Folsom City Pool

Here we are again with our Wilkins cousins at the community pool. It was a great pool and a super-hot day...perfect combination!

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Wow! We packed a lot of fun into the 10 hours we were at Six Flags! We went with Grama and Papa Patrick and the Wilkins! We saw the orca and dolphin shows, rode on a bazillion rides, ate yummy corndogs, fries, and pizza, drank a lot of soda(free refills with the $12 cup), had a light sprinkling of rain, enjoyed a double rainbow afterwards, and regretted that we didn't discover the refillable popcorn/cotton candy bucket, $8, until we were leaving the park! I was excited that I got all of my kids to ride a medium sized roller coaster, named The Cobra, and the Sarah and Rach actually liked it! Jake, Grace and I went on a couple of the bigger rides too...Kong and the Tony Hawk somethin-or-other. Andy wasn't with us, so I am really grateful to Mom and Dad and Melissa and Eric for helping with my kids.

Jelly Belly Factory

I think this trip was our sixth visit to the Jelly Belly Factory in Vacaville. It never gets old. The kids think it's funny when the tourguide asks very obscure trivia questions, that nobody should know the answer to, and they call out the correct answers. We all enjoy the paper hats and the free bag of bellies they give each person at the end of the tour! On this trip, we went with the Wilkins cousins. We were quite a site...2 moms and 9 kids! (Is my sister Melissa hot or what?)

Hey hey! Bo-diddly-bop!

That was the name of the song we sang on our hike. The whole song went something like this...
Hey-hey, bo-diddly-bop! (echo)
I wish I were back at my rock (echo)
And with this __________ in my hand,(echo)
I'm gonna be a __________ man! (echo)
A _________ man? (echo)
A _________ man!
We don't remember much about the pond that we hiked to, but we really remember the song! Thanks Chan! -Jake

Free Entertainment

When we are together with Patrick cousins, in the evenings my favorite thing to do is sit back and watch all of the kids perform. They sing, dance, act, and on this night they played Aunt Melissa's and Papa's fun games...leap frog and steam-roller! Good times, lots of laughing!

Child Labor? Nah...

Aunt Bethany put the kids to work, but they didn't really mind. It was a beautiful northern California evening, and all of our mini-vans were extremely dirty... The kids look like they're having fun though, don't they?

4th of July

So, I'm proud to be an American! I really wanted to be in the US for the fourth of July, so we planned our trip back to arrive in California on July 3rd. The kids were awesome for the three days we took to drive back, as always! We spent the 4th swimming and hanging out, eating Costco cashews and chocolate raisins, and playing Farkel with grandparents, great grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles. It was great! In the evening we headed to Cal Expo for fireworks and yummy fair food. The ginormous corndogs, cherry sno-cones and funnel cakes were our favorites! The people watching was very entertaining, as well as our kids' impromptu dance performances for the crowd. On top of all of that fun, we enjoyed a spectacular fireworks show, set to patriotic music--with the exception of a five minute musical tribute to the late Michael Jackson. What more could I ask for?

Going to Warsaw!!

I know that we (and by we, I mean Rebecca, of course) are way behind in updating the blog, but for anyone out there who still looks at it, just wanted to post that we received our next assignment - Warsaw, Poland. We will leave Mexico next summer, spend a year in D.C. trying to learn Polish, then it's 2 years in Warsaw, where I will be a political/military affairs officer. We are excited!

Jake's Robotics Camp

Happy Father's Day!

"Dear Dad (aka. MR. BIG),
You're the coolest dad in the MILKY WAY.
Everyone SNICKERS at your funny jokes.
You totally CRUNCH the competition with your XTREME gaming skills.
And you're the grillmaster! M&M!
If we had to pick be-TWIX you, CARLOS V, and a JOLLY RANCHER, we'd pick you!
With love and KISSES, Your little NERDS"