A busy weekend!

We had some friends out to visit from Phoenix over the long 4th of July weekend. We had so much fun! They had already done the "Disney" thing, and wanted to do the beach stuff with us. Matt and Kari have two girls, one is five, and the other is four, so Eszter was in heaven.

Friday, we went to Balboa Island. It was almost a disaster, since there was no parking to be had on the entire island. However, as I passed our friends the Mannings parents' place, I saw the door open. Sure enough, they were there! We got to park in their garage and hang out with them. They have a 16 month old that we've never met. The last time we saw them, Amber and I were both pregnant. She was barely showing, and I was huge, but we were due, hmmm... a few weeks apart??? I have an excuse, though.

We sat on the wall for a picnic while the girls ran back and forth with pails of sand and water. We didn't pack suits, and they got soaking wet. Sophie and Sy played in the sand. On the way back to the Manning house, the girls held hands and sang a song to the tune of "I'm a little teapot" called "I'm a little pancake" They sang and giggled the whole way. It was about as close to a perfect day as they come.












There was delicious food waiting for us when we got home, along with more friends, and Brian's boss and his wife stopped by, too! We opted not to go anywhere for fireworks, so Brian picked up a few and did a little show in the backyard. Then, as our friends headed to their hotel, we got to see a great show that looked like it was coming from Newport Dunes. It couldn't have been better, all the bright lights, almost none of the noise.





Saturday, we headed to Newport to show them the not so touristy beach stuff. Again, zero parking, but we managed. Poor Bri had to walk about a mile. The girls were way more interested in the sand toys than the water. They were so cute. They started digging, and then Brian got involved. Then all the grown ups did. Pretty soon, it was as deep as the girls are tall!





After all that excitement, we had a sleepover. Matt and Kari went out for their anniversary, and we took the girls to ice cream and then spent the rest of the night trying to get them to sleep... It worked well for Matt and Kari, though. The girls were exhausted and slept on the way home on Sunday.

In unrelated news, Sophia and Josiah are potty training! Yay! I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but one day soon, I may have three kids, with none of them in diapers! Sophia goes pretty regularly when she is on the potty, and Josiah has done it twice now. They are both so cute about it. They sit and concentrate. Sy gets up about every 5 seconds to see if he's done it, yet. Eszter is very supportive and lets them watch her go, and she cheers for them when they succeed. What a great sister!