Della is 6!

The baby in the family keeps getting older!
Della turned 6 and is very proud of it.

She was happy to go to school and get spotlighted all day long.

Even better that I was scheduled to be the parent helper that day!

This Kindergarten class is adorable.

Oscar sitting next her is probable one of my favorites. 

Shhs, don't tell the rest of them. 

I ran and grabbed Taco Bell (requested by the birthday girl) and 
ate lunch with Lindi really quick. 

Then it was Della's turn for lunch!

She opened her gifts.

As you can see, she is a girly girl!

High heels, makeup, bracelet kit... the works. 

Usually we all go out to dinner, but the boys had mutual.

Instead she invited Scarlett to come with us.

Cheesecake Factory was her pick, and they enjoyed every second... and bite!

We ate her birthday cake the following day since she wanted cheesecake at the restaurant.

I can't even with her smile in this picture.
She is a pure joy and we are so happy to have her in our family!

 

October

It was weird coming home from a beach vacation to 

setting up Halloween!

I FINALLY got my hands on a 10 ft. skeleton!
I had to order it way back in July, and they sold out in minutes. 

I wanted to get as much use out of it as we could.

This thing is a beast to store 11 months out of the year but I don't care, I love him!

I was walking past my room to see only a unicorn head nestled in my bed.

Upon closer examination it turned out to be Rusty!

It gave me a good laugh.

6 months turned into a year and the car we ordered finally came!

Only they called us the day before we left for CA.

It had to sit for a week before we could go look at it. 

I have always wanted a Lincoln Navigator. 
They just never seem to be in our favor. 
Back when we were shopping we ordered 2 cars at the same time.

The one I drive now came in 3 months, so of course we jumped on that. 

Crazy the difference in timelines. 

It didn't seem logical to switch cars.
I really liked my current vehicle and it would have been a pain to trade, sign paperwork,
register it and do the fine tweaking of customizing the aesthetics to our liking all over again. 

I even joked with Casey that if the people that ended up buying this car even knew the back

story of how long it took us to order and receive this vehicle, they wouldn't believe it.

Lucky family got a dream car in a day!

The kids wanted to see what it looked like so I took a picture as we drove away.
Maybe next time we are in the market for a car I will end up with my Navigator.

But then again, I'm hoping to be able to downsize next time!

Gosh dang it, our dryer broke.
Our kitchen turned into a laundry mat with clothes air drying in
 every possible place!

I was going batty living upon piles of clothes.
HOW did the pioneers do it??

Grandparents day at the school!

Lane had golf lessons every Saturday morning.
This lesson I just stayed in the parking lot because it was farther away
and I didn't have time to go home in between.

The weather had finally cooled down and it was relaxing
watching with the windows down.

I got a new church calling!

Kind of nice having a pull with the bishop:)

Nursey is where it's at!!
The kids are adorable and I'm not sure why everyone knocks this responsibility.

After toys, songs, snacks and lesson the hour is over in a jiffy!

More youth firesides at our house. 

Golf banquet for Lane.
His coach said really nice things about Lane and he had improved from last year.
Yay!

His good friend, Sawyer

Rusty had a baseball tournament with his club team, the Wolfpacks.
It was a rare day both of us had nothing else going on. 

We treated it like a day date and had fun sitting in peace and quiet

and eating lots of food and snacks!
Many praises for legit concession stands!
Even better when they have a restaurant upstairs from the concessions. 
I give you all of my money.

The dip n dots made me do it. 

Lane got asked to Winter formal by Emery Goodman!

They have been friends since Jr. High.

I was secretly so happy she asked him to his first dance.

She is DARLING! And no relation:)

You know its winter grass season when you constantly see the air pistol

out and the front door opening abruptly to scare off the birds!

Death to all birds.

This should be my motto. 

 

Pictures

While in Oceanside we took family pictures.

There was some moaning and gnashing of teeth by kids... and some adults...

one maybe being me:/

I kid. 

Pictures are important.

The whole process is just exhausting.

Which is why I probably hadn't updated my own family pictures

since we took them 5 years ago, in Oceanside! 
We have grown quite a bit!

I do absolutely LOVE the photographer we use.

Christy Odem is phenomenal!
So much so, I would go to California just to get our pictures taken by her. 

Hopefully these will last us another 5 years!
And not sure why I don't have a single of just Lane.

He probably ran and hid when it was his turn for headshots!

 

Fall Break at the beach

Another round of Oceanside with the Lindbloms!

We broke tradition and tried a new place when rolling into town.

The Taco Stand in Encinitas. 
Pretty tasty!

Down the street was an ice cream place that resembled Handles to a T!

I even asked if they were affiliated with each other. 
Nope, just knocking each other off I guess. 

The days were spent at the beach. 

A common scene.
I think he gets his best sleep sitting in a chair. 

Waiting for our fish n chips. 

Checked on my favorite plant shop on my daily runs. 

It had been a hot minute since we had been to Sea World.
We discovered that the girls have never been before!

The boys on the other hand have been an upwards of 10 times we counted. 

Lots has changed about it. 
Those darn activists have made them turn it into
 more of a thrill ride place than an animal sanctuary. 

The shows are pretty womp, womp.
Lots of hidden agendas. 

We don't want to learn about how to save the planet!

Give us back our cheesy dancing with Clyde and Seamore!

Waiting for Shamu. 

Oh wait, Shamu is a goner.

Now its the lame Orca encounter show.

 A bird decided to drop a bomb on the

top of Della's head!

Freaking birds.

Death to them all.

She took it better than I thought she would.
Probably because she couldn't see how bad it was.

I chucked the bow in the trash, and gave her a mini shower

with a water bottle. Long enough to hold us over until we got home.

I was dry heaving the whole time. 

Our reward for the poop massacre. 

Bummer that it closed at 5 for off season hours. 
We hardly got to half of the attractions. 

Even though it was not what it used to be, we had a good time and I would go back.

Lindi would say otherwise.

Very grumbly she protested that she did not like SeaWorld.
I asked why. 
" because all we did was go to stupid animal shows and I didn't get to do all the rides".

LOL!
 We were at SeaWorld after all, dear daughter. 

The sunsets....

I didn't want get sandy but needed to roll over and even out!

Meals are eat at your own convenience. 
The kids never get cereal at home, so they didn't complain

about their breakfast all week with a box buffet of choices while I slept in. 

Last minute a car would be leaving for a certain restaurant

with random takers hopping in. 

I can't even count the number of Primo burrito runs. 
We hit everything from acai bowls, to sushi, to tacos, to pizza!

Super chill and easy, no plans.

The way I like it. 
Eat what sounds good in the moment. 

I joined the group that went to  BTK.

One of my favs!

We would laugh at this "plant" every time we passed it on our walk for some grub.

Lunches were usually served beachside or whenever kids grabbed it.

Love that mine are old enough to take care of themselves when they get hungry. 

The one planned dinner is pizza on the roof and a dance party on our last night!

And then a run to DQ.
On vacation you splurge for the large blizzard:)

It never takes more than 30 minutes to turn around and see this on the drive home.

They play HARD all week.