Kaylee's 10th

Summers equate to the beginnings of a string of birthdays for our family. Greg starts us off in June, then Kaylee in July, then Megan in August, thenTyler in September, myself in November and Trent closing the year out in December. Once the birthdays start I feel as if the year begins to pick up speed and heads into constant stream of celebrations- birthdays and big holidays. If last year was a river, this year is a flood!

Kaylee is officially 10 and has informed me that she is a pre-teen now and no longer a child. She will no longer sit at the kid table, or think that little kid jokes are funny, and she reassures me that she has definitely changed. I didn't connect this coming of age with the 10th birthday though intuitively I knew it wasn't far off. Kaylee has been precocious since birth.

We began her birthday by celebrating with donuts at breakfast, presents, and a family party in the evening. She was showered with gracious gifts of clothing and loved them all. Had she been a child, she reported, clothes would have been disappointing, but because she is a pre-teen they were the best thing she could ask for. Grammy and Ron picked her up on Monday for a date of dinner and more shopping. What more could a girl ask for? Later that week she celebrated Harry Potter style with some school friends and her siblings. Welcome to 10 Kaylee girl!

Daddy's Birthday

A month later I am finally posting Greg's birthday account. Having a birthday back-to-back with Father's Day added up to a great deal of spoiling for him- he managed without any problems. He was rather spoiled this birthday with a vacation, a new Ipod touch, Glenn Beck concert and lots of dinners, birthday cake and cheesecake. My goodness!
Langford family traditional birthday donuts! We each get a donut and a candle and light them all and sing the Happy Birthday song and then blow out the candles.
Trent loves birthdays and for him once just isn't enough. After relighting and singing the birthday song at least 30 times his donut started to detoriorate. It was adorable to hear him sing though.

SKUNK REMOVAL?

There was a faint, almost indiscernable skunk-like smell lingering in our garage after we returned from Newport. Indiscernable and skunk aren't two words that generally exist in the same sentence, but honestly, the smell was slight enough we thought perhaps a stray cat had wandered in and done its business somewhere. One evening later on, Greg was returning from an errand and as the garage door opened a black silhouette with a fanned out tail sauntered into the garage. Without a doubt, a wild animal had taken up residence in our garage.

Saturday morning, Greg began the laborious job of sorting through our accumulated garage junk to find clues about our newest inhabitant. It was possibly a squirrel, or small cat, or the most far-fetched, but highly unlikely idea, a skunk.

As he moved boxes, and emptied our garage onto the driveway, like a spilled drink, he heard animal movement in the back corner. Something was definitely in the garage and it whatever it was, it wasn't very anxious to come out. Greg banged, and jabbed, and pounded and made all the noise he could to scare the animal away, but to no avail.

It wasn't until halfway through the day that Greg actually got his first glimpse of the indiscernible black and white markings. A skunk!!!! That definitely changed the course of action. Not wanting to provoke a spraying, Greg moved with greater caution and care. The trick was how to lure this skunk out without it spraying. The smell would infest the entire house and Greg most likely too!
Our neighbors thought we were having a garage sale, I wish I would have taken advantage of that! Though, mostly, everything went to DI or the dump. Several Christmas decorations and box contents were marred by our visitor and no longer usuable. By the end of the day, we knew that the skunk was either inside the box in the furthermost corner, or underneath it. Curiosity mixed with fear pushed Greg forward. The city charged too much to remove it; trapping it would cause it to spray and then we would still have to move it, and how? in our truck; upsetting it might cause it to spray and nighttime was coming.
(Our neighbor was overcome by curiousity and determined to catch a glimspe. I'll post his footage, even though I'm embarrased by the condition of our garage at that point. )
Anyhow, Pepe le Pew made a full showing as dusk came on, skunks are nocturnal after all. Greg decided to leave the garage door open, with all our junk still spilled all over the driveway, and put sardines outside the garage to lure him out hoping he would find another home.
We posted this sign on our driveway to avoid nasty HOA letters and also to warn our nieghbors to close their garages, or they too could have an unwelcome guest!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmh-6ZVpDaw

Newport Vacation

Marriott Rewards offered us a killer deal on their resort condos in Newport Beach and we decided to accept and celebrate the first week of summer and Daddy's birthday there. With our car loaded on top, out the back, and filled to the brim we made our way north. We stopped in to visit Colby, Heidi, Cam and Ethan before reaching our destination.
I laughed as we neared our destination and all the cars around us were Ferrari's, Porsche's and BMW's- a stark contrast to our overloaded, dirty family wagon! Though the villas, exceeded our expectations and proved to be very comfortable, there were many families staying at the villas and we felt right at home. The villas were equipped to sleep 8 people with two large bedrooms, a living room, dining room, full kitchen, two large bathrooms, and a gigantic tub. Wouldn't it be nice if all hotels were that accomodating? I could have stayed there quite a long time, which isn't usually the case in a cramped hotel!
With kids hanging from the luggage carrier, we found our designated room and made ourselves at home. Each of the kids claimed their bed and unpacked before we explored the lush grounds. Upon exploring we found a pond of koi fish, three large pools, BBQ pits, a giant chess and checkerboard and many more amusements.
The first night we ordered pizza to the room and stayed up late watching "E.T." What a walk down the 80's memory lane! After the first few scary minutes, the kids were hooked and loved the little alien, cried when he nearly died, and couldn't sit in their seats as the bicycle boys raced against time to return him to his spaceship. The next day we bought them some Reeses Pieces candy so they could have the full experience of ET.
The second day we spent bike riding, exploring, and swimming. The third day we spent at the beach and out to dinner with Colby, Heidi, Ethan and Cameron. They are such delightful company! The third and final day we spent at the waterpark Wild Rivers and shopping before heading home. There are many vacations that I am spent and ready to come home, but this time I could have stayed much longer. I loved Newport, the villas, Fashion Island, the beaches and all of the entertainments offered. Thankfully, Marriott let us have another week this year, so we get to go back again!

Newport Beach Playtime

Balboa Island

On our second day of vacation, we went on a family adventure! With our bikes loaded on the back of the truck we hit the road and headed for Balboa Island in Newport Beach. Luckily, we found an amazing free parking spot with a little park for the kids to play while Daddy unloaded our gear. Before to long we were unloaded and onto the ferry across the bay. After unloading on the opposite side, we formed the Langford chain with Greg at the front pulling Megan and Trent in the trailer, Kaylee next, Tyler following, and me on rear duty. Both Daddy and I had bells on our beach cruiser bikes. Daddy would ring his to ask if all was well, and I would chime back in response. Ringing and singing we rode along the bike path on Newport Beach, taking in the view, feeling the salty breeze, and the warm sun. After driving up and down, we parked our bikes for awhile and played in the ocean. Before too long, we had worked up an appetite and we reloaded our bike chain gang and headed to Ruby's on the end of the pier for delicious burgers and shakes.

Together is a wonderful place to be . . .

Laguna Niguel Beach

When we arrived at the beach, the day was overcast but still beautiful. Finding a parking spot wasn't easy, but we managed. We logged our entire carload of stuff to the sand and set up camp. To our right, were tide pools and rocks to explore. To our left, was a seemingly endless strip of sandy beach. The tide was strong that day and washed up a great deal of sea weed which sometimes tangled us into the ocean. No matter, it was beautiful. The sun made its way through and our cousins Cameron and Ethan, and Auntie Heidi came to join in our beach play. After swimming and boogie boarding the kids began sand play. Our master sand builder, Tyler, is hard at work engineering his latest design in this shot with his faithful workers. We didn't have many sand toys for him to work with but he managed anyways. After playing in the water, he warms up by creating pools, castles, tunnels or whatever inspiration comes to him.
A quick snapshot of Megan on the beach.
Kaylee and her cousin Ethan playing in the sand. Kaylee is tickled that Ethan attaches to her and she loves doting on him.

After four hours of hard play, Trent curled up on my lap and fell fast asleep. It was a rare moment for me to snuggle him since he is always on the go.