Bike Racing

 Jake contemplated signing up for the San Diego Rock and Roll half marathon and on his training days, he groaned about having to run but on the cross-training days, he loved riding his mountain bike so I suggested skipping a half marathon where all you do is run and finding a bike race instead. He found a race called Over the Hump in Castaic, an 8 race series that takes place all summer. They started at the end of May and raced 4 Thursdays in a row, now they're taking a 6 week break and start again July 25 for 4 more Thursdays. Tom loves to go and watch because they have a great park there with lots of other kids to run around with.  Despite some bumps in the road (Jake's bike stopped working 30 minutes before the first race and he was forced to use a loaner bike from one of the vendors, then ordering a new bike through our friend, Fadi, which was then backordered and changing his order only to have that backordered as well) Jake's been doing very well, coming in 8th in his class, then 7th for the last three races. He's currently 3rd in standings for his class. Donald and Bryan have also done well in their classes. Donald came in 2nd place in his class for the first race and Bryan came in 12th.

 Sara wins with Tom taking second and Kaia in third!!

 Apparently, shaking a bunch of colored flags really entertains almost 3 year olds.

Painting

 I don't know if it's nesting or what but I've been actively painting anything that'll stand still. We found these dining room chairs out by the curb, abandoned by one of our neighbors and we decided to bring them home and give them new life. Each got a fresh coat of paint and now they're perfect spare chairs when we entertain. Even the two kiddo rocking chairs Gram gave us got some paint. We also found a curbside dresser for Tom's room and another dresser given to us by Auntie Sarah. Both of those got a good sanding, primer and white for the outside and neutral/browns starting with the lightest on the top drawer and growing darker with the next drawer. We also got two matching dressers from Sarah for Jake's and my room (not shown) that I sanded, primed, painted brown and replaced the hardware for new-to-us bedroom furniture to replace the Wal-Mart dresser we purchased when we were first married that was ready to fall apart at any minute. They've been fun projects and I've enjoyed bringing old things back to life.

Pregnancy update

After our second ultrasound it became crystal clear that Baby #2 is another BOY!

We are very excited to be adding another boy to our home. If you look at the ultrasound, there is definitely no doubt that this is a boy. 

After a craptastic first trimester, I finally started feeling better but I still wasn't sleeping well and was exhausted most days. This pregnancy is definitely different from my first one. Due date is still August 28, Auntie Molly's birthday.

Pig Hunt '13

Jake and our friend, Nate, went on a pig hunt on Tejon Ranch. They went for an overnight trip and Jake came home with this beauty. He field dressed and quartered her with great difficulty seeing as she was around 200-250 pounds and kept slipping off the hook. But he came home and butchered the meat off her (on my kitchen island, but whatever). Now we have a freezer full of delicious organic boar meat. We've already had wild boar chili, seared boar and wild boar burgers. Soon we'll have boar Loco Moko. Anyone have any other recipes?

Hair chop!

 Tired with having so much hair to wash, I decided to chop it and donate it. I heard that Locks of Love doesn't donate wigs to cancer patients in need, they SELL them so I went with another organization called Pantene Beautiful Lengths to donate my 11 inches of chopped hair. A high-end salon in town was having a Cut-A-Thon for charity that day. They would normally charge $70+ for a cut like mine and that day it was a $20 minimum donation for their charity for a cut. So I got a great cut, got rid of some unwanted length and contributed to two different charities. Win Win Win!!

Easter

 The pastors at our church decided that for Easter, we would shut down the children's classes and have the entire church family, kiddos included, together for the service. Sounded good in theory. It made for a somewhat loud and distracting service with most of the kiddos getting antsy after about fifteen minutes. This was how Jake and Tom spent their time.

Montrose Street Fair

 Gram, Sarah, Katie, Tom and I went to the Montrose Street Fair. They had a petting zoo, as well as lots of rides and funhouses that Tom enjoyed. He did NOT like the big slide and showed his displeasure with "gorilla arms". But he loved going on the rope ladders and smaller slides with his Aunties.

Quilt Show '13

This year's quilt show theme was "Any Holiday on Quilts". I didn't enter anything this year but Sarah and Gram did. Sarah was robbed of a "Best Color" ribbon, everyone was commenting on her gorgeous choice of colors and one lady stood and looked at it up close, then far away for about ten minutes and took multiple pictures while Katie and I watched her. Gram won a Best Pictorial ribbon for her quilt of Steven and Naomi at Refugio. We went to dinner at The Ramp, as usual.
They were having auditions for "The Voice" at the same hotel where the quilt show was being held so we had to avoid all the hipsters, though it was hard. "I'm just focusing on my music right now"..."Rainn? Yeah, I know that guy, he's, like, one of my best friends."
We got to see everyone's gorgeous quilts, learn new techniques and skills at the Saturday Night Sampler, and do some major fabric shopping.

Hiking

 While I went to the quilt show, Jake took Tom and Panzer for a hike at Placerita Canyon. Tom did great, hiking for almost a mile without getting tired.

Steven's Marine Boot Camp Graduation

 The day after Family Day was graduation. We all went back to MCRD to attend, where Matt corrected our terms. 

("It's not a group, it's a platoon. It's not a shirt, it's a blouse. They're not pants, they're trousers!")

When Steven's platoon was standing right in front of where we were sitting, Mikey and Dad held up the Marines quilt Gram made. We were very proud of him and it was amazing how many other Marines came up to Steven afterward. "Hey, Ugalde!" He was apparently very popular.

After graduation, Steven wanted to go to In-N-Out for lunch, which was a popular choice for the Marine graduates. After lunch, Steven wanted to go to the beach. He was reluctant to get in the water ("It's COLD!" ..."What are you...Coast Guard?!?") but eventually went in. He was also as chatty as I've ever seen him, telling us all about the crazy things they went through in boot camp. 

Later that night, we had a great family dinner at Olive Garden. It was so funny to see how straight Steven sits up now and the way he eats. Steven got to spend ten days at home before reporting to Camp Pendleton for secondary training. Once that finished, he was sent to Camp LeJeune in North Carolina for MOS training, where he selected "Overseas" as his station of choice once he's finished. That could likely be Okinawa, Japan, so we'll see.

MCRD Family Day

 We headed down to San Diego for Steven's Family Day and Graduation. We got to watch them practice for the graduation the following day, we saw them halfway through their 4 mile run and once those Marines were changed and no longer stinky, we got to spend the rest of the afternoon with Steven. We got to walk around MCRD and see the sights, some of which Steven had never seen before. "I didn't even know this was here." It was so great to see him after a 12 week absence and only being allowed to send letters, with the occasional phone call to his mom as a reward for doing well. Gram even got into the spirit and dyed blue and red streaks into her white hair.