Cousins

On Sunday for father's day, my whole family enjoyed a quite afternoon at the park with Cameron. He was the only kid at the playground! All of a sudden, I see another little kid at the park, but nobody with him. I'm looking at the boy and thinking that he looks so familiar. Then, it clicks, I was like, I think that looks like Cameron's cousin Sebastian. Sure enough, Daniel, Cameron's uncle, comes to the park with his other son Andres. Sebastian is 4 1/2 and Andres is 8. It was so random. The boys played together so well. I talked to Daniel for an hour! He said they want to be involved in camo's life and the boys always ask how come they don't get to play with their cousin Cameron like they do the rest of their cousins. Isn't that crazy!?!? Such an unplanned meeting for us, but i'm reminded of how present God is in every situation, and it wasn't just coincidence, but a divine appointment set up by God! Plus, crazy that it all happend on fathers day!

Here is a picture of Cameron with Sebastian and Andres. (I think it's so funny that both boys are full Mexican and Cameron is only 1/2 but he is so much darker! haha)

Kaden's 1st Birthday

Kaden turned one already! I can't believe it. Kaden is the son to my sweet friend Melinda who lives in Fresno with her husband Peter and almost 4 year old daughter Kaylie! I posted about Kaden being born here. I cannot believe it has been a full year! I love him so much. Here are some pictures from his 1st bday celebration!

Daddy's Birthday

Well, once again, I'm behind here on my blogging! June 12 was my dad's birthday. I love him so much! It was a low key evening with dinner and pineapple upside down cake (my dad's favorite!)

I love my dad's gentle spirit. He is so kind and loving and somehow always makes me feel special! He is so full of energy and can brighten up an room he walks into. He is so fun and always wants to go, go, go. Cameron enjoys doing "projects" with my dad, whether it be gardening, or taking cans out to the recycling. My dad can turn anything into a fun activity.

The way my dad has modeled unconditional love to my mom, my sister, myself, and Cameron is amazing. His patience, understanding, and selflessness blows me away. I'm one lucky girl to have such a special daddy! I love you!

Here's a picture of Cameron and Papa on his birthday! :) (ps - doesn't my dad look great for 59!?)

My Girls

Yesterday, Katie and Lauren came to watch Cameron towards the end of his tennis class. During his class he saw them and yelled hi, then turned to the teacher and said, "Those are my girls." Hahahahaha.

Identity

A few weeks ago I listened to this video on my friend Tony's blog.

This line stuck out to me: GOD'S DAUGHTERS NEED TO BE LOVED THE WAY CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH.

I have been processing that line in my head over and over. It reminds me of God's truth, and the value that I have in Jesus.

So often I believe I deserve less, or I am not good enough, or that being disrespected is ok. But those are lies. God holds my identity and His love surpasses it all. I have no need to settle for anything less because I am a daughter of the King.

Nice Summer Treat

The weather hasn't been great yet, but it's still June, so why not enjoy some delicious ice cream and forget about everything else!?

Tennis

I went into Peninsula Covenant Community Center the other day to turn in membership information and Cameron saw several tennis rackets hanging on the wall. At that point he decided he wanted to play tennis. I couldn't get it out of his head over the course of several days, so I signed him up for some tennis classes! Yesterday was his first day and it was so precious!

Third Adventure Day

This past weekend was my turn to plan our third adventure day. If you want to read about our second one, read here! At 6:45 am we all climbed into my car and were off.

First Stop: Driving just a short distance to Canada College where we ate a picnic breakfast in the parking lot looking over the beautiful view.

Group shot of us with our bagels.

Second Stop: Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville for some strawberry picking. We got to pick fresh strawberries right off the vines. They were so red and juicy and perfect! They also bake delicious pies there with the berries they grow. We ate a yummy Ollalieberry pie. They had a cute little play area too.

This is the barn where Gizdich Ranch sells their fresh fruit if you choose not to pick it yourself.Jenni, Katie, and Autumn showing off the strawberries they have found!

Lots and lots of strawberries!Cameron and mommy picking strawberries together!We each filled up our own bucket FULL of strawberries and then got some recipe ideas of how we could use all of these berries!

A group shot of all of us with our buckets full of strawberries!

Eating a yummy, yummy, Ollaliberry Pie!

Cameron playing in the hay tunnel that they had at the ranch!

Third Stop: We made our way to Mission San Juan Bautista. The mission was really interesting and they had a lovely flower garden.

This is a shot of the mission from the side. You enter on the left hand side.Jenni and I in the flower garden of Mission San Juan Bautista.

Another shot of the mission. The architecture was crazy.

The cemetery at the mission. It said over 4,000 people were burried here.

Fourth Stop: The Original El Camino Real road. It happens to be placed right behind Mission San Juan Bautista. It was built as a road that connected various colonies of Spain in the Americas.

This is the sign that marked it, and the dirt road in the bottom of the picture is El Camino.

Fifth Stop: The San Andreas Fault Line, which also happens to run right behind the San Juan Bautista Mission.

This is a picture of the sign they have posted about the fault line. They use to have a seismograph that showed the fault constantly moving, but it got damaged.

These fields are sitting directly on the San Andreas Fault.

Sixth Stop: We had lunch in San Juan Bautista at a Mexican restaurant called Dona Esthers. It was recommended to me by a few different people. The food was ok, nothing too exciting, but was still good!

Seventh Stop: Then it was off to San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission in Carmel. While we were there they had a wedding going on. This mission too had a lovely courtyard and flower garden.

This was the entrance into the church part of the mission.

By the time we got to Carmel, Cameron was passed out, and Katie was SOOO excited to get to hold him! :)

This was the backside of the mission, in another courtyard that they had. I thought the buildings were so lovely.

Cameron and I in the gardens of the Carmel mission.

This was one of the windows at the Carmel mission. I just had to take a picture because I thought it was so rustic and beautiful.

Eight Stop: After the mission, we headed to downtown Carmel-By-The-Sea. The downtown is so cute and has a lot of shops. We had fun window shopping and of course, buying some candy from the cottage of sweets!

Jenni posing infront of the cottage with a mossy roof! Katie loved the roofs so much that she decided she wants to live in a town like this!

Cameron and I posing with the San Carlos street sign. We had to be somewhat touristy, and since we live in San Carlos, what could be better!?!

Final Stop: On our way home we had to stop by Yogurtland in Cupertino for some delicious self serve frozen yogurt! Yum!

Clearlake

For Memorial Day Weekend Cameron and I joined some friends in Clearlake. This was our first time there! I'm glad I got to go and spend a long weekend with my sweet friend Alaina, her son Dylan, her fiance Mike, and meet some of their other friends. Our weekend consisted of hanging out on the lake, taking Cameron on his first boatride, bike riding, watching destruction derby at the speedway in lakeport, and so much more. Here are some pictures:

Ralph and Amy (Alaina and Mike's friends who we stayed with) live right in the "keys" of clearlake, so their house was directly on the water. Here is Cameron playing on the dock with a water gun. He and Dylan had fun spraying all of the spiders with water!

Alaina and I hanging while the kids played!

Cameron going on a bike ride adventure! He helped Dylan learn how to ride his own bike!

Cameron and myself getting ready to go out to the main lake on the fishing boat!

Cameron and Dylan excited to go superfast on the boat (once it started going fast, they both got scared!)The two of us out on Clearlake!

Cameron and Dylan at the Lakeport Speedway watching the race cars!

At the speedway they had several events of race car driving, at the very end of the night, they sprayed the entire race track with water, then brought out cars for destruction derby, BUT all of the cars had junk boats attached to the back of them, so it was destruction derby with cars and boats! It was crazy with fiberglass flying everywhere! So Funny! The boys loved it!

It was a fun weekend full of new adventures! I'm so grateful for the people I met and how much they blessed us by opening up their home!