Another Tuesday of dance class and baseball has come and gone! Today was Ella's last day of summer session for dance. She has made great improvements since 4 weeks ago. I think she really enjoys it and she made sure to give her teacher a hug before leaving today, it was very cute!
And we can't forget our favorite catcher either!
We took a 3-day mini-vacation with our friends, the Nostrands to one of our very favorite places, Bend, Oregon. We still just love the area so much! This was the first time we'd visited in the summer and it was beautiful. I only wish we had a little longer that we could explore more outside the city limits. We did see and do lots of fun activities. We started our "tour" in Sunriver, Oregon which is about 15 minutes south of Bend. We drove around a little and saw some beautiful vacation homes and then did some browsing in the shops. After treating ourselves to ice cream, we headed into Bend to check into our hotel. We walked to dinner at the yummy Ranchero Grill and then did some late night swimming.
Saturday we cruised around town for a bit and found a park the kids could scooter and burn off some energy. Right across the street from the park was a barn with a couple of horses out front. This was the best part of the whole trip for Ella! She so loves horses and was so excited when one of them came trotting over for her to pet. Some of the other things we did today was visit the Old Mill District Shops, played at the Working Wonders Childrens Museum (Jacob's favorite part of the trip!), go-carts and games at the Sun Mountain Fun Center, more swimming, and lots of eating.
Sunday we did a little shopping at the outlets in the morning and then headed south. We visited Crater Lake National Park. It was incredibly beautiful! Such a surreal place and my fear came true...my pictures wouldn't do the colors and the view justice.
The past 3 days were so fun and it was such a treat to go on a vacation with Karen, Fred, Bryan, and Josh. The kids all got along so well and I think the only trouble was fighting over who got to sit next to Jacob at meal times!
We have one more trip planned for this summer. We are camping in Yosemite with friends later this week. And then.....school starts 3 weeks from today....yikes!!!
BONUS...little video of Crater Lake...again, this does not do the place justice....
Yes, believe it or not, Ella is asleep on this chair. When Ella gets upset and is the slightest bit tired she just shuts down and goes to sleep. Usually she manages to make it to her bed but not this time! What got her upset? Well Jacob was insisting that she mix her Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles into one bowl. So first she whined, then cried, then pouted with her head on her knees and managed to make it into this position and fall asleep. Can't say I blame her, I too would rather sleep on a chair then eat a mixture of those two cereals. Uh, yuck.
We spent the day today on a patio boat on Lake Shasta with Grandma and Uncle Jeff. This will be the third year we've done that, so I'm thinking it's now become an annual tradition! It was a lot of fun and we all got a good dose of sun. The previous two years we were on Whiskeytown but this year we opted for Shasta Lake. It was a bummer the lake was so low...about 50 feet from this time last year. It was still a lot of fun in the sun! Click to see more pictures We made it back to Redding just in time for another b-ball game of Jacob's.
We've had a fun weekend. Friday evening we took the kids to see the movie Ratatouille. 
We then went to Sonic Burger for dinner. Love the drinks they have there...I got a lo-cal cherry limeade...yum-o!
Saturday morning Jacob had baseball practice. While he had practice, Aaron and I played some tennis while Ella was our ball girl. We had to dust off our rackets...it has probably been 8 years since we've played together. Back when we lived in Monterey we lived very near some courts so we got all the gear and haven't really played since moving back! It was a lot of fun so I think we'll do it more often. It's perfect because the courts are right next to where Jacob practices.
Saturday evening we had our monthly dinner club. It was a very special dinner club because we were also celebrating Kim's 30th birthday. Because of that we added a couple of special touches! Unfortunately Alicia, Michelle, and Aaron R. had to miss out this month...we missed them. We started the evening at Matt and Stephanie's house for cocktails and appetizers. We then headed out to one of Redding's newer restaurants, Moonstone Bistro. During our dinner a tuxedoed escort arrived for Kim. Awaiting in the parking lot was a limo to cruise us around town! The driver took us to the City Hall fountain, Sculpture Park, Sundial Bridge plus he took photos of all of us in funny poses at each of those locations. He's going to put together a slideshow of all our photos on a DVD for Kim...how fun! He also took us to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream!
Sunday, the kids and I, met Karen and Josh at Waterworks Park for the day. We spent most of our time in the Lazy Lagoon and on the Raging Rapids. Buying a season pass was money well spent this summer. Waterworks is so close to our house and so fun to just go for a few hours.
Jacob's soccer camp has now come to a close. It's kinda sad in a way because it was a lot of fun but his
regular league starts up in about another month so we won't be without for too long! Jacob's team, Team England, came in second for the World Cup Finals.
Before the Finals they played around doing some fun games and relay races. After the Finals they gave out awards and certificates to all the players.
Jacob and Prince Phillip, ooops I mean Coach Phil!! :-) ....
Click for more photos from soccer
Today we had a surprise luncheon for my friend Kim who celebrated her 30th birthday. We went to a new place in town called The Oregon Street Tea Company. It's a very beautiful place and perfect for a ladies get-together. Their specialty is the Renaissance tray....
It was really fun and I don't think she had any idea the surprise was coming!!
These are totally unretouched photos. And if only I was quicker on the trigger finger there would be even better lightning shots!
Today at Jacob's soccer camp it was Wacky Wednesday. It was wacky all right, it was pouring down rain all morning long! For Redding, that's pretty much unheard of for the middle of July. I worried that the camp would be cancelled but the kids weren't phased by it at all. In fact, I think the coaches felt right at home! We raided the costume box and came up with an eclecticly wacky get-up...Jacob's only request was blue hair. One kid on his team got a mohawk specifically for the event.
Jacob got second place, he lost out to the tutu twins. Funny thing is I actually thought of putting him in one of Ella's dance outfits but didn't want to totally embarrass him. Next year we'll be all about the tutu!
Ella wanted to get into the act of course!
A funny...we've been quizzing Jacob all week on different United Kingdom trivia in honor of his UK Soccer Camp, on Monday we had taught him about Queen Elizabeth the 2nd and that she lives at Buckingham Palace. This evening after dinner we asked him if he remembered where the Queen lived and Ella jumped in and said she lived at, "Bucket Hole."
is a success! Soccer Camp, Baseball, Dance, Bookclub, Dentist Appointments....and it's only Tuesday!! So whatever happened to the lazy days of summer? The wardrobe changes alone are killing me!
Jacob started Soccer Camp this week and I think it's pretty exciting. It's taught by soccer players from England and I am really impressed with it all so far. The coaches are all very enthusiastic and outgoing and they're great with the kids, assertive yet fun. Tomorrow is theme day, Wacky Wednesday, so I'm hoping for some fun pictures!
And just cause I'm still wired from the day....
You know, I'm not loving it. Maybe it'll grow on me but I'm really hoping their other new stuff is MUCH better.
Edited to add: OK, I just listened to the song again and now I'm starting to like it. Hmmm...maybe there is potential. My gosh I just need to go to bed already. :-)
On Thursday we met up with my friend Michelle and her kids at a local park for some fishing and fun.
We made it home from camping just in time for Ella's first dance class and Jacob's first baseball game!
Ella had a try at dancing last summer and it really didn't go over so well. However she's been recently talking about it quite a lot so we thought we'd give it another try. This time we went with a different dance company and it went so much smoother. She jumped right in there and did so well! The classes are an hour long and she seemed to get tired towards the end but still kept a smile on her face.
After a quick dinner in the car, we headed to Jacob's first baseball game as a Junior Giant. He got to play catcher and pitcher! His favorite position was catcher, we think because he got to wear the whole catcher-get up. He looked like a regular pro and really loves playing. The one thing he really needs to work on though is running, he doesn't have a lot of get up and go when it comes to running the bases and there were a couple of close calls when he almost got out. Though it could be he's slow because we had such a long day and he's exhausted!
Saturday we left for four days of camping at our favorite campground on Trinity Lake, Pinewood Cove. It was a lot of fun, though we didn't get any relief from the Redding heat! Thankfully we were close to water and have a A/C in our trailer! We did lots of swimming in the campground pool, lake, and a fun watering hole we found. Aaron and I had more fun in the creek watering hole than the kids...unfortunately we saw 2 snakes and that pretty much ruined their hiking and creek swimming fun...the snakes were swimming in the creek too! The campground has nightly activities which
we participated in as well. The favorite was an ice cream social. We look forward to our next big camping trip next month, we're heading to Yosemite!
Tonight we attended Jacob's Opening Ceremonies for his Junior Giants baseball program. It's a really great program that's sponsored by the San Francisco Giants Community Fund. Jacob has been really excited to be a part of it and can't wait until the games start next week.
Heading out onto the field....
Presentation of Colors... 
Jacob checking the stands for us...
Running the bases after being introduced...
