The boys first day of school...

Better late than never, right?
They were so excited to start their new school. Ben started Kindergarten and Will started a special preschool that just happens to be at the same elementary school that Ben goes to. It's been so much fun to see them talking about doing homework and all the fun they get to do there. In fact, the first time Ben brought homework home he was super dissapointed when he'd finished it all so quickly. We might have a super achiever on our hands.
I especially love this last picture. It's each of their interpretation of acting cool for the camera. Very cute!!!

More fun at Lake of the Pines

My parents are sooo lucky to live on this beautiful lake. It really is one of our favorite places to visit and we would love to live there one day. The boys have so much fun splashing in the water and digging in the sand. We're always there from morning till night going between the lake, the pool and the park that's right on the water. We barbecue there every night and are often some of the last people leaving.

The boys in mom's old stomping ground!

This summer we had some fun adventures! We went up to the lake a few times, went camping with my parents, and got to visit old town Columbia, CA which is a state park that is this cute little town, on the way to Yosemite, that is for tourists to be able to relive the gold mining days. It has a couple of real Saloons where we indulged in yummy Sasparilla, a blacksmith shop where the boys got horse shoes with their names stamped on them, and my favorite...Nelson's Candy Kitchen, which was my favorite place to go when I was a kid. It's candy heaven. We also went on an old wagon ride complete with bandits that tried to rob us of our gold and candy. The boys loved it!
We also visited and old shop that my grandparents used to own which used to be an arts n' craft gallery and is now a cute little tea house. My grandma was a really talented artist and my grandpa framed all of her work by hand.
I have many many memories of this sweet little town because my grandparents lived there, above the gallery, for years. We spent every fourth of July there competing in pie and watermelon eating contests, which I of course dominated, and three legged races. They also had a needle in the hay contest, horse shoe throwing, etc... They had this great parade that people would dress up in old fashioned clothes for. I think we might have even won one year thanks to my mom's killer seamstress skills.
Besides fourth of July, I have so many fun memories of panning for gold there and just exploring the town and the fun hills behind it.
Thanks mom and dad for taking us there so that my boys could enjoy some of the fun!!!