The Motley Family Beach Vacation

Look at my cute huge fam on our fabulous beach vacation! I know many of you probably have bigger families than this but I'm just getting a kick of how big we're getting! 8 grandson's and 2 fetuses on the way! Hooray! That's right - Amy had the fun announcement that she's expecting her 2nd child.

So, the Motley parents rented this great beach house in Pajaro Dunes, CA and all my siblings and their families converged en masse for the Fourth of July. It was a great set-up with 6 bedrooms so everyone got their own - so comfortable and just steps away from the beach! We had lots of great food and fun together time. Us Arizonians were just dying at the gorgeous weather. I don't think it cracked 75 degrees the entire time and I think we were the only ones who didn't care about the overcast, foggy mornings that are the norm in the Santa Cruz area. Can I just tell you how much fun we had?! I just love my family - they are seriously so fun and I love hanging out with them! We had a couple of relaxing days on the beach, some tennis playing and such. We even got a little bit of firework action - cool illegal ones that our neighbors set off! Hey, it was better than nothing - we were too far from everything else and weren't in the mood to shlepp everyone to go see them. Perfect set-up! Then we had the first Motley Family Olympics! I was skeptical at first - worried that it would be too competitive for my taste :) - but it was a blast! These pics are from when we went down the night before for our torch relay and opening ceremonies.

Me and my littlest sis Erica with her cute baby bump that you can't even see! I know, right?


The Watson Family!
Cousins!
Sean, Jake, Dylan, Ryan, Carter (missing Owen, baby Hudson, baby Kyle)
Notice the fun sand pit that Grandpa dug for his grandson's every day. Quite the project but worth it. I don't think Owen ever left it!

This is a family shot before we started the Olympics. I didn't include the team shots but they're pretty fun too. If you're curious - Amy, Erica and Carrie all have them on their blogs, I think. The day before Grandpa assigned teams - which were quite fair if I do say so myself. No spouses played together and we mixed up the kids too. The kids chose the countries - we ended up with China, Greece and Japan. Then we decorated shirts according to our country and team. Very creative shirts - not mine though. Patrick wouldn't do mine for me, rude! We had some cool events like a bubblegum bubble blowing contest, Mormon Bridge (card game), home run derby, long jump, frisbee throw, golf putting contest, a relay race and tug-o-war, which had to be thrown out when we broke the hose we were using as our rope. All in all, an absolute blast! China was the winner (Dad, Chris, Amy, Carrie, Ryan M. and Carter); Greece came in second (Mike, Ryan S., Lindsay, Nikki, Dylan and Owen); and Japan was third (Patrick, Scott, Mom, Erica, Jake, Sean).

Here's some other great shots from the week.


I love this picture of Carter having a great time in the sand!



Jake is getting ready to catch a frisbee.

Owen and Dylan sharing a laugh. Dylan adores his little cousin Owen!

Thanks Mom and Dad for an awesome vacation! I'm so happy everyone got to come and I love you guys tons.

Lots of summer fun...

Happy summer to you all! It's stinkin' hot here but we're doing our best to keep cool and have fun. It's really hard to blog when you're at the community pool for 4 hours a day - so now you know where I've been! Here's Jake, Dylan and Carter in our backyard with Jake's new awesome skimboard slip-n-slide (birthday money still!). So much cooler than a regular slip-n-slide...you can see Jake has mastered it.Yeah baby!

Dylan and Carter prefer the old way of sliding on your belly... Jake was super nice to share his toy. Dad, on the other hand, is not enjoying the way the grass looks now.
This is Dylan's first high dive jump of the year! He does not love it but will do it for candy.

I debated about posting these next pictures since this incident is not the highlight of my summer. But I thought, if anything - it will make you feel better about the kind of day you're having. You would think that having three boys would make messes like these a regular occurance. Thank heavens they're not! Carter took it upon himself to deliver us our first mess of this caliber. I was upstairs getting ready for the day when Jake and Dylan ran upstairs and told me that Carter decided he needed more syrup on his waffle. The syrup was in the pantry with the lid on it, in case you think that my negligence caused this mess.

This is what an entire Costco-sized bottle of syrup looks like on Carter and on my table and floor.
He looks proud of himself, doesn't he?
This picture gives you a great idea of how thick the layer of syrup was.

Ah joy. I was so glad I hadn't taken a shower yet because an hour later, after the mess was cleaned up (sort of - I probably mopped the floor every day for a week trying to get rid of the residual stickiness) - my hair was all coated with syrup. See, I had to get under the table and pull apart the leaves to get all in the table and stuff. Sigh.

We've done some other fun stuff though, thank goodness. Patrick's work took all the employees to a Diamondback's game and we had a blast. Maybe it was all that free food but it definitely was one of the most fun times I've had at the baseball game. All the kids got to wear Bell Automotive shirts that his company provided. I thought they looked super cute.

Cutey bug Carter
Take me out to the ball game!
Patrick and the boys and a couple of Shannon Wilson's girl's (Patrick's friend and coworker), being silly as usual.

Carter was so cute that night - I think he was trying to make up for the syrup fiasco.

I love this picture of my boys in the hats they gave us at the game that night. They were way ahead of me (as usual) but seeing them all together like this just made my heart melt.

And finally, Carter-y had his 3rd birthday! I know, I can't believe it either. All he wanted for his birthday was cake. I feel bad that it wasn't more special looking but it sure was tasty. We had the Mumford's and the Smith's over for a BBQ and a little party.

See how excited he is?!
He did a great job of blowing out his candles but I think sitting on the island was his favorite part.
Yum! He ate two pieces and made a huge mess. He's getting really good at that.

Here he is opening some presents. His friends were so sweet!

Okay, a golf set is cool! Maybe I don't only want cake.

I found this adorable picture of Carter at about 4 months old. I can't believe how big he is already and I miss this little baby guy. He was such a good baby and was so easy and sweet. Despite the mischief he sometimes gets himself into, he is still so easy and sweet. He is always happy and just loves his big brothers. He is also daddy's boy and you can count on him to bowl Patrick over when he comes in the door from work. He is still a little cuddle bug and I love that he'll still let me hold him sometimes. I love you, Carter Cutey Bug, and can't wait to see what this year brings!

My Grandpa

Those of you who read my blog might have been wondering about my lack of posts lately. On June 5, my grandpa passed away and my family and I traveled to California to participate in his services and to be with family and friends. I've been back for about a week now but have been struggling as to how to approach this on my blog. I think, more than anything, I've been too sad to want to write about it.

It was a good weekend but also very hard. It was good to share my grief with my family and for us to be together to share fond memories of a great man. It is always hard to say goodbye to a special family member but I think it was made all the more difficult by the unexpectedness of his passing. Yes, he was very sick and we all knew his time on earth was growing shorter but I don't think anyone knew it would be this soon. I wish I could have seen him one more time and told him how much I love him. I'm so grateful for the plan of happiness that will allow me to see him again. I take comfort in knowing he is now at peace.

Isn't he a handsome man? He was such a special grandpa - so present in my life at all the little and big moments. Ballet recitals, family birthday parties, Halloween, Christmas day, our temple sealing...the list could go on and on because he was always there. It's been harder since we moved to Arizona but we tried to see each other when we could. Grandpa and Marilyn even took a fun trip here in 2004 and we got a chance to go to the Grand Canyon together. I really treasured that alone time with my grandparents.

One of my grandpa's greatest qualities was his kindness. He loved his family so much and always had us in mind. He loved other people too and went out of his way to treat everyone kindly. My dad told a story at his funeral about taking the clothes he was to be buried in to the cleaners and how the owners of the store were so saddened to hear of his passing. They said every time he came in he talked to them for a half hour! That was just my grandpa. He did this at work too. He was a dentist for 51 years and loved his job and the people he helped. There wasn't one day that he was ever on schedule because he spent so much time with each of his patients. Every time he worked on my teeth, he would always call that night to see how I was doing. He loved life and was a happy person and he always making jokes and making us laugh. I miss you, Grandpa and hope you know how much I love you.

On left: Patrick, my brother Scott, cousin John, cousin Kevin On right: Cousin Sean, my brother Chris, BIL Ryan, cousin Matthew

My Grandpa's "tooth" flowers - from the Kiwanis Club he was active in.

Kindergarten...here we come!!

It's official! Dylan has graduated from preschool and we had a cute evening "ceremony" to celebrate it. Here's Dylan and Miss Mechelle. She is just the best preschool teacher and Dylan has had a great 2 years with her. She declared these boys most definitely ready for kindergarten!That's right - just boys! These four boys are the first graduating class for Serendipity Preschool. Mia and Mandy, the other students in their class, have another year before they head off to kindergarten. We presented this photo to Mechelle so she can hang it up at school. It's so adorable! Will, Dylan, Tyler and Adam
This is the cute backdrop Lisa made that the boys sat in front of during the program. Lisa McGee, Tyler's mom, hosted the ceremony at her home, and of course she did it up "Lisa-style" as only she can! I love the serious picture followed by the crazy one. Could he be any cuter, holy cow! Dylan is waiting to lead the processional.
Such serious boys. Mechelle said she was worried they would be crazy because she said they were so silly when they practiced the program at school. Dylan didn't even crack a smile - he takes this graduation stuff seriously!
Miss Mechelle had a lot of really great things to say about our kids and I loved how you could tell how much she enjoyed teaching these boys. She said their finest quality was that they all really knew how to be true friends and were so good to each other. What more could a parent ask for? She presented them with a diploma, their classes' favorite book, and a slide show DVD of pictures from the past 2 years. Priceless! I couldn't help missing Cole Monsen, Dylan's good buddy who moved just a couple of months ago. I wish he could have been there but it was so fun to see all the sweet pictures of these good friends. Donette and Tyler - we'll have to burn you a copy!
Dylan, Adam and Tyler - such good buddies.

Lisa's cake talents! She also put together a gift bag for the boys that had kindergarten school supplies, a sweet treat and this awesome shirt!Needless to say, they loved it and put it on right away for a really nice picture.

And...then a picture that captures their true selves!!

Thanks for a great party, Lisa!

Thanks so much for a great 2 years, Miss Mechelle! We're so happy you were able to help Dylan learn so many things and he loved preschool so much. Thanks for helping to instill in him what is hopefully a lifetime of loving to learn!