Ben's Wall Climbing....

Pretty darn impressive, if you ask me!!!

Emily turns 5!

Today is Emily's birthday and we celebrated with cake and presents last night!! Emily's dinner of choice was McDonald's and she was very excited to find the Littlest Pet Shop toy that she's been wanting in the bag.



Emily put the candles on her cake.



Ready to blow them out!
Then time to open presents!
She was very excited to find Grammy sent her beef jerky!



And she loved her princess Belle doll from Mommy & Daddy.

Father-Daughter Dance

Last night, Sarah and Matt went to her school's Father-Daughter Dance. They had a great time! Wow, my little baby Sarah (4lb 12oz) is growing into such a beautiful lady! I am so proud of her! Daddy is not bad lookin' either (wink, wink)...


And on Friday, Emma lost her second tooth!

Out and about in the Santa Clarita Valley

We've been busy, but not really...
A couple of weeks ago, we wanted to check out the local bike trails and paseos around the Santa Clarita Valley.



So we packed up the cars with the bikes and headed to the mall. We parked the cars there and went over the pedestrian bridges to the paseo near the river.




We followed it to the end and back. The kids had a great time.

Then we checked out Placerita Canyon Nature Center in the Newhall area. Ben is working on a scrapbook report for school.


Here is Ben with his walking stick.


Here is our nature guide showing off an American Kestrel. He is a very pretty bird and part of the falcon family.


Our guide led us on a short trail around the nature center pointing out different things like: Sycamore trees, Coastal Live Oak trees, Poison Oak, the Walker Ranch house, and the Oak of the Golden Dream.

Then the kids couldn't resist the temptation of the creek! Shoes came flying off and into the water they went.


They started building up a small dam.


Brandon and Emma made sand angels.

Matt, Sarah, and Ben went on a nature hike. They didn't know how far they would go and they ended up at the waterfall. It was about a 3 mile hike! Here are some great pictures.