So ready for Fall

With school starting for us this last Monday, I am soooo ready for summer to be over and fall to begin! I have just been craving lots of fallish things like:

• wearing jeans and sweaters
• burning yummy smelling candles
• baking bread and pies
• a crackling fire in my fireplace
• rotating my wardrobe for church
• dressing my kids in pants and long sleeve shirts
• not using my air conditioner and seeing my gas and electric bill go way down!
• snuggling on my couch with a blanket and socks
• the smell of new school supplies
• season premiers of good TV shows (so excited for Grey's Anatomy!!)
• going for a morning run when it's gray, cold, and foggy. Mmmmm....
• sleeping under my covers instead of on top
• seeing Christmas stuff in the stores and hearing the infamous carols over the loud speakers
• thunder and lightening

Go away hot sticky weather!!!!

....Although I will miss my tan :(

Surfing 101

Dylan had a little Surfing 101 this summer from Mark and Uncle Scotty. I was a little nervous that he would get frustrated and not like it because he tends to be a bit of a perfectionist .....wonder where he gets that from? :). But..... he seemed to have a lot of fun learning and I'm sure he'll be at it again next summer. Here's a few pics from those lessons

Half way up.....

Uncle Scotty spent some time as teacher too.

And after enough of these...

He was ready to get back to digging for sand crabs and building sand castles.

There's something about little boy surfers that I just love...so cute. I'm looking forward to the day that I get to relax on the beach while Mark takes all of them out to catch some waves :)

Gotta love Craigslist

So this is my exciting find on Craigslist......It's a Wurlitzer and we only paid $100 bucks for it! It's in pretty good shape, just needs to be tuned.

I've been looking for a piano for a while but when it's a good deal you have to be quick. Here's the thing though....I don't know how to play (I know some basics but that's about it), I think Mark knows one song, and of course none of our boys know how to play either. So why a piano you ask? I had this thought that I really want my boys to learn to play (I've been telling Dylan that girls love it when a boy can play the piano...it shows their sensitive side...but he's not really into girls yet so that didn't phase him). Anyway...I figured I should learn to play. You know..be a good example plus maybe I could teach them and it is a good skill to have. I have this mental image of having a peaceful family home evening with me playing a primary hymn as my boys sing along (ha ha...yeah right!). Hey, maybe I might even be good at it...I have been told that I have good piano hands (i.e. long skinny bony fingers :)) This is what was in it's place before..... The ugly black bean bags that Mark brought into our marriage from his bachelor days. I feel kind of bad since the boys love playing in them but c'mon how long was I supposed to keep those injury inducing, dust producers around? A big improvement don't you think? Or maybe a piano wasn't such a good idea :).......

Round 2

After a week of Yosemite and one week at home we geared up for round 2. We got reservations 6 months ago for a week at San Elijo State Beach which was a miracle in and of itself (if you've ever tried to get reservations there you know what I mean). We were excited but I was definitely still recovering from the Yosemite trip. We borrowed my parents stylin' old school RV and since Grandma Cox can't pass up a couple days in the sun, they joined us for a few days.

which means...we were kickin' it in the tent. Our campsite was just a few steps away from the sand but unfortunately the back of our campsite was right next to the main road. Needless to say our first night was very noisy and sleepless. I tried to trick myself into thinking that the semi's and motorcycles zooming by were actually the sounds of the ocean...it didn't work. There was even a train that came by about every 30 minutes which Tryg and Luke loved. Every time Tryg heard the "choo choo" he would chime in with "All aboard!". It was all good though because the rest of my nights included a little Tylenol PM, some ear plugs and I was sleeping like a baby!

Pretty much every day was spent on the sand soaking up the rays (what else are we going to do?). The weather was perfect all week! Tami, Brent and kids came down for a day too. Nights were spent around the campfire...and you can't do a beach campfire without the hot dogs (Costco hot dogs for mom and dad of course. I think they took some back in their suitcase to Utah since they don't sell the coveted Hebrew Nationals in the Utah Costco....I don't get it :)) We even talked Kenny and Jane into taking a 10 hour road trip in their new car to join us. Kenny has a hard time passing up the SD surf and as luck would have it the boys enjoyed some 6-7 footers the whole weekend. Brandon and Melanie came down for a night as well and we were good hosts as we gladly provided them with some ear plugs. Grandma and Grandpa Olson also came down for dinner on Friday night. Luke got some of his favorite "bike time" in and even got Grandma Olson to take a ride with him. By the end of the week we were pooped! I was seriously exhausted from sunscreening and showering kids off multiple times a day! That's luke in the towel with his hand hanging out...he was voluntarily taking a nap on the beach which tells you how tired he was. All in all it was a great week and we've got the tans to prove it. I think I'm still finding sand in my children's crevices! :) We're excited to do it again next year.....with a campsite away from the road of course :)