Looking for micro objects

Last weekend we used up all of our family fun money at Discovery Kingdom, so we had to come up with something fun that did not cost a cent. Our friends the Turpins have been into geocaching recently and I had looked into it in the past, so we decided to try it out. We quickly cleaned the house and then headed out and made the mistake that most newbie geocachers do. We didn't really read up too well on what we were supposed to do. It was a two part cache. The first one leads you to the next and final cache. It took us quite a while, it was hot, there were poky stickers all in our shoes and socks, the kids were a bit tired and hungry... and we could not find that dang micro cache. Amelia and I were looking in one tree while Sam and the other girls and dog were looking in another tree, when Amelia's tooth came out and landed in a whole bunch of debris. To make a long story short, we found the caches, but never found Amelia's tooth. She wrote a note to the toothfairy and everything is good in the world. We are all excited to do more geocaching in the future, I think I will actually pay the $9.99 and get their office ap though. After the adventure we headed down the walking trails and to the lake. We all waded and Pascal had the time of his life playing fetch in the water. All this and we never even had to get in the car. It was a nice Saturday. 

The new bridge that was recently built on the trail.
They are doing some amazing things on the trail.

Amelia's gap.

Pascal with his squeaky hot dog toy

Lucy playing fetch with the dog.

Lovely Leila on the river bank

Headed back home. Joy insisted on hiking on her own and carrying her own backpack. We start them young ;)
These girls are so much fun. The street looking thing is the bike path that goes along the river. 

Discovery Kingdom!

Sacramento has been experiencing a heat wave of 100+ temperatures for a couple of weeks. I woke up Saturday morning eager to escape the heat. We had some family fun money saved up and so we headed to San Francisco for the day. On the way to the golden gate bridge is a wonderful kingdom called Discovery Kingdom, a six flags amusement park. The girls squealed with delight and Sam said in gest, "Who wants to go to Discovery Kingdom instead?!" All four girls in the backseat replied, "I do!!!!". Well, let me explain that family fun money is money set aside each month that does not go toward bills, gas, food... the essentials... it just goes to pure family fun and we all have to vote on how we use it. I guess we got outvoted and we all had the time of our lives! Amelia said several times throughout the day, "What could be more fun than this??!!!?!!" It really was a lot of fun. We didn't exactly get the cool San Francisco weather, but we had plenty of chances to cool off with water rides, splash parks, frozen lemonade, and if we could have sat a little bit closer we could have gotten splashed by the the orca during her show. 

Lucy and Joy in the teacups

Leila and Amelia in a submarine ride. They also went on several
wild roller coasters and rides with Sam. 

Lucy and Joy loving the rides. 

Leila and Amelia on the swings. 

They even got to eat food from their favorite restaurant, Panda Express. 

Waiting for the Orca show. 

Lucy navigating our way through the park. 

Amelia and Joy on the elephant ride. 

Joy cooling off in the fountains with Amelia.

Joy is 2 years old!

It's kind of a funny thing when a child turns two. You never know how they are going to react. I had been warning the girls for weeks that Joy is reaching two years old and a stage where she will be stubborn about wanting to do things on her own and the importance of her trying. I also warned them about how at times this stage is accompanied by a lot of tantrums. Well, as if on cue right off on the morning of her birthday was one tantrum after another. Amelia said, "oh no, I wish Joy weren't turning two". I asked her why and she said because of the crying. Amelia has a sweet heart and has a difficult time not rescuing those that are crying. 

Joy and her potty book

Joy loves puppets

Contemplating life as a two year old.

Sitting in her little chair that her adopted Sacramento grandma brought over
 holding a teddy and Hawaiian candies sent from Grandma Kay

A jungle puzzle from Lexi

We had the neighbors over for ice cream cake.
Joy blew out all the candles on her own. 

At first Joy did not understand the whole present thing. She could not understand why we were giving her packages and then surrounding her with anticipation. When we told her who the present was from, she looked at us and then handed it to that person. Eventually she got it and was a very graceful birthday girl. She carefully looked at all the cards and enjoyed playing with all of the gifts. She felt like a million bucks. Every time someone came for a visit that day she answered the door with a big smile (as I whispered to them that today was her birthday) and the guests would give her a big Happy Birthday!

Joy we love you so much and so do so many more people!!!! Happy Birthhday sweetheart!