Santa Cruz and Katie and Ethan Visit!

4th of July fun with a neighborhood parade!

I did have to tell Patrick to change the chant he was leading from "hurry up" to "USA!" The Scott children do not understand parade speed.

I brought popsicles over for the kids at the end of the parade.

Callie was festive too

We had the Smiths come over for some pool and hangout time before they went to the Stilwell parade. It had been ages since we last hung out.

We did some little driveway fireworks.

Eleanor just wanted to read. So we made her come sit outside with her book. 

Remy, the neighbor dog, somehow isn't afraid of fireworks.

I like certain things about the 4th of July. Patrick was in on this, he was happy, I'm just saying before a grandparent sends me a concerned message ...

Bradley also brought a book out to read after a little while. Middle schoolers ...

Unlike Remy, both Juliet and Callie did not like the loud fireworks at all. We even had noise canceling headphones on Juliet but apparently she still didn't like it. They hid under Bradley's desk for a little while together. Our neighborhood was really loud for a while.

The next day was a bit nicer for people who don't like loud noises. Nathan took the younger two down to Linn Valley for a fishing derby. Bradley went along too for some promised Pokemon Go time.

Meanwhile, I had cozy kitties.

It rained and they had cozy hangout time in the skid shed.

Meanwhile Eleanor was cat sitting a neighbor cat and when I asked for a picture this is what she sent me. She read over there for four hours. Both she and the kitty were very happy.

Juliet helped refill the bird feeder at my parents' house while they were gone and was very distressed that there were no blackberries for her to pick because the birds ate all of them.

More cat sitting with my friend Corinn's cat Layla. Everyone went on trips and we looked after their animals this summer!

We had the Burnhams over for a swimming afternoon and Ambrose got very cuddly on a rather delighted Patrick.

We made a family trip down to Linn Valley another afternoon. Yum for ice cream from the Lake Shop!

And a little mini golf with Patrick's friend Carter.

That evening Nathan took the two boys out to see Jurassic World in theaters. Bradley loved it but it was a bit intense for Patrick. This is why I prefer movies at home, it's a lot easier to take a break and it's not as loud and in your face. But oh well, I guess the theater experience is pretty fancy!

Cozy times while watching tennis.

Callie loves Remy so much.

Bradley likes reading in our room because he often gets a kitty buddy.

Trip to Santa Cruz! The children agreed to a photo op when I made them do it.

The bus on our way to our rental car.

Eleanor makes good faces

We had waffle heavy meals while we were there. The kids were so happy.

Patrick picked flowers.

First day at the beach.

The middle schoolers at the beach. Oh my.

But everyone did love the beach in their own way.

Family game of Qwixx

Winner loser pic. In case it isn't clear, Bradley won and Patrick lost.

Uncle Thomas drove down from San Francisco to hang out for the day.

Just a bit of sand for kids

Sand in ears

Our favorite ice cream spot!

They even had dairy free ice cream for Nathan and Juliet. The best!

Cleaning off sandy Juliet after the beach

Uno with Juliet is a whole thing

Coding with Thomas

Murder mystery game! We did one that was outer space themed and we had a lot of Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy characters, a few from Star Wars, and the Alien movies.

Eleanor was going to be the Ridley character until she realized that she only talked about loving her children the entire time. Then she went with the Dr. McWhoo character instead.

Bradley was R2 DEE-ALEK and Thomas was Arty Dentwalker.

Nathan was Captain Studley and Bill was Captain Baldur.

It took about an hour or so to play the game. Juliet insisted on being on my team.

We were Princess Bunselda and I made myself have fancy hair for the occasion.

Patrick was Beeblebrayne, a two-headed character, so we had him use a flower as head number two.

Eleanor actually took some notes as she played so she won, of course. Aunt Diana's Ripley character was the murderer!

Goodbye hugs for Uncle Thomas! I had all the kids play "find the Juliet" in this picture. (You can see her arm down by Eleanor's stomach).

I brought just a couple games for the trip. Llama Drama was played a lot by the kids.

Juliet and Diana cuddles. 

Bradley insisted on bringing Onitama even though it was quite a big box. Diana was a good sport about learning a chess type game in which few of us stand any sort of chance against Bradley.

She also played Exploding Kittens

And Llama Drama. Juliet was such a helper for all of these games.

We went to the boardwalk! Piggy back rides for lucky younger children!

It was a very cuddly crew at the boardwalk.

I think this ride is called the Tsunami, it's my favorite ride to watch because the kids get shoved against each other because of all of the spinning.

Dragon roller coaster!

The boys decided to ride another horrible spinny ride and enjoyed it tremendously when I told them they had chosen death. 

Hanging out on a bench waiting for our lunch.

Then, because I am such a good mom, I had my children pose for a series of photo challenges and asked some nearby small children who was the winner of each category. 

Pretty face - Eleanor won, Patrick was a close second

Cool fingers - Patrick won

Tired - Patrick won

Confused - Patrick won

In love - I think they all lost this one. Maybe Juliet won? I don't remember. We tried to tell Bradley he could be in love with Callie but his gut reaction was gagging.

And then Patrick and Eleanor were cute about their apple slices.

Plus Bradley

All the kids were cuddly this day, but especially the older two, and I was not upset about it even though it made walking difficult at times.

Poor Juliet and her legs that don't work. Nathan was a champ.

We walked out to the pier and had ice cream!

We got to see the sea lions! It was a trek out to the pier to go see them, which is why we usually wait for ice cream until we're out there. It's nice to have an additional incentive besides just the promise of cute sea lions.

I started reading Pax, a book about a fox, to Patrick while we were on the trip. I still need to finish reading it to him, oops.

Bradley read to Juliet one evening

Redwoods trail! I think this is the best family photo from our trip. I originally bought Juliet's hat for myself because I have a teeny tiny head but Juliet looked so cute in it it's hers now.

Bill came along on the walk and got the required amount of love and affection.

Turns out my children love walks where they can climb things.

Cuddles!

The other people in the park were impressed by this particular climbing feat.

I very much did not think they were going to be able to manage this.

They were so happy to be able to figure it out. Eleanor tolerated touching siblings in order to climb the ridiculous partial stump.

The way they got down was climbing on top of Bill. Bill is way too nice.

Then we even went to the educational center.

We followed this up with a trip to a beer fest.

Some children were tired

Then we danced!

And there were dogs to pet. The kids were so happy at this thing, Nathan and I thought it was overrated.

Diana taught the kids how to play a game called 10's and 2's and we made Eleanor join in so we could all play together one evening.

Poor Eleanor

It was fun! Bradley is the one who has a tough time with this game because it is approximately 90% luck. He kills us all at skill based games, we need something like this if Juliet is going to stand a chance against him.

Waffle making buddies!

A battle for the top of the hill. Both children took this far more seriously than they should have.

At the natural bridges beach. This was probably our best beach day. Usually Diana steps on a child here but she wasn't with us and Eleanor refused to let me step on her. So I said she could step on me. Joy!

We played a lot of catch with a football.

A natural bridge!

Patrick got a wee bit sandy while playing football

I even played catch!

Juliet enjoyed getting buried in the sand.

Eleanor in front of the natural bridge! 

And another lunch at Pizza my Heart. I think we got about 6 shirts from here this year. Bradley now gets an adult medium! They're basically $1 shirts of a place we love, it's hard to say no to that.

Juliet having fun while walking over to Bookshop Santa Cruz

Patrick was not expecting to be kicked by Juliet. She's so naughty sometimes!

Juliet yelled "hey guys, CLIMBING!" when she saw this statue and all of her siblings were properly beckoned.

We went into a candy shop and found child order candy bars. We think Bradley's maybe isn't the most accurate, he mostly likes to enforce rules for other people. And Eleanor's as well, she's not exactly into all the naughty things. But Patrick and Juliet ... theirs were correct.

Nathan and I got to have a date night at the Hula Grill! We love this place.

Juliet was Diana's shadow on this trip.

Gayle's breakfast!

And then park playtime.

Bradley and Eleanor hung out a bit on this trip, which was awesome.

Oh Eleanor. Maybe you do deserve the naughty chocolate bar for being a middle child.

And we had one last day at Capitola Beach! It was lovely.

Bradley refused to bring a sweatshirt to the chilly beach and then had to cuddle me for warmth. Yay!!!

Juliet does fancy poses when digging in the sand.

Many middle schoolers liked to use me as a back rest.

I loved it!

And Patrick and Juliet were adorable digging in the sand together.

We got back to the house and chatted with Diana and Bill for a few minutes while the kids were in our room until we suddenly heard screaming and yelling. Turns out the boys thought it was funny to take a picture of Patrick on the family cell phone and send it out to Eleanor's friends. Eleanor did NOT think it was so funny. I didn't find out what actually happened until we got home and then I had a laughing fit in Costco while Eleanor complained about the shirtless Patrick pic that her friends can't unsee. Poor Eleanor. It is a bit hilarious though.

And some cribbage with Diana for Bradley that evening. So many good games on this trip!

Pizza my Heart twins

So. Many. Waffles. They were really good ones, Bill is so fancy.

And some departure photos under the pergola!

Juliet successfully begged for a rainbow unicorn neck pillow for the trip home. She used it in the car ride home from the airport!

Back home to darling kitties!

And Bradley and I played backgammon and he only rubs it in constantly that he blocked me and I rolled a couple double six's and didn't get to use them.

Family walk when it was surprisingly not incredibly hot one morning.

Bradley and Juliet loves.

Patrick caught the tennis bug after watching the French Open finals. Both were upsets - Gauff beat Sabalenka and then Sinner and Alcaraz had an incredible five and a half hour match which Alcaraz narrowly won. Patrick is now a firm Alcaraz fan and we've been playing a lot of tennis together.

He got to have a sleepover at Austin's house with another buddy, Cutler. Yummy treats were involved!

Callie was so happy to have us home. Whimpers of joy when my parents brought her back after we returned. Which is slightly ridiculous because she loves them very much. But I guess family is #1

Katie and Ethan arrived shortly after we got back and Juliet insisted on playing 10's and 2's with them. Very adorable!

Patrick finished his final lacrosse games. Horrible sport. It's hot and you beat other people up. I'm so glad he's getting into tennis. We're into mind games and damage of the emotional sort. I told him I like the scars to be on the inside. He was unsure about my pep talk. 

Eleanor did this cute thing where she left this not for Bradley one morning. I'm not exactly sure why - she seemed very pleased with herself. 

Fortunately Bradley didn't overreact. He went around with his Minecraft sword and wrote a will in which he made sure Eleanor didn't inherit anything. He bequeathed his video games to Patrick and most of his toys to Juliet.

Juliet got to go to a Dave and Busters birthday party. Other people are so much fancier than us. 

Joyfully reunited with Addie! And teaching her about French fry walrus face.

Meg is always clingy but she was happy when I spent a bunch of time reading a book after the trip.

Solving crime while playing Micro Macro with Bradley.

More animal cuddles

Eleanor reads in strange positions when there's a comfy kitty on her

Can you find the Sookie in this photo?

Ethan and Patrick were good buddies on this trip! Patrick kept going over to my parents' house to hang out with Ethan and they even had a sleepover together because Ethan insisted when he found out that Katie and Juliet were having a sleepover.

Uncle Thomas visited! Much fun coding.

Card tricks were very popular - Uncle Thomas taught them a couple.

Meanwhile, Eleanor read a lot and was covered in pets.

Patrick had his buddy Luke over and they actually made it into the pool. The only way we can get kids in the pool now is when friends are over.

We went by the Hallmark museum while waiting to go to the Coterie. We were medium calm.

Then we went to Kaleidescope because Juliet had been begging to go there but it turns out she meant the children's museum Wonderscope - she was slightly disappointed at first but did okay. There was no way I would have taken her to Wonderscope. That place is meant for younger kids and is crazy crowded.

We had a lot of fun with arts and crafts.

Then we went to the Coterie to see Frog and Toad. It was cute!

The boys are officially masters of the escalator

Once Bradley did it of course Patrick had to as well

Best cousin photo with Katie and Ethan!

Saying goodbye to Uncle Thomas.

Goofballs swimming in the rain. They were quite the inseparable duo this visit.

I went on a walk with Bradley and found a crawdad on the path. It was huge!

Bradley didn't care about a rescue mission but Juliet, Patrick, and our neighbor Charleigh did.

Patrick ended up getting it back into the water.

Then, oh joy of joys, Uncle Daniel gave Patrick a tennis lesson. I had been refusing to teach him backhand because I had a one handed backhand and I knew that was bad. Daniel got him all fixed up! Patrick was so happy.

We went to open gym at the rec center and participated in fort building, which continues to be our favorite pastime whenever we go to this.

Cute cousins walking to their grandparents' pool together. Juliet borrowed Katie's swimsuit mid-visit and then loved it so much she insisted she wear it every time they swam together for the rest of the trip.

We also went to the Lenexa rec center for some swim time.

So much quality time for these two.

Something happened to the parents I grew up with and they bought ice cream from the ice cream truck for children.

I dropped off Eleanor and a friend at Youthfront for a week of camp!

However, they last slightly over 24 hours. Eleanor's friend went home sick and Eleanor didn't want to stay with a bunch of strangers. I was not thrilled about it but I guess these things happen sometimes. She just wanted to stay home and read Keepers of the Lost Cities anyway, I think the camp activities were mostly a distraction from what she really wanted to do.

Legoland with cute kids! We had a blast here.

Ethan really just wanted to race cars the entire time. So cute!

Then we went and got ice cream over at Crown Center!

I put Ethan in ice cream prison (a circle of chairs) for not eating all of his ice cream. I thought it was funny and cute but it made quite the impression on him and he was thrilled when Katie also got put in ice cream prison and he ratted me out to his parents as soon as he got home.

I called this the Bluey and Bingo photo.

Ethan loved Callie and it was mutual.

We had quite the endeavor helping Katie lose a tooth while she was here. Apparently her dentist yanks them if she doesn't lose them quickly enough on her own so she was determined to take care of things with the help of the aunt (me) she knew loved to help pull teeth.

It took at least 15 tries, which is not an exaggeration, but we finally got the tooth out with the help of her Uncle Nathan!

Then it was time to say goodbye. Goodbyes are hard.

More game time with Bradley! I'm not sure who won this one. Bradley is getting pretty good at cribbage!

My beautiful view while reading

We think Callie would look extra pretty with some long hair.

Juliet insisted we play 10's and 2's, which is fun but continues to be a terrible game for Bradley.

He's getting so tall! He went to our optometrist and is finally due for glasses without bifocal lenses.

And we ended the month with a 1st grade playground gathering at the school. Patrick and some of his friends joined in on the kickball game and everyone had a blast. I love where we live. Such a great childhood for these kids.

And these cute kids finished swim lessons by learning how to dive! Go Juliet go!