Its all in my head: Quickest Summer Eva!

This summer has been pretty bittersweet. I know its the last full vacation summer I will get because I graduate in May and will be going back to work. SO I think this summer has a sense of humor and went by super fast...but we enjoyed ourselves :) These two kids are seriously the light of my life. I watch them together and cannot believe they are mine.

My back yard is kinda hideous so Alyssa and I decided to make it prettier and painted and sparkled some rocks.

Alyssa's day care has an awesome summer camp and had all sorts of fun things, including bringing in Alphy the Ace mascot!

Chel brought the kiddos to enjoy the Caughlin club pool, they enjoyed themselves :)

I skipped a swim camp to take Alyssa to meet the princesses, an event at a local dance studio...I was so excited, Alyssa kept talking about the princesses and even wore her princess skirt. The second she turned the corner and saw Snow White, she hit the floor and cried the rest of the time. Brat. Kinda rethinking our Disneyland trip haha.

Cousin Dinner at our house, the kids had fun running around the dirt and weed backyard and play area. Luckily it was overcast and cool!

As everyone was leaving the kids broke out into racing and we all lasted another hour at least talking and playing in the front yard. Good times!

Chel had us over to make matching 4th of July shirts! My girl is NOT a fan of getting her hands dirty but they turned out super cute! Even if Parkers kinda looked like a crab and not a hand.

Summer days at home are so nice. We manage to spend most our time playing.

For the 4th we took a day trip to Donner and to visit with Mal and the gang, Alyssa and Lily got some good swimming and swinging time in.

I left Parker with my mom and took Alyssa to Wild Waters with Mal, Deb, Lauryn, and Lily. It was a great girls day! Surprisingly relaxing, Alyssa isn't much of a dare devil and stays pretty close to me. We hit up the wave pool, got some Dippin Dots ice cream and Mal and I even went down one of the big slides! It was a great day :)

Jason and Stacie ran a race up in Tahoe and I must say, that was my favorite 50 Miler...I woke up late, baked some cookies with Alyssa for the runners and drove up to Tahoe, we met up with the in-laws and Stacie's new beau, Sean. Within 30 minutes Stacie finished strong and within 15 minutes Jason finished!! They both ran great races and we were off to Garwood's for lunch with the whole gang.

We checked out the new splash park in North Valleys, not too shabby for $3!

Mal and Chel and I took to kids to Oxbow park, a nature walk area. It was a nice relaxing day just wondering through the park and visiting.

San Francisco! We have made an annual trip to San Fran for the marathon the last few years and this year we had fun introducing Parker to the city. The day we drove in we met up with Stacie at the Warf and walked around and did touristy stuff, saw the seal lions, picked up race packets and had dinner at a food truck circle! Alyssa was so fun to watch run from animal to animal. Doesn't waste any time, just wants to keep moving to the next one.

Selfie of the year award!! I got the whole family ;)

Parker is getting difficult, that's his hand trying to grab the camera while taking pictures.

Jason plowed through the half marathon, trying out a new event for speed.

Jenn came up for a weekend and we hit the wine pretty good ;) It was an awesome visit and maybe soon she can move up here...maybe ;)

These two just kill me...

The yard!! I feel like we didn't do anything this year but I'm very wrong!! I remember standing in the weeds with my mom and I just shrugged and said "I have no idea where to even start" but I saw a piece of black fabric they put under the rocks and I started to pull. That was enough of a start and we have taken off!!We cleared rock and leveled a planter and moved everything to the crap side of the yard.

After the rock was gone we were able to put in fence posts

Then put the fence up for the dog run. and to separate the play area.

THEN....THE PATIO :)

This crew worked like a well oiled machine, they were like artists out there. I never heard them tell anyone what to do, they just did it. I found out later two of the boys were the owners sons. So awesome to have those be the grunt workers.