4th of July

We ended the night with walking to the Carp. bluffs with neighbor friends to watch the firework's shot off at the pier in Santa Barbara. We decided against attempting to make the drive into SB. So we kept in simple and traffic free. It turns out we were plenty close with "Mr. fingers in his ears"!

I think Braedyn finally took his fingers out of his ears after yelling "WHAT" at Carly several times!


Being Silly


Group shot just because.


And again with his fingers is his ears. It must be noted that these were NOT close fireworks. So I guess we made the right decision to not fight the crowds and traffic to get any closer. We probably would have left in tears. (Caden is also in this photo. He is Braedyn's favorite neighbor boy to play with. Caden is 4 years older, but super nice to him).

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July at a friend's house, the Nystrom's, with lots of food, people, kids, and plenty of toys.  And of course the big hit was a bunch of boxes taped together! Hedy and Eric really put a lot of work into hosting this party and we thank them for it.

Heading into the tunnel of box fun


Coming out of the tunnel of box fun... over and over again.

Friends from CO

Some friends from CO were out in CA on vacation visiting family so they stopped in and paid us a visit. The last time we saw them there oldest, Adelynn, was not quite a year. How time flies. Mike and Cordell were roommates in college more then a decade ago!

Nationals in Simi Valley

Keeping with the theme of bmx we headed to the HOT valley (80+) so Braedyn could see what a real race was like. Top riders from all over the state showed up. As usual, even with the heat, we had to make Braedyn take forced breaks. He was sweaty from head to toe with all the gear and the heat, but he was still loving every minute. It was an eye opener for me to see how gnarly some of the "parents" could be. The sport is very low key and easy going in SB so I was quite annoyed with some of the over competitive parents of 5 year olds. I mean really they are 5, can't we just let them have fun? Most were fine, but those special few were over the top! A good way to make your kid dislike the sport if you ask me, but nobody did:)


Braedyn is #60.  Usually you can just look for the little dude.

Water Park in Ojai

We headed up to Ojai to try out a small, but nice little water park with some friends on Saturday. It is under 30 minutes away, up in the mountains, and it got us out of the fog for the day. It was perfect water park weather up there. 80 and sunny! And of course Braedyn had a blast!

Back yard sprinkler fun.

Braedyn and Marek running through the sprinkler system in our back yard.

Kate turns 6

Our next door neighbor, Kate, turned 6 last week and Braedyn took all the pictures at her party. He got some pretty good ones and in kept him occupied during the present opening.

BMXer camp

Braedyn had a week of bmx camp. It went from 9-3 everyday. He only had to come home one day for his nap. He got voted camper of the day by his new bmx buddies. All the kids loved him and he made lots of 'big kid' friends. He did, however, inherit the name "tiny Tim" by the end of the week. That's what you get when most of the other kids are 7 and older. He was the youngest camper after all, but rode his little heart out:) As a highlight he got to ride side by side with Steven Cisar on Wednesday. An Olympic rider in 2008.



All smiles with his favorite toy, his bike!





At the start gate




Steven Cisar. Braedyn loved watching this dude "catch big air" and he is now telling me all the tricks he is going to try!

School is out for the summer!

Braedyn has loved his first experience with "school". Good thing since he has many more years of learning ahead of him, hopefully a lifetime.


Learning a little about the pull of gravity.


I am pretty sure he will 'ace' gym class when the time comes.




Dinging the bell for circle time. He likes to give directions (sometimes a little to much).

A look back in time.

Just came across these photos at random. They were taken at our first house in Carp when Braedyn was two. He never cared much for his scoot bike, but once he got pedals it was a whole other world because he could go fassssttttt!

Vote 'No on J' street rally

There will be NO oil drilling on the Carpinteria coastline. YAY!  J was voted down by 70%.

So this is what first place looks like.

Braedyn holding Eli's 4 day old baby sister

He was very gentle and loving with her.

My family is freaking me out!!

Daddy builds it.....


Braedyn launches from it....




...and has landed every one so far, but I still can't watch without my stomach drop'n!

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day at Rincon beach with our friends Leigh-Anne and Ben and their families. It was a fun day for all. Mike got to try out Ben's outrigger canoe and now he wants one even more.

















Braedyn played with Luke and his grandpas and grandmas and I soaked up the sun and RELAXED....I love the beach.