This picture is because Ethan finally can climb on and off the horse all by himself. He loves it! But also the picture is an excuse to make an entry about my week.

So Papi has been gone all week.... and he finally ocmes home tomorrow. This also happened to be a week that I didn't have a maid... I know poor me. I have to pat myself on the back though for surviving quite well and I am going to do it by making a list of all of the things I accomplished while he was gone.
Laundry, twice
did two major grocery shopping trips to recover from vacation and put all the food away
vaccumed the house
mopped the kitchen floor
swept the kitchen floor at least once a day
did the dishes at least once a day
cracked, shredded, and toasted three coconuts and cut my hand in the process
made cookies for lunches with the coconut
made breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for me and all 4 kids
woke up every morning at 5:30 am and I wasn't late once!
went to back to school night and navigated rush hour traffic to come home
did preschool with Teac most days
took the boys to the park on my bike
played cars on the floor
changed wet sheets
went to the orthodontist with both boys and had a Colombia moment when the parking attnedant wouldn't let me leave because I forgot to get my little paper stamped showing which office I went to. Not because I needed to pay, but only for security reasons and I didn't want to go back up to the office since I had the two boys in the car with me and I didn't want to be late getting home because Zoe's bus was going to arrive any minute. I almost ran him over to get out of there. I hope I didn't cause him problems with his job.
Taught primary sharing time and sat through church all by myself with the kids... well the sitting part is questionable since I had to take the baby out several times, and the alone part is normal since he is always up on the stand or helping somewhere else.
planned Zoe's birthday party that is coming up in 2 weeks
Made one of the games for the party.. (pin the wings on the fairy)
Interviewed a new maid... all in spanish, all by myself
arranged playdates for my kids and hosted them at my house, twice
practiced piano with the girls every day
There has got to be something else..... I think I only lost my temper once or twice... they all seem to get chatty and noisy at the same time everyday... make dinner time, and they all come in the kitchen and need something while I'm trying to cook, and they all seem to do it in a way that reverberates through the kitchen just at the right decible level as to make my back stiffen and my patience go out the window.
We read stories and scripture stories almost every night (the girls are sick of Dirty Joe the Pirate)
Had a phone interview for some part time work that went really well
I am sure there has got to be something else....
Being a mom is a very busy job.

 
The first day of 4th grade :)

 
The first day of 2nd grade. :)

 
Classic spaghetti face. They all seem to love pasta with red sauce.

 
I gave the boys haircuts a couple of days ago... they were just getting shaggy. I should have spiked Ethan's hair before I took the picture but I was relieved at how they came out.

 
Another picture from the trip I just found. Grandpa and Teac hanging out watching Lightning McQueen.

 
After eating lots of ice cream and going to a pioneer picnic and doing lots of other fun things with grandma, we headed down to spend a couple of days with the Cooks. It was so cool for the cousins to get to play together. They had the best time playing dress-up, polly pockets, transformers and just hanging out together. This is a bed time shot the night before we had to leave.

 
This is out of order, but as soon as we arrived from camping they all went straight into the bath. They were so filthy I didn't even want them walking down stairs leaving a trail of dirt.

 
Can't seem to get them all smiling in the same picture.

 
July 25 Ethan turned 1 year old. We celebrated with a candle in a small zuchini bread and his big brother blew his candle out for him, twice. He really enjoyed the cake and didn't seem to mind the small affair.

 
My cute kids in front of grandma's house.

 
Saturday we went to Sedona to celebrate cowboy day. They had a world champion gun slinger who put on a little show and we wandered around looking at shops. It was fun to see people dressed up.

 
Ethan was totally facinated.... I had to be careful not to let him grab the snake to forcefully.

 
My favorite part... the reptile show... and they let the kids come in and touch the snakes... that was really cool.

 
Marlo thought it would be fun so she used her money to pay for all 3 of them to have a camel ride... don't think we'll be spending money on that again. Good thing we took pictures.

 
We fed a camel.... the giraffe just wasn't interested in food... it was too hot.

 
After camping we headed over to stay with grandma and grandpa for a few days. Grandma kept us busy. One day we went to the wild animal park. This is on the safari tour where you can feed some of the animals.

 
Trying to swim up stream...

 
The best part about the campground was the creek that ran through it. The kids had so much fun moving rocks, wading up and down stream, floating the small rapids... just cooling off.

 
After Carpinteria we went to AZ. Papi had to leave us back to Bogota but the fun didn't stop. We went on a campout to Oak Creek in Sedona with just the moms. The kid ratio was crazy... like 4:1. But we had a good time anyway. This is our camp in the background.

 
It means a lot to us too. I am happy we are getting older. I think life just keeps getting better as we do.

 
It means a lot to our kids that while we travel all over, they still have friends who love them waiting back at home. I hope they always feel that way.

 
The day we left the beach was a very sad day for me. It meant I was not going to the beach again this trip....that I wouldn't see the ocean for at least 6 months..... and I was just sad. Nice and sunburned, but sad.

 
How else do you get a 3 year old to hold still when they are awake?

 
I mean, how else are you supposed to know that it sticks to everything, even your eyelashes.

 
Face plant in the sand has to be done at least once for experimental purposes.

 
As a kid, this was one of my favorite spots on the beach... the tide pool rocks. It is a love I am happy to pass on to my kids and their friends.

 
Teac has shown himself to be quite a cautious kid. He saw everyone else out riding the waves so he wanted to do it too. He went and got a board and Papi went with him to help... with those waves coming so close there was no way he wanted to lie down and be any smaller. He just wouldn't do it. I think it took until the last day there before he really started to enjoy the water.

 
The girls and their boards.... makes me want to move to the beach.

 
If only those darn swim suit issues were more modest... I could be their next cover girl. ;)

 
The grave of Ronald Reagan. While there are many things I may not agree with when it comes to politics, I do believe the saying on his headstone and I wish that people all over the earth could act in accordance with it.

 
Here we all are in front of a piece of the Berlin wall. It is tricky to teach your children how blessed they are. How fortunate we are to be citizens of the United States, and how most people all over the world do not enjoy the same liberties we do.

 
The cool helicopter that lands on the White House lawn and takes the president to Air Force One....

 
Excursion #3 the Ronald Reagan library. There were a lot of pieces of history displayed and explained through out the museum but my two favories were the Air Force One that we got to walk through, and the piece of the East German wall.

 
The observatory had recently been redone and we had a fabulous time exploring. I hope to go back with the kids next year. This was part of the earthquake exibit showing the tectonic plates.

 
This was taken from outside Griffith Observatory... another of our excursions.

 
Janie and Carrie are totally motivated and inspiring people. The pulled out all of mom's sewing stuff and brought their own so that during their stays in CA they made several little skirts and bottoms for the girls, a georgous apron, taught/helped my girls make their own bags, and several other little projects. I stayed up late with them several nights for moral support, but mostly to chat. I love my sisters.

 
Marlo had to return the final book of the Harry Potter series back to the school library before she finished it. So every house we went to she borrowed a copy and managed to finish it well before the trip was over.

 
Uncle Scott and aunt Jamie came through with some cool airplanes which were totally the hit of the party. I asked Teac who was in the picture he said, "my friend". I said no, that's uncle Scott and he said, "yeah uncle Scott my big friend." I thought that was really cool.

 
A very merry unbirthday to all of you.... this is becoming a summer tradition of celebrating everyone's birthday together while Aunt Janie and the other aunts and uncles are around. Who isn't up for an extra birthday party?

 
The motley crew at the Getty.

 
One day during our time in CA we took the kids to the Getty museum. It was an amazing place but we were a little disappointed at how small their area for kids was. This is one of my favorite pictures showing Zoe doing one of the hands-on activities. The colors are so cool.

 
Super Teac strikes a pose :)

 
After being in the cold water you do what you have to to get warm.... some how she doesn't seem to mind all of the scratchy sand getting stuck everywhere. Teac was totally happy to be up there on the dry sand with Marlo.

 
Boogey board chics! The waves were rough that day and they did awesome. It was not quite as cold as it looks, but close.

 
Did they really drag us out here to get sand in our diapers? I guess we'll just have to make the best of it.

 
The chaos of cousins :)

 
Marlo and the cousins hanging out waiting for Uncle John and Aunt Natalie to come out of the temple.

 
This is coming out of the LA temple after Johnny's wedding.... after all this time we still like each other.

 
With all of the traveling around this summer it often took the kids a little time to get settled. This was not an uncommon occurrance. "And the little one said roll over...."

 
I had to post this one as well...

 
They are so lovely.

 
The boys the girls and their fans after the show.

 
This is Marlo's class bowing at the end of the talent show. The girls sang their sister number.

 
This is from June before we left. I thought it was really interesting that I gave Ethan some cherry tomatoes and he took all the seeds out before eating them.