Thursday, July 9, 2015

Grandparent Visit

Last month Dinkney and Poppy came to visit us for a week. We did a few activities in San Francisco, traveled a couple of hours away to Santa Cruz for two nights, and enjoyed some down time in Alameda hanging out and doing "normal" life. Their visit coincided with Emily's annual ballet recital so it was especially nice to have doting grandparents to share that special event with us. They flew out on Father's Day afternoon.

(Pics are a little out of order since I also included some camara photos. Not sure how to fix that.)


We rented another VRBO in Santa Cruz. It was comfortable and clean, but we did not have the outstanding views that we enjoyed with our first two rentals. The kids' favorite part was this spiral staircase. I remember loving those as a kid, too!

We spent our first morning in Santa Cruz enjoying the views from West Cliff Dr. Gorgeous!


We spent our last day in Santa Cruz at the Beach Boardwalk. A hot day deserved an ice cold Dole Whip!


More treats at our favorite Fro-Yo place in Alameda

Beach day in Santa Cruz. We only took our camera phones. It was nice to unwind and relax, but I failed to get many beach photos. 


She was so good at the beach. Little one just did her best to keep up with us all!
We took Don and Nancy up to Twin Peaks after church their first Sunday here. The higher elevation was seriously windy and cool! I thought hoodies would be enough, but we could have used parkas! (Note Emily has on MY jacket!) The views were pretty, but the fog kept us from seeing Golden Gate and Bay Bridges and the East Bay where we live. It is truly spectacular when you can take in even more of the Bay Area.


Family pic at West Cliff in Santa Cruz
Stopped by the Surfer Museum during our walk and snapped this one.




Boardwalk Day!










Emmy and Jeremy played tour guide and took Dinkney and Poppy to Alcatraz Island.
Love the views of SF from here


The audio tour is very informative and interesting!

Poppy is super patient with the kids, but I think he secretly enjoys Legos as much as they do!
We were happy that our grandparent visit coincided with Emily's ballet recital. What at treat to get to share that with them and for them to see little granddaughter all dolled up!


These poses...


Last morning at home. We relaxed and enjoyed Father's Day donuts, opened presents, and took them to our beach for some kite flying. It was a great week!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Emily's Last Day of Kindergarten

Emily's last day of school was June 11th. We went a little longer than most of our friends back in KY, but we don't have to go back to school until August 31st. Emily had a fun last week or so leading to school being out. They had a restaurant day in which they got to prep food and serve the meal to the other kindergarten class (and vice versa). They had a water day with fun outdoor activities, swimming pools, squirt guns, bubbles, etc. Emily's school did not do a kindergarten "graduation." I didn't see this as any big loss since it's hard to say one is graduating from something that JUST started. Instead, we had a big park party with both kindergarten classes. It was a nice end of the year celebration. We made many new friends this year (both Emily and Jeremy and me.) Our children are a blessing to us for so many reasons, but one of them is how they widen our social circle allowing us to meet parents in the same stage of life as we are. Having a school aged child that goes to our local neighborhood school has helped us become more involved in our new community.

Here are a few pics from the last day of school Be sure and note how she's changed from the last day of school compared to the first day. She's definitely grown up!









Tug of war. Mrs. Thomas vs. Dr. A's class! Emily played twice, but then complained about the rope hurting her hands and she didn't want to keep at it. I thought she was being pretty whiny until Dad and some of the adults said the same thing! 

Baby sis enjoyed the festivities, too.

We love our home park. Many, many hours spent here after school. 

Caleb was pleased that there were enough cupcakes for the siblings!


We will miss you Mrs. Thomas. We are thankful for how you taught our girl so well this year.