Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!

For me it means an extra day off this week to spend with my family, which makes me happy :)

We were hoping to bar-b-que, but never got it together to get propane...oops. So instead, we headed off to the beach last night for a sunset walk. We didn't last until sunset, but it was still very nice down there. Cade finally let Chris take him down and feel the water and of course, he LOVED it! The jumping in the waves lasted a while until Dada got tired.

Today we went back to the beach to play all day and this time Cade made himself right at home. We dug a hole for him to play in and we actually got to sit together on the blanket, relax and watch home play (for all of 3 minutes, but still!) It was a beautiful day and we are so excited for more beach days this summer!

It's a big one!

Relaxing Dada

Celebrating the Graduates

My youngest sister Elizabeth graduates High School next month. I cannot believe how time flies. It scares me because I know in a blink of an eye, Cade will be graduating too. Make it stop!!

Anyway, my sister Sara's boyfriend George is also graduating from Cal State San Marcos this year, so we threw them a celebratory dinner. My mom likes to call it the "end of semester party" for everyone who had successfully completed another semester of school.

Helping Grandma with the sour cream

Mmmmm cornbread

Grandpa bought a graduation cake!

Blow out the...candles?

Cade stayed up WAY too late and crashed while having "ning-a ning-a" in the chair. Love that little munchkin.

"Dada Pay Animals?"

So one of Cade and Dada's things they do together and Cade's favorite past time (other than crunching leaves) is playing animals. Cade has quite a collection of stuffed animal friends, which are kept in his little reading area on the floor of his room.  It is a giant pile. He loves every one of them, making it very hard to down-size the collection. Somehow we keep acquiring more animals all the time!

Dada started this "game" I guess you could call it, where he and Cade go lay down with all the animals and cover up with blankets and get "all cozers" and read books. The favorite book is No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and Cade can now recite most of it. They throw the animals in the air and laugh, Dada makes the baby doll do the "poop dance" and they giggle together. It is so sweet to see them have something of their own that does not involve me. Every once in a while if Chris is not home, Cade will ask me to play animals with him, but I don't think I cut it. He always gives up and moves on to something new very quickly. He just needs Dada and I love hearing my boys "payin' animals tooogeder".

"Muh-cal Muh-cal"

My brother Michael has been living in Norway since last summer. He came up to Chico for my graduation last May and that was the last we saw him before he moved. Cade was just a year old then and though he did enjoy uncle Michael during that visit, he really didn't know him at all.

Michael had to leave Norway for 3 months for citizenship purposes so he came back to California at the beginning of March. Cade loves his uncle Michael, which comes out "Muh-cal, Muh-cal" and is adorable to hear. Michael throws him up in the air (making me very nervous), plays outside with him, they watch movie trailers together and laugh about poop. We sure will miss uncle Michael when he goes back to Norway!

Jumping In!

We had a pool party with some family this weekend and this was the first time Cade had been in a pool! He loved it. It was not as warm as he would have liked, but that did not stop him from jumping off the edge. We spent a couple hours straight jumping in, climbing out, jumping in, climbing out. By the end of the 2 hours, my arms were not working anymore. Chris tried to take him into the pool with him, but that only lasted a few seconds and Cade wanted to climb out again. I think if the water had been a little warmer, he would have stayed in longer. Hopefully we can get him in the pool more often this summer and turn him into a little fish!

Lounging by the pool

Enjoying Mama's green tea

First Time on a Carousel

We went to the Wild Animal Park today with Molly and the kids (which is now called the "San Diego Safari Park". It's a dumb name and will always be the animal park to us). We had a great day of roaming the park, looking at a few animals, crunching leaves (Cade's favorite) and climbing on the foot massager machines. I don't know why, but all three kids LOVE to do that. We basically pay to get in the park just so that the kids can climb on these things....weird. Anyway, they have a carousel now with all kinds of brightly colored zoo type animals and though we usually avoid this on the way out, the park was having an anniversary party and everyone rode for free that day. We decided to take the kids and Cade was so excited! He chose to ride on a panda and climbed right up with joy. Once he buckled himself in and we started moving, he was not so sure about what was happening. He never got really upset, but was ready to get off as soon as it stopped. I guess we will try again in a while and see what he thinks then.

Right before the ride started

May Beach Day!

The weather is starting to get warm finally and though it is still grey and cloudy most of the morning at the beach, we have decided it is time to start going! Molly and Ashley met us there and we dug a huge hole for the kids to play in. They loved it when the tide came in enough to fill up the hole. Cade and Scott really enjoy playing cars and climbing on the rocks together and we never really know what they are talking about, but there is always dialogue happening....so cute.