Birthdays, July 4th and more!

Here is a photo of Axel and Phoenix with Max and Sophia, the neighbors that moved to Singapore, they came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. Axel made sure to be King of the house when his friends were over. Phoenix has recently mastered the sit and spin and now tries to do it standing and then pretends to fall over laughing. 

Last Saturday, on my birthday we spent the day at the beach in Aptos, CA. My work had their annual picnic here for the first time. It was a beautiful day.

The kids had a great time playing in the sand. Keith and I played catch for a short bit and enjoyed playing in the sand with the kids while visiting with my coworkers.

When we got home we enjoyed a mellow dinner and some yummy ice cream cake thanks to Daddy!

Recently, the kids and Keith purchased a bird house. My neighbor gave us a bird bath for my birthday and the kids and I picked up a bird feeder at the hardware store. We have had lots of birds and SQUIRRELS eating the bird seed. We can't wait to get a bird to use our bird house for their babies. The kids and I were a little bummed to see the squirrels eating the bird seed so we are on constant look out to scare them off and make room for the cute birds that we have seen using the bird feeder for a source of food.

Last Sunday, Daddy took us out to our favorite restaurant, The Pastaria in Los Gatos.

We all enjoyed a delicious meal!

On the 4th of July we headed to Grandma Susan's house. Grandpa Brian and Grandma prepared an amazing steak dinner. The kids had a blast playing with the Grandparents, their toys and each other.

Here is my pretty princess. I had to take a selfie, because I wanted to make sure I got a picture with both of the kids :)

After dinner we headed to the Rancho Cordova Festival/Carnival. Daddy and Phoenix had to turn around and go back to Grandma's house because Phoenix was too tired and overheated. The rest of us continued the 3/4 of a mile walk to the fun and games.

After years of talking about riding the train that runs around the park, we finally did it!

Here is my selfie of Axel and I sitting on the train. You can tell by Axel's face it was really hot out!

Here is Axel with Grandma and Grandpa after the long train ride.

When we got back home we discovered that Phoenix was not in a good place and was too scared of her new environment to go to sleep. After a couple of hours of trying to get her to sleep, we gave up. I fed her some food and then let her join in on Axel's glow in the dark fun.

They both had a blast! Luckily, with it finally pitch dark out and a full tummy Phoenix fell asleep around 9:30pm.

Just in time for Axel, daddy, Grandma and I to go outside and enjoy the fireworks! Grandpa Brian was tired from his long work week and headed to bed early.

Axel had an absolute blast being up late and .......

watching his first fireworks show! We are extremely spoiled to view them from Grandma's driveway. Axel was in bed and asleep by 10:30pm.

On Saturday was our first annual Burgess family get together. While half of the family golfed the other half swam at my cousin's house. Phoenix was a wreck from the lack of sleep from travelling and ended up taking an hour nap in the car, while daddy and Axel got started in the pool fun. By the time Phoenix and I arrived, most of the second cousins were out of the pool and drying off.

We enjoyed some extra time with Michaela and Landon at lunch and then headed over to the BBQ, which was the big event where everyone would be together. Landon was extremely sweet with both Phoenix and Axel and we were really impressed at both Michael's and Landon's hospitality (you too Dustin!)

Here are 10 of the great grand kids. Only Braylin is missing.

A silly pose as well.

Five of the 10 cousins. The only one that I had that wasn't blurry was one with Axel hanging off of me.

The five Aunts and Uncles with their spouses.

And the two responsible for all of these offspring are (great) Grandma and Grandpa Burgess themselves!

It was great to see everyone and we hope to make it a yearly or bi-yearly ritual. We have such amazing people in our family. It is such a pleasure to enjoy each other's company. We are gearing up for Grandma Sonia and Grandpa Bruce's arrival tomorrow. We can't wait to spend the week with them and celebrate daddy's birthday on Tuesday!