Wedding fun!

Cathy's daughter, Ambir, married Wes today in a beautiful ceremony in Oceanside.

 I love this picture of Cathy watching her daughter come down the aisle...

 

 Love these kids...

 There was a fun photo booth set up and Cole got the boys to dress up and take some great pictures...

 Cooper and Jeff with their broken bones...

 They did some dancing (or mocking of dancing!)...

 but we mostly just watched and hung out.

 It was a beautiful celebration and I'm so thankful we got to be there. We love them both so much and wish them a long, blessed life together. :)

GOHS Spirit!

There really is nothing else like the school spirit at Great Oak! They have a multitude of spirit weeks, and literally almost every student participates! This week was the first one of the year. Somehow I missed pictures of the Hawaiian Day and Jersey Day, but here's  80's workout/neon day...

 

 and Red Wave day...

 The school posted this picture of a passing period on Facebook...it truly is a "sea of red" on these days!

 We also had the first Friday night football game of the school year. What a fun night! The stands were packed and there is so much excitement in the air. Cooper loved hanging out with his middle school friends, running around the stands.

 Zoe joined the "Red Wave" section which is just a crazy, packed area of students.  The music is loud, as are the cheers!

 So far, Zoe's high school experience has been great. She is enjoying being a part of the ASB program there, and loving the school spirit.

Praise Him with Dance 2014

Time for Zoe's annual summer dance show! It made for a long Friday, with school, rehearsals and a show, and 2 shows on Saturday.
The production was beautiful, as always, and I was in awe of the talent of these dancers, as well as their integrity and support.
Backstage prep and fun...

(Olivia and Zoe)

 

 

 

(Stripes day! Lindsay, Sonia, Zoe, me)

(Hannah I, Lindsay, Zoe, Sonia)

(Zoe and Savannah)

Pre-show talk and prayer...

(Zoe, Brooke, Paige)

 SHOWTIME!
 Dance 1, a beautiful classical ballet piece by Nicole: "What Wondrous Love"

Next, Mercy, a great jazz piece by Nicole:

 A beautiful classical ballet piece on pointe by Kelly: "Dances Pathetique"

A gorgeous contemporary ballet piece by Katherine: "Autumn"

A gorgeous pointe dance by Brittany: "Now You're Found"

Closing the show with a challenging and amazing piece by Nicole: "Ascension"

 Finale...

Mimi came to the afternoon show and instead of flowers, gave Zoe a box of macarons! Pure bliss for this girl...

 Joe and Cooper came to the last show...

Cast party is always a blast! Their energy is still high, and they love getting together outside of the show.

We closed out the restaurant and got home late, but it was well worth the long 2 days. Every time I am a part of these Dunamix productions, I feel so blessed and grateful that Zoe has found a "home" there. We continue to be so proud of you Zoe. Your dancing keeps getting better and better, and it is a joy to watch you shine your light on that stage!

After the storm...

We had a crazy summer storm here last night. Lightning and thunder, hail, and lots of rain. I actually love storms like this, although I like them better during the day! It sure was tough to sleep, and we were all dragging today.
However, I couldn't resist some pictures of the incredible sunrise that came after such a stormy night...

Such a gift!

OUCH...

Well, Cooper came in from playing outside with his buddies, held up his arm and said, "What do we do about this?" I rushed to him and saw that he had been pretty banged up and went to work cleaning his wounds and trying to bandage things up.

 Hard to tell, but some of these scrapes were awful. Pretty deep and some road rash to clean out. Turns out he was riding his long board with a friend and took a hill too fast. Gabe crashed in front of him, and then he lost his balance. His wrist was in a lot of pain and started swelling. We were hoping it was a sprain, so we iced it for a while, but it kept getting worse. Off to the 24 hour urgent care we went.

 Turned out to be a dual fracture of his scaphoid bone. Poor kid! They put him a splint and sling and sent us on our way, telling us we needed to follow up with an orthopedic specialist to determine if surgery was necessary and for further treatment. Coop was in a lot of pain that night!

 We had to wait through the weekend. Coop was miserable. He couldn't do anything in the splint, and he was still in pain from the broken wrist and all of the cuts.
Thankfully, through connections of a friend from one of my jobs, I was set up with a wonderful pediatric orthopedic surgeon on Monday afternoon. They gave Coop the VIP treatment and determined that his bones were in good alignment and no surgery needed. We were so relieved! So Cooper picked his color and they proceeded to cast and do another X-ray.

 We will have to go back in 2 weeks to take the cast off, make sure the abrasions are healing without infection, and re-cast for at least another 4 weeks.

I'm not sure how to keep this kid down! He won't be able to start lacrosse this week, no basketball, football, skateboarding, bike riding, surfing, swimming, etc. And with his thumb cast to the tip, he can't even play his Xbox. I have a feeling we will be using some creativity to keep him from getting bored! Also, since it's his right arm, he will be having a tough time trying to do school work. I guess it will all be figured out and his left arm will get strength built up. I'm just so very thankful that it wasn't worse!