July Happenings

Yet another marathon post. Keep scrolling down. I think I added 3 other blogs. A lot has happened in July! Going to Charlotte, N.C.! This past week we went to Charlotte, N.C. to visit with my brothers family. Even though we didn't see my brother too much (working hard and very late) and Karen was off in Utah having a fun roommate reunion, all the cousins had a great time. We did a lot of fun things:

Played with play-doh

Jordan so nicely let Christian and Diego dress up in some of his old costumes.

We watched movies

They played in the sprinkler

We had a pizza party

We played outside...a lot.

Anthony was in heaven with this car. Yes it is Barbie and pink but that doesn't seem to phase him. It didn't even work. He just liked sitting in it and pretending.

And we played with bubbles.

Sorry we didn't see much of you, Jason and Karen, but the rest of us had a great time together! Thanks for letting us come crash your house!

Ocean City Jose took Diego and Christian to Ocean City with his family. The boys love the water and spent most of the day in the water. Anthony got to stay home with me and help me clean the carpets. Maybe next year he'll get to go!

Dangers of playing on a treadmill. The boys had been begging for me to put the treadmill down so they could race cars on it. That's what they were suppose to be doing. That lasted all of 2 seconds. They decided to walk on it, but as animals. Diego has a thing for walking on all fours like a dog. Well he turned the treadmill up a little too high and when he went to go on all fours his hand went out from under him and he rolled to the end of the treadmill. Bad thing was that it backed to the wall and he got pinned between the wall and the treadmill. His face got rubbed raw along with a spot on his knee. It freaked him out. Thankfully that was as bad as it got. It could have been so much worse.

Hiking

Jose has taken the boys to several parks to go hiking. The boys love it. What boys wouldn't love being in the woods?!! Here are some pics from their adventures. As always they find some animal along the trail. They were pretty excited about this Hawk!

July 4th. I had wanted to take the boys downtown to D.C. but I wasn't keen on going by myself with 3 boys. Getting there and being there wouldn't have been the problem, it would have been getting out of D.C. in the dark with all the masses of people. That didn't sound like fun to me so we stayed around town and caught the fireworks near the house. Here is Anthony waiting for the fireworks. He was getting tired!

Of course, our bug man Diego, all he cared about was collecting fireflies in a bucket. I think he could have done it all night.

I'm glad I didn't venture downtown because the boys could have cared less about the actual fireworks. They wanted to play at the park and collect bugs!

Family

We are so lucky that we have a photographer in our family. My sister Kelli is very talented and we took advantage of her talent at our beach vacation. Thank you Kelli! I am grateful for the week we get to spend together. This time is so fun, relaxing and the kids really get to enjoy playing with cousins and making great memories.

Blog-a-thon

I'm falling really behind on the blogging so this is a marathon of a post...just to warn you. Off to Ohio!

At the beginning of the month we traveled to Ohio for the baptism of my niece. The boys were excited as they have never been to these cousins house...and we were going to stay in a hotel with a pool! There was a great tree at the rest area we stopped at and of course the boys had to climb it.

Here are the boys with some popcorn and watching a movie. This was after a good swim in the pool!

This was a big highlight of the trip. The motorized car! This car was the place to be in. "Cincy" Mattingley's are high on the list of cool places to go.

Future Car? He wishes! Diego and Anthony riding off into the sunset

Diego has some kind of gift with animals. He was able to catch a bird in their backyard and Aunt Monique was nice enough to get a shoebox for it. They tried to nurse it back to health by giving it water and bread crumbs. There was some kind of damage to his wing. They did let it go that evening.

Diego graduates from Kindergarten! Diego's school didn't end until June 17th. He was ready for summer. He had a good year and I think for the most part he really did like going. He met some really good friends that we get to continue seeing throughout the summer. He looks forward to showing Christian around next year.

Christian turns 5!

Christian couldn't wait to turn 5. He was counting down the days. I have really enjoyed watching Christian grow this past year. He has a great imagination and can play for a long time with his Star Wars or Ben 10 figures creating all sorts of stories. He has grown a special bond with Anthony while Diego was at school and the two of them can play well together. He is our snappy dresser. He loves to get dressed up in his nice clothes and has to look just perfect. He is a great helper. He likes to help clean toilets! but he also will put his clothes away and make sure they are nicely folded. He likes things in order. He is our sports lover and is always waiting for the next season to start. He is also our most talkative (though Anthony can give him a run for his money!). He can talk your ear off. I'm so glad he is part of this family. He is fun to watch.

The Beach

It was that time of the year when we head down to the beach to spend time with my family. It was a good week with good weather, good waves, food and spending time with family. Here are a few pics from that week.

What would be a day at the beach without a juice box?

Diego finds a crab The boys checking on the crabs We didn't have to even leave the house to find creatures! This was in the carport! This year there were many games of pool baseball played. Christian was always pleased with himself that he'd hit it and make it to base before the uncles could get him. And after all this fun during the day it was nice to see this: As always, after returning anywhere from being with all the cousins, it is a huge letdown for the boys. We were having a rough day and a sweet friend of mine surprised us with a box of Krispy Creme Donuts! The boys love donuts and were so happy. I'm glad she listened to herself because we really needed some kind of break that day.

Anthony would have loved if all of these were his!

Along with donuts came hats!

Thanks for taking the time to read it all!