The past couple of weeks.

Sylvie asleep after church.

Marco with his scratched up face.

Well, it's been really quiet around here since Tami, Dan, Noelle and Corom went home. We miss them! We've just been getting back into our routine. My goal of getting Marco potty-trained has not happenned yet. He is one stubborn kid! He is really active too! On Friday we went to the park for play group and the kids played in the water fountains. There is a low brick wall that goes around the water area and Marco decided to climb on it. He then fell off face first onto the concrete and scraped up his face and busted his lip. Then yesterday when Julio was chasing him to change his diaper, they collided and Marco got the wind knocked out of him. That was scary!

This last week, Lucia had her doctor's appt. for her kindergarten check-up. She had multiple shots and a blood test. She was pretty brave through it all but is happy she doesn't have to get shots for a long time. She did have a bad reaction to the MMR-swelling and a fever, but she is better now.

Other than that, we've still been house hunting and have put in two bids on houses (one a bank repo and the other a short sale). We're still waiting to hear on them. We've been swimming at Mom and Dad's, going to play groups and the free movies. Before we know it, the summer will be over. We're trying to enjoy it as much as we can!

Santa Cruz Camping-Friday, July 10th

So after our first night camping as a family, we were exhausted! The airmattresses deflated, we were cold and Sylvie screamed most of the night. We had a busy day planned, so after a yummy cooked breakfast we headed to the Santa Cruz Beach Board Walk. We let the kids go on some rides. Lucia loved the mini-rollercoaster and the log ride. Marco doesn't really enjoy rides unless they are really slow-like the train. The adults got to do the old rickety rollercoaster built in the 1920's. I screamed through the whole thing! My stomach can't handle those things anymore! I'm getting old. After the rides, we grabbed some delicious garlic fries and headed to the beach for our picnic. The kids just loved the beach! They immediately ran into the freezing water and played for a long time. Sylvie got really sandy and messy and kept eating the sand! It was so much fun though!

After the beach we headed back to camp for showers and then went to town for dinner to celebrate Tami's birthday. We had some good Mexican food and found out Sylvie loves black beans. Unfortunately we paid for it that night when she had a bad bout of gas. We then went back to camp and had brownies and ice cream and watched Tami open her gifts. It was a really fun day.

Brighton Beach-Saturday July 11th

Are we having fun yet?

Sylvie being contained at the beach.

Lucia and Noelle digging in the sand.

Julio, me, Corom and Dad, Mom at the beach.

Marco having fun with a feather.

All tuckered out after a long day at the beach.

Saturday we decided to go to Brighton Beach near Capitola. We had the whole group together for the day-including the dogs! When we got there, it was really overcast and we even felt a few drops of rain, but the kids went into the freezing ocean anyway! Crazy kids don't feel the cold when they're having fun. They also dug a huge hole in the sand to climb into. We saw sea lions and dolphins swimming by, pelicans diving for fish, and tons of annoying sea gulls begging for our food. We had a picnic on the beach and then went back to camp for showers. That night, Gina and Josh treated us to delicious tri-tip! We then did smores around the campfire and chatted until pretty late. It was a really fun day.

Santa Cruz Camping-Sunday July 12th

Cousins on a fence at Henry Cowell State Park.
Hernandez Family in the Redwoods-Sylvie is under her hat sleeping in the stroller.
Lucia in the covered bridge.

Sunday morning we woke up and decided to pack up and go home. We had another difficult night sleeping-deflated air mattresses, cold and crying baby. We then went for a walk through the Redwoods at Henry Cowell State Park. It was a mile loop and it took us over an hour to walk through it. We stopped and looked at all the trees and just enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. It was a warmer day and we tired quickly. We separated from the Aldama's and went and got pizza and took it to a park so the kids could run around and play a bit. There was a really cool covered bridge by the park that we walked through. I'd never seen one of those before. We were all tired out and so when we left, we drove straight through without stopping! We got home in less than 3 hours and were relieved to have a hot shower and our comfy beds back. It was fun, but as Julio and I say to each other, "Camping just isn't our thing."

Sylvie Walking!

Sylvia is now walking at 10 months...boy this equals trouble!

FYI

I know, I've got a lot of catching up to do. I have a lot of photos to upload from the trip and I have to video Sylvie walking around. It is crazy-she's 10 months old and walking around! So, what's the hold-up in posting? I'm on facebook now. It is consuming my blogging time. Plus, we are still house hunting. Tami and Dan are still here, so we are having cousin time as well. I'll get to blogging soon enough. It is starting to get HOT here again! Ugh! I'm sooooo tired... Good night!

4th of July weekend

The birthday girl blowing out her candles.
The girls waiting for the fireworks to begin.
Sitting outside enjoying the weather and conversation.
Sylvie loves baked beans!
Splashing in the pool.

(Sorry these pictures are out of order)
So the fun has officially begun. I love the 4th of July-especially this year since I'm not pregnant :-) We have Tami and Dan and kids here for a couple of weeks to enjoy the summer with us and to celebrate birthdays and the holiday. We started off on Saturday with the 4th of July party at Mom and Dad's. The weather was perfect-not too hot. We swam for a while and then we pigged out! Talk about a huge spread-we had ribs, bbq chicken, flank steak, hot wings, corn on the cob, fruit salad, green salad, potato salad, garlic bread, chips and dips and then pies for dessert. (I know my waistline expanded this weekend) We then went to see the fireworks at Sunrise mall. It was actually a little bit chilly. We waited and waited, and then finally when the show started, we couldn't see it because they were shooting off behind a tree! Oh well, we moved into the parking lot and enjoyed the show. Then Sunday we had everyone over to our house to celebrate Mom's birthday. I made crab cakes, tortellini salad, garlic cheddar biscuits, birthday cake...another inch to the waist. The cousins just love being together and Callie even got to be part of the party via Skype!
We are now preparing for our camping trip this weekend to Henry Cowell State Park near Santa Cruz. It is our first Hernandez camping trip-but we are going with all the family-including all the Aldama's. It should be lots of fun!