Signs of Summer

Cooper coming up from being under "for 19 minutes" :) - well that's what Cooper said.

High five from teacher Skye

Thinking about getting in

Cameron swimming the length of the pool

Cameron ready for action

Side breathing

Swim lessons are a sure sign of summer around here. Cameron & Cooper just finished their 2 week swim lessons. We take them every summer. Cameron is working on freestyle and is doing great. Cooper is doing great with his kicks, big arm circles and going under water. We hope to spend a lot of time swimming this summer.

Golf Cart Cowboys

We took these pix on Father's Day when the boys got all dressed up to surprise Eddie. Adorable!

Lordy...look who's 40

Well, somehow Eddie's 40th birthday came and went and I never posted a HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDDIE post. So although it's late here it is...

Happy 40th Birthday you old man.

Here is Eddie proving 40 has nothing on him, with...


..a flip on a jumping pillow

... backwards down the houseboat slide

and a jump off the top story of the houseboat. See 40 is just a number.

Flowers Planted

The boys each got some flowers to plant in these planter boxes we hauled back from Mississippi. Normally this could be the type of thing I might micro-manage but this time I didn't get involved at all. They did the entire job by themselves. It was adorable watching them go. We added some seed and nectar in the feeders and have a beautiful view out the kitchen window now :)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Eddie


Showing off the t-shirt the boys gave him for Father's Day.

And the back of the "worlds greatest dad" shirt


The boys decided to surprise dad and get all dressed up for dinner. They looked so handsome. After dinner we took him to Screamin Mimi's for a huge ice cream. Happy Father's Day!

Slippin' -n- Slide 'n

Cameron & Cooper were staying cool by trying out the new slip-n-slide. Eddie would slide Cameron so fast he'd end up in the grass on the end rather than the little pool. Cooper wanted to get the one with the skin board you stand up and surf down, but we opted for the safer belly option. They were lovin' it!!

Date Day

Eddie & I got a little "grown-up" time and went to our friend's party on Saturday. It was so strange being out like that without the boys. It was fun though. We even got to dance! Wow we felt like we were dating again :)

Tide Pools

The challenge of summer vacation is finding things to keep the kids busy without spending a ton of money. We took a ride out to Bodega Bay to explore the sea life in the tide pools. We found so many sea creatures; clams, crabs, sea anemone and sea stars. We wore our big rubber boots so we could get down & dirty.

One of the many sea stars we found. It was amazing all of the different colors of them we found. We hit it on a great day.

Rattlesnake anyone?!

The boys have been wanting me to post these pix and story of the rattlesnake we encountered over Memorial weekend. He came swimming up to our houseboat and tried to climb up the rope we had the boat tied up with. Irv (our friend who owns the houseboat - who is a bit crazy I might add) grabbed a metal steak and knife and killed it. Ugghh. Well it didn't end there, he decided he'd have it for dinner. So he skinned, bbq'd it and ate it!!!

Snake skin salted and drying - Irv says he's gonna make a belt or a headband with it.

Cleaned and ready for spices. When it was laying here, you could walk by and say "aaahhh" and it would rise it's head up and try to shake it's tail in defense mode. WEIRD!

Would you care for a brat, hot dog or RATTLESNAKE?

Crazy Irv, enjoying his dinner. Oh, Cooper also would like to add, Irv stood up and surfed down the slide from the top of the houseboat and dropped in the water. (What a great roll model for our kids! - I guess he won't be babysitting anytime soon)