Charts

Caleb had a chore chart for the summer and he finally finished it! His chore included: making bed, cleaning room, putting shoes away, wiping fridge, clearing his plate and cup and putting toys away. His reward was a Rescue Robot, that makes it his 4th Rescue Robot and now he will have enough so when his play group comes over each boy can play with one. Caleb has wanted that for a long time.
We also started potty training for Brynn. I made her a chart, let her pick out stickers to put on it (she picked Disney princesses), and a Rapunzel toy for when she goes 20 times in the potty. So far things haven't been going well. She knows right after she has peed but she doesn't know the feeling yet of needing to go. The only times she goes on the potty are when I put her little toliet in front of the tv and have her sit on it while she watches. Hopefully she starts to get the hang of it soon.

Archery

 

We got Caleb a bow and arrow and he has loved playing with it! It's funny how even the small bow is still big for him. Derrick and Caleb go out in the evenings and shoot at three bails of straw we bought. At first Caleb's aim was everywhere but now he usually hits the hay and we don't have to go searching in the field behind our house to fetch the arrows. We started putting up paper targets and he can even hit those sometimes. We've only hit one neighborhood cat so far, so not too bad. Kidding!
I took a video of him and his face is so funny when he is pulling the arrow back:

Water and Song

The kids both got into the sprinkler one night and I just had to get some footage of it because it was so cute! They had fun and were freezing afterward. I only got video of Brynn because Caleb ran off with Derrick for a bit.

We've been wanting to get this on video for a long time. It is Brynn singing Ten Minutes Ago. You can't really hear her for the first 40 seconds because she is singing so quietly but then she gets really into it. Here's our little singer!

Story: We were at Ken Garff Ford having our tire looked at (had a staple in it). Caleb saw a mustang and said, "That's a really fast car." I told him, "Did you know that car is even faster than Daddy's!" (Caleb thinks Derrick's car is really fast). Caleb asked why it was faster. I told him because it had more cylinders. Caleb looked sad then firmly said, "I want it to have less cylinders so Daddy's car can win!" Derrick loved that.

San Diego Trip

Last week we got back from a trip to San Diego. We flew into the Long Beach airport (cheapest flights) and started off by going to my grandparent's house. We got to meet Jodie's dog for the first time and the kids had fun with her, especially Caleb.

One day we went to the beach. It was cold but we still had fun. Brynn loved playing in the sand more than anything. Caleb did too but he wore out faster than Brynn. James impressed us with his swim out to the buoy, about a quarter mile out, in the freezing water. Caleb and Brynn both rode on the boogie board in shallow water, Brynn actually did a wipe out and we wrapped her up in a towel quickly. 

One day Pop took Caleb to a fire station where Caleb got to see fire engines, inside and out! The cute story from this is when a firefighter asked Caleb if he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up Caleb got defensive and said that he wanted to work at his daddy's work and work on computers. At the end they put a firefighter sticker badge on Caleb's shirt and Pop said Caleb was worried that the sticker was another thing sealing his fate as a firefighter. Derrick liked hearing that story :)

 
One day we went to the movies and saw Monster's University. Afterward we ate dinner at Souplantation. There was a man there making things out of balloons. Caleb got a sword and Brynn got a kitty. They both loved them. Brynn kept saying that she loved it and, "It's perfect."

Every night we were there Gram would lay in bed with the kids and read them stories. The kids looked forward to this everyday. They love books!

On Saturday we went to a play place called Jungle Gym and Cafe. It was so fun for the kids. They had bouncy houses, scooters, swings (this one in the video Brynn loved and she stayed in there for over a half hour at one point), a little hill with sit on scooters to ride down, an air hockey table (Caleb loved and was pretty good at), a mini airplane with steps up to it and two slides coming out of it, and these cool ride on animals where you push both feet down to get them to go. I would get a season pass if I lived in San Diego. Hopefully they stay in business so we can go again.

I was glad my mom took this picture because Brynn and I do this every so often. I'll play songs and we will both sing.We were doing Disney songs here. We also do primary songs and Ten Minutes Ago from Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (still need to get that one on camera).

On Sunday Andrew had his farewell talk for his mission to Jacksonville, FL, spanish speaking. I was able to play the musical number for sacrament meeting. Aunt Cynthia, Uncle Jim, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Richard and some of their family came. It was nice to have them there and it was nice for us to be there! We took some pictures after. Here's one of us siblings:

Overall, it was a good week. The kids also had fun going to the park and playing with all the toys Gram has kept from when we were little.
On Tuesday we drove back to Huntington Beach and spent the night there before going flying home the next day.
Funny stories from the trip:

• Gram came out after a shower with a towel on her head and Brynn asked, "Who are you?"
• Jenna slept in the family room so the kids would see her their when they got up. One morning when we sat Brynn down for breakfast Jenna was still laying down. Brynn prayed, "And bless that Jenna will wake up." She loves playing with Jenna.