Evening Exploring

We were dog sitting for the past two weeks and the boys loved it. Each evening after dinner we would take Kai for a walk/ adventure down to the river bed and look for cool stuff. Fossils, "Indian rocks", cool sticks, there is always something cool to be found down there.
Once Billy came back from his fire assignment in Yosemite, he got to join us as well. We got two evening walks as a family, it was nice.
I would always forget the camera, Billy reminded me and grabbed it one evening :)

Bear hunt

Life has been a whirl wind the past month, it's a miracle I can keep everything in order! The realtor I property manage for closed escrow on another home at the beginning of August, in Winchester Commons. I have been busy meeting realtors, repair companies, handymen and carpet installers as well as processing applications for tenants. Not horribly hard until you throw in the 4-plex building where two units were turning over and one other got a 60 day notice. More rental applications, handy men, carpet cleaners and inspectors. My poor boys have been so patient and good through it all as I have tugged them along to appointments, home depot trips & errands errands errands.
In the middle of it all William and I started K12 homeschool, 1st grade! He is doing amazing the first 2 weeks of school. The icing on the cake is we are in the middle of fire season and Billy has been out working hard battling the wild fire blazes and MIA from home for the most of the month.

So anyway, haven't posted anything lately for this reason. Haven't taken any pictures besides before and after pictures as the rental house was being worked on and pictures of the apartments for rent.

Today was a lovely (and super hot) Friday. William breezed through school this morning and we packed lunch and took it to the pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool (12-5) which was a life saver because it was just about 100degrees today. Went home, Lucas got picked up, we warmed up some leftovers and then headed to the neighbors for an evening cruise on the ranch.
I remembered to bring my camera!!! Of course that meant that we saw no bears this time :( But, I still got a few pictures of the evening. It was a beautiful evening for a slow cruise in the back country. We saw a few dear, lots of tarantulas and one huge wild pig.

Here are the boys in the back of the truck waiting for departure, super excited.

Cruisin down the dirt roads.

 The Neighbor kids and our boys make a perfect step ladder! 2,4,6,8,10 (just about)

 Looking for and identifying animal tracks in the dirt road. Coyote, bear, quail, dear... tons

The boys had a great evening out on the ranch with friends, we sure love our home!!!

Swim lessons

William and Zachary completed week 1 of 2 swim lessons at the YMCA on Friday. I had my camera the first day since I needed to take pictures of an apartment I posted on craigslist :) Not the most interesting pictures, but hey, swim lessons have been documented!

Zachary is the only one in his group lesson :) so awesome for us, a private lesson for group rate. He is doing GREAT. He is so determined to swim in the pool without a life vest like his big brother and his friends. He is jumping into the pool and popping up on his own, swimming with his head in the water and making big arm strokes!

William is super comfortable in the water. He has been learning breathing techniques and different swim strokes. He looks great out there and has a big smile on his face during his lesson. They both just love being in the water.

We had been going to swim more after lessons at the ranch pool each day which the boys loved. This week we won't be able to do that because there is a ranch owner who has come to stay for a bit from Ireland. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted :)

Father & Sons

Just a cute picture of Billy reading to the boys yesterday morning before he went to work :)

I also decided to make an apron and found a cute ruffle apron tutorial. I cheated a little and bought an apron off seagull book clearance for 2.99 and then added ruffles to it :) I like the way it turned out and am excited to have a bib apron now. (I only had a half apron that I sewed a couple years ago)

A little curb appeal

Ever since my neighbors built a window flower box, I have thought one would be perfect in front of our big front window. I mentioned it to Billy and he said there were other pressing house projects for him to complete first. So, while he has been gone on this last assignment, I decided to build it myself.
It was a pretty easy project actually, didn't take long at all.
Here are some pictures of the new window flower box! It adds a little more curb appeal to the house I think. Now we shall see if I did a good job picking the right flowers..... it's been HOT lately. The boys helped me plant them today :)

Lets go Bowling

William and Zachary had dentist appointments this last Thursday, their first time getting their teeth cleaned. Well, I had made them an appointment last year but they both freaked out and wouldn't let the dentist do anything. So, we did a little more prepping and went to try again. A couple of days before the appointment, William said "Mom, if we do a good job at the dentist, can we go bowling afterwards? We haven't been bowling in a while."
It was agreed. If they behaved at the dentist and let her clean their teeth, we would go bowling! William went first and told me I didn't even need to go back there with him. He is getting so darn big. He did a perfect job and came out with a clean bill of teeth health. (although, he does have my mouth which means it's small and everything in there is very crowded already) Something we will deal with as it comes I guess.
Zachary was next and he clung to me and looked up at me with his puppy eyes and said "I need you to come with me Mom." I did, but not for too long, because with me comes a 1 year old a 2 year old and a 5 year old! Too many people back there in the dentists way and too many distractions. After a few minutes, I looked at him and told him they were not going to do anything that would make him hurt and I would be right in the waiting room. I told him I would check on him in a couple minutes too.
After that, he did great! He also came out with a clean bill of teeth health. Phew.
So off to the bowling alley we went :)
The boys all had a great time, Lucas slept the whole time and I pulled off bowling with 4 kids, 5 and under!!

 It was a 7 pound ball!!! They all did great carrying that heavy thing!

Natural History Museum

We spent the afternoon at the SB Natural History Museum on Friday once safety town was over. We had a picnic lunch in the garden area and spent some time in the butterfly house.

These little guys were mesmerized by all the butterflies flying around everywhere!

The boys played in the "back yard" of the museum where they have some running water, rocks and tree rounds to play on.

The remainder of the time was spent in the Smokey Bear exhibit room. The boys were in heaven in there! It was kind of a mini children's discovery museum in there. A tent and fake campfire, a row boat, learning house and climbing wall.... endless fun. I literally had to drag Zachary out when it was time to leave. He held onto the door jam for dear life trying to stay in there! They were all so happy, we will be returning there again soon :)