July 2010

Reed & Jane Hansen, Michael Duke, Dave Giles, Chris, and Marshall Smith.

We had a few friends over to get together one last time with the Hansen's for a little "Going Away" gathering for them.

Gretchen Smith, Kristen Duke, Liz Hansen, Sara & Hailey Giles, and me -
(at 15 weeks - so happy to be done with the first trimester!)

I had been so happy to finally get back into jogging with Liz, but it was short lived since it soon got too hot for me to jog in the summer heat while pregnant, and Liz moved to Michigan! :( Very sad to lose my jogging partner and Ezra's little friend Eva. The Hansen family is very missed. We hope they are enjoying their new chapter of life as Reed pursues his graduate degree in Ann Arbor, Michigan!


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Our first family road trip!

We drove up to Beavers Bend State Park in Oklahoma to have some fun at a cabin with our friends, the Gosney's and Stapley's. Ezra did great on the drive there. We left after church and he napped in the car and then happily rode along with snacks and a movie. It took us about 7.5 hours to get there.

Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma


Our Cabin!
Chris and Matt
- enjoying a rare moment when the couches weren't taken over by Cole and Ezra, and all their trucks and cars.


Our great kitchen, modeled by Mr. Jace Stapley.
We had enough room to be comfortable with 6 adults, 10 month old twins, and two toddlers.

Chris and I had a room upstairs next to Ezra's room. He did great sleeping in a big bed all by himself. He loved jumping on our bed!

There was a full downstairs with 4 more bedrooms, for the Gosney's, the Stapley's, the Stapley twins, and Cole. There was also a TV and couch area where we watched a movie one night after the kids went to sleep. There were two bathrooms upstairs and downstairs. So it was a great set up with plenty of room for all of us!

Ezra and Cole enjoyed the sandbox and play scape in the yard. All the sticks and rocks around were probably Ezra's favorite though. And no, we did not purposely dress them matchy matchy, it just happened that way. ;)


We would go on walks and call them "adventures" so we could get the boys excited to come along. We tried to create as many adventures as we could.





They were watching for craw fish and fish swimming up to bait while people fished at the end of the dock. Everything is so exciting to a little boy. Love it!


Stapley's, Gosney's, Broughs. :)

Ezra has started to make silly "cheese" smiles for pictures lately but at least he is cooperating and happy. We took this picture on our cabin's porch on our last day. We were so sad to leave! It had been a great, relaxing visit with friends in a beautiful area.


On our way out we stopped at the state park for a train ride.

Funny faces
Being silly

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Grimaud Family Reunion 2010 - Oceanside, CA

Just a couple days after returning from Oklahoma, Ezra and I flew out to meet my family in Oceanside, CA.
Chantal with Ezra and Lisa

Joseph

Poor Ezra tripped while driving his cars along the coffee table and hit his lower lip between the edge of the table and his teeth, and all I had were bright colored band- aids, so he was quite the site with his purple band aid across his face. Luckily he only needed the band aid for a day.

Ezra found the stickers. :)

We had to pull out everything we could think of to help Ezra be happy and distracted from being terribly home sick for his daddy. We bought a few new hot wheels, even a new blanket, lots of stickers, coloring, popsicles, watched Mickey Mouse, went on walks and played with cousins and aunts and uncles, went to the play ground, but all Ezra really wanted was his daddy. It was very hard on me to have such an unhappy boy but we got through the week and tried to enjoy visiting as much as we could! And I was sad for my family to not get to see Ezra the way I know he truly is; a happy and fun little boy! He seemed to be finishing out his phase that had started back in March; still learning to process emotions. I was so thankful that he had bonded with his aunt Chantal while we had been on our cruise just a few weeks earlier because she was a great help and so was Grandma Grimaud. It is humbling to not be able to always be the one who can comfort my child; sometimes he just needs someone else, which pains me, but I am grateful he is comforted and loved by others.

We had planned on playing at the beach and pool every day, but due to the cooler grey and drizzly weather we ended up buying sweat shirts and going on walks instead, which was still fun!


Front: Kolby, Joseph, Ezra, Grandma Grimaud
Back: Lisa and Damien

Ezra's favorite indoor activity these days.

Uncle Joseph and cousins Landon and Damien.

Kolby, Ezra, Joseph, Landon and Damien.

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Since it is so hot these days, I have been stopping along my jogs/walks for Ezra to get out and play at a park and run through some sprinklers to cool off. It is just too hot for me to do my whole route without a break and for Ezra to bake in his stroller that long. I love all the parks and sprinkler parks along our great trail!


Takin' a breather.

Ready to go!

I love my little Ezra! He is so fun. He loves to run and play and he is my happy buddy. I love his enthusiasm for life. He makes me smile and count my blessings daily. I am grateful for the love and joy he brings to my life.


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My friend Wanda and I thought it would be fun to treat our husbands to a day of boating for Father's Day. Between our busy schedules we ended up celebrating this activity the last Saturday of July. It was fun to spend the first half of the day boating and swimming in pleasant weather on a surprisingly uncrowded Lake Travis. I even tried to water ski, which was entertaining to say the least. After not having skiid for years, it was humbling to take a few tries to get up, and then when I did, the rope was very short, set for wake boarding, so it was scary! But I was glad I tried. When I wiped out I decided it was time for this pregnant lady to be done.


Madi, Wanda, Dave and Kenzie


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Ezra is into making these funny faces lately.
This is his "silly - naughty" face, he said:
He does look quite mischevious, does't he? He's got that glint in his eye. . . . he's so funny sometimes.

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