Ventura Pier

We spent a week at the beach and one evening went down to the Ventura Pier. This is Caleb and Nate looking handsome in their pirate outfits.

Here is Abby and Landon not wanting to miss out on the pirate picture opportunity.

Last but not least, Savannah and Abby...aren't they cute?

Skirball Center

Caleb loading hte animals on the ARC. This little girl and Caleb worked as a team.

This is Teagan making the wind blow

Here is Caleb, Teagan and Savannah playing inside the ARC

Here is the outside of the ARC...very cute and fun for the kids

Skirball Center

This pictures are from the Skirball Cultural Center. They have a museum on Jewish history and then a hands on Noah's Arc. Exhibit. The kids could make it rain, lightning, wind and even load the animals on the arc. The had a blast climbing through the inside of the arc, which was a huge tunnel play area. Above is a picture of Landon making the flood waters raise up.

Papa and Landon (16 mos.)

Savannah (3 1/2 yrs.)

Landon running around and making friends

Los Angeles Temple

We went by The Los Angeles Temple and got some nice pictures. Located close to Beverly Hills and much bigger then it looks in pictures.

La Brea Tar Pits and the Park

Savannah and Abby at the park listening to music

Nico and Landon hanging out at the park listening to the music

We went to La Brea Tar Pits. The kids liked the museum and looking at all of the cool animals.

Papa and Grammy with Teagan, Caleb and Savannah at the Tar Pitts

Downtown Disney

My greatest friends from college (Kathryn and Ed)
met us at Downtown Disney with their two sweet kids. They
are the same ages as Teagan and Savannah and all the kids
had a great time together dancing to music and playing with
the water. We loved seeing them and appreciate them making
the drive to LA to visit with us. We hold out hope of them
moving back to Arizona.

Savannah playing in the sand.










Grammy and Papa got Abby an American Girl baby doll for her birthday. They also got Savannah one. They loved them and were very happy.


The kids loved making sand castles. Nate, Jacob, Abby, Caleb and Teagan
We had a jacuzzi at the beach house. We loved to go in after the day at the beach. This is Grammy, Savannah, me, Landon and Teagan.

Mandalay Beach

Teagan and Papa. Teagan enjoyed getting buried in the sand.

Caleb enjoyed getting buried in the sand

Teagan loved digging for sand crabs


















Savannah loved playing with the sand toys and in the waves

Mandalay Beach

For the past few years we have had the opportunity to go to California for a few weeks during the summer. This summer my parents rented a beach house on Mandalay Beach (near Oxnard, Ca). We love this area and have been here many times renting beach houses since I was in Jr. High. This was the first time in a while that we had all the families and cousins up at the beach together.



This is my Dad and Landon (16 mos. 0ld). He loved the waves and would run at them with his head down. Good thing he was well taken care of, because he easily would have been knocked down and taken out.
This is Teagan (6), Abby (7) and Nate (11). Nathan is teaching Teagan something on the boogie board.
Here is Landon playing in the sand and having a good time.










Here are all the cousins together...Landon(16 mos.), Savannah (3), Abby (7), Nico (13), Nate (11), Caleb (8), Jacob (9) and Teagan (6). Enjoy the sand and the surf.

Slip in Slide

First I have to say, we are so lucky to be able to live and get to know so many great kids through church and through school. My kids have such great friends and it's wonderful to see their friendships grow as they get older. The kids had some friends over recently and had a blast on the slip-n-slide.

Cooling Off

These past few months Toms' parents have planned some great family events to help celebrate some of their milestones. One of these events was a Frost Swim Party at one of the city pools. It was so much fun. I got a great pictures of two people I really admire, 1st my father-in-law, he is so awesome, so good to me and I love how he is so happy and positive, I always enjoy visiting with him. I also admire my sister-in-law Mandy. She is so real. I know, that may sound odd, but I always love to talk and hang out with her (It doens't happen enough) because she doesn't pretend to be something she isn't. I appreciate her openness and honesty and I am so glad she feels comfortable enough to be herself around me. I love that she has fun with Landon, he loves her too! The last picture is of my little guy Landon (15 mos.) old. He is so much fun! What a great, fun-loving personality. He is growing up so fast, we sure are enjoying seeing his personality grow.

Summer Fun

Oh, summer fun. Does anyone else have a difficult time adjusting to having all the kids home? Breaking up the fights and attempting to keep the kids entertained. Well, I think that might be my problem, I am hoping to get my kids to entertain themselves, but is that really possible when they are still young. Caleb does good entertaining himself but if he had it his way, he would play gamecube, wii or DS all day. Teagan and Savannah entertain themselves but often at the cost, of a huge mess to clean up. Ok, so maybe "constructive entertainment" is what I should be striving for here. I do have the older kids doing some activities but dragging a 15 mo. old around in 100+ heat and trying to work around naps is not very easy.

100 degree heat and going up...Well, when you live in Arizona and don't have a pool you find other ways that are fun to entertain your kids. We have been enjoying having friends and cousins over, Caleb enjoys drawing class, and swim team (Ok maybe he doesn't enjoy swim team, but he is still doing it) Teagan and Savannah are enjoying swim lessons and all are enjoying fun days eating popsicles and playing on the slip-n-slide and "small" pool in our back yard. In the afternoon we retreat inside for movie time and hopefully some time for Mom to get some things down around the house. We are looking forward to going to California for a few weeks. Spending a week at my Mom and Dad's condo and another week at the beach. Seeing the my brother's kids is always fun. We also get to go up to the White Mts. in Northern Az. for the Smithson reunion (we go every year). We enjoy the cooler weather, rain and camping with the kids. Soon enough the kids will be back in school and busy as ever with another school year and sports etc... to fill up the days....I do enjoy the lazy days of summer.