Dickman Family Reunion

This post is going to have a TON of pictures! In August this summer we went down to San Diego for the Dickman annual family reunion. They go to San Elijo beach and camp and they've been doing this since before Ryan was born. The group has grown big now. This picture is Ryan's family, there are 6 kids in his family and all are married with children. There are 16 grandchildren and one on the way. (No, I'm not pregnant) We go for a week and on Sunday we went to Ryan's brother Brian's house who lives down there for Sunday dinner, that's where this picture was taken. Ryan's mom Sandie has a sister that also has 6 kids and they've been going to the beach just as long and all still do. They have their own campsite next to ours.

All Ryan's siblings and his parents. They're a tall bunch! Ryan's brother Adam, he's a fireman, my boys think that's pretty cool!

We hang around at camp a lot waiting for the morning clouds to burn off so we can get to the beach. We do a lot of eating. We take turns cooking dinners at night for the whole group.

One day we went to Balboa park and went to the train museum. My boys LOVED it! Especially Justin this time. A few years ago we went and took Trey for the first time when he was about 3, I've never seen him so excited in my whole life to this date.

The kids love to ride their scooters and bikes all around the roads at the campsite. Trey rediscovered his scooter there. They had a blast with their cousins. I don't have pictures of all the cousins, but there are a bunch around my boys ages, not all of them were there. This is Sophie and Trey.

This is Sarah, Colleen's little girl. She's so fun. My boys haven't been around most of these cousins in a few years so they had no memory of most of them, so it was like meeting each other for the first time. When Sarah first saw Justin, she said, "So this is who we always pray for!" It was cute.

Little Abby, Sarah's sister. I just wanted to squeeze here the whole time, she's so darling.

Grandma and Grandpa, look like they're having a great time!

We had pinata night 2 times! Here's the first one.

And the aftermath...

Here's the second pinata night, Justin's turn to take a swing.

Colleen

The kids had fun with the pinatas the next morning trying to recreate the night before. Then the most funny thing, Sarah cut off all the poky cone pieces to this pinata and set up shop. She put out an upside down bucket and put out all the cones and started to sell them as hats. It was hilarious, what a little entrepreneur!

Cousin Ollie

Cousin Adele

Seth didn't have fear of this dog, Amber (the name cracks me up because of Amber Price! He he!)

The view of the beach from our campsite.We loved being at the beach. The boys were so happy there and we could stay forever. Even Seth loved crawling around all over, and didn't mind being completely covered in sand one bit.

Love this picture.

The Grandmas

After the beach, we'd put the little ones in the bucket for a bath. It was honestly Justin's favorite part about the beach trip!

Happy...

...not so happy

One night we all took a trip to IN-N-OUT, yum yum!

This is Breakfast Bob's at it's finest.

We used to live in Poway, close to San Elijo and used to go feed the ducks at Lake Poway when Trey was little, so we had to take a trip down memory lane to Lake Poway to feed the ducks. Justin loved it. We had the best time with all the family. We went Saturday to Saturday. Finally by about Thursday I was getting the hang of it, but then it was time to go on Saturday! Oh well, I guess that's camping with little ones. I can't wait for next year.

Seth's prom dates

The other day we were in the Kaiser pharmacy waiting for a perscription and this really old lady walks in with her husband, and stops when she gets to us. She looks at my boys and is just giddy, she makes several comments on how handsome they are and then she says, "Now which one should I take to the prom?" She studies all the boys and then tells me she'll tell me her decision on the way out! So on her way out, we were still sitting there waiting, she finally decides on Seth. It was really funny and cute. So then at church a few weeks later, Addison Merrill, this cute 11-year old in our ward, is playing with Seth and says, "Seth will you be my prom date?" Well, I had to inform her that he was already going with an 85 year old woman!! Seth is bringin in the ladies right and left! He's not even 1 year old and already has 2 prom dates!

Seth's new nursing position

Seth has always been my wiggliest baby, starting from in the womb. Well recently he has decided he can't be still when nursing either. Well, he's never really been still, he's always playing with his hands and kicking his legs, but now he's really all over the place. He'll latch onto me and stick his butt completely up in the air with his legs straight beneath him and then walk all around, and it just cracks me up. I just can't stop laughing every time he does it. I'd put a picture of it in, but I don't take pictures of myself while I'm nursing. It's a site to see though.

Cute Kissable Justin

Recently Justin loves to give kisses. We had a family reunion this summer and when it was time to say goodbye to everyone Justin insisted on giving everyone a hug AND a kiss, not all his cousins appreciated that! We were outside in the backyard recently and he bent over and kissed an ant walking on the cement. Luckily the ant didn't end up inside his mouth. Then another day, he was hitting the wall with a toy helicopter, so I told him to be nice to the wall instead of hitting it, so what did he do, he kissed the wall!

No such thing as privacy

It seems like whenever I'm sitting on the pot, I always have a child or two or three at my feet or even on my lap! Does anyone else ever experience this?! Alone time is hard to come by, I guess that's why I stay up so late every night.

Contra Loma

Contra Loma pool is one of the coolest pools I've ever been to. It overlooks a big reservoir. It's got the best of everything. It's zero entry with twenty feet or so of sand and then as it gets a little deeper the sand ends and it's just cement bottom. So sand and pool all in one, perfect! Plus, there's grass to put your towels on, so it's nice and soft, and not sandy, it's wonderful! Too bad we just discovered it at the end of the summer. We went last week with some friends from the ward.

Race Car Song

Recently Ryan introduced the song "Going the Distance" by Cake to my kids, not exactly a kid's artist, but they love it. They call it the race car song and always want to listen to it. Well, this video just hits me funny when I watch it, they just don't stop what they're doing the whole time, Justin bouncing and Trey munching on some carrots.

Mad cow

This weekend we went to a little animal farm. We discovered a couple of things, that cows have super long tongues and that they can get a little frustrated! After several unsuccessful attempts at feeding this cow, he was not too happy, and then the kids got sad. It's pretty funny. I decided that if pictures are worth a thousand words, well then videos must be worth a million. So here's how it went.



Well, I decided to try again with another cow, and man this one had some major tongue action goin' on. But I was successful at the feeding!



Finally, the boys decided it was safe to try, but only with the sheep and goats.



Here are the still shots:

All dudes in the tub

Tonight I put all three dudes in the tub together, it was a first. A little messy, but fun.