Coronado Island Beach

Silver cuddled up on the beach.

I love the toes sticking out :)

We had so much fun on the beach!!   Coronado Island by San Diego has a wonderful beach!

This is the only picture I have of the beach - taken on someone else's camera.  We ruined a camera once on the beach, so all the great memories of the beach will just be in our memories :)

We gathered tons of seashells - River is really good at finding them.

We also found a really cool star fish and sea star, crabs and fish too.

Sandcastles and water.  Colt and I boogie boarded in the ocean - it was really fun!

When we brought the shells home, we glued them open so they look like butterflies!

We found tons of sanddollars too - purple ones. When they are purple they are still alive. 

What precious times walking the beach in bare feet. 

These remind me of my mission - I served in Croatia which has an extensive coastline.  I had lots and lots of seafood both during the year I served on the coast and the 5 months following in the interior of the country - still lots of seafood.   I still don't care for mussles - but the shells are pretty and remind me of all the great people that served them to us with love. 

While in SanDiego we went to SeaWorld. 

This was really a cool experience.

I was so pleasantly surprised with all the shows they had.  Once you paid for admission into SeaWorld - all the shows and rides were included.  They also had people at most of the animal attractions talking about the animals and answering questions.  Definitely a great time! 

A sea star with 6 rays.  They can grow back their rays, and sometimes when damaged, they grow back an extra one!   

Summer sucking on a lemon!

Balloon Hat!

Ladybugs and Butterflies

Summer found a dead bee - and packed it around most of the day.

"Me love my bumblebee" she says.

After lunch she left it on the table, and I swept it into the garbage thinking she had forgot about it.  Awhile later she comes back asking for her bumblebee.  "But I loved my bumblebee!!" 

I felt so bad!

We found TONS of ladybugs this summer.

We would go out ladybug hunting and there were some usual spots for them:  On a bucket filled with water, on the slide and on certain trees and plants in our flowerbeds.

Here are some unusual ones:  Yellow, grey and red.  We also found a pink one up frog creek that we didn't have a camera handy to snap a picture of. 

Grey Ladybug

This was such a fun butterfly!

She just sat on their hands. 

Our Quest for the Perfect Pet

We have been searching for the perfect pet.

One that is quiet (my requirement) doesn't jump on me or compete for my attention (also my requirement) not always underfoot (can you see a pattern here), one that we can put back into a pen when no longer are playing with it.....Long story short:  We found the PERFECT PET!!

We called her Sparkle!

She is a guinea pig with fur that sticks up everywhere.  She had the cutest markings on her. 

one white ear, one black ear, one white foot, one black foot, with a white Mohawk down the middle.   

Super calm when we hold her, mellow, sweet. 

The girls hold her when they watch movies, switching her back and forth, and also when we read stories in the evening, they swap her with each book or each chapter.   She would make the cutest sounds, and would love eating carrots and apples out of their hands.

We loved our Sparkle. 

Now for the tragic news: 

We had friends over to come meet Sparkle, and with 7 kids running around and it being a beautiful day, we decided to head outside to play in the rock pile.  With kids going in and out of the house, the front door got left open and SamBo went inside.  I was alerted that something was wrong when Silver was hysterically screaming "SamBo NO!"  He had pushed the bottom of the cage - plastic from the top of the cage - wire.  I tried to take apart the cage just the night before to clean out her shavings, but it didn't budge, and was securely fastened top to bottom.  He got in there and chased her around, by the time I got SamBo back out and came to her rescue, it was too late.  We only had her for 1 week. 

So sorry little Sparkle.  We will really miss you!

It broke the girls hearts to hear that their guinea pig was killed.  We've buried way too many pets lately!  When I called Colt to tell him the news he was still in the city and made a stop by a pet store to get us a new guinea pig.  We are still adjusting to the new one - lovingly named Sparkle II in loving memory of our sweet pet.  We are so grateful that Daddy made an extra stop to get her. 

Ranch Days

VIDEO:  Silver "Me a Cowboy!"

River feeding Maa-ey

River and Silver's boat - floating in a horse trough :)

Summer is always right along with her sisters - Loves to be part of it all!

Riding in the back of Daddy's truck to a fishing hole. 

River, Easton and Silver

River LOVES riding horses.

With Paca and PacaMa.

Summer tries too!

River and Silver - Good Climbers!

Summer and Daddy

In the 24th of July parade.

We walked and even our goaties were part of the parade :)

Silver On Uncle Carl's pony.

Silver with TreeTops!

Silver so proud to be on a horse!

I asked her if she wanted to ride one of the ponies - she says:

 "No!  Me a BIG girl.  Me ride a BIG horse!"

River was so proud to tell me she did 5 new things on a horse today:

1)  Mom!  I Rode ALL by MYself

2)  Paca helped her horse trot in a circle "Mom, I RAN with a horse"

3)  Mom!  I rode the pony WITHOUT a saddle!

4)  Did around the world (turned completely around on the saddle)

5)  "Rode around the barrells"

She was tickled pink at her accomplishments :)

It's good for kids to have experiences and know that they do things well.  "I ride horses REALLY good!"

The kids did a turn around the arena with a dollar bill tucked under their leg.  If they made it around the ring, and the dollar was still there, they got to keep the dollar.  Silver was so excited!

River with her dollar.