1st Date

Matthew borrowed his friend's car and found himself a date!

Matthew and Cora
Such a gentleman, he made her get out and push!

Looks like Matthew has more game than Jonathan. This was Jonathan's 1st date! He may have started younger, but at least Matthew's date was a real girl :)

Woodward Park

Still squeezing the most out of the summer, Chris and Clara went to Woodward Park today with the Coulter's to do some bike riding.

Clara took along Jonathan's bike since it's breaks are way better!
Ready to go!

Clara and Belle

Chris, Belle and Hunter

Chris and Clara. Clara's still getting used to the hills :)

Time to cool off!

All the water around here is from melted snow running off of the mountains...so it's rarely warm.

As you can see, that didn't stop them!

Clara

Craziness!

Chris

The Coulter's

Chris and Clara

Jonathan is currently working on starting his bike on his own. Once he gets started, he can ride just fine, but he doesn't quite believe in himself enough just yet to get started on his own. Hopefully, he'll get that down soon. In addition, rumor is that Santa Claus may bring me a bike and Matthew a bike seat so we can all tag along next time. I can't wait!

Montana de Oro

Not much of the Summer left, so we decided to take a trip to the coast with some of our neighbors. We went to Montana de Oro so the kids could play in the tide pools and the water.

Beautiful!
Clara, Mikaela and Izabella
Searching the tide pools for anemones and starfish
Chris was carrying Matthew all over with him, up and down the rocks. I was so nervous they were going to fall!

They didn't fall, but Matthew enjoyed the salty water!

A crab hiding in the rocks

I finally got Matthew with me on stable ground, so I could breathe!

Once I put him down, he was content just moving the rocks from one side of himself to the other.

Thankfully there wasn't a shortage of rocks, so it kept him busy for a while.

Clara. Jonathan, and Matthew

Chris and Hunter

They found a sea urchin!

Sea Urchin

Going exploring

Chris, Mikaela and Izabella -- Watch out for that wave!

The kids decided to make a dam in the river that was running down into the ocean.

Jonathan

Piling on the big rocks

Jonathan and Dylan filling in the holes with little pebbles and mud

Belle and Chris helping

Hunter, Clara and Jonathan

Clara

They never fully stopped the flow of water, but they slowed it enough that the water found another route around the dam.

Matthew wanted to get in the water so badly, but it was very cold (not that you can tell by looking at the other kids!)

He finally made his way into the water!

The view from up on the mountain

So pretty, so powerful!

This was the way up and down the mountain. As you can see, the drop off is nearly up to Chris' shoulder, and he's 6'2", so it was roughly 5ft off the ground. I needed his help to get up, and again when I came down. Only, my descent wasn't as graceful as Becca's is here. I slid on my bottom from about where Matt is standing up top to where Chris caught me there on the bottom. If not for Chris standing there to catch me, we would have likely been searching for the nearest hospital!

We had a great time. I love that we live so close to beautiful things and that we have awesome friends to take these day trips with. It all makes living in Lemoore more than bearable!

Peach Picking

It's that time of year again, so we loaded the kids up and called Grandpa John to see if wanted to join us. Who could say no to fresh peaches?!

The kids are working hard!
We had to walk through the plums to get to the peaches. They said that if we were selective, we'd be able to find a few good plums. It took a while, but I found a delicious one. We each got a bite, but by the time it got to Matthew, he wasn't sharing. He got the rest of the plum all to himself!

Plums

Yum!

Praying Mantis we found on a peach

The variety of peaches were 'flame peaches' and they were absolutely delicious!

The inside was just as red as the outside, which made for a funny looking peach cobbler later, but it was still yummy!

Peach fuzz

I think Matthew ate about 5 peaches in addition to that plum he hoarded.

I love how he was holding onto the peaches with 2 hands!

Wasting no time!

Clara doesn't get into the eating part as much, but she loves to pick.

The kids got a ride back as well. We had to pick up a second wagon just for them, because our first one was full of peaches. I forgot to take a picture of our loot, but we had enough to share with all of our neighbors when we got back!