August at the Brien house

 My kids' favorite thing is video games. Sigh. But we strive for balance!

I ordered some skeleton pajamas to get ready for the most wonderful time of the year!

Spencer and I framed our play through of Pandemic Legacy. We'll hang it up eventually. This is a board game that you play over the course of a year or so, changing the game as you go, adding things, taking things away. It's not replayable, but it also holds a ton of fond memories of date nights together playing through, so we cut the game into sections and framed it with some of the pieces in shadow boxes.

I can't even remember why now, but Declan and I had a nice date at Michael's Taqueria. 

Isn't he so cute?

We were invited to a Murder Mystery theme party and had SO MUCH FUN. I won best actor award, and we had a great time dressing up, playing the game with our friends, and enjoying a lovely party put on by the best hosts we know, the Orihuelas.

The kids had their first day of school. They are back in person (WOOHOO!) and doing very well. It's been a month as I write this, and they are thriving. They ride their bikes to and from school (new this year), and it's going well so far. Two minor bike accidents, but scrapes have healed and bikes been repaired, so we're carrying on. Audrey is in 9th, Ian in 7th, and Declan in 5th.

Youth activity sand sledding at the dunes in Marina.

Silly family time.

Audrey is in her first year of high school, and the only band class is marching band, so here she is! She is loving it, and we enjoyed going to her first football game. Spencer was in his high school's marching band, so it's fun for the two of them to share that tradition.

Audrey ALSO got Halloween pajamas--the Halloween legacy/obsession (that began when I was pregnant with her) will be passed down!

July part two

After Kelley and Lizzy departed, we welcomed the Bernards family for a week long visit, and it was heaven on earth!

Beautiful Claire

Berry picking at Gizdich (Declan and London)

(Ian, Boston, Adele)

(Claire, Audrey)

Day out at Point Lobos

Tide pooling, of course!

These kids all get along so well. Declan read to Adele, which was pretty sweet.

Beth and I had a girls night with Meghan and Cherie and we talked for hours.

Adele celebrated her sixth birthday with us! Claire and Audrey made the cake.

We can't wait to see them again! After that, Ian had young men's camp, Declan had WAVE camp, and Audrey had art camp. Audrey got her braces off! We got ready for back to school. It's been a very full month!

 

July part one

 We had visitors and camps in July, and it was a full and busy month. First my sister Kelley and her daughter Lizzy came while Audrey and Spencer went to Girls Camp.

Kelley and I did our nails and played a Jane Austen game.

Paddle boats and Dennis the Menace fun.

We hunted for sea glass.

Tide pools are a must!

Spencer was a leader at Girls Camp and they had an amazing week!

Declan asked me to take a pic of him relaxing with his dad. Sweet.

Two weeks on the Big Island (Hawaii)

 

These are not in any sort of order, but we spent 2 weeks on the island of Hawaii, courtesy of the amazing Rick and Cathie (Spencer's parents). We swam, we snorkeled, we ate, we did a night dive to see Manta Rays, we saw wonderful wildlife, we toured the Volcano National Park, and we spent a lot of time relaxing. Most days we would be super active in the morning and then laze around the hotel reading and watching TV in the afternoon. We had a wonderful trip! The only casualty was that I cut my foot on our first trip to the beach and had to hobble around for some of the trip. It could have been worse. Oh, and the kids kept getting sunburns, but never bad ones. It was hard to keep up with the sunscreen! Spencer just loved being in the water, snorkeling. This trip was heavenly for him, especially since we hadn't seen his parents in two years. Thanks Rick and Cathie!

These airplane photos are from the flight out of San Jose--we barely got our wristbands before our flight closed boarding. This wristbands showed we had negative COVID tests and made our time in the Hawaii airport smooth sailing.