Sunset Beach May 2010

Every year we go to Sunset Beach over Memorial Day weekend with some wonderful friends from Fremont. We go with the Clarks, Pooles, Youngs, Wus, and the Grants. It is so much fun to camp, and visit, and enjoy the beach. It is usually pretty cold, but as you can see, it doesn't stop the kids from enjoying the beach!

(above) Jackson, doing a jig (?) on the beach!

CJ catching a wave! The kids love to Boogieboard!

We hope to be able to join our friends for more camping trips, even though we are moving!

Taylor's 8th Grade Promotion

In June, Taylor finished the 8th grade at Pine Valley Middle School in San Ramon. They had a "promotion", and a party afterwards. Grandma and Grandpa Sincich came to celebrate!

So did Grandma and Grandpa Holbrook

And Gigi! (She is now in remission from her non-hogkins lymphoma! :))

Here she is after getting her certificate.

...and waiting with some friends! She is growing up so fast! It's hard to believe that she will start high school next year! Love you, Taylor!

Summer Fun!!!

If you know anything about the Holbrooks and summer, you know that we are all about the pool! Since Taylor has been about 5, we have been doing swim team. The kids learn to swim early, and spend lots of time in the water all summer long. This year we are on the Aquabears swim team here in San Ramon. This team isn't as competetive as we were used to in Fremont - and next year we will probably join another team that will challenge the kids more, but for now, they are loving it and having a ton of fun. The nice thing is that it is close to the house (the girls ride their bikes to practice every day, and then I come later with the boys), there are a lot of kids from the kid's schools on the team, so they are making more friends, and Cannon and I are also getting to know some more people in the area. There is even a "Junior" team that Jackson is on, the Aquacubs. He is doing great and having a fun time!

Yesterday we went to Lafayette to see my good friend Gwen (Smith Helvey) and her 4 kids, and we went to her swimming pool. It was great - it has a diving board, slide, a kiddie pool, the works! So the kids dove, jumped, and swam all day long. My other long time friend, Deb (Lawrence Hardy) and her 3 kids were there too. It is so much fun to have them live close, and to be such good friends after so many years. It's fun that our kids are friends, too!

This is Taylor, in the red suit! Today she says she is sore from all of her tricks!

Here is Morgan, ready to dive during swim practice.

Morgan was the daredevil doing all sorts of flips off of the diving board. She had so much fun! (Don't miss her - she is up in the air, upside down...)

Getting ready to dive off of the "blocks"...

Jackson becoming daring as he jumps in with a twist!

Jackson swimming. He can swim great until he has to take a breath! No, he is not wearing a white shirt...that is his skin!!! :)

He is so big - gets to swim in the meets and everything!

These two spent most of the day wrestling in the baby pool - I had to break it up a few times so that no one would get hurt! They had too much fun!

CJ doing his favorite stroke, the breast stroke!

Cheese! Looking cute!

With some swim buddies getting ready to dive in during practice!

Well, it's guaranteed that you will see more swim team pictures throughout the summer - this is just the beginning!!!

Last Day of School - CJ and Morgan

I asked CJ's teachers to pose in a picture with him on the last day of school. They whispered for a minute, and then when I snapped the picture, this is what they did. CJ turned 3 different shades of red after this shot! I loved his teachers this year - they "got" CJ and helped him have a great year...

Some of CJ's class goofing around...

"The guys"

This is Morgan on her last day of school with 2 of her good friends, Katarina and Hannah.

Hanging out on the lawn at Disney. (The kid's school name is Walt Disney Elementary - for real!)

4th grade tug of war - boys against girls...

Until next year... Jackson will start Kindergarden, CJ will be in 3rd grade, Morgan will be in 5th grade, and Taylor will be in 8th grade! Yikes!

Yardwork

So, ever since we have moved into our new house (a year ago!) we have talked about how much we hate these shrubs that line our walkway up to our house. Well, Cannon got a bee in his bonnet, and wanted to pull them out. He and Brandon went to the Home Depot and bought a big chain. They hooked the chain up to our Suburban, wrapped it around the shrubs, and pulled them out. They pulled out probably 12 of these beasts. Some of them were really hard to get out. Our neighbor Dennis came over and told them they were cheating. He says they needed more manual labor.... (by the way, I don't know why half of this entry is underlined and the rest isn't...I can't figure it out :) )

Some of these juniper shrubs had really deep roots. Cannon would gun the engine and pull them. Some of them took 3 or 4 good pulls!

Brandon the He Man

This is how we would like our yard to look one day...

Or this....we wouldn't mind if the house looked like this too! CJ and Jackson rode their scooters around the neighborhood one afternoon while I walked and we we took pictures of all of the nice yards to give us ideas. This was one of our favorites!

Stay tuned for our "after" shots!

Recitals

CJ's 2nd grade class performed several songs at our Spring Open House. Cute!

Morgan has started playing the violin with the school orchestra this year. At the end of the year they had a concert with all of the elementary, middle, and high schools in the district. There are over 600 kids in orchestra in the district! It was amazing to hear them all play their songs. It is a wonderful program!

Taylor and Morgan had a piano recital in May. They both did really well! They knew their songs perfectly, and even though they get nervous to perform in front of everyone, they were both incredible! CJ is starting piano lessons this summer.

Baseball and a Big Fat Lip

CJ played Little League A ball this year. He was a Diamondback! He played all over the field, but especially likes playing 1st base. They use a pitching machine, and he had some really good hits!

Discussing some very important strategies for the next inning!

Time in the dugout!

The Fat Lip

So CJ caught a line drive with his lip during one of his games....there was a lot of blood, and everyone was sure that he broke his nose. The swelling went down after a couple of days, and after about a week he was as good as new!

What a trooper! Baseball is finished for this year!