Catch of the day

Caught this thing in my backyard today. It's about a inch and a half all spead out. Yikes!

He-yah!

This week Nate started a summer session of Tae Kwon Do. Here he is at his first class checkin it out (black shirt - before we got his uniform)

He still has to "earn" his belt but he was super stoked to put on the uniform and show us some moves.

Ahh... such a gentle boy :)

He here is not paying attention in class (happens alot)

He's lucky to already have 3 freinds in his class: Travis, Nathan & Noelle

Carp (Thats what all the cool people call it)

We were lucky enough to have completely beautiful weather for this year's Carp trip.
First thing the kids want to do when we get unloaded: ride bikes. This is a MAJOR pastime, I joke that we must go around the loop at least 100 times a visit.Even the little guys are totally into it.Our site, we flipped the trailer backwards so we could face my folks and have a larger common area between us.Peeking thru Nana's trailer windowWe brought the kayaks again. Here's Nate ready to go out w/daddy, does this thing look too tight? :)out:Little boys + sand + bucket of water = hours of fun.Even the little guys went out this year with their daddiesand caught some wave action on the way inNate sticks real close to shore and loves to jump over the waves

Peeps found some crazy bugs that lived on the seaweed and looked like leaves

Emma chasing ZachDiggin a hole with EthanOne thing about Carpinteria... the train runs RIGHT by the edge of the campground. We were on the back row this year so this was the view out my trailer window!Another thing about Carpinteria... coons! They come into your campsite at night looking for food, they don't even wait until you're inside. We had 3 in this same tree later that night!Gotta have smore timeThis is how Zach likes to roll... with Momo and Emma :)Nate picked me some flowers on our bike ride to the Bucks.Chillin, watchin the bikes go by

This guy wanted a closer look at our beautiful tablescape and got stuck! Sadly he did not make it out, but the kids had a good time getting close up looks at him.Lovin the beach:

Our trailer has a shower/toilet but no tub so we wash the boy every night in this bucket. Someday we'll look back at this and laugh (well I laugh now too, it's funny)We had a super big group this year, here's some of us the morning we left (yes I look horrid, glad this is a low res copy I stole from Gina)I really like side-by-sides so here's a few with 2008 on the left and 2009 on the right:

Scarred for life

Once I had Nate I knew I wanted a tattoo with my kids' names, I just had to wait until I had the other one to find out the other name. This is actually my 2008 Mother's Day gift I was supposed to get last year but never got my design finalized until just now. I actually printed it out and wore it around for a week to make sure I liked it and had to tweak it a bit - I found out the skin on your wrist moves really weird. I'm really happy with how it came out, now if I can just stop bumping it everywhere!