California

This year in July, my Grammy turns 80.  To celebrate, a bunch of my family met up on the sandy shores of Southern California for a week of fun and carefree sun-soaking.  Add a little bit of Disney magic, and we had a blast together!

Bryce getting to work on digging a hole in the sand

Parker and my dad

My Uncle Jimmy splashing around with Ava

Longtime neighbor and family-friend, Brett, coming in for a boogie-boarding break

Derek, Jimmy, and my brother Daniel cooling off with the squirt guns

Slathering on the sunscreen

My cousin Braden and his daughter Ava playing in the waves together

Derek giving Parker a pre-swim pep-talk...

Going in for the toe-dip, betraying Parker's trust

And Parker's reaction to his wet toe:

 Sand man Bryce

 Parker taking a much-needed nap on the couch with Grandma Amy

 Jim, my Grammy, and my Dad walking along the pier

Adding a dash of Disney into our week...unfortunately, not too many pictures of the Happiest Place on Earth (how did I forget to at least get a picture of Parker in front of the castle?)  Yes, that's right...our son has been to both U.S. Disney parks before the age of one...just getting him started on the right foot!

 Parker loves sucking on paper products...and spoons and straws...which there were plenty of everywhere inside the park!  He's tackling a park map in this picture:

 Future Prince Charming!

More swimming to cap off the week.  Does your grandmother boogie board? Because mine does! She had never done it before, but that didn't stop her!

Happy birthday, Grammy, we love you!

Going For The Gold for Childhood Cancer

There is a charity in Rochester, Brighter Tomorrows, which supports families coping with the diagnosis of childhood cancer.  They are an outreach not-for-profit organization, looking to bring families together who are facing many of the same issues, because they believe that no one should have to face a childhood cancer diagnosis alone.  You can learn more about Brighter Tomorrows at their website, http://www.brightertomorrowshope.org/.

Every year, the Go For the Gold 5K race and 3K family walk is held as a fund-raiser for Brighter Tomorrows.  The race's previous director decided to step down last summer, and so since last August, Derek has had the opportunity to be the race director, learning the ropes and delegating tasks to his team.  He's never been a director for a race before, but it was a great experience for him to volunteer for an organization which has so much love for the families they support.

Everyone's preparation for the event came down to Saturday, June 9.  New this year was a free post-race carnival, complete with a Dunk-A-Doc dunk tank, inflatable toys for the kids, face painting, free Build-A-Bears for all the kids, balloon animals, music, food, candy, and fun!  It was a great event and a great turn-out.  I'm so proud of Derek and his team for all of their hard work and time spent!

I was busy running the race and Derek was busy running around like a chicken with his head cut off, so we don't have any pictures of the race itself...but enjoy the pictures of the carnival!  More pictures of the event can be found at the race's fundraising website, http://www.firstgiving.com/brightertomorrows/goforthegold.

 I loved the backs of the shirts this family wore: "Kids don't let kids fight cancer alone!"

One of the doctors in the Dunk-A-Doc tank

Kaden dunking his dad in the dunk tank

 

Our Growing Boy

Parker turned six months old this month! He is growing like a weed and his personality comes out more and more everyday. Some fun things about Parker this month are his developing ability to laugh with us when we play, and his increasing mobility as he scoots all over the place on his tummy. It won't be long before this kid is up on his knees and crawling!

Parker helping mom make Mother's Day cards...he fell asleep about half-way through :)

 Trying solid food for the first time

Looking at himself in his carseat mirror

 He is the cutest sleeper...it is so tempting to pat his little bum sticking up in the air!

Parker loves crinkly things...this stuffed toy elephant has a small red crinkly bird on top which he loves to play with between his fingers

Parker also LOVES to suck on and play with strings.  This is when he realized that the carpet was made up of a bunch of strings that his fingers to run through and tug at

 Our happy little guy!