, but he was more interested in making a "road" and a path for the water.

 

And while he didn't partake in the castle building, Blake made his own artistic creation- a crab!  I love that kid, this is SO him.

I would have liked to make it to the beach more this summer, but considering the undertaking of getting there, applying sunscreen (accurately) to four squirmy kids, keeping them from drowning or wandering off, keeping them fed and then showering off only to discover an entire pocket full of sandy shells...while in the car...I think we did pretty good.  Next summer we will probably be regular beach bums. :) 

 

 

 

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans..."

Aint that the truth.  Life has been busy and happening all over the place over the last couple months.  Here is my best catch-up-nutshell version of our crazy life...

We survived yet another tax season.  Are they getting harder or are we just getting older?  Or both?  The good news is that I'm looking forward to that post-labor amnesia that should be kicking in any day now where looking back "it wasn't that bad...".  The GREAT news is that Brian really likes his job.  And, really, life is too short not to. 

Blake earned his yellow belt in karate, way to go, Blake!

Of course now it's getting harder and he hasn't totally committed to practicing, but I'm hoping the hitting and kicking techniques will change his mind (so long as he doesn't practice those on his siblings).  When he's not going kung foo, Blake is putting his new pocket knife to use following his  recent Cub Scouts refresher on whittling.  He's so proud, what do you think of his fish?

Note: whittling a small bar of soap takes a lot of- okay, too much- focus and patience for a group of excited third grade boys.

We also learned how to ski Southern California style- on grass, of course! 

It actually turned out to be a really good team building exercise with Scouts that ended up being very akin to rowing.  And I'm happy to report that Blake seems to finally be doing much better in school...now that it's May.  No doubt he's looking forward to summer and more fort building (he actually builds rooms in his forts!).

Garrett has continued to amaze us with his unique and original Lego creations.

This is the "graveyard" he built complete with headstones, a "creepy" tree, spider web and spider.

Watching Garrett construct this sphinx was pretty amazing- he new exactly what piece needed and where to put it.  He built his in under 5 minutes.

It seems like daily that he comes up with something new.  I can't wait to see what he comes up with at Lego camp this summer...should be interesting.  While I'm still trying to wrap my brain around him turning eight, Garrett has managed to finagle three family birthday celebrations and a friend party next month.  This kid is going to be a millionaire someday...  These days he's added another Character Counts wristband to his collection after being rewarded at school for turning in money he found on the playground.

Does this nullify the Character Violation he got earlier that week? 

Chase is still a bigger version of his sweet and loving self.  He's become quite the talker these days and goes from 0 to frustrated in about .01 seconds...patience is not this child's virtue.  But, fortunately, being too darn cute is.  And so are compassion, affection and cuddling.  Yeah, he's pretty irresistible.  He's also become quite the little dancer/singer.  Here are his moves to Michael Jackson's "Beat It".

Otherwise, his biggest challenge right now is trying to be "one of the 'big' boys" when his body is only three (which doesn't help his frustration).

Ella got her first hair cut!  Yes, while Chase has had more than we can count, we've been holding out on getting Ella's haircut so she could have long hair.  And now that she does, she wants it cut "like a boy".  The compromise was just a trim, which turned out much better than I was anticipating considering that she was growling at the stylist the entire time. 

She even got a style (something I'm strictly prohibited from going).  In the end she walked away with a "Jedi" braid- the one and only time, I'm sure.

She has also become quite enthused with drawing.  Here is the first official drawing that is recognizable to others- can you guess what it is?

It's kind of hard to see, but according to Ella it's a spider.

Now if I could just harness that creativity exclusively to paper... 

And, of course, she is still dressing up (and undressing) Ella-style constantly.  

Here's one of the coolest things about preschool- the twins got to celebrate their "special day" at school, where they celebrate non-school birthdays.  They were super proud to have Aunt Renee come to read a few of their favorite books.

Aimee.  My updates are a little less exciting...I'm still running about 20 miles a week, which is good considering I discovered cake pops (and really wish I hadn't)! 

Other than keeping up with family, I've been working a little less and am promising myself I will make time to write more.  Summer is just around the corner and I'm ready- or at least armed- with workbooks, summer camps and sunscreen.

Easter was low-key this year.  Mostly because we had been too busy to plan much more than an egg hunt and a totally nontraditional (but easy) lasagna dinner.  I really need to talk to the Easter bunny about rescheduling Easter for AFTER tax season.  Just as well- we went light on the egg hunt too, since I had already eaten most of the candy. 

Mother's Day was also low-key (the theme around here when things get crazy).  And, you really can't go wrong with a massage to celebrate.

 

This was the Mother's Day Tea at the twin's preschool where the kids in the class created the menu for the moms.  This year it was chicken noodle soup, lemonade and chocolate ice cream.  Yum? What I love about that is that they are all comfort foods, which tells me the kids love the comfort of mom!

 

Then there was the hailstorm of '12.  We had a few days of cold rain and hail- so much so that it accumulated just enough to make ONE snow/iceball.  By the next weekend it was 80 degrees, so that was our winter and then we were into spring.  It was fun while it lasted.

One of the coolest things about San Diego is "Free Tuesdays" at Balboa Park.  On this day we went with Nana to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs (of course) and then went to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center where the kids got to explore for hours.  A portion of the upstairs was dedicated to stick building- whatever you can imagine and build!  We all had fun building masterpieces (and learning about physics...).

Over Spring Break the kids and I got to visit with John, Jen, Patrick and Jessica, who we haven't seen in almost eight years!  What a great time (minus the stomach bug that knocked a few of us down), and how fun to be grown ups and reminisce about childhood!  It was especially fun getting to know Patrick and Jessica a little better- what sweet kids (which is strange to call them, since they are both taller than me and twice as big since the last time I saw them).

Speaking of family, we recently had the privilege of hosting a family of House Wrens in the birdhouse the boys made with Grandpa a few years back.  Blake was the first to notice it, but I was doubtful because I thought the hole was too small.  Turns out, it was just the right size for a small bird and perfect shelter for a nest!  

In fact, we've had quite a variety of birds hanging out at our house lately- a Scrub Jay that waits on our patio for bread crumbs, a Coopers Hawk and a Redtail Hawk that consider our yard prime hunting grounds, hummingbirds that keep checking back to see if we've refilled our feeders, and a woodpecker that can be heard and seen poking at the neighbors' trees.  Blake even did his school presentation on birds- and a special thanks to Aunt Nee Nee for helping him!

And in the midst of it all, we moved Penny/Grandma & David/Grandpa in early March to be closer to us.  The move was all that Penny had talked about wanting for years, and we were able to spend a little more time with her in the last month.  Sadly she passed away just a few weeks after moving here (more on that in another post) and we think about and miss her often.

The good news is that this summer is promising to be unforgettable!  The boys are really looking forward to fishing and bird watching with Grandpa, going to Lego, Lasertag and rock climbing camps, and hopefully spending most other days in their bathing suits (literally, not metaphorically, although nothing would surprise me in this house).  Chase & Ella will hopefully be taking swim lessons and tumbling.  And I'm just hoping to keep my sanity :)

Out and About in San Diego

It's vacation time for the Wilcoxes...which means the annual week of "stay-cation" activities we get to enjoy as a family. This is by far the highlight of our summer.

We kicked things off with a day of good old fashioned picnicking with family at Santee Lakes. We even had our 15 (mili)seconds of fame as a local news station filmed us. This quickly became a game of "How Many Wilcoxes Can You Count". Wanna play? (click to access link) I think just about all 16 of us made it on the news clip to some degree. And the kids couldn't have had more fun at the splash pad. For the twins (who can't swim yet), it was a welcomed chance to play independently in the water...however they wanted. It was a great day and fun time spent with cousins.

If there is a table full of girls, you can bet Garrett will be near.

Coming off the 4th of July and needing to recover from way too many nights of going to bed late, we opted for a low-key bowling excursion on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I think the novelty has worn off some for the twins, who were done by the fourth frame (granted a game with six players does seem endless when the ball is getting stranded in the lane every other turn...or taking an eternity make its way to the pins, only to knock down ONE). And the boys were anxious to make their way to the arcade, where Garrett promptly spent the $4 in quarters he brought on pencil toppers (another pointless collectible)...and Blake spent most of his trying to win a stuffed dinosaur for Chase using "the claaaawww". No such luck, but a sweet gesture none the less.

We braved the beach on Wednesday...with the rest of San Diego and out of town visitors. But the boys love any opportunity to crash into waves and the twins to dig in wet sand. Garrett also got try out his new boogie board, which he picked up quickly.

Blake has been saving diligently for an iPod Touch, so rather than spend his money on a boogie board, he opted for the less expensive water toy- the pool noodle.

The twins are still not too excited about moving water, but Chase had a great time making friends with the sand crabs and Ella enjoyed the multiple trips to the "big girl potty" and the perpetual process of getting sandy, showering off, getting sandy, showering off, so on and so forth.

Chase's red bucket is full of sand crabs.

Even though going to the movie theater for the first time to see Cars2 was supposed to be Chase's potty training reward (it didn't take long for me to realize that unlike his sister, Chase isn't quite ready to potty train), we had planned to go all along and decided to go through with it. The twins did better than I thought through the previews, but Chase promptly declared he was ready to go home after they ended (flashback to fireworks...). We convinced him to stay and to eat his popcorn. They made it through almost half of the movie before they decided they would rather explore. Ella was especially upset to learn that when the movie ended, it was over and time to go home. She learned the hard way that movies at the theater do not pause while you get up to play. Needless to say, the twins' lack of naps this week was quickly catching up with them.

But not to worry...the backyard camp out was sure to wear them out! We saw this as a trial run for "real" camping and campfire fun for the twins. The kids had a blast roasting hot dogs and smores on the little red bbq.

And playing outside after dark wasn't so bad either.

But NOTHING can compare with sleeping in the tent!

Do you think someone is excited?

It was a perfect night for camping and I loved that the option of modern conveniences was footsteps away! The kids did great sleeping in the tent (except maybe Chase, who was fighting with his brother in his sleep...literally! and Ella who woke up three times to go potty).

Judging from the next morning, I would say it was a success.

But, alas, what would a true vacation be without a trip to Urgent Care? Chase tripped running out of the tent and spent the night and morning scooting around so as not to put pressure on his foot. An x-ray confirmed no broken bones, but follow up will be necessary if it doesn't improve by next week (which it seems to be, thankfully!).

And then there were the little things that make vacation...plenty of junk food, time spent with extended family, staying up late and sleeping in (for the kids at least), lots of sunshine and water and hopefully some good memories. Restful and relaxing? Not exactly...but nothing with four kids ever is. And it's just enough to make you long for the predictable chaos that is "normal" to recover from the "fun".

Something tells me I'm not the only one...