We had a wonderful surprise when Chris and Paula decided to bring the boys to California for the weekend - and escape the heat of Southern Utah. We laughed, played, spilled milk, read books, picked up endless toys - and loved every minute. We spent the 1st day at Heritage Park and swimming in the pool at Amber's house. The kids loved being together and Caleb was known to say: "mom - Isabel follows me everywhere". The next day we went to the Discovery Museum - then to the Irvine Spectrum to ride the ferris weel - called the "big wheel" because we sat in large baskets that hold up to 6 people instead of regular 2-person swings. On Saturday we went to ride the big "Orange" helium balloon (for the 2nd time) and had a blast - headed out to ride a fun train around Irvine Regional Park and spent some time at the zoo - then on to the beach for a hot dog cookout with all the kids. I have never seen so much sand covering children - but they were in heaven. Thanks you guys for having such amazing little ones who bring so much joy into life. This helium balloon is the first attraction/activity designed for the new "Great Park" that won the bid to replace the El Toro Marine Base when it was sold to the city. The balloon reaches heights of 300 to 400 feet (depending on wind) - it has a single cable in the middle and you ride in a basket that is shaped kind of like a donut so you can look down through the middle. You can see for miles around you and especially view all the things they are already beginning to build. Eventually (about 15 years) the park will be bigger than Central Park in New York - and will include a canyon - lake - golf courses - wilderness park - museums, and much more.

Caleb was a little tentative being up so high - but he loved the adventure of riding under a big balloon and being able to see the ferris wheel he rode in the day before - which is a few miles away from the balloon.

This is a special "history walk" - they have used one of the old runways and developed a chronological walk through some of the history of America and especially the marine base. This will continue to grow as the great park grows. It is awesome to see how much of the base they intend to keep and re-use (i.e. runways will become parking lots - and cargo jet hangers will become museums). This was truly a great adventure - and it is free to the public.

This is a picture of the basket you actually ride in - it is shaped like a donut with a big hold in the middle. It is completely safe and enclosed by netting - but open to the air so you can see a lot and take lots of pictures. And NO - you do not get motion sick going up in the balloon - that was one of my fears but other than a slight jerky movement when you take off and land - the ride is perfectly smooth with little to no motion at all. It was awesome.

This is a night time view of the balloon. We actually went at night and saw the city in lights - but couldn't see too much of what is going on around the area - so we went back the next morning and took another ride in daylight to see how the ground actually looks. Both were great adventures and equally fun.

We spent the morning at Heritage Park - a great island paradise for kids where they can run and play on equipment that is designed just for them to enjoy. There is water surrounding an island and the kids loved the ducks, turtles and swans who finished off a loaf of bread from our picnic. It is not easy to get 4 children to even look at a camera at the same time - much less smile - but we think they are pretty special. This is one of the play areas inside a building called the "old north church".

One little Matthew Monkey climbing up stairs and looking through rails - I think Matt got 4 or 5 bruises on his face while we were here because he was determined to climb and slide and do whatever the big kids were doing - the trouble is that he has only been walking for 4 weeks so he bumped into lots of things as he toddled after the others - but he is tough and always came back for more adventure after a comforting hug from mom.

This is a Jaden Monkey - one of the cousins Matt tried so hard to keep up with. It was pretty funny to see Caleb in the lead - with Isabel and Jaden running after him - and then Matt trying his best to keep up. You can imagine that we laughed a lot.

Caleb loved feeding the ducks and throwing pretty much anything he could find into the water. If you look closely to Caleb's left you can see a turtle. We tried feeding him - but whenever we would throw bread toward him, the ducks would "swamp" the poor little guy in their efforts to get to the bread first.

Isabel - Jaden - Mattew and Caleb in a concrete boat on the island. It's a great boat for climbing in and on - but I wouldn't want to take it out on the water - especially with such precous cargo.

The Discovery Museum is a wonderful place for kids - full of lots of things to experience and do from a hands on approach. We sat in an earthquake shack - experienced hurricane winds - layed on a bed of nails - saw dinosaur bones - dug in sand for fossils - climbed a rock wall - and much more. It is a great place to spend a day - but maybe we shouldn't pick a day when summer camp programs were there with hundreds of kids in groups of 20 or so trying to see and do everything at the same time. Caleb loves Bob the Builder - and both boys loved all the things there were to build and experiment with from tractors to tools, it was great fun.

Matthew is driving a vehicle alone for the first time at 14 months old and loving it - just wait until he is 16.

Matt also loved "planting" carrots and onions in the garden patch . . .

. . . while Caleb maneuvered up and across a rock climbing wall in record time.

You have to love family portraits - even if they are in a bright yellow submarine - that's Paula on the left - then Matthew (with Jonathan holding him up) - Chris and then Caleb.

A fun time at Irvine Regional Park gave us an opportunity to ride a train - see a zoo with animals specific to Southern California - a black bear - coyote - ocelot - etc. It was fun to watch the boys run and point and get excited about the things they saw. The train was really fun - it runs for about 15 minutes and takes you on a tour around the park - then you can go back (on foot) and see all the things you passed on the train like the lake and the zoo.

All the boys enjoyed looking at the train engine - Grandpa Hoagy just loved being one of the boys and hanging out - although for some reason Caleb kept trying to use grandpa for a punching bag.

Matthew was a little hesitant about the horses - but he petted them - and Caleb enjoyed his Icee more than getting too close to the horses.

One of Caleb's favorite characters is "curious George" a monkey that swings through the jungle - so this is an appropriate activity for all little monkeys - swinging on a vine was great fun.

Caleb loved the train engine and although it looks like he was doing a dance - he was actually pretending to be a train engineer - his enthusiasm for everything he does is wonderful.

Beach Boys Concert in Chicago

Aunt Tina and Uncle Pat took Ken and I to a Beach Boys concert on Monday night. It was great fun and although the pictures aren't great - you get the general idea. The park is an outside amphitheater where people can buy seats (very expensive) or just get general admission tickets (much less expensive) and sit on the grassy areas surrounding the theater. We took lawn chairs and a picnic and had a wonderful time. One of the best things was "people watching" which is always hilarious - there were people who obviously come to these concerts on a regular basis because they brought their tables, chairs, flowers, candles, etc. The music was wonderful and the evening was perfect. I know this is not a great picture - I had to hold the camera up over other people just to get a shot - but if you look closely you can see John Stamos (Jesse from "Full House") who was a guest drummer at the concert. The music was wonderful - sorry about the blurry photo.
Here we are with Aunt Tina and Uncle Pat at the concert. We were relaxing and having a wonderful evening just visiting and listening to great music. Pat and Tina - thanks so much for taking us.

Jeremey and Kayla Wade's Wedding

Jeremey and Kayla were married at a beautiful park in Baraboo, Wisconsin - then the reception was held at the church building just a couple of blocks away from the park. It was a beautiful day full of sunshine and lots of smiles as these 2 became a family - they have waited a long time for this event and they looked so happy. The bridal party waited as the guests took their seats - then walked down to music from a bagpipe played by a gentleman in full Scottish regalia - Jeremey was supposed to wear his "kilt" too, but chickened out at the last minute because Kayla's mom wasn't too excited about it. The little girl in this picture is Robyn (Wade) Keel's little girl - Emori - she is just 2 days younger than Caleb and was born in the same hospital in Provo - it was quite an eventful time, and now they are both 5 years old - boy does time fly by.
The beautiful bride Kayla, with her dad - walking down toward a waiting Jeremey.
Kayla and Jeremey Wade - the newlyweds leaving for the reception.

Family and Friends at Jeremey's Wedding

Lots of family and friends were on hand to help Jeremey and Kayla celebrate their marriage. Here are just a few you might recognize. Grandma and Grandpa Wade traveled to Wisconsin from Florida with Aunt Billie - you can't see here here (she is to the right of grandma) but she is in the group picture further down.

My brother Michael is the father of the groom and lives in Atlanta, Georgia - he was happy to see his youngest son married to a beautiful young lady - my sister Tina lives in Vernon Hills, outside of Chicago (3 hours drive from Baraboo, Wisconsin) and did a lot of the driving, picking us up from airports, etc. - and me. It was good to be able to spend time with some of my siblings that I don't get to see too often.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Debbie - father and mother of the groom.

Here are some of the guests gathering at the park as we waited for the wedding to start. That is Aunt Billie (in yellow) to the left of Uncle Mike. It was a beautiful day and the weather cooperated perfectly (it had rained for several days before the wedding).

Jaden Turns 2 years old

Jaden's actual B'day party was on the weekend when we were in Chicago - so we celebrated a week early by going to Heritage Park - then out to lunch - then back over to Amber's house for coconut cream pie (grandpa Hoagy was in charge). Heritage Park is a really cool place built for kids to play and play and play - there are lots of little adventurous things for them to do and many of them are in separate little buildings like the "old north church" - part of the park is on an island so there are bridges and boats to climb on - and lots of ducks and fish to look at and feed. Jaden was playing with a cannon that actually shoots water into the moat around the play island. He loves the "big gun" and tries to climb up on top of it.

Grandma and Grandpa Hoagy with Isabel and Jaden in one of the boats surrounding the island. They are looking down at a family of ducks - the little baby ducks were really cute.

Jaden looooooooves to swing and grandpa Hoagy is really patient when it comes to standing behind and pushing the swing. Every time we tried to take him out Jaden would say - "not done yet" so grandpa would keep pushing him.

Jaden is obcessed with Thomas the Train - so everything for his birthday was themed around Thomas. We got him this little wooden train set and he was so excited and didn't want to put it down to eat his food. When we left the restaurant, Jaden picked up the box and carried it himself even though it is just about as big as he is.

Here is the train set all put together - Jaden played with it for hours. He was so tired from being up late the night before (July 4th) and not getting a nap on this day that after about 2 hour of pushing these trains around and around the track, he could barely keep his eyes open, but he wouldn't stop playing with the train. He started to loose focus and every time he would push the trains they would fall off the track and he would cry "Thomas is Broken" then have a meltdown because he thought his train was actually broken. It was hysterically funny because he was so tired that he didn't know what he was doing and he didn't have the ability to cope with his train falling off the track. It was a great day and we can't believe our little Jaden is already 2 years old - he is growing up so fast.

Father's Day Pool Party

Father's Day came 2 weeks late in California because we were in Utah celebrating Mathew, Caleb and Wade's birthdays on the actual FD weekend. We had our own celebration with Ken, Brian, Isaac, Jonathan and Jason (uncles count too) at the pool by our house. We swam - played at the park, BBQ'd and had a great time. The leaning tower of Isaac - Amber and Jaden with Erin and Jason looking on just in case they need to rescue someone.

Brian and Isabel take on Amber and Jaden in a pool "dog fight" - those two little ones are like fish in the water and pretty much anything goes when you get Brian and Amber together.

Grandma Hoagy with Isabel and Jaden in the little kids pool.

Drying off and catching some "rays" - although Amber and Jaden are already several shades browner than the rest of us - but Melissa and Jonathan are trying to catch up - while Erin is rolled up in a blanket at the end trying to stay out of the sun because she had just finished up teaching swimming lessons for a few weeks and didn't need any extra sunshine.