Birthday Beach/Drum/Marshmallow Bash

Christine and Noah!

Julie with her 5 week old baby, Cooper. Unfortunately Riley, Jaedyn's good buddy never made it into the photo shoot. :(

Thank the good Lord for Brooke! She put a very, sleepy Ashlyn to sleep for me.




Greg, Cori and Kelly Jacobson (minus Lauren!)


Rebecca and Jaedyn enjoying a delicious smores!



Grandpa Tom Gharst and Grandma Maryanne Gharst with Lilly and Ashlyn. And of course there's Allison in the middle. :)

Ashlyn reading some books with her little friend, Kai.

We celebrated Jaedyn's 3rd birthday this past weekend with a drum playing, marshmallow roasting party. I must admit that this was much more work than either Rob or I were expecting. First of all...in order to get a fire-pit on the beach I'm thinking you have to arrive at the beach the night before or maybe before the sun rises. Rob arrived at Moonlight Beach at 7am on the day of our party only to find that every single fire pit was taken. :( There goes my great idea right out the window. While the both of us were having heart attacks our good friends Greg and Allison had planned on bringing all of the firewood so while breaking the awful news about the firepits to them we learned that they were willing to bring a traveling firepit along with the firewood to the beach. Yay for the Gharsts!

So, fires and marshmallows we had. Hooray. Rob and I also decided to provide some kind of dinner for everyone seeing that it was around dinner time. So we got take out from one of our favorite places, Brett's B-bq. We ordered some pulled b-bq chicken, a bit too much in fact. So guess what we'll be having for dinner for the next 3 months? That's right.....b-bq chicken. :)

Anyway, Jaedyn had a great time. We did manage to collect some birthday stragglers for the drum party and Jaedyn was very excited about eating his first smore. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us with drums, chicken and marshmallows. :)

Birthday Boy

Preparing to bake the cake with chef Jaedyn.


Ashlyn didn't have a sample of the cake, but she did try out the party hats.



Jaedyn was mostly excited about this b-d present...an oatmeal raisin cookie from Ga Ga and Pop Pop!


Jaedyn admiring his new action figure.. Amadeus Mozart....(very funny Aunt Patty)


So we celebrated Jaedyn's 3rd birthday on Monday. Time sure does fly. Rob and I are so grateful for the blessing that he has been in our life for these last few years. His cute smiles and his sincere heart light up our world every day. Sooo...Jaedyn and I made a cake in the morning together (a very sad one at that, but tasted good!) and after dinner we took Jaedyn to Toys R Us. We told him that he could pick something out for his birthday which honestly made me a little nervous if you have ever stepped foot in that store! So after looking at LOTS and LOTS of toys without any interest Jaedyn finally picked out a pretend lawn mower that made popping sounds. I was thinking we were going to get away with possibly the cheapest b-d present ever! Jaedyn was having a blast with his new lawn mower until he ran into the bike section. He set his eyes on the little red flyer scooter and the lawn mower took the back seat. So we ended up bringing home a new scooter and a gigantic purple bouncing ball that he's been wanting for a really long time. It was a fun day. This weekend we have his birthday party with his buddies at the beach!

Summer Concerts

We enjoyed an evening out at a local park this past Sunday with our good friends the Gharsts. It was a free concert and the band was called "The Stilletos". They played some rockin good 50's music. Ashlyn played with her friend Lilly while Jaedyn and I boogied the night away...so much actually that my feet were killing me when we got home and Jaedyn feel asleep in the car which he NEVER does! It was a total blast and we'll be sure to go again....

Swimming lessons 101

I have been working with Jaedyn every summer in our pool and I am finally making some progress with him!! Yipeee! He is able to jump off the step and swim just a short distance to me as you can see in this short clip. He can also jump off the side of the pool and swim to me and just recently has experienced being thrown into the water and has decided that he likes it. Ashlyn went swimming for the first time this past weekend and also likes it very much. She squealed with excitement and her little legs were kicking like crazy.

Fourth of July weekend

We had a super fun time with Uncle Greg while he visited over the Fourth of July weekend. We spent a day at Torrey Pines Beach which was a bit crowded and the water was quite nippy, but still a gorgeous beach day. Ashlyn has moved on to the eating sand stage. She literally was pounding fistfull sand loads into her mouth. She communicated her frustration with me with big screeches as I tried to push her sandy hand away from her mouth.

On the evening of the Fourth of July we hiked up the small mountain that is located behind our condo. It's a short, steep hike that has a great view of the surrounding area. From the top we could see 3 different firework displays. I'm not sure we'll do it again soon as hiking in the dark probably isn't the safest way to go while carrying 2 children, but Jaedyn LOVED it and Ashlyn was a trooper despite being up waaaaaay past her bedtime.

We went to la casa de los Gharst's for the 4th of July. We had a grand bb-q with delicious food and desserts that were magnificently scrumptious. (Uncle Greg pretty much ate the biggest piece of cake I have ever seen in my life) We ended our day there with some gargantuan sparklers which Greg Gharst was determined to light (they were being stubborn) even if he had to use his blow torch!

And relaxing at the Crocketts.......a little Wii playing, some corn shucking and Greg Brill the expert babysitter.

Apparently the Brill family plays Wii tennis better with their tongues sticking out.