The Summer Whirlwind is OVER!

I finally got on this blog to try to remember when the last time I posted anything was - I can't believe it's been a month and a half! We have been out of town more than in for the last 6 weeks! Of course - I didn't take many pictures! A brief summary of the many places we've been are:

July 5-12: We spent time with Julie's family at my mom's house. We had the best time with Mallory and little Beth! Julie's birthday was on the 8th - so we celebrated by going kayaking in Lake Natoma. We had a ball - Ryan and Allison fell in love with it. They were able to take one of the kayaks out by themselves and paddle around and even managed to get back to shore on their own!
July 14-18: Camping trip at Lake Tahoe. This was by far our best camping trip ever! We explored many parts of the Lake that we had never seen before. We found an awesome little hike that led to a small waterfall. We had a great time swimming in the small pools at the bottom. Another highlight was the bear that joined us in our campsite one morning! Yes, that's right, a bear! Thankfully we were all in the tent when it came into our site, so we were safe - but it was very confused and kept climbing up trees instead of running away when Shawn tried to scare it!
The flip flop picture is a funny story that must be shared! We went river rafting in the Truckee River on our Lake Tahoe trip. I was wearing the flip flop on the left - actually I was wearing the matching one on my right foot too! I stepped out of the boat when we stopped on the shore and lost my flip flop in the mud! The water was only about 18 inches deep and I knew exactly where I had stepped. I told Shawn I was not leaving with out my shoe so he needed to find it! He proceeded to fish around with his hand in the water looking for my shoe. HeI says excitedly "I found it!" and up comes the nasty blue one! We couldn't believe the coincidence that he would pull up someone else's lost shoe in such a small area that he was searching. Before he gave up looking for MY shoe, he managed to pull up 2 more that weren't mine!!! He gave up after he pulled the brown one that looked new and sort of matched mine! And to make things funnier - they were all my size and were all right foots - which is the one I lost!

July 20-22: Back to Mom's and a trip to Six Flag's! Great fun as always!

July 23-29: I took the kids (my mom came with) to Utah to visit my brothers and sister. We had an awesome BBQ with Dave, Jim, and Diane's families, complete with fireworks! We went to the Olympic Village in Park City. We watched guys practice ski jumping into pools of water. We also did the Alpine Slide and a zip line! It was a day of thrills! Josh loved climbing in the bobsleds in the lobby area! My kids had such a great time with their cousins. Ryan especially loved hanging out with his teenage cousins! Shawn joined us on the 27th and drove home with us.
August 1-2: Back to Mom's! This time Susie's family was there! We met them at Sutter's Mill-where Gold was discovered. We spent a little time enjoying the history there and the museum, but the real highlight was playing in the river! There were several huge rocks the kids would jump off and Ryan even swam across the river. He had serious peer pressure watching his older cousins do it! Then we spent the next day swimming at mom's. Susie's son Matt taught Ryan how to do a back dive!
August 4: SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION!!! Ryan and Allison started 4th and 1st grades. We have year round school - so we start much earlier than most.

August 8-9: Back to Mom's! Jim's family came and of course we couldn't resist going over to visit! Ryan and Presley and Allison and Kady have the best time together! When we had to leave, Ryan was very depressed!

We are finally home and should be for a while! Soccer season has started and Ryan had a great game today. Unfortunately, his team isn't quite up to his intensity - so that means he basically runs the show! He scored the teams only 3 goals today! He is quite the athlete - he always gives 110%.

They are calling it Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - but it's still Marine World to Me!

We went over to Marine World a few weeks ago with some friends. We had such a great time. One of my favorite rides is the Rapids water ride. When we lived in Washington, we used to go to an amusement park there and my friend Valynn and I would ride till we were totally soaked - over and over again! Now that I don't have Valynn to go with, I have enlisted the children! Ryan, Allison and Jake all went on it for the first time and thankfully they loved it too! Shawn enjoyed staying back with Josh and spending every last quarter soaking us as we floated by! Ryan is now loving the roller coasters - too bad he is so dang short he can barely ride any of them! We look forward to going back this summer when Jim and his family visit Mom.

Summer fun!

Summer wouldn't be summer without spending time with Grandma and her backyard! Grandma has added a fun nighttime element - a fire pit! There's nothing better to little boys than fire right! The kids had a great time making S'mores - they roasted more marshmallows than they could possibly eat, so Shawn and I managed to make ourselves sick eating all the extras!

Julie and her kids are coming to visit Mom on Saturday. We are so excited to go over and spend time with them. We are hoping to have Allison swimming on her own after a week in the pool!

We have been enjoying Lake Tahoe as well! The kids love the beach, so Sand Harbor has been great for us. It is so nice to finally not have a baby to worry about. Josh is 2 and is so independent. He hangs so well with the older kids and they watch after him. I was actually able to sit in a beach chair and relax while they play! I have finally arrived!!! It's all uphill from here!

Another Baseball Season in the Books!

Baseball is a huge part of our family's life. Ryan has played on the Cardinals for 4 years. This year was the best yet - he moved up from Farm to Minors this year and his team was awesome. They missed 1st place by one game - darn it! Ryan played shortstop, 2nd base, and his favorite position Catcher. I'm sure it's his favorite because he gets to touch the ball every pitch! He had some great tag outs at home plate and even threw a guy out from home plate at 2nd when the kid was trying to steal 2nd base! That was exciting! He also hit very well this year - considering the kids pitching weren't always very good at getting the ball over the plate! He had several line drives to the outfield and managed to get on base with a walk almost every game. He is a great base runner too, he's always aware of where the ball is. He is already looking forward to next year!

Allison also played her first year of T-ball this year. She was great! She wasn't always the most attentive - but she had fun. She also just had her ballet recital on Saturday, June14th. She was the lead dancer and did fabulous! this was her 3rd year taking ballet and she is really starting to become a very graceful dancer. Grandma Sisco came over for the weekend and went to the recital with us.

Summer officially starts for our family on Friday! School is finally out then - and we can start enjoying the beautiful weather and have some fun!

I'm Finally a Blogger

The time has finally come -- the Murphy Family has a blog! We are so that way - we never hop on the bandwagon until it's just about passed by! Too many of my far away friends have awesome blogs and I love being able to keep in touch, so hopefully I will manage to stay somewhat current with our familyhappenings. School is just about out and baseball season is over tomorrow - yeah! Finally I should have some time to figure this blog thing out! Well, now that I have been working on just this much for an hour and a half, I'm out of time. The kitchen is a disaster and it's already bedtime!