A what now?

So, I was moving boxes down to the garage today preparing for our little move when I came across this guy, just having himself a meal by the mailboxes. Never seen anything like this here before.

Yeah, that's a big lizard he's chowing down on. I ran back home, frantically told Bryson and Angele that I needed the camera because there was a big snake outside and ran back out again. He was still there, contemplating his next move. They came out to have a look and ran to get more people to show. I got up close to take a few more pictures and spooked him. He lifted his whole upper portion of his body and backed into the bushes like a dolphin at Sea World, still holding on to that lizard. Here's a close up:

Cousins

Bryson's cousins, Kaitlyn and Kali are visiting for a few weeks. Last night we had a sleepover at our house. The kids had a lot of fun playing dress-up, watching "Annie," eating popcorn, jumping on the air mattress, sword fighting and just laughing. There was a lot of laughing. And a little whining. But that was mostly Bryson. Thanks for letting them come down, Erik and Angela! We love to see our little Alaskans.

Happy 4th!!

Yeah, it's been a while. No apologies. I just wanted to share some pictures of our wonderfully busy and relaxing day yesterday. Living near home on the 4th of July means a block party at my (Chris's) parents' house. It was a great day. The weather was nice and warm, but never hot enough to turn on the misters my dad set up around the awning. It was a fun day for everyone, especially the kids.

The street is blocked off so the kids can ride in the street, which Bryson loved...

We ate some hot dogs (some of us just the buns)...

Made some cupcakes...

Ate the cupcakes...

 

Went swimming...

 

And had a great time with friends and family...

It was a great day.

Happy 1st Birthday Camryn!

I can't believe we just celebrated Camryn's 1st birthday! It doesn't exactly feel like yesterday that she was born, but it doesn't feel like it's been a whole year either. We had a lot of fun with family at Chris's parents' house. Everyone wore their pajamas and we ate breakfast for dinner. I don't think that Camryn really knew what was going on, but she was very much enjoying not being told "no." We finished the night off with marble swirl and strawberry cupcakes. We all thought that Cami would really dive into her cupcake cake, but she just wanted to pick off all the sprinkles one by one. My little miss.

Bryson and Owen's Day of Play

We had so much fun yesterday. Our nephew Owen came over and hung out with us. We went to Shadow Hills park. After only a few minutes of playing, Bryson and Owen had all of the kids pretending that the jungle gym was a pirate ship. I loved seeing them have so much fun together. After coming home, I put a movie on so that they could calm down a little. Less than 20 minutes into the movie, both boys were konked out on the couch. We ended our day with a sleepover and woke up to pancakes. I loved every minute! I think the boys had a good time too.