4th of July

The 4th of July is always one of our favorite holidays. We headed downtown very early in the morning. We walked around Gas Lamp (Uncle Will's), Seaport Village and Water Front Park. We ate lunch and enjoyed all the festivities. Both girls fell asleep and took naps in the strollers before playing at the park. Addison climbed up the vertical wall for the first time. We then walked all the way back to Uncle Will's to take a break inside. The girls hung out with Akane while Justin and Will grilled lunch. It was a nice afternoon. In the evening we walked to Broadway Pier for the fireworks. We were concerned we didn't have a good spot because it wasn't that busy. Turns out we had the perfect spot. The fireworks were as close as you could get without being on the barge ourselves. Alexa enjoyed the fireworks. She took a ton of photos and smiled the entire time. Addison was excited until they started. I believe she had instant sensory overload. She wanted to lay down and hide from the bright lights. We wasn't too upset but preferred to be in her safe spot. Overall it was a wonderful day. San Diego is finally feeling like our home. I am hoping it will stay that way for a long time.

Summer Break Part 1

Alexa's last day of school couldn't come soon enough. We were so ready to slow down and do less driving. After moving to the new house we now had a much further morning drive. Alexa's first day of break we went to the Children's Museum just the two of us. Addison still had two more weeks of school. Alexa and I enjoyed having a special day with just us. Over the next two weeks we went to the beach, did movies in the park, DisneyLand, explored our new neighborhood and canyons and did a lot of swimming. It has been a magically few weeks. The girls are learning to connect all over again as friends. I decided to only do a few half day camps this year. Alexa is home every other week and doing VBS on the off weeks. Then we have 2 weeks of traveling and about a week and a half home before school starts back. We are enjoying our slow pace weeks very much. Some days we don't even get into the car. It's so crazy to be home so much. During the school year we can be in the car up to 4 or even 5 hours driving between appointments, activities and schools. The camp weeks are fun but exhausting.
The first VBS was at a local church that we have been wanting to visit. The camp was quite large, over 300 kids. It was very well ran and had all the bells a whistles. I don't think Alexa made quite the connections she was hoping to but we did attend the Sunday service and plan to go back when we have a weekend available. The second camp was at Alexa's former preschool. She attended this camp last year. This year it is much smaller. The girls seem to be enjoying it and are taking a lot of the biblical points to heart. To top it off we have our friend's with us all week. I am exhausted to say the least. Having 4 kids all afternoon is more then I would enjoy doing every day. We have swam twice, been to two different parks and played outside for hours on end. I am glad the girls are with their friends but I will be ready for our quite week home starting on Monday.
We are looking forward to Addison's first hair cut, one more camp week, our big trip out East and celebrating Addison's 3rd birthday. Slow down summer we aren't ready for you to be over yet.