Just found these June pics :)

The whole fam went to the Sea Life Aquarium before our coupon expired.

We got to see cool and "scary" stuff :)

Payton pretending he's a baby turtle hatching out of a shell, and the Little Miss just had to copy her big brother.

They really enjoyed the whole thing, along with this cool submarine play place at the end. The boys especially liked having a "quiz" as we walked through all the exhibits. There were questions on the wall they had to answer, and if they got them all right, they got a prize at the end.

 

 

i.d.e.a. Museum:

We got to go to the new exhibit, which was all about travel. The kids made passports, and Brooklyn was so cute to grab a travel bag, that she carried with her the whole time, and kept pulling out her passport, stamping it at the different destinations, and then putting it back in. The boys even ended up being glad that she carted around a bag, because every time they made a craft, they'd put it in her 'luggage.'

"I Spy" in the jungle room

 

Captains flying the plane

 

I snuck around out front, to peek over the gate and watched these two having the time of their lives playing foozeball with the crazy sprinkler going. I'm sure this isn't really a game that's supposed to be wet, but it's falling apart anyway from the people who gave it to us, plus all the time it's spent sitting in the sun, so I didn't interrupt them. If they're gonna play nice together, I'm not stopping it!! :)

Before Gordon and Lindy left for Oregon for 2 months, they came over for Sunday dinner and gave Brooklyn an early birthday present. 4 wooden dolls with magnetic clothes and accessories. She definitely loved it, but it was cracking me up how much her brothers also wanted to play, and they seriously played with them for like the next 2 hours. I even overheard Payton say the next morning, "Want to go in your room and play with your girls?" ha ha. They were a hit. Thanks Grandma Lindy!

 

Brooklyn recruited a few friends to come on her train ride while I swept and mopped :)

Solana Beach

We had another great year in California!

Brooklyn was a pretty good traveler, although I'm always hopeful she'll take a nap in the car and never does.

She was coloring so intently here, that I had to take a picture.

The boys always enjoy switching and riding in Emily's car, so we got to have Beck and Rett with us for different legs of the trip.

It's always fun to see a big group of Blake's at the beach. There's always someone for the kids to play with, and for the adults to chat with.

Brooklyn enjoyed the beach and playing in the sand, but was pretty nervous about the ocean, so she mostly steered clear of the water.

She would usually manage to get sand ALL OVER herself. I had to take her picture to show her what she looked like. Sand baby!

 

Her very favorite though, was when someone made her legs into a mermaid. After that, she would ask anyone who's willing to "please can you decorate me a mermaid??"

 

And once CJ even got turned into an octopus.

The boys, both big and little, enjoyed all the sporting equipment and games that went on.

Baseball,

Kan Jam,

Ultimate Frisbee, etc.

Cute cousins jumping waves and boogie boarding:

Madeleine, Avery, Abigail, Beckam, Payton

 

We went to the beach every day, but one day we did venture to La Jolla to see the seals, and explore the tide pools.

Oh man, my main thought about the seals was, "they are so stinky."

But Brooklyn was cracking me up, because she must've thought the noise they make sounded sad, because she kept saying things like, "oh. oh. it's ok. do you need a hug? go find your mommy." ha ha

 

We had just sat down under a tree to eat our lunch, and noticed across the field were some of our cousins! Pretty much the entire Tracy Blake family. So we picked up and invaded their party, ate lunch together, and played Frisbee.

The tide pools were cool and the kids loved them!

Check out that crab that snuck up behind us, by our shoes.

We also stopped by a cool military monument, where we could look all around the city.

Brooklyn loved helping to build sand castles.

I'm pretty sure that not only is Payton totally Casey's son in that he absolutely loved the beach, but he had to have logged the most hours at the beach out of the entire Blake clan. He spent 42 hours there that week. His longest day was 10 hours straight. I would take the kids down with lunches and stay about 4 hours, but then I'd really need a potty break, and I would take Brooklyn with me (hoping she'd nap), and usually CJ (because he'd want to swim in the pool), but since there were often other Blakes there, Payton would stay with someone, and then Casey would come down (except that he was sick for several of the first days.)

He was mostly fine as far as not getting sunburned, other people would help reapply, but poor kid, it didn't even occur to me about his lips. My chapstick has SPF in it, but I never thought to put any on him, until like the last day, when I noticed how red, with white blisters his lips were. Ouch! Sorry dude! He didn't seem to mind though. He LOVES the beach! :)

 

P.S.-

While we were gone, Penny was well taken care of :)

Thanks Mom and Dad!!