More Summer Highlights...

June family vacation to Northern CA

Shawnee Larsen fixes Tauni's hair with the help of FIVE little boys! Niall, get those barrettes out of your hair before your Dad sees!

Chandler lets Niall & Leith play with his Wii.

Coral & India walking out to the tide pools.

Niall & Leith playing in a tide pool.

India is holding fairly large crab that Kevin and the kids found living in a beautiful tide pool. They named it 'Brock' after an on again, off again crush/friend of India's. They fished it out of its home at least once a day to check it out before carefully replacing it. Maybe we will see 'Brock ' next year if it hasn't been eaten by seagulls.

Also, Leith is doing his 'Stronger Boy' pose. 'Stronger Boy' is a super-hero type alter ego that he created for himself over the summer.

This is a piece of driftwood that the boys played with endlessly.

We can't resist self-timer family photos- I usually get to do the running into place after perching the camera on a rock. I love this photo because our clothes, by accident, mirror the colors of the sky, water, rocks, and plants around us. Leith looks like an orange star fish perched among us.

Our annual trip to the beach north of Fort Bragg, CA, included a Gladys Knight performance in Sacramento for Kevin and the girls and a fun visit with our friends, the Larsens. Kevin's friend from his mission, Jay Young, sings with the Saints Unified Choir. The Larsens were kind enough to let us crash at their gorgeous new house before and after our time at the beach. It is great to have such good friends. Niall loved being with his buddy, Cade. We reconnected with a number of our CA friends while we were there, went to San Francisco one afternoon, and squeezed in dinner with Kevin's brother, Ryan and his family and his fabulous swimming pool. It was great to see everyone.

The beach was amazing as always. We feel privileged to spend time as a family in such a beautiful, secluded place.