Cuyamaca Lake

Our friends the Fukushimas invited us to spend a day with them at Cuyamaca Lake to go fishing. How could we say "No" when Atticus has been begging us to take him fishing on a daily basis since summer started. Also, our friend is a professional fisherman so we knew we would be guaranteed to catch a fish!

A boy and his Tackle Box!

As you can see, our girl is a very "girly girl"!

Waiting patiently for the fish to bite.

Emerson thought she caught the catch of the day but she reeled in some grass instead.

Now, that's a fish!

That's me pretending I caught the fish. You would think that I would be an expert considering fishing is all we did as a family growing up. But nope, still have never caught a fish in my life!

Atticus thought that he could catch a fish better if his fishing pole was closer to the water.

Patience paid-off!

Thanks Jolene for inviting us. We had a lot of fun. We especially loved the delicious, fresh fish we had for dinner!!

Elder Ewell gets his call!

The day finally came, Marcus got his mission call!

Look how nervous he is!

Marcus's parents couldn't be here live but thank goodness for technology. They got to share the moment with Marcus via Skype.

Drum roll please.........Madagascar Antananarivo mission

He will be leaving October 12th to the MTC

He was just sincerely overwhelmed by it all but really excited!

Newport Beach

My best friends Kori and Jeff were vacationing in Newport Beach so we spend the day with them.

Atticus, Emerson and Graham were on a mission to build the best sand castle they have ever built!

I definitely think it was the best sand castle they have ever built!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy Birthday, America! We went down to Coronado golf coarse to celebrate the day with our friends. It was a day filled with playing tennis, bocce ball, eating and running around.

Emerson, of coarse, had to dress up for the occassion. She wanted to make sure she wore red, white and blue. She first came out of her room wearing a t-shirt with the British flag on it. She innocently exclaimed "What?! It's red, white and blue!" I explained to her why she couldn't wear that particular shirt on this particular day. She laughed and went back to her room and changed her outfit.

It's not a celebration if all my girlfriends aren't there!

We experimented with making homemade ice cream in zip-loc bags.

It turned out DELICIOUS!!!

a serious game of bocce ball

now it's the kids turn to show the grown ups how to play bocce ball

Red rover, Red rover, send Emerson right over!

the three musketeers back together again!

waiting for the fireworks to start!

Coronado didn't disappoint with their display of fireworks. It was beautiful, a perfect ending to a fabulous day with friends and family!

legoland

Who can turn down free legoland tickets? We were lucky enough to receive free tickets to legoland by my friend. Emerson and I went when we first moved down to San Diego and Atticus has never been there. Both kids had so much fun.

Atticus is really getting into legos so this was especially fun for him. He doesn't want to go to Disneyland anymore, he just wants passes for legoland. He just informed me he only wants legos for his birthday!

put boys in a room with legos and let their imaginations go. You would think they would castles, planes, cars,and towers...nope, they build "sniper guns"!

Let the summer begin!

It's not summer without a bonfire at the beach!

One of the reasons I love San Diego is all the outdoor activities we get to do. One of our favorite family activity is having a bonfire at the beach with our friends and a bonfire isn't a bonfire without the making of the traditional s'mores!

He's a pretty good actor. He's trying to convince me that he doesn't like s'mores.

Even Putty loves a good bonfire!