We took several trips to the beach this summer. Unfortunately, I rarely remembered to bring my camera. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying the sand and water. Mylie still asks me almost every day if we can go to the beach today. Unfortunately, Hunter and Kora are both in school which means our beach trips for the year are over until next summer. I love the year round school system....but I hate that we miss an entire month of summer. 
For the first time EVER Kelly told me that we needed to go camping. I immediately jumped at the opportunity and asked him when he wanted to go. The kids would be starting school August 1st so I wanted to do it before school started. So, this is our last hoo-rah before school started. We went up to our favorite spot up in Big Bear. Kelly took Friday off so after we were packed we headed up. It was a good thing we left early because as soon as we got our spot and started unloading things the campground was filling up fast.
This is the picture before we left. We pulled out the back seat and moved Hunter and Kora to the middle row with Mylie. As you can see, the van was packed full to the brim. We had 4 tri-folds with us that took up a ton of the space but the comfort they gave us while we were sleeping was worth the space it took up.
I am so sad that this picture came out blurry. It was the only one where all 3 kids are looking at the camera and smiling. I love it! The kids are cooking their hot dogs for dinner. The kids had such a great time. Hunter was so sad to leave. We had so much fun we are greatly anticipating our trip next year.
I have to include this last picture. Last year, I learned the hard way to not pack nice clothes for camping. For some reason, my kids love to roll around and play in the dirt. This year I packed grubby, play clothes that I didn't mind getting ruined by dirt. Which made it so much easier to let the kids get dirty. 
Well, Kelly and Hunter are no longer "just" out numbered. They will now be "tremendously" out numbered with now 4 girls (including myself) to 2 boys (including Kelly). We got the news today that we are having yet another girl. We sort of predicted this. Why would things ever be easy for us? We like things difficult and we'll take the challenge head on. This newest baby...for those of you who didn't know I was pregnant...Oh wait, that should be all of you since I'm not that big and hid it pretty well and didn't really tell anyone. I am 5 and half months along and this baby is due December 24th, yes, a Christmas Eve Baby. As you know, babies never come on their due date and she'll come when she's good and ready. We figure it will be Christmas Day, just to make things fun. We're excited! We have already picked a name, so far it's just a first name, Skylar. We haven't told Hunter and Kora yet since they were at school during my appointment but we'll tell them tonight. Hunter was hoping for a brother...well, we were hoping for one for him too but we're excited for our Skylar to make her entrance....now to get things prepared for her arrival. Hummm, now to make a decision to cram 3 beds into the girls room or add a girly crib into Hunter's room? Poor Hunter.
We ended up coming home from our Vegas trip Sunday afternoon. Hunter's Birthday was on Monday so we had a nice quiet birthday for him at home. The picture above is Hunter with is first of 3 birthday cakes. I didn't have enough candles so we had to improvise and I got 3 normal candles so he could blow out 7. 
All of the kids got to help Kelly light some of the fireworks. It was fun watching them light them because as soon as the fuse was lit they would run to the safety of the blanket so they wouldn't get hurt. After our small pack of fireworks was lit we went into the backyard and watched as some of the neighbors shot off illegal fireworks. Later we went into Kelly and my bedroom and opened the windows and watched them from the higher view. The kids loved the fireworks. It was such a fun 4th of July that I know I'll remember for a very long time.
Above I had mentioned that the cake that Hunter was blowing out was only 1 of 3. We ended up having 2 birthday parties for him this year. 1 with our family (which I was too lame to remember to take pictures) and the second was a friends party.
When we had Mylie's Friends party for her birthday I had gotten a pinata. When I brought it home Hunter asked me why I had never gotten him a pinata for his birthday. Of course I felt guilty but I also made sure that I would get him one for his birthday.
Here the kids are waiting for their turn to whack the pinata. Surprisingly, it was a very sturdy pinata and all of the kids were able to take at least 1 turn.
After the pinata we had a slip'n slide. The kids had a great time. The one we got was a racing slide and the kids had fun racing each other to the end. 
Finally, Hunter's last cake. Yes, all 3 looked exactly the same. I was lacking in creativity this year. I can't believe my baby is 7 years old.
Kelly had been waiting months for the third Transformers movie to come out. We normally stay home 4th of July weekend (which is when it came out) because of Hunter's birthday, but this year we went to Vegas with my parents. Thankfully, Vegas has movie theaters so Kelly got to see the movie the week it came out. We actually saw 2 movies this weekend. The first was Cars 2. The kids loved it. Unfortunately, Kora got really sick during the movie. She had an extremely high fever and ended up having one the entire weekend....and of course, later sharing the fever with her brother and sister later on. It happens. Hunter wanted to take a picture in front of the Optimus Prime poster they had at the theater. He loved the movie. It has been more than a month since he saw the movie but he still talks about Transformers all the time.
One of the days that we were up there we drove out to Lake Mead and rented a boat. It was a large Pontoon boat. We all loved it. The desire to own a boat is so strong while you're out on a boat, swimming and enjoying the day. Maybe someday...
Kelly and I were both excited to see Hover Dam. Both of us have seen the front side of the dam but never the back that is only accessible by boat. Of course we had to take plenty of pictures.
After the dam we found a nice boat free area and went swimming. The temperature was 108 and the water was a wonderfully cool 74. It felt amazing. The kids were afraid to get in the water. At the boat dock there were tons of extremely large carp. The kids knew there were fish in the water and were afraid the fish would bite them. Of course, 10 minut
es before it was time to take the boat back all 3 kids jumped in the water and had a great time swimming. Too bad it took them so long to get in. Maybe next time they can enjoy more of the water.
This last picture is of Kelly trying to feed Mylie to the large carp. We had such a great time that we are thinking of making this an annual trip. We stayed in my parents time share which didn't have a casino attached to it. It was so nice not smelling like smoke.
What do you do when your daughter decides to play hair dresser on herself and cuts off a large chunk of hair?
You even it all out. Actually, Kora cut her hair about a month before we actually decided to even it out. Fortunately, I think we have found out that Kora looks great with short hair.
