Face Paint

I love seeing what the kids do with these face paint sticks. This is Eden and her sweet friend Elli that we met in the mommy and me class back when Eden and Elli were three. We don't see enough of her and her family anymore but I feel like we are kindred spirits with them. When we do get together it is as if no time has passed at all. 

May Skatepark

In May we started spending more and more days at this skatepark. Eden has become particularly fond of giving Zi lessons, and he has actually progressed under her tutelage. Best of all she makes it super fun for him so he is actually staring to like skating...but only a little. The scooter can not yet be dethroned. 

LOVED this morning. Early on a Saturday we had the entire park all to ourselves for at least an hour. The kids played contest and skate class and absolutely had the best time ever!

BFF...a mom can only hope.

Skate Addict

Trent Smith

This guy is one of the kids' favorite human beings on the planet and we had the distinct privilege of seeing him twice this month (!!). He lives in Point Loma and had a couple early morning surf contests in our area so he came up with his dad and crashed on our floor the night before each contest. Having him around was a dream come true for my kids. Seriously. And we are hoping against hope that it becomes more of a regular thing. 

Boat's Back

The boat has been mostly out of commission for almost 8 months now. In that time there has been increasingly more and more talk of selling it. It's hard to love a boat that you can not use. But we finally got it back, and while we were out on the ocean the consensus was that it seemed strange to sell a thing that has brought our family such deep and rich joy. After our first boat ride together Jon asked Eden whether she had a good time, to which she replied emphatically: "Are you kidding me? Only the best time I have had in my whole life!" All that to say, looks like we won't be selling the boat any time soon. 

Family photo to commemorate the boat's new beginning, thanks to a couple of friends who happened by on their jet ski with their GoPro.

Insta vs the original here.

Sun's out - bun's out!

Looking for Tuna

Everyone was on the job.

Pointing out a pod of dolphins.

Mesmerized by the dolphin show.

Eden's Epic Day - Memorial Day

Memorial Day this year happened to be a really BIG day for Eden. She paddled the entire harbor all on her own, skated all around the harbor twice, lost her first tooth and came down with a terrible flu all on the same day. It was a shining day for her as a child and a not so shining day for me as a mother. I regret the way I treated her that day and responded to her in her run down and weakened state. Thankfully, since then I was given a second chance - a sort of do-over in the sequence of events, which enabled me to feel somewhat redeemed. Nonetheless I am humbled by parenting and humbled by my children in general. What grace they give when I least deserve it. Grace that can only come from God. 'For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.' Acts17:28

Paige and crew came to play with us that day. Which sort of compounded matters in that I was a bit distracted in the excitement of seeing Kara so that I wasn't as attentive as I could have/should have been to Eden. As a side note, Zi and Paige are hilarious together. Super feisty and fierce. Not at all nice to each other, and it's as if it's their language with each other - like that is simply how they communicate with each other. 

This was my poor child by the end of the day. Burning with fever, in continuous tears with her first tooth gone. ):

Evening Strolls

We used to go on so many of these evening strolls down to the school, and now we hardly ever go at all. It's crazy how much day to day life changes with the kids' different ages and seasons. Things that became so engraved in our daily life and routine become altogether non-existent. In some ways it's heart breaking and in other ways it's encouraging and refreshing to know that change does come.

Climbing Gym Out-takes

Pics from the climbing gym over the past couple of months. Poor Zi has to spend all too much time there. But next year, when he is at school, I will miss my constant gym companion. If we time it right, Zi and I often get the gym to ourselves for hours. One time the staff even let Klamath join us.

For Eden, the gym is still pretty novel. She especially loves to get anyone and everyone to join her. We have taken a couple of boys from her classroom and one of her best little girlfriends. It's fun to see her try to race her classmates up the wall. 

Eden captured this moment of Zi and I - he likes to sit on my feet and fly. The camera ran out of space for the flying pic but this one seems to capture the moment well enough. 

I love these pics of my parents and Zi. I love that they were so eager to come see the kids climb at the gym, and the kids were so delighted to show off for them.