Niner

on the 15th we celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary!



jon surprised me by renting us a jet ski.



we found a little cove, killed the engine and just chilled.



then we raced around the lake jumping wakes and waves....soooo fun!!



that night we went to the melting pot fondue joint, stuffed ourselves and rolled out.

Like Fishes

the pool has been my best friend this summer.


finn is paddling like a crazy thing to the deep end and back. it's hi-larious. he gets so excited. "i'm doing it!" he squeals.



his other fav thing about the pool is snacks. we always ate goldfish when we went to the pool as kids. didn't you?


jack, formerly terrified of the water, is now mr. no-lifejacket-man.



we go evenings a lot....such a refreshing end to the day.




cue ball rolling baby likes it too.

Goings On

because we missed soccer sign ups and we'll be doing the colorado project during t-ball...jack's in ice skating lessons so he can play hockey.



he's also in peewee farmer classes. our alternative to preschool this semester.



jons birthday cake was an ice cream cake.'



much to jon's shagrin...our yard is highly inhabited by dandelions.



do you know how much i love grapefruit?



favorite mode of transportation foco style.



finn loves rowan.

i love stripey pj's.

Time She Flies

this time last year looked like this:

we were living in a basement raising support.
jack was 4, finn was 1, and rowan wasn't even a thought.

today: jack is wearing glasses
today: finn was actually wearing those shoes jack has on in the picture
today: we're living in colorado
today: i met with a water polo player involved in athletes in action
today: a football player and his fiance came over for dinner
today: i held and kissed my 3rd son

time...she flies
click me to look at last january in the pennington's basement!

The Last Day of Vaca

i will stop boring you with vacation pics now. there are MANY more, but enough already ;-)



this was our last morning in california. we packed up camp, and spent a couple of hours on the beach in the cool of the morning.



look...can you see rowan?



this is finn's pouty face.

good-bye california!
jack's first day of pre-k is next week!

Santa Barbara Beach

we stayed for hours.
i would never have left.
this is my kind of vacationing.

Santa Barbara Camping

our campsite in santa barbara was purely functional.



it actually had a horse corral at each site so you could camp with your horse, naturally.



there were also no showers here, so we forewent them and cleaned ourselves in the salty ocean and sand...

our little grill there whipped up pancakes every morning!

Sequoia National Park

well, we had a free week before all of our fall planning starts with Athletes in Action. we decided to have one last hurrah, and take a big family trip.



camping in california seemed like the most obvious vacation seeing as how we just moved to colorado, and being 6 months pregnant with 2 small boys.



we spent the night in vegas on the way out, and the boys had an 18 hour movie marathon in the car.



we saw the world's largest tree and plenty of wildlife.



i'd call jack "wildlife."



finn spent much of his time in the backpack carrier... one of our best consignment sale purchases ever at $30 (second only to the $20 stokke).



we hiked, had campfires, drove around, took $3 showers, and splashed around in waterfalls and mountain streams.



the water was seriously cold and the weather was seriously perfect.



the sequoias were really big.



after 3 days and 2 nights, we were off to santa barbara and the beach!
btw...we also decided on a name during our looooong drive. check it out in the sidebar!
oh! also...there are now 3 little birds in the tree on my banner!!!

To Sit on Santa

on saturday, we took our second annual trek to dallas to see santa and the trains. santa starts seeing children at 11 am, and, seeing how he's "the country's premier santa" (according to CBS and others apparently), you may arrive as early as 9 am to get your "number." this year we got to northpark center at 9:30...we were number 95 which meant we could see santa about 2:30 in the afternoon! we knew this is how it would be, and this is the day that ensued...

the amazing train display fit for the most astute train authority (45minutes)

squeezing in a little workout in the neiman marcus children's area (30 minutes)

dancing on snowflakes while listening to a children's chorale (30 minutes)

pants shopping at banana republic sales racks (20 minutes)

watching the ducks and turtles (15 minutes)

seeing two puppet shows, a nutcracker ballet, a gingerbread house display, lunch at the corner bakery, buying christmas pj's on sale @ hannah anderson & playing in a toystore (however much time is left)

whispering to santa that you want a dump truck that pulls a trailer behind it, giraffe's own bed and a basketball hoop that's finney's own size (5 minutes and a lifetime of memories)