Marc comes down stairs to head out the door to work with this!  He says he’s bringing sexy back????  I think not…

We really are blessed to live in such a great neighborhood. We have such wonderful friends. We got to celebrate Karly’s 30th birthday with some neighbors at San Onofre beach last Saturday. Marc pilled up the truck with 3 surfboards, boogie boards, chairs etc hoping to get both Connor and I in the ocean for a surf. It really was a cold beach afternoon. All the adults stayed bundled up on the sand. Marc is a bit dissapointed he doesn’t have a “surfing family”. Some day hunny, some day!

Karly’s dad BBQ’d some of the best tasting teri beef kabobs I’ve ever had. He also makes a mean pot of baked beans. The guys went out for a cold surf and the kids made a really awesome fort! I love the summer beach day BBQ’s and bonfires! Thanks for the fun times Karly and Jeff!

Karly and her daughter Ella

beach games for the kids

“Please anyone, lets partake of the waves”

Jimmy, Braden, Taylor, and Noel begining the beach fort

Maren , Noel, and Taylor proud of their finished product!

“hey that’s my soda, dad”

The Kai and Connor

A lazy Saturday morning was disrupted by a phone call from Aimee telling me my old BFF, Jane,  from 5th grade was visiting and we were all meeting up in a half hour.  Mind you it was already 9:30 and usually I am up with the kids around 7:30 ish but summer time has made me a little bit lazy in the mornings and I NEED my sleep to get through the draining days.  I decided to make it happen. So I literally rolled out of bed and brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes and headed down to get the girls dressed and sort of fixed their hair.  We made it out the door in record time.  Even my brother Connor, who doesn’t talk a whole lot, mentioned to me this is what I should do everyday and I agree.  I think when I have something planned for later in the day I find myself running in circles getting breakfast, cleaning up, feeding Vaughn, more cleening up, dealing with the girl fights and drama, then getting frustrated again about the mess and when it is time to leave I can’t seem to get out the door!  This way if we wake up and go we don’t have drama we just get dressed and go and have breakfast on the way……..hmmm problem solved.  Though I will ultimately never have make-up on or feel put together but the _ _ _ _ with it!  This new approach sets me free from the constant anxiety about getting out and being on time and feeling the need to leave the house some what clean!

On the way we picked up some Panera bagels, cinnamon crunch my fav.  Then met Aimee & kids, and Jane with her youngest baby at Mcdonalds.  YES you heard me Mcdonalds ! (for anyone who knows me well knows this is a big step for me to allow my kids to eat at Micky D’s, as my dad calls it).  Kaili got her hash brown and oj, Maren got her hot cakes, and I enjoyed a delicious bagel amongst some best friends!  What a fun morning.  It has been a couple years since I last saw Jane.  She’s been living in China for a few years but recently moved back to the states with her family.  We grew up together in Hawaii and have known each other since we were practically babies.  She has 3 kids now.  Jane, Aimee and I all had our little babies with in 2 weeks of eachother.  It’s fun to see all my long lost friends in the mommy stage.  It is a busy one so I am happy to share time with good friends who are experiencing the same trials as I,  as well as the precious moments we are blessed to have experiencing life with our little ones.

Jane, Aimee and I

our babies all the same age!

Kaili, Ashlynn, Maren and Daniel

Kaili and Ashlynn cracking eachother up!

Cute Maren (always fixing her hair)

Seriously, Kaili what is up with the weird faces lately ?

The only way I could get Maren to look was if she wore my sunglasses.

The girls love their unlce

Friday night we got to go see Jolene’s art displayed at the famous Art A fair, an exhibit of the annual Laguna Beach Art Festival.  We are all so proud of her.  It is a really big deal to be a part of the famous Art Festival.  Maren was especially excited to go out on the town with the adults to see grandma’s art and then go to dinner with Uncle Connor, Aunty Summer, Uncle Jason, and mom & dad of course.  Grandma Jo is such an amazingly talented artist.  We enjoyed being a part of such a tremendous honor.  It was relaxing to walk around and look at art.  Maren wasn’t shy at all when it came to expressing her feelings about the paintings, sculptures, etc.  She chose some glass paintings and painted animals as her favorites!  Daddy and daughter are so much alike.  I love how full of joy and life the two of them are.  Maren and Marc both couldn’t resist dancing to the live band.  I need to take lessons from my husband and daughter on how to live in the moment and have fun!!  I absolutely loved watching the two of them together! They light up my life!

Maren couldn’t wait to give Grandma Jo a big squeeze!

Maren signs in.

  Skipping to the beat with her dad

one dip

another dip

  Maren had her favorite Udon

Summer and I outside the Art A - Fair

Connor, my youngest 15 yr old sibling, and I.  Man I am looking old!

We have had a very eventful, very fun, very busy week with “uncle Connor” in town! We have been to the beach a few times, wild rivers, the fair, out to eat, shopping, swimming at the pool, movies , family BBQ etc. I have enjoyed my brother here. He has been a big help with the girls. I have appreciated the quick trip to the store, dinner out with friends, and today he took the girls to the park so I could clean the house and catch up on some laundry. Connor is a little shy but we got to spend some time together with out the girls the other day and did some school shopping for him. We found some amazing deals. My little brother is easy to please and some times you almost forget he is around he is so quiet. Which I have to say is so opposite from all of us Hemeon’s. I hope his quiet example rubs off on my kids. Ha ha. I rarely seem to get a quiet moment at home until the kids are all in bed and then I am exhausted!

There is so much more to say but I better go to bed so I can try to be “nice mom” tomorrow because we have quite another eventful day planned meeting friends in the morning then later in the day a BBQ at the beach for our good friend Karly’s 30th birthday.

I have so many great pictures it was hard to choose so bear with me here.

The girls are growing up so fast. I was surprised they wanted to and are able to ride a roller coaster alone!

Yummy Churros and the Cute baby Calf

My favorite exhibit was the Bonzai!

Kaili sneak attacks Maren. The had fun on the mini bumper cars. They rode 3 rides and played 3 games but

wanted more. I had already spent almost as much as it would have cost to get the wrist bands, darnet!

FYI to any of you who go to the fair I suggest getting the $20 unlimited ride wristbands!

The girls wouldn’t leave the fair with out their cotton candy. But I am glad we left and

had dinner at Wahoo’s instead of eating the super expensive nasty carnival food.

We finally got Connor in the ocean. Only once so far but we will try again tomorrow.

Maren and Kaili were so stoked to see their friends Paige and Kate at the beach!

Isn’t he a cutie pie!

Kaili and Sailor were the silliest girls at the beach.

Avery Maren & Cate

Couldn’t pass up a stop to see the worlds biggest slipper

I enjoyed some time together with Connor who is 16 years younger than I so we really

do not know each other very well but we do have skin color in common. Yup, we both have

the cursed white skin when all of our other sibling are so dark. When he was a baby people

used to think he was mine! Yikes — I was a bit mortified being 16 at the time but that’s what

you get in Happy Valley when there are so many young mom’s! Now when I visit I can’t help

but notice all the moms who truly do look like teenagers. CRAZY