the summer rundown

we are in full school mode now. but here is a summer rundown of what we did (for those who are still out there ;)

 

we sure went to the pool A LOT this summer. at least once a week if not more!

 i swooned over this chair and really wanted it but passed....outta my price range :(

 took a trip back home to SF in july. brandon has been wanting to go fishin' for a long time and we finally did. it was windy & cold. we didn't catch anything but the boys had fun.

 our main purpose for the SF trip--------to meet this little guy, evan, my brand spankin' new nephew! he weighed in at a whopping 11 pounds 14.5 oz!!! he was about 11 days old when i took this picture. he's such a cutie! thanks to my sis & BIL for letting us come to meet him and to stay with them so soon after his birth!

 the boys were super excited to hold baby evan! brandon even got to feed him!

 we got to have some time at the playground with big sis, jadeyn. she is super smart & super adorable!

 one treat i discovered while in SF was this flavor of it's-it. i was so happy to have found it at 1 grocery store back here in SoCal!

 back home & back to reality.....4 new tires for my car. we had some more maintenance done and it was costly!!

 added to our list of "improvements" this summer were getting these puppies out. brandon had severe over crowding in his mouth and after a ortho consult, they suggested brandon have 4 teeth extracted. OUCH! i was not looking forward to it thinking i'd have a very cranky kid after but he did extremely well---both times. they pull 2 teeth a visit. i am so proud of brandon for going though this. we were told after the 4 teeth gets pulled out, it'll make the teeth erupting out over the existing ones fall back into place and you know what---it has and his teeth are looking a lot better!

more pool time

 adding to the improvements this summer was replacing our tile. i cannot believe we ever had this! we had to be out of the house all day while they demoed & blasted out the tile so what do you do all day w/ 2 boys?

 have a picnic. and go to the library. and the bookstore. and drive around.

 caught some work in progress. the boys though it was hilarious having the toilet sitting outside in our backyard!

 looks SO much better than tile don't you think? and it changes the whole look of our house.

 random pics

 bryan is still afraid to take swim lessons but miss jessica noticed that bryan would just sit around while brandon had his lessons so she convinced bryan to come dressed in his trunks the following week and she said she'd take him in the water. bless her for taking him on her break time. she tried to make it fun but he still does not want to learn.

 the OC fair is a must for brandon every summer.

 super giant turkey leg and corn dog

 clowning around

 one of my favorite meals

 went into a store and bryan's eyes lit up and said, "what is this?" it's a rotary phone my dear boy....

 my plate would be the one on the left...

 and more pool time

 i convinced bryan to go on a big boy roller coaster with me. he was nervous waiting in line but he was brave--didn't back out. i could tell during the ride, he was silent and scared but after the ride ended, he said, "let's go again!" big bro brandon chickened out...

 summer treat and someone grew a goatee!

thanks for sticking around! hope to be back on track soon!

it's the pits

how is everybody's summer going? we are discovering fun places to explore with the boys this summer. this past sunday, we went here, the la brea tar pits. amazing that all of this is in the middle of a busy city! you can read more interesting facts here.

learning some fun facts with daddy

a rear view

scary

there were other panels exactly like this one here totalling 404 wolf heads found in the tar pits. pretty amazing.

the picture below here is called the fishbowl. you can see real scientists working on cleaning fossils or putting together bones back.

these are all eagle foots found in the tar pits too........no wonder they're close to extinction.they have a little garden area outside where we saw some turtles & koi.

we took a walk around the outside to get the whole effect-----tar smell and all! if you click on the photo below, you can see the oily slick of the tar.

brybry having fun walking around w/ his juicebox. i just LOVE that hat on him. my favorite!

apparently, there are still lots of areas to be excavated.walking around the grounds, this is a common sight. a puddle of tar in the middle of grassy areas.

bitter melon growing in the backgroundnext door to the tar pits was the LACMA. the boys had fun running zig zag around these 202 old cast iron street lights. look at the little monkey in the back......

of course i was waiting for the 1st boy to run smack into a light post but i am happy to report, neither brandon OR bryan were injured =)

self timers are great, aren't they?

funny note here......

BEFORE:

AFTER:

the hill is pretty steep so i told the boys not to run down it. so what do they do? run down it. and brybry takes a spill rolling down half the way down. me & hubs were just laughing so hard!!! i guess we really should have helped brybry up BUT, i told him not to run & he did it so he deserved it right? no blood----it was all good. look at brandon's face too....little "i-told-you-so"face!

TFL at all these pics and for stopping by!