Every Day Moments

 I thought it would be worthwhile to document some of the every day things going on at the Ray house.  There are countless times during my days as a mom that I think, "I want to remember that about _____."  My kiddos are growing up too fast.  I wish I could freeze time right now.  They are all at such fun ages.  

This is what I see at the breakfast bar each morning.  By this point, Benny has usually been up for an hour or so.  Graham follows and Lucy is up last.  Lucy always has cereal.  Graham and Ben-O mix it up a bit more.  They prefer waffles or pancakes, but I don't make 'em, Dad does.  So if we're out, Ben settles for a bowl of oatmeal with a bowl of cereal on the side.  He has started wanting milk in his cereal, too, which makes for a fun breakfast mess to clean up.  Graham whines for a bit that we're out of waffles or pancakes and then decides he'll have toast with peanut butter and syrup (same way he eats his waffles).  

 This is our back yard here in Oxnard.  Every once in a while we pull out the jump rope and get the kids going.  I love watching Graham do his thing.  I think his record is 26 jumps in a row.  Lucy can run in and out and do all the fun little songs that go with the jump rope scene.  

 Here's something I see many nights on the way to bed.  Foot rides!  Benny is getting older and wants to join in, so Jason put Lucy Goose on his shoulders.  

 Lovin' it!

 Graham is back to riding without training wheels.  The trainers came back on while Jason was deployed.  We had too big of a break in between rides, so he was too nervous.  Now he's a pro.  I love Benny's pose in the background.  

 Benny loves his "motorcycle".  He never ever calls it a scooter or bike.  It's Graham's old ride and he's sure to remind Ben of that every time we get it out.  

 He's actually really, really good at it.  Pretty quick and controlled.  We went for a walk at Seabridge the other day and I was impressed at how well he handled the big hills.  Except for one at the end.......against my better judgement, I let him go down a big ramp.  It ended with him running into a cement wall.  Awesome. Way to go, Mom.  No blood or scratches on the boy, though.  He was mostly ticked off that the wall hit his elbow.  

My crazy boys.  

Here's the picture Graham drew for my Dad on his 60th birthday.  I love everything about it.  It makes me smile every time I look at it.  

I've mentioned this on many occasions, but one of my favorite things is looking out my window and watching my kids play happily together on the tramp.  This is one Saturday afternoon after one of Graham's baseball games.  Lucy got each of them a cup of goldfish for a snack.  

I sure love my job!  

Run, Lucy, Run!

Lucy participated in the track program at her school this year.  She practiced every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after school.  The city put on one big track meet on a Saturday at one of the high schools.  

 Here's Lucy gearing up for her standing long jump.  

 Lucy girl with some of her peeps.  

 Finishing up her 200 meter race.  

Lucy took 2nd place in the long jump out of all the 3rd graders that participated.  She finished 5th in her heat in the 200 meter.  It was so fun watching my girl compete.  

Brewer Baseball

Graham played his first year of baseball this year.  Good times!  By the end of the season he would have told you it was boring times, but we're all glad he participated, even if the season went a bit long.  

 I loved watching Graham interact with his teammates.  He always wanted to give everyone on his team a high five after the game.  Graham had no problem running from one side of the field to the other to get a ball that was finally hit by the other team.  There were a couple wrestling matches between the kids as they fought over who got to throw it to first base.  

 If only I had gotten a picture of him dancing in the outfield.  We always caught him shakin' his booty while waiting for some baseball action.  

By the middle of the season he could hit the ball without the tee.  We were quite proud.  I think my proudest moment may have been watching him from the bleachers punch himself in the crotch over and over again (athletic cup was a required part of the uniform). 

Good Times with the Gangwish's

I want to journal about our great friends, the Gangwish family.  They moved into Oxnard in December of last year and moved to San Francisco the end of May.  Even though we only spent a few short months hanging out with them, we made friendships that will last a lifetime.  

One of the final weekends they were here, we decided to do sleepovers.  The boys stayed with us and the girls went to the Gangwish home.  

 Here's all the boys getting ready to watch a movie.  

Ryland, Cooper, Graham, and Benny

Allison and I decided to take the girls to dinner and the ballet for a fun night out.  The girls acted like crazy people the whole time.  We were glad we decided to go early so there weren't too many people in the restaurant.  

 Lucy and Lauren

 Proof of the ridiculousness

 All the lovely ladies

Allison and I hit it off right away.  I felt like we just clicked.  We always had a lot to talk about and enjoyed one another's company.   

Graham and Ryland went to the same preschool, so we did a lot of play dates after school.  The boys loved playing super heroes on the trampoline.  On this particular day, they had hoped to go to the pool and I decided it wasn't going to happen, so they had to settle for the hose.  

We're so sad they are gone, but hope to see them soon!

IOWA

 Still playing catch-up....some things never change.

Back in May I was lucky enough to go visit my sister, Beth, and her family.  Her husband, Jason, is attending medical school there.  I got to go all by my lonesome and I LOVED IT!

 Got to spend some quality time with this cute guy.  Thomas is hilarious.  This kid keeps Beth and Jason hoppin' all the time, so it's a really good thing he is absolutely adorable.  He's always movin' and getting into something.  He kept me laughing the entire trip.  

 We spent an afternoon at the annual Tulip Festival that is held a few towns away.  It's like a trip to Holland.  There's a parade and Dutch food everywhere.  The tulips bloomed early this year, so we didn't see much of the celebrated flower, but we had a great time.

I had my first funnel cake.  Can you say love?  It's all I have thought about since that amazing moment.  

What a great trip!  As always, my favorite times were when we were just hanging out and talking.  I fell in love with Iowa, which was unexpected.  Des Moines is beautiful!  So green and small town like.  My brother, Blaine, was there for a few of the days, too.  We laughed A LOT.  By the way....don't go see the movie Mirror Mirror.  Horrible, horrible movie, but we had a great time making fun of it as we were the only ones in the theater.