Fun with water

My computer got a big virus yesterday and wiped a lot of things out, including my beloved Windows Live Writer, so I am having to post through blogger. Boy was I spoiled with Live Writer. Must get that back asap!

It has been HOT in San Jose lately. Today it is 100 degrees! I am not complaining one bit though considering the winter we had in Ithaca. Since it has been so warm Braedon has been spending a lot of time out in his little pool. He and Peyton have an ongoing game going on where Baeo will take her ball and throw it in the pool then they will both jump in the pool, Peyton will take her ball and run across the yard while Baeo follows, grabs her ball and heads for the pool again.

I think it might be my favorite game too because it causes Braedon to take 3 hour naps!

Swimming suits? Nah, we roll with the birthday suits when we are in the backyard, and when I say we, I mean Braedon. Man, wouldn't that be a sight! We ran out of swim diapers and I still have yet to go buy some more so once Braedon's diaper gets so full with pool water that his diaper is dragging on the ground and he is showing some crack, I just strip him.
Today we spent the morning downtown where they have fountains that are made for the kids to run through. At first Braedon wasn't so sure of them and when a little boy sprayed him in the face, he got downright pissed. After that it took him a little bit to warm back up and once I ran around with him through the fountains he saw how fun it actually was. We played for a good hour and then walked around downtown for a little bit before heading back home. I think I like all of this outdoor play. Baeo is napping as I type this and is going on 2 hours. He has never napped this well before!

A belly full of Adi…and ice cream

Every night as I’m eating my mug full of ice cream I always feel like I look like Tim Allen from The Santa Clause when he is sitting at his lunch meeting looking pretty hefty, finishing up his ice cream sundae, and all of his co workers are staring at him and waiting for him to finish.

I told this to Derek tonight and he agreed with a, “yeah.” Jackass.

South Bay

One of my goals after moving to San Jose was to find a church for my family that was a good fit. After doing some research last week and going through a few of the nondenominational churches in the area, reading comments and just seeing what they were all about I picked one that I thought would be just that. A good fit. We went on Sunday to check it out in person and were very impressed. They have a great kids program where Braedon was able to jump right in and did very well his first day! I am very excited for him to be learning about Jesus and I can’t wait to hear him say he loves him for the first time. I grew up going to church on a regular basis and got to know and love Jesus and I always knew that I wanted my kids to have the same opportunity. Derek and I both agreed that being done with grad school, where his schedule was so all over the place that being able to find and attend a church on a regular basis would have been a little tough, and moving again to a new area would be a perfect time to start fresh. Especially since Braedon is now to the age where he is starting to absorb all kinds of information.

Derek and I also enjoyed our first time experience at South Bay. It was a very casual and laid back experience where everyone was very friendly and inviting. I really like the pastors so far and enjoyed listening to the one that spoke this week. Plus they had coffee and breakfast foods to munch on before and during the service. They had me at free coffee!! Just kidding….kind of.

Day at the beach

This morning we got up and drove to Santa Cruz, which is only about 40 minutes from our house.  The beaches there are so pretty and it was a perfectly sunny day.  We ended up getting there at about 10 am, so there were some morning clouds, but they burned off real fast leaving us with sun and blue skies for the rest of the day.

The water was still pretty cold and Braedon was not happy when it hit his feet at first.  He kept wanting to go back down to the water and eventually started loving it.

Another thing he loves…throwing sand.  Yeah, so not cool.  Derek and I would be sitting on our beach towel and all of a sudden we would get a handful of sand down our shirts or in our face.

I brought a bucket, a sand rake and a couple other toys because I thought Braedon would enjoy piling sand in his bucket or making piles with it or something.  Nope, he really just enjoyed throwing it and used the toys I brought to do so more effectively.  He also didn’t quite get the concept of trying not to get sand on the blanket.

 

Next time I’m bringing a chair and putting it about 50 feet from Braedon.

After spending a couple of hours at the beach we decided to check out the Santa Cruz boardwalk.  Very fun.  Filled with rides, fair food and games, and little shops.  We spent a couple of hours walking around and exploring until we decided to head home.  Braedon crashed in his car seat about 30 seconds after we left.  When we got home I put him right in the bath to clean out the pound of sand in his diaper.

We all had a fun day at the beach and I can see myself bringing Braedon back multiple times this summer to hang out and play!

Out of control

Everyone who knows Braedon knows he is quite the hugger and will hug pretty much everything. He has hugged rocks, flowers, trees, leaves, pictures, animals (both fake and real.)

I think his hugging is getting out of control….and quite messy. You see, he hugs everything he loves and he just so happens to really love ketchup as well.

See? Ketchup loving. All you need is a knife.

Tonight for dinner, Derek barbecued some hamburgers and of course I put ketchup on Baeo’s. He told us he loved “chup” and felt the need to hug it. He also felt the need to hug his hamburger. Yum. So the other afternoon he had sand in his ear. Tonight he had hamburger.

I really don’t want to discourage hugging. He is so sweet and affectionate. I guess I’m just going to have to deal with “chup” on the side of his face. At least he hasn’t declared his love for ice cream, worms, or banana strings yet (if you're family or know me well, you might understand the last one).

Love

The last couple of weeks Braedon has started to tell us that he loves us, which just melts my heart.  Out of nowhere he will come up to me or Derek and say, “love, mom,” or “love, dad.”  Although after he tells up he loves us he then continues on with a list of things that he loves including Neyney (Peyton), papa (grandpa), na (grandma), car (the movie cars), Mac (a character from cars), and ppsssshhhh (goldfish crackers).  He is such a crackup, although we don’t think it’s all that cool that we are on the same level as the movie Cars and Mac.  Also, I think he is starting to realize that I just melt when he tells me he loves me because today we went out for dinner and he was not behaving as well as he normally does.  I was starting to get a little upset with him and then he busted out with a “love, mom” and a little smile.  I forgot I was upset.

He found dad’s sunglasses the other day and demanded we take his picture.  Derek also completed his first little project for Braedon yesterday, which was a sandbox.

Braedon was so excited and played in it for about an hour.  In that time he was able to get sand in his ear, hair, mouth, and other crevices that I didn’t know sand could get into. 

We are absolutely loving San Jose!  The weather is so nice, people are friendly, and after doing some research, there is so much for me and Braedon to do this summer!

That is the forecast for as long as I can see.  Sun and warmth.

We’re Back!

Man! The last two weeks have been crazy! We are now living and somewhat settled into our new place in San Jose. Derek graduated May 28th, his parents came to visit for that week, the day after he graduated we loaded the trailer and then the very next day we drove for six days straight where we arrived in San Jose. We had a lot of fun having Kent and Debbie around for the week prior to our move and really appreciated all the extra help we received from them as far as Baeositting, helping us pack and loading the trailer. A big thanks to Kent and Debbie!!

Here are a couple of pictures from Derek’s graduation.

Braedon got to walk across the stage with dad as he received his diploma (he loved pointing out the tassle to everyone).

While we were waiting around after graduation and everyone was taking pictures and visiting Braedon kept trying to sneak into some of the pictures. I kept having to run and grab him so I figured I would take the opportunity of him wanting his picture taken to take a few.

Doesn’t he look so grown up?

He did very well sitting through graduation.

Two days later we said goodbye to Ithaca and started our journey towards the West Coast. We took our time and stopped in St. Louis to check out the arch, but couldn’t find a place to park our big trailer, so unfortunately we weren’t able to get out and play in the big park by the arch like we had hoped.

A couple days later we took some time to see the Grand Canyon, which was pretty cool.

Pictures don’t really do it justice. The views were amazing.

Here are a few more pictures from our long road trip.

Braedon was a champ during the drive!

When he did get cranky I would tell him to close his eyes and try to take a nap. This is him closing his eyes.

He is such a goof!

I have to say we absolutely love our house! It is exactly what we were hoping for! Also, now that we are done packing, moving, unpacking and for the most part settled, my posts should be back to normal. Braedon is starting to talk a ton so I’m sure there will be lots of funny stories in the future!