July

Wow!!! I do not know what happened to the month of July! It just flew past us! That might have been because we were running constantly to something new and exciting!

Ashlie came home from Idaho after being gone for a full month on July 12th. We drove to San Jose to get her from Chris' house. We rang the doorbell and it instantly flew open and Ashlie totally attacked Craig! She jumped on him and was laughing and crying all at the same time. She was even excited to see Tyler. We took guesses as to how long we thought the euphoria would last. We were pretty sure it would only take just a few minutes in the car with Tyler and Ashlie would be ready to go back to Idaho. Much to our surprise it lasted a whole 2 days before she announced, "Tyler is annoying me!" She had a great time and we are still hearing about all of the fun things she did with Grandma & Grandpa.

On July 13th, I slipped down my parents porch and ended up bruising my tibia and tore a tendon in my ankle/foot. I am still recovering from that one. So the rest of the month has been done with my hobbling everywhere and attempting to keep my foot elevated!

On July 21st, we packed Sari up and sent her off to Girls Camp for 4 days. A little weird for me, I can't believe she is old enough already! She had a blast. I've had several comments from friends about what a sweetheart Sari is! All I can say is, "I know!"

The same day, Ashlie and I headed to Las Vegas for her dance camp. She danced for 7 hours a day on both Wednesday and Thurday, and for 5 hours on Friday. I was exhausted just watching her dance! We had a blast and learned a lot. She is already planning on next years camp. While we were there I was able to go to a Parents Meeting, yikes, if she wants a career in dancing there is so much to do and so much money to spend! This is beginning her 5th year in dance and she loves it! I'm not sure if she is thinking about this as a career or not but she is quite good at it and really has a lot of fun. I guess we should probably talk to her about it a little!

Sari got back on the afternoon of the 24th and Ashlie & I got back around midnight the same night. Craig & Tyler had spent most of the week living the bachelor life! Craig had to work a couple of the days so Tyler spent a little time with my parents and had a great time.

On Monday the 27th Craig and I packed our stuff and headed to Long Beach to go on a cruise to Mexico for 5 days. It was so wonderful and relaxing. I told him that I didn't care what we did as long as we relaxed (and I elevated my still sore foot)! And I think we did a good job of relaxing. Every day we got in at least 2 naps and one day we were able to get in a 3rd! Good times right there! Plenty of room service, lounging by the pool, and cool weather! We were in heaven! While we were gone cruising the kids stayed home with my grandparents (The Greats)! They had a great time. I think because Great Grandma spoils them!

We got back just in time to get our act together for Ashlie's birthday on Monday!

In addition to all of the fun times already mentioned I managed to fit in 2 wedding cakes and a couple of cupcake orders, Craig worked 2 jobs, Sari had riding lessons 2 days a week and 2 Gymkhanas, and we still got a little bit of laundry done :)

Unfortunately I left my camera at home during dance camp. When we got to the ship for our cruise I pulled out the camera only to discover it wouldn't work even with brand new batteries :( Luckily Craig has an iphone with a good camera :) This is what he got of the cruise.

This is a picture of the ship. In Catalina Island we have to anchor out a bit and then ride a tender boat to get to shore. This is on our way to the shore.

While in Catalina we went on a Glass Bottom Boat. It was so cool! You could drop little fish pellets into this tube and it would go into the water and within about 5 seconds hundreds of fish would be swimming under your glass area! Crazy!!!

One afternoon we were out walking on the deck and the horizon was so beautiful. You could see the sun rays shining down on the water through the clouds.

Every night they have a different show that we went to either with dancers or comedians or whatever. One night while we were waiting on the show to start they had music playing. If you look at the picture closely just about dead center is a little oriental lady wearing a white shirt. Every time a new song would start she would be sitting on her seat. As we watched you could send her arms begin to move to the music and soon she was dancing in her seat and before long it was like she couldn't contain herself anymore and would jump up and start dancing all over her little area there. She had a friend beside her and soon the friend would join her. At the end of each song she would sit back down. If you watched, she would soon start to move again and before you knew it she would be back up dancing. This is a picture of her dancing! It was sooo funny!