Adventures in Orthodontics

When my mom was visiting us at the end of May, she mentioned that Lily might need to see an orthodontist. Since my mom's a dental hygienist, I decided to take that advice seriously and we had Lily go in for an assessment. It turns out that her upper bite is too narrow, and that she has a slight under bite.

We opted for early treatment to hopefully prevent any major problems down the road. Lily got outfitted with a rapid palatal expander a little over a month ago, and is getting ready to start wearing her reverse-pull headgear.

She has been great about everything so far, even though parts of it has been really tough and painful. Some of the biggest changes we've noticed have involved her eating habits. Lily has been great about not eating those things which she knows she shouldn't, like popcorn, gum, certain candies, but we have also noticed that it is just much harder for her to eat now! It takes her so much longer and she eats far less than she used to. I think my favorite change, however, is in the way she talks. Lily now has a cute little lisp, and when she gets talking really fast it becomes rather difficult to even understand her! But we love it and it is cute to watch her experience this

Let's just hope this does the trick and gets everything on the right track for her

Day 1--look how close her teeth are together

Good spaces--making progress!

Swimming

We've been busy this summer doing many neat things, but we've also spent plenty of time just hanging out at home doing lots of fun things, including swimming!

David underwater

An all "geared up" Evelyn and Lily
Alexis and Evie
Joe plays it safe on the edge, as usual
Ez enjoying the weather

Oakland A's

Ez and I took the kids to an Oakland A's game on July 1st. Wednesdays are the best days to go to an A's game. All plaza level seats are $2, and hot dogs are just $1, what a deal! Ez and David have gone to a number of these games over the past couple of years, and Alexis and Lily have joined in a few, but we thought it would be more fun to go as a family this year.

We had a great time! The weather was perfect. The game was in the middle of the day, so no one was too tired, and the seats weren't packed, so everyone could see pretty well. Ez bought 14 hot dogs (sounds like a ton), but they all got eaten! I think Joe's favorite part was when the red dot and blue dot came out and race across the field.

We are going to one more game in a few more weeks, when we'll get to see the A's play the Yankees!

Alexis and Lily

Joe, Ez, and David

Evie enjoying her hot dog

Forecast: 106 degrees!

We hit a hot spell for a bit this summer, where the temperatures were just HOT, and there wasn't much relief from the wind. This happened to be at the start of Ez's three week vacation and we were wanting to plan some fun activities, but not die in the heat!

Our solution? THE BEACH!

We loaded up the van and headed out for Bodega Bay on June 29th. As we got closer, we decided to head to Dillon Beach, where we found a perfect place to park and play for a while.

The kids didn't bring their suits, because we knew it was going to be cold for us to want to venture in the water, but they all had a fantastic time wading and running around. We played a lot in the sand, Dad and David played a little ball, mom took pictures, we ate our lunch, and just relaxed. The weather was perfect! We wore our sweatshirts all day long and never tired of the cool ocean breeze!

After we left the beach, we headed out to Bodega Bay to get some yummy salt water taffy. We also visited the Children's Bell Tower, which was neat. It is a tower decorated with bells that are all donated from various people in Italy in honor of a young boy from Bodega who had died in Italy on vacation with his family. The family donated the young boys organs and had saved 7 Italian's lives. It is a touching token of gratitude.

We stopped to walk along the Napa-Sonoma Marshes area on the way home. It was a nice little stretch of the legs, and the kids had a great time trying to throw pebbles in the water.

David and Lily

Alexis and Joe
A tiny little crab
Hi mom! We're stuck!
Being cool
Jumping out
Shaking the sand around
David, Ez, and Alexis
Um, you've got a little something in your hair, Evie!
Trying to draw in the sand...
Children's Bell Tower
Joe, Alexis, Lily, David, Evie
The Family

Our cute kids and dad
Alexis and David

Funny Girl

This photo of Evelyn doesn't need too much explanation!

1. Wearing 2 headbands, toddler style.

2. Eating warm chocolate cookies, so a bit messy.

3. An empty cup that needs more milk!

Lagoon Valley Park

At the start of the summer, I had this brilliant idea to try to get the kids out of the house and to different parks, trails, etc. It really is a fun idea, although in all honestly, it hasn't been executed as well as initially planned.

This is partly due to the fact that our first attempt at a nature walk/hike was not as great as I thought it would be. We went out to a park on the edge of Vacaville where we had heard there were trails to walk. We packed up a lunch, a bunch of waters, and the stroller and took off. When we got there, we found that none of the paths welcomed any sort of shade, and it was already starting to get hot out!

The kids and I decided to take the loop around the resevoir, which is about a 2 mile walk. David and I were particularly excited about our adventure! Well, we made it about 1/3 of a mile before most of the kids were tired, or hot, or grumpy, or a combination of them all. We turned around and made it back to the car, drove to a nice shaded little park ares where we ate and played for a bit.

It was fun to get out with the kids and go somewhere new! Lesson learned: go on hikes/walks earlier in the morning!!!














































This rock was so cool! Looked like a face (and crying because someone poured water on an eye)
























Joe thought this large rock looked like a Humpback Whale

The Lion King

Ez and I were able to take Alexis, David, Lily, and Joe to see a production of The Lion King on June 18th. It was such a fun evening!

We drove in to Sacramento and met Grandma Jane at The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner, then headed to the convention center for the play. The kids were all really excited, this was their first big play they were seeing. Jane has been taking the kids to children's theater productions for a couple of years now, but this experience was on a much grander scale.

The play started and everyone was so excited. As the curtain went down and the theater went dark after the opening scene, you hear Joe say to Ez, "ok, can we go home now"? My immediate thought was that this was going to be a long evening if Joe didn't want to stay. But immediately after he had said that, the shadow puppet of the mouse started scurrying across the stage, and you hear Joe say, "what's that"? He was mezmerized from that moment on!

The Lion King was an amazing production, not so much for the story line, but to watch in awe at how the actors moved and made themselves such believeable animal characters. It was a fun, fun evening.

Happy Birthday, Alexis

Alexis turned 11 on the 16th! It was a pretty simple celebration, but we all had a great time. The fun started around 3:30 when Dad got home and Grandma Jane and Rich came over. We had a delicious steak dinner, complete with sweet potatoes and salad.

Alexis was excited to open her presents. She got a couple of shirts, a new pair of flip-flops, and 2 new Nintendo DS games! She also got a pretty neat kids cook book.































































































We then headed to the movie theater to see UP!, which we all thought was a fantastic movie. The evening ended with cake and ice cream. It was a fun birthday. We love you Alexis!