New hair

After growing her hair for about 19 months, Avery was finally able to donate 11" to Locks of Love. When she learned of her little friend (who is now in remission!) having a brain tumor and then losing all her hair to chemo she was convinced she would grow it out long enough to be able to donate. And she ended up with an extra inch (you have to have 10" minimum). Since then she has learned of my 2 cousins fighting cancer and losing their hair too, so this was extra special to her. We are proud of her for having this long term goal and achieving it! And you look fantastic in your new "do", Avery!

Before (she had been wearing it in a ponytail, hence the big dent)

Getting ready

After!

Camping Lake Casitas

After Sacrament Meeting on Sunday (Father's Day) we headed out to Lake Casitas for a 3 day camping trip. It's just inland a tad bit from Ventura and close to Ojai. We had planned to rent a Pontoon boat to do some fishing, but after finding out it was $175 for 5 hours that plan went quickly to the wayside. This was Haley's first camping trip and she did great! Although, she must have been a little stressed out because she got a bit backed up and we had to feed her canned pumpkin to start up her system again. Other than that, though, she was a dream.

Mainly, we just stuck around camp entertaining ourselves, but Kirk did take Justin and Avery fishing a few times (this was always Devin's punishment for whatever he was doing wrong, so needless to say he never went, poor guy. He's been having a rough time with school being out and his schedule interrupted). They had a really fun water park that we enjoyed on our last day. It had a lazy river, which was the kids favorite. It was a very fun time!

Playing around our campsite...

Kirk trying to rewire our new "happy lights". No luck, but I did a little finagling and was able to combine our old ones with our new ones so now we have all the pretty colors. It's the little things that make me happy. :)

Lake Casitas -

Visiting ducks - always a fun time

New ginormous marshmallows!

So messy, but oh so good!

Our favorite time of day - campfire time. Time for "Guess who I'm thinking of", stories of when Kirk and I were young and scriptures...and of course smores.

Haley's spot for bedtime.

Water Park day...

The Lazy River...

We went for 2 hours and then took a break for 2 hours and went back for 1.5 hours.

Our campsite

Our view

Our sweet Haley

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Father's Day to our favorite daddy! Our ward had an activity for the kids to make your own tie for a present for your dad and then all the dads would wear them to church on Sunday. We were to bring a old tie that Kirk doesn't wear anymore and any and all craft stuff. We completely forgot to get there on activity day, but we did it at home. Here is what our kids made Kirk. I think it's just the cutest tie out there - a sure one of a kind! We also made him a darling recordable book to have forever and ever with their cute little voices saying their favorite things about their daddy. Hope it was a great Father's Day for all your dads too!

Strange happenings

A few weeks back our next door neighbors had a gazillion bees making a beehive in their front yard tree that is all too close to our driveway. There were bees everywhere...including 3 in our family room (not to mention the 14" lizard that made it's way into our family room also that same day! How did that happen?!). Another neighbor 3 houses down (also named Kirk) and our Kirk decided to take matters into their own hands. Neighbor Kirk placed his trashcan under the branch where the hive was and used a tool to cut the branch off and it fell right into the trash can! Bullseye! There were angry bees everywhere. This picture doesn't even begin to show how many there were, but these are the ones trying to get back to their queen probably. The trashman came a couple days later, took it away and the remaining bees didn't know what to do, but they eventually buzzed away and we've been bee free for weeks now. Yay!

Our fearless Kirk's!

Some cute little sparrow birds have made nests up in the corners of our roof, but one mother is not taking good care of her babies very well. We have now had 2 babies that have fallen to their deaths. Poor things! It's a long way down. Yesterday Avery actually saw this poor little guy fall. I know it's kind of morbid to take a picture, but it was very interesting to me to see all the little parts being formed. I hope she builds up her nest a little more to keep this from happening. It's too sad!

This is so you can see how far these little guys fall. Ouch!

Sandi's visit

A couple of weeks ago Sandi and Jessica took a road trip and came to Huntington Beach for a few days. The kids had just gotten out of school, so it was perfect timing. Kirk had to stay home to work, but I took the kids and we all camped at Hotel Winn! We had such a nice time. We attempted the very chilly beach (the kids and I only lasted a half hour, but Jessica and Sandi stayed a couple hours) ,did lots of visiting, got treated to dinner at Chili's from my parents (lucky us!), visited South Coast Plaza where a couple dancers from one of my favorite shows (So You Think You Can Dance) Pasha and Ayna, were performing a couple routines to promote their traveling show. That was a nice surprise. I asked them for their picture and the woman said only if I got in it too, so I did! Ha!

Sandi treated the kids to a carousel ride.

We also played some cards and just had a lot of fun.

Can't wait to see them again. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Meet Haley

We have had the dog bug for a long time now. The souring we had from Bella had faded and we were hoping to find the right dog for us. So, the search began a few weeks back. We knew we wanted an adult dog so we kept checking the shelters. Kirk found our baby at the Riverside Animal Shelter. She was listed as a Golden Retriever mix, but we aren't sure what the mix part is. She sure looks Golden to us! What a sweetheart she has turned out to be! Seriously, she is the perfect dog! She's 3 years old and doesn't have any bad things to report on. We got her the Friday before Memorial Day and it's been fantastic! She doesn't bark, jump, have accidents and she's minds when you tell her to get out of the kitchen or off the couch and she's fantastic with the cats. She's the perfect addition to our family! We are in love.