Gavinisms

I'm cleaning today. I’m annoyed at the mess that never ends. Daniel is at school and Vincent and Gavin are playing. Gavin sits in the garage that I’m cleaning asking various questions, like who is this toy guy that I’m holding. He keeps trying to engage me in conversation which I’m not in the mood for. Then walking through the house he follows me.

Gavin: “Mom. Mom. Mama. Mom”
Me: “Gav, why do you keep saying my name? I’m tired of it. You’re wearing it out.”

After a thoughtful pause he says:

“Um, Becky? Becky Mama.”

I just had to stop and end my bad mood. What a guy. He’s so persistent and lovable, how can I refuse talking to that?

As I type this, he is still yelling through the house house. “MOM! Mom! Becky. Becky? Becky? Um, I wanna have a pear.”

Gotta go.

But first I need to write a couple other things he's been saying lately.

When I break out a knife in the kitchen and start chopping he says with a pointed index finger:

"Mom, be careful you don't cut off your hand."

When I set my glass of water down he says again:

"Mom, be careful you don't knock over your cup."

Daniel goes to Kindergarten

Daniel started kindergarten yesterday. He did awesome. He was so excited to go, so excited about his teacher, his backpack, everything! A little nervous...but mostly excited.
Vincent and Gavin were just about as excited as Daniel. They got their backpacks on too and all 5 of us walked Daniel to school.




Daniel visited his classroom the Friday before school began, so he already knew where to sit.

After everyone got settled in, the teacher had everyone line up outside like they will before each class day.
Jakob was born 6 weeks after Daniel. He lives across the street and they play together often. We were glad to find out he was in Daniel's class.
Vincent watched his big bro go to school. He really, really wanted to go to kindergarten too. He'll go to preschool a couple days a week this year. He's been gathering school supplies every chance he gets. There aren't any school supplies for him to bring...but he has a stash of glue, pencils, glue sticks, erasers, sharpeners...anything he can get his hands on.

Here is where the tears start welling up as our little babies are wrenched from our arms and sent off to school. Okay, it wasn't that bad. But I missed him terribly the first day and couldn't wait for school to get out so I could ask him all about it and see how it went. I think it went pretty quick for Daniel, super slow for mom. We were a little busier for day #2 so time went a little faster.

And off he went....

Summer Videos

Daniel enjoys the last of his carefree, homework free days. It's all down hill from here on out.


Vincent practicing, first day on the skateboard.

Gavin stole Seany's bike from next door and rides it everyday. He loves it.

End of Summer

It's the end of summer. Kindergarten starts on Monday for Daniel. He's all ready to go and he's really excited. I can't believe how fast the time has gone since he was a little baby. When he was just a couple weeks old, I was out walking around the neighborhood and we passed by a family who just sent their kids off to the same school he will be going to. The dad looked at me and my newborn and said, "before you know it, you'll be sending him off to school." It literally feels like last week that happened.
I'm so proud of Daniel and the boy he is growing and learning to be. I'm excited about his teacher and what he'll learn this year. I'm sad that the time will go even faster now. What fun it is watching these kids grow.
When we weren't camping this summer, we were riding bikes, visiting parks and even starting to skateboard. Gavin is really cruising on the balance bike. He just needs to figure out the pedals now. All summer, Gavin has been my snuggle bug. Each morning, he would wake up around 6am and snuggle with me for an hour or so. We slept in a lot these past few months.
But with school approaching, we have started practicing getting up early. The first day or two was pretty rough. The kids partied in their room until after ten which was fully two hours after they were sent to bed. Daniel didn't handle the early wake up call too well...

Vincent climbed a tree at the park, he fell out of it. He was only a couple feet off the ground, but he hit the large branch he was climbing on square on his mouth on his way down. There was a bloody nose and lip, some swelling and scabbing. This didn't stop him from taking up skateboarding later that afternoon. He declared, "Mom, I can skateboard now with both feet!" After an hour or so of practice, he could also pivot on the back wheels and turn the board.

Lake Rollins 2011

We had our 4th annual family camping trip. It was our 3rd year at Lake Rollins. Everyone made it up for some fun in the sun. There were two grandkids at that first family camp out. This year there were eight and a 1/2.



I think Daniel did the most jet skiing of anyone. It seemed like anytime someone was going out on the ski, Daniel was getting a ride. He loved it. The faster the better. No, Daniel and Darian didn't go for a ride on their own.




Gavin was very apprehensive about riding on the jetski. But he ended up going a couple times and enjoying it. George and Gavin even got to see some deer up close on their ride.
My parents took us camping every summer growing up. We have great memories from those times.

Dominic mastered his fishing skills with his new fishing pole.

Grandpa beat everyone at ladder ball.

These kids were like fish. I think Vincent must have spent a solid 6+ hours each day in the water, even after the sun went down we would just float in the lake until his jammies went on. Darian and Devyn swam clear across the lake to join their grandpa.

The boys slept the whole way up and back.

Old Friends and Good Buddies

We had a visit with some dear old friends a this summer. I took pictures of one visit, and neglected the camera on another. But we were so happy to see Dawnielle with Asher and Zadok and a couple weeks later Angela, Nate and Jacob. Old friends are a treat.
The boys loved playing together, although it was quite a jouney finally finding some water to play in. We had two failed attempts at water parks before ending up in our backyard which is where we probably should have started in the first place.
Loading up in the cars a second time after not getting into another water park, Asher points to Vincent and says to his mom:" That guy likes me." Vincent and Asher were great buddies for the day. So great to see them play together.

Pinnacles

On our way home, we visited Pinnacles National Monument. We had seen it on a show called "Motion" which sometimes inspires us. This park was not really for us since it was mainly for hiking, which we don't do with our crew yet. They did have a nice pool at the campground though. On our way in, the ranger handed us 3 junior ranger books and said if the boys completed 6 age appropriate activities in there, they could earn a junior ranger badge and patch. The boys were so determined to earn these. They completed all the activities, which we really more for school aged kids. Daniel answered one question with the word learn, which he figured out how to spell on his own. "LRN".
Upon completion, we took the books back to a different ranger who took this whole thing very seriously. After closely examining the boy's work, he swore them in with hands raised as junior rangers. They've promised to explore, live and learn as earth's best friend.

Daniel and I took a 2 minute hike up one of the trails on a mini exploration. This is about all we saw of the park. Hopefully everyone will be much more interested in hiking in the years to come.

Morro Bay

The view from our other house.

Morro Rock

Morro Bay was a cool little town. We hung out at the beach for the day. Vincent rode his bike, first with mom, then with dad while his brothers slept. It was nice getting a couple hours of relaxation in since Gavin's asthma kept us up all night, both nights. We forgot his meds ):
We attempted to visit Hearst Castle as we drove down Hwy 1. Like so many places on this trip, we ended up skipping it. They wanted $70 for our family, and it just felt like a tourist trap. Wherever the throngs of people are, we tend to avoid. So the visitor center is all we saw. Somewhere up the hill 5 miles in the clouds was a cool house that maybe we will see some other day. I mean, we already got the tour free on California's Gold with Huell Howser.
Gavin is keeping right up with his brothers. Now's he's got the flip flops and the hoodie with hands in his pockets, just like Vincent.