It's been a great summer...

There were so many fun and noteworthy activities we did this summer. Many of them I blogged about already, but some of them slipped through the cracks and I failed to blog about them. So here are some of the activities I missed. We had a great summer and are sad it's now over.

In April (10-21) when Connor was nearly 6 months old, he had his first swim lessons at Richmond Street Elementary School. It was more to get him used to and comfortable in water (and to get out of the house) than actually teaching a 6 month old to swim. We signed up with my friend Becky and Connor's friend Kevin, who is a couple months older than Connor. The swim lessons were twice per week (T/Th) for 2 weeks. Our instructor's name was Moses. We had a great time.

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With El Segundo's free Beach shuttle during the summer months, how could we not visit the beach?! We visited El Porto in Manhattan Beach several times during the summer with friends and had a great time.



Connor didn't like how cold the water was. That ended our swimming in the ocean for the day.
LeeElle and Cohen. Cohen was fearless. He loves the water!

Amy Jo and some of the kiddos.

Connor loved playing in the sand.

Our entire gang on the way home from the beach. We filled the entire shuttle!

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August 8-13 Brad, Connor, and I drove up to Utah to visit Brad's family and for the Jeppson family vacation at Scofield Reservoir (near Price, UT).

Before driving down to the reservoir, we spent a few days at the Jeppsons' house and visited Brad's grandparents at their house.





This was Connor's favorite toy while we were there. A toy cash register that Brad used to play with when he was little.



On Monday night (Aug. 9) while we were in Utah we went to a Bee's game in Salt Lake and saw our friend Amy Jo and her cute daughters Ashley and Taylor. Ashley, who is 4, was the star of the game when she sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for the 7th Inning Stretch. She was great!






Later in the week, we drove down to Scofield. All of Brad's immediate family and most of his extended family on the Jeppson side was there. Most of the family camped in tents by the water, but we stayed in a mini motel with Brad's grandparents so Connor would be warm enough. It was FREEZING at night, but very nice during the day. We went boating, water skiing, tubing, wave running, motorcycling; we played games and told stories; and I was able to get in some studying for my PE Exam coming up in October. Some of the time I was the one to stay behind to watch Connor so I studied while he took naps. We had a great time, and it was fun for many of Brad's cousins to finally meet Connor.

This is Brad's little cousin Ryan. He and Connor were inseparable - they were so adorable together!




Brad's cousin Nick and his fiance Fabiola (Fabby), and Brad's Aunt Jan holding Connor.

This is Ryan's older sister and Aunt Jan's daughter, Alyssa. Connor really loved her too.




Brad's cousin Matt, Alyssa and Ryan's older brother, also had fun playing with Connor.

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My El Segundo ward has some very athletic people. Many of them (including my bishop) signed up for the El Segundo Summer Slowpitch Softball League and asked me if I would play with them. My bishop's son Scott and Scott's wife Emily put the team together. It was a blast!! We played 10 games and ended up placing 2nd out of 6 teams. We almost had first place, but we lost our last game to the best team in the league. But we almost had them! The final score was 10-7 and the tying run was on base! It was your typical 2 outs, bases loaded, but we couldn't make it happen. Ugh. It was great, though. I always love me some good softball games!


My bishop is on the left. Scott is the one with blond hair on the right.

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This summer was so much fun. Now the next 2 months will be devoted entirely to studying for the PE. The test is at the end of October and the closer it gets, the more nervous I become. So you probably won't hear from me much before then...

Wish me luck!!

Twenty-Something

Twenty-five to be exact. My birthday was last week on Sept. 1. Long story short, it started out ordinary, then got a little better, then turned to crap, then got better again. You can stop reading now if you are satisfied with that, but I want to document all that happened.

I woke up and went to work. Nothing work-related went any better or worse that usual - meetings, paperwork, report-writing, etc. Ordinary.

Brad called me at work to wish me a Happy Birthday, sweet, and some Facebook friends posted their happy birthday well-wishes on my Wall. Thanks everyone! A little better.

I went home and Connor did his usual drop whatever he was doing and run (walk) over to me for a hug and kisses. Love that. We played, ate lunch, and drove Ady to her apartment in Orange (her car broke so she was driving our truck, she got hers fixed, returned the truck and needed a ride home). Connor slept almost the whole 1.5 hour car ride, waking up only 10 minutes from home. (Side note: He's going through a phase right now that I don't think will pass any time soon- he doesn't like to be inside for any long length of time. He gets bored quickly and, consequently, becomes fussy and trouble-seeking.) So since he was awake, I decided to make a trip to Michaels to look for Young Women invitation supplies. Mistake #1.

I put him in his umbrella stroller, thinking that would keep him somewhat happy for a little while because he loves stroller rides. Wrong. As soon as I stopped to look at paper, he wanted out. Fine. There was nothing on that isle that he could really hurt or get into, so I turned him loose. In a new place he is good about staying next to me so he just played with the swinging metal price tags on the paper trays while I found the paper I needed. He followed me into the next isle where I was looking for brads and, wouldn't you know (although I'll never understand why), they put rows and rows of stickers and trinkets on the 0-2 ft level. Naturally he wanted to get into those so I held his hand and kept him just out of reach of the displayed items, knowing I didn't have much time until he would start protesting. Well, "not much time" was about 20 seconds. He started fussing, went boneless, and sat down on the floor. I, trying to be the I'm-not-going-to-put-up-with-this-behavior parent, let go of his hand and said (rather calmly), "Ok, you can sit on the floor and cry then," and walked 2 steps away. Well, if you remember this post from a couple weeks ago, you remember he can stand up on his own now. The first boneless tantrum was because he couldn't have what he wanted, but it didn't take him long (in fact only once) to figure out that if he went boneless and sat on the floor I would let go of his hand, which is what he wanted in the first place. I didn't realize what he was doing until he did it twice more - my kid is already smarter than me. So when he did it a fourth time, I tried to stand him back up with the hand I was holding but he wouldn't put his feet down. There was an older lady at the end of the aisle watching with amusement (she was quite literally laughing) as I held my 10-month-old suspended in air by the hand with his feet and legs held straight out in front of him saying, "Connor, stand up. Put your feet down, stand up." After 10 seconds of this, I just picked him up and held him - which he really didn't want. After being stiff-armed and screamed at, I determined it was a good time to leave. I hurried to the cash register, paid for the items I managed to pick up before all this started, and we left. This was the downhill turn in the day.

When we got home we started playing with some toys. I had just checked my email and set my laptop back down on the floor (Mistake #2). I walked over to his toy bin to get more of his toys out for him and he dashed behind me straight to the computer and knocked it over (we stand the laptop up on its side so it doesn't overheat). It killed the laptop. It froze and wouldn't restart, though I tried several times. I was sick the rest of the day thinking that I just lost all the pictures, videos, and journals from the last several months (fortunately we backed everything up on our external hard drive in April). And, on top of that, Connor was bored being inside so he was fussing and whining. I should have left the house again and went to a park or something, but I was just too tired by this point.

Brad had to work late that night so he got home right at 7 when it was time for me to leave for mutual. I remember saying something along the lines of "have fun with that" and walked out the door. Fortunately, mutual was a blast. My friend's husband is a lifeguard at the beach so he took all our young women on a tour of the Lifeguard Headquarters on the Hermosa Beach Pier. Very cool and interesting! We had fun talking to the lifeguards on duty, hearing all the stories, and seeing the trucks and gear they use to save people. Our refreshments that night were cupcakes (my favorite kind - fun-fetti cake mix with rainbow chip frosting!) made for me for my birthday by one of my young women. I love these girls! So the day was getting better. Then we walked back to my car to go home and there was a nice happy birthday present from the cops on my windshield - a parking ticket. Sigh. Happy freaking birthday (minus $50).

I dropped my girls off at their houses, and ended the night opening my presents from Brad. He got me a 16 GB camera card (so our card doesn't fill up so fast from all the video I shoot), another camera battery (because I'm always complaining that the only one we have dies when we are out and we can't charge it - it doesn't take regular batteries), and tickets to see Young Frankenstein at the OC Performing Arts Center in a couple weeks. At least the day ended on a very good note.

I just went to bed after that so nothing else could go wrong.

Thankfully, that day wasn't quite the disaster I thought it was since Brad has been able to get all the files off the computer, but now we're in the market for a $400-$500 laptop. That, plus the parking ticket, and all the presents Brad gave me made for one of the most expensive days we've had in a long time. Happy birthday to me...

Cute Fall Pictures for a Great Price!

I just found this blog through a friend's blog. This photographer is doing mini fall photo sessions (in Long Beach) for just $20! You get 15 minutes of picture time and 10 edited photos on CD. You can't beat that!

Here is the link to her blog post about it. Take a look at her pictures - very cute! Several of my friends from Long Beach have been her subjects in the past. (There is also a link to her page on the right side of my blog.)

http://sarahhullphotography.blogspot.com/2009/08/pumpkinfall-mini-session-fyi-sign-up.html

I'm planning to go on Friday, Oct. 8th in the afternoon. Anyone care to join me?