Which beach do you want to go to today?

We went to the beach a lot last month. It's a great way to get away from the heat, since it's typically 30-40 degrees cooler on the coast during the summer.

What we love about living here is the variety of beach options. First we decide what we're in the mood for. Morro Bay is one of our favorites because there's lots to do there, such as running down sand dunes and visiting the shell shop and eating salt water taffy. Plus it's good for kayaking and riding bikes, if we're feeling ambitious.

Another favorite is Hearst Beach. The weather is often nicer than surrounding beaches because it's more inland. It will be socked in all the way there, and then the fog will clear and we'll arrive at sunny blue skies. No wonder Randolph Hearst chose to build his castle there. Last time we went there we saw a huge herd of wild zebras on the way home. That's always fun.

And it has a natural breaker, so the waves don't get too dangerous. It's not good for surfing, but it's usually perfect for boogie boarding.

I love the sky in this one. That strip of land behind the pier is the natural breaker. It's a nice hike.

 We like to go to the beach whenever family visits. My brother Josh and his family came for a long weekend.

Such cute boys!

Someone usually wants to get buried. 

Chloe is such a good beach baby.

I think this was a pretty cold day at the beach. You never know, so we always pack sweatshirts just in case.

 Some people manage to get sand in every orifice.

  

I don't usually go to the beach without adult help, especially with a baby. It's just too much work, and I worry I'll lose someone. But we went to Morro Bay after dentist appointments one day and didn't go near the water. We had a picnic lunch at the park and climbed sand dunes. 

This is one of my favorite happy places.

 Pay no attention to the signs that say, "Do not climb."

While we were relaxing and watching the waves from a distance, we saw a tour group. So we listened in and learned a bunch of stuff about Morro Bay and the wildlife that lives on and around the rock. I can't remember anything specific right now, but Spencer got excited about it.

As I look at these pictures, I remember feeling so completely relaxed before school started. Now our afternoons and evenings are busy with homework and scouts and Back-To-School Nights - all important things, but I just loved having my family and our schedule all to ourselves.

Big Bro

Levi is getting so big all of a sudden. This is his favorite shirt. It says "Big Bro" on it. He's all about being BIG.

A few weeks ago he had his very first dentist appointment. I was a tad nervous about how he'd do, because if he doesn't want to do something, he just won't do it. But the boys had talked it up a ton and even played "dentist" with him at home, so he felt thoroughly prepared.  

What a big boy! He did amazingly well.

Yay, prize box. No cavities, but he does need to stop sucking his thumb because it's starting to mess up his bite. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

He's got some pretty sweet dance moves.

We went to Morro Bay one last time before school. I was ready to put him in a full-time preschool because of the way he bugged everyone over the summer.

But now that the big kids are back in school, he is back to being my sweet, helpful Levi. Mostly. So I think I'll keep him around.

 And these are his sweet kung fu moves. 

The biggest thing Levi is doing right now is getting potty-trained. I was really not looking forward to it because 1. I hate potty-training! and 2. I thought he would be hard. Whenever we brought it up, he'd say he didn't want to. But I buckled down and did it last week, and he caught on super fast. He is still having occasional accidents and sometimes throws a fit when I tell him to sit on the potty, but he loves to wear underwear and show me his pee and eat Dum-Dums, so we're all very happy. Hallelujah!

More pool pics

August was the 3rd hottest month on record here, based on the number of days above 100, so we spent a lot of time in our pool.  As you can see, Levi finally warmed up to it by the end of the summer. 

He didn't want to share the picture with Dallin.

We had a lot of issues with the pool. It kept getting cloudy, and it kept losing water - something to do with the filter tubes falling out. But our water bill was getting out of control, so we stopped refilling it. They still managed to have fun though.

I love pictures of water droplets! 

Six Months!

Chloe is 6 months old! These monthly updates sure do sneak up on me, and I can't believe her first year is already halfway over :( 

Dallin took these first few pictures. She was on my tummy, sucking on her toes (she has a lot in common with her cousin Brian), but as soon as he took out the camera, she stopped sucking and just stared at him. She looks so much like baby Brennan in this picture.

This is my favorite one.

I bought some tiny hair clips, and they actually stay in her hair. She still doesn't like to roll over, but she's starting to sit up on her own.

 The boys love, love, love to play with Chloe. They surround her with toys and call it a Chloe party.

Chloe also likes to suck on her tongue and lips. Dallin was surprised she wasn't afraid of the scary shark. She's so brave!

We especially like to dress her up for church. Spencer took these pictures a couple weeks ago. She's wearing another coordinating hair clip - this time a purple butterfly. She's also wearing her gold Cleopatra sandals. Yum! One day as we were getting ready for church, Dallin said, "She's so cute, I almost can't look."

She's so flexible! Sometimes she gets both feet in her mouth at once.

Spencer loves this age because she likes to play with toys. It's fun to watch her having such a grand time chewing and rattling. He took these pictures too.

Now that the boys are back in school, it's just these two at home. I especially like it when I can coordinate their naps and have a couple hours of quiet in the afternoon. But it also means that I lose my live-in babysitter (Spencer) and have to take them shopping with me. 

Ouch!

School started on Monday (more about that later), and Tuesday morning I got a call from Tyler's school that he had fallen off the monkey bars. When I arrived he was crying in the nurse's office, and his wrist was obviously deformed. I knew right away it was broken. I assumed we'd take him to the E.R., but I had a prompting on the way that I should call a friend. We had recently talked about kids and broken bones; she recommended a new doctor in our town who was great with kids. I called the office, and they said we could go there right away. 

We were so impressed with the whole experience. He had x-rays taken in the office, and the distal ends of both his radius and ulna were fractured and displaced. The doctor splinted it, gave us pain medicine and scheduled a surgery for later in the day, since he had to have an empty stomach.  We were able to go home for a few hours to rest - this was much better than spending the day in the E.R.! It was so hard to see Tyler in such excruciating pain. The medicine helped, but each time he'd fall asleep, the pain would wake him back up. 

Luke let him borrow his sling, which really helped. We went to the hospital at 3:00. Dave got off work early and met us there.  The pain medicine was wearing off by this point, and he was hurting! He sure looked cute in his tiger hospital clothes, though. Everyone there was so nice, and they all loved Tyler. 

This is right before they took him to the O.R., around 5:15p.m. The pain was most sever at this point, but he still managed to give me a smile! They put him to sleep for the surgery, and they ended up needing to put a pin in to keep the bones in place.

Here's his Oompa-Loompa hand, probably from the disinfectant they used. They put a temporary cast on, and he'll get that taken off on Tuesday so they can put a more permanent one on. He's been off school all week, which he's really bummed about. He was so excited to start school, and he only got to go one day! Each day he feels better, and he's only taking Ibuprofen for pain now. I read the third Harry Potter book to him, which helped make the time go by fast and get his mind off the pain.