One Long Saturday

On Saturday, August 8, Hunter, Helena & I squeezed as much out of our day as we possibly could - without missing naps!!! See if you can keep up!?!

Does it count that I was home almost at midnight the night before because I was out fishing with Matt & Dad??? Yeah, let's count it (otherwise I'd have to figure out where else to post it)!!!

The guys often/occasionally go fishing out in Newport/Balboa area - just to "catch and release" - catch up and release a bit of pressure - fishing can be quite therapuetic, you know.

Dad brought in a few, so did Matt. Actually, Dad would hook them then give the line to me so I could reel them in! I only 'caught' one but it was the one that got away! It gave us a big fight (I'm not just making a play on words either) and in the end, snapped my line! Dad reckons it was some kind of ray... we'll never really know, but that was the only one I 'landed' on my own!

The official Saturday started at 8.30 in the morning at the Belikoff home where Hunter & Tatianna were reunited. When we first met her, neither were yet one year old (she's older by 2 months) so they played well around each other. This time, T had to share her toys... with a boy... first thing in the morning... she did pretty well all things considered.

I love this picture - I always think of June as a domestic diva type - so it was fun to see Hunter playing in her kitchen too. Really it was a lovely morning catching up with Anissia and her parents. I always feel so welcomed by all of them! All the best, Anissia, with the new house and pregnancy!!!

This was a common scene for these two on the day!!!

While the kids were napping, Amber and I took Evan on his first shopping trip to South Coast Plaza! He did very well - even caught a meal in the GAP dressing room! It was fun to spend a few hours with Amber just chatting about girl things while trying to get some of my dreaded shopping done. When we got home, we found Hunter awake and in the pool with the rest of the kids! What a blast!!!

I love this! Here's Madie, Travis, Trevor & their cousin Zach... all seasoned pool-goers! And here's newby Hunter... just trying to keep up! They all treated him so well!! And of course he was now a big boy just like Travis (minus the ring)!

After a refreshing swim for all of us, we raced over to Souplantation (for the second time) to meet up with Amber, Nikki & Robyn for a bit of a "girl's catch up". Unfortunately I didn't pull my camera out in time to capture the complete event, but did manage to get a photo of Robyn... the soon to be "Mrs...." wait, Robyn, I didn't even catch his last name?!? Congratulations, anyway! And thanks, too, Nikki, for sharing your heart and plans too... you girls are great!

Having been fully fed with healthy food, we cruised down PCH to Newport Coast where I was kinda guessing my way around to Matt's fire station. By the time we arrived it was already almost 8pm (an hour past bedtime) and within the first few minutes the guys got a call out... There goes Uncle Matt driving the fire engine!!! Hunter stood on a chair looking out the window saying "Where's Uncle Matt"!

Thankfully they were nice enough to let us watch TV in the station and Helena even had her bottle for the evening. Thirty minutes later, they returned - unscathed! Hunter got the quick tour of the engine and the station...

Matt is the engineer, so he is the driver of these bad boys... pretty fun job if you ask Hunter!

Helena wasn't as interested in the fire engine as she was in just hanging out with Uncle Matt... in the end this was pretty much the last time we got to see him... as the following day we went camping and they headed out on their next summer adventure! I do see a bit of family resemblance in this photo!!!

So... we said good-bye to Uncle Matt then headed home via a much faster route! The kids went to sleep quite smoothly - I guess they enjoyed their jam-packed day!!! I know I did!