Busy busy busy!

Life is moving pretty fast around here these days. Between trying to get settled into the new house and keeping up with all the summertime fun around here (oh and trying to get some work done as well!!) there is barely time to sleep these days. Here's a little peek at what we've been up to for the last week or so.
My brother Mike stayed with us for 12 days!! He was such an amazing help to have around, just having another person to talk to some days makes all the difference. Cliff came home for two days to help with the move, thank you!! When he left again my mom came up to help us finish getting out of the old house, thank you again (couldn't have managed it without her!) While my mom and brother were in town I thought that we should take a little down time and head over to the big lake to enjoy this beautiful place that we live in. We went to Moon Dunes in Tahoe Vista with the Hatchers and the Kreigs.
Here is Ella and her friends Hannah and Summer swimming in the big lake:

Ella and Summer (future triathletes I'm sure!) getting ready for their swim:
We are getting settled into the new house. There are things that we all love about the new place. I couldn't get Micah to take a bath in the old house, now he is the "bath man". The other morning I was laying in bed and he casually walks into my room, into the bathroom, starts a bath and jumps in. He has been averaging around 2 baths a day. I can't really say I blame him, the tub is pretty nice!

Ella started up her riding lessons with Hawley again. She loves riding Georgie! Here she is at her second lesson of the summer (we got a late start this year!):
Ella in her 2 point:
On Saturday our friends Matt and Christine got married. It was a gorgeous ceremony by the Truckee river near Squaw. It was so much fun to see all our friends and there is nothing like a summertime Tahoe wedding. Here are the kids in front of the river, shortly after this picture they were IN the river:
Matt getting ready for his bride with Johnny D, good friend and officiant:

Here comes the bride, Christine with her father:
We had to duck out of the reception a little early. We had prior plans to spend the night at Papa's house for his 60th birthday! We made him blue cupcakes to celebrate, here he is with them:
The kids helping him blow out the candles:
We had plans to play some tennis on Sunday, Micah didn't have a tennis racket yet, so Papa got him one. He decided he needed to sleep with it, osmosis?

My dad enjoyed a moment 25 years in the making. After dragging my large Barbie collection around with him since I was 5, he was finally able to pass it along to Ella. She was thrilled and we had fun together going through the dolls, showing her my favorites, seeing what she liked and trying on all the fun dresses. I may had resisted, but I am so glad that dad hung on to all that Chinese plastic stuff, it was fun to get to share it with her. She decided that she wanted to sleep with the Barbies (you also have to appreciate Barbie and the Rockers, on the left, 20 years later, classic).
Before tennis we had to have our Papa's house ritual, home made waffles for breakfast with whip cream and fresh berries. It was a beautiful sunny morning so we had breakfast on the deck. Here is Micah in his new Cal sweatshirt from Papa enjoying his breakfast:
Ella in her new sweatshirt digging in:
Then it was off to the courts. We discovered that Micah just may have a little Andy Roddick in him!

Maybe its McEnroe:


Ella hit her 50 in a row and then decided she was done. She did make a good ball girl:

Sunday night and we are back home. It felt great to come home to our new house and relax a little. We had dinner and then decided that we needed to play in the backyard. Then it happened, the sprinklers went on, the kids clothes came off and the giggling and screaming started. Good times in the backyard:
Finding ants:
The grass if definitely Guyute's favorite thing!

Cliff comes home on Tuesday...yippee!

Happy Summer!