Off to a new school!

 We had a bit of last minute summer fun before we started school.  I took the boys for a short trip (on account of me forgetting sunscreen) to Bison's Bluff, which is so close to our house!

 We did some shoe shopping for the new school year!

And we had some friends come hang out on my last weekend of freedom.  Corey is Mike's buddy from his Iowa State days, he drove all the way out here from Ames!  It was great to relax and spend time together on the deck.

Kelly, Ginger and Philie came over too for an impromptu party night.  The kids love it when they can convince adults to hit the trampoline too!

 Feats of strength!

 We celebrated Evie's birthday too!  She had a cool animal show birthday party!

Happy 7th to our favorite panda scientist!

 On our last Monday of summer, we spent the day at Brookfield Zoo, checking out there "Dinos and Dragons" exhibit with Bamma.  Cool stuff!

 I headed back to work before the boys, per usual.  So, they got a pool day with Bamma and Bampa!

 And a more extended day at Bison's Bluff with Mrs. Laura!

 One last day time ice cream trip of the summer!

 Noah tested for his red belt in karate.

 And then, we started the school year!  Monday, August 21st, Sam started 1st grade with Miss Kearns and Noah started 4th grade with Mrs Bullon.  Nerge School seems to be a great place!

 Bus riders now!

 The first day of school kind of put a damper on any eclipse plans, I wasn't able to see it using my camera, but we did record the live Science channel footage, cool stuff!

 Bamma had to start the school year off with a themed project of course!

 Bampa at the bus stop!

 Finally pulled out all the costumes, after having them in storage for months!

 And this weekend witnessed the return of Uncle Josh Sunday dinner.  And, yep, they were able to convince him too!

So, off we go on another adventure of school.  So far, everyone is adjusting really well!  Isaac is looking forward to starting preschool after Labor Day!

Trip to San Jose!

 We had an amazing trip to San Jose, California to visit some friends!  We departed on July 29th on what was Isaac's first flight, the captain even invited us to check out the cockpit.

 Everyone handled the flight just fine.

 We hit the ground running when we arrived and started enjoying the beautiful weather.  Kali and Kirin were happy to show us around.  Kirin and Sam had a "skinny man" contest!

 The grownups went out for a nice dinner, it was great to be reunited with our friends Jason and Meera!

 We took a nice hike to a local swing spot!

 Happy to be together as a family on vacation!

 The older 2 Rodriguez boys enjoyed the swing a lot, Sam worked up to the high take off spot!

 Some of Meera and Jason's friends hooked us up with some wet suits for our beach time!

 We left San Jose and spent a few days at the Pajaro Dunes area in Monterey Bay.  First time at the ocean for our kids!  The Pacific is COLD!

 The mornings were chilly, so we spent a lot of time playing games and just hanging out together.  The kids got a long really well!

 The first full day at the beach was overcast and a bit cold, but that didn't stop the 4 older kids from heading into the water.  Isaac opted to play in the sand for most of the time.

 Sam warmed up by getting buried.

 Mermaid tail!

 Let me reiterate.... It.... Was.... Cold!

 Muscle man Sam!

 These two were happy to spend the day in the surf!

 Epic wave!

We did s'mores and a campfire on the beach one night!

The kids were cashed!

The second full day at the beach was much sunnier!

We saw all kinds of wild life including: humpbacks (wayyyyy out in the distance), seals, sea lions, otters, pelicans, dolphins and all kinds of birds.  No great whites!

The surf was pretty good!

I had to show the children how it was done.  It was COLD, but I manage a couple decent waves before being completely tossed over, it was fun!

Isaac did a little bit of boarding on the beach too.

 The rental homes were all unique and eclectic!

Meera showed off her pizza dough tossing skills for dinner one night!

 Our last oceanside night offered up an amazing sunset!

 The sea weed was unbelievable!

 So awesome!

 The morning we left the rental, we took one last walk on the beach to gather up some shells.

 And Mike chased around the birds.

We spent some time at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it was incredible!

 The jellyfish exhibit was probably our favorite!

 Back at Meera and Jay's house, we did a lot of kickball.

 Isaac made full use of Aunt Meera's scientists kit to do some experiments!

 We saw some parrots (tame, with their owner) at the park!

 Of course we had to introduce the kids to In-N-Out Burgers!

Spent some time with neighbors eating ice cream!

 Our last night in California was spent at the local hibachi place, Kyoto Palace.  It was a great time, all the kids loved watching!  The chef tossed cooked egg into everyone's mouths and made an onion ring choo choo train!

 Before we left, we had to get some photos to capture how cute and fun all these kids are!

 9 year old buds!

 One last pet for Dawkins and we were on our way home!

What an amazing time we had with the Desai-Gruenhagen bunch!  We can't wait for our next adventure, but for now it's back home and time to get ready for the impending school year!