More catching up...

Since the last post, there have been a few more happenings in our lives...

We went back to Pismo for July 4th. And we took Aunt Tricia with us! She is Sandcastle Queen so the kids really enjoy it when she comes along-however no sandcastles were constructed this time. We just enjoyed the nice weather laying on the sand. :) This trip was also really nice because Geoffrey was able to join us for a few days. It was really nice having all of my family together in one place especially that doesn't happen anymore.

Tricia and Kymberli on the beach

My whole family

Another exciting happening was that we were able to have all 7 Bakersfield grandkids in one place at one time!! That really is special these days. With Mark stationed in Florida and Geoffrey "living" in Fresno, they are not together like they used to be. So we had to take advantage of this and have a photo op...don't they look great?!

We also held a simple celebration for Joshua's 8th birthday. We went bowling and then came back to our house to swim and have cupcakes. Can't believe he's 8 already!

Joshua hugging his birthday surprise-Geoffrey!

Chocolate cupcakes-YUM!

And then our most recent event was our annual trip to Hume Lake with our dear friends from church-the DeCarlos and the Madrids. We enjoyed the usual activities-swimming, boating and hiking-but this year we added something extra...we went to the Project Survival's Cat Haven at the base of the mountain. This is a great facility dedicated to educating the public on conservation efforts of big cats. It is really a gem that many people don't know is nestled in the California mountains. You can get really up close and personal with some big cats! Much closer than you can at a zoo. Anyway, we really enjoyed ourselves. It was totally worth coming down the mountain. Kymberli even spoke to a volunteer about how to work there and now she's pretty much hooked on the idea of working with these big cats someday :)

Goliath and Kong relaxing in their enclosure

Up close and personal with Cous Cous the lion

Jakob in the middle of a one-and-a-half

Kymberli and the girls in a kayak

It's been a pretty busy few weeks. Now we are gearing up for Kymberli's trip to Pittsburgh next week with Aunt Tricia. I'm sure there will be some great photos to post from her trip really soon!