I was trying to avoid getting wet myself in this next one so I don't really have the best angle.

We're back

After a wonderful trip to California the Clement Clan is back. We look forward all year to our annual summer trip to Bakersfield. This year we had a fabulous time with our family and friends. Some of the high lights were:

A very fun blogger stlye reunion where we were able to meet up with many old and new friends

Jeremy enjoyed lots and lots of golfing

Mom and Dad treated everyone to a wonderful birthday dinner for Riley and Abby at California Pizza Kitchen

The Reed family spent the day in Santa Barbara enjoying the beach, the pier, and a short boat ride around the harbor

I was able to enjoy a wonderful kid free sister/mom lunch date

We all became a little addicted to Wii

Many pool side parties and bbqs

SWIMMING SWIMMING AND MORE SWIMMING

Jake was able to go fishing with his Papa Randy, dad and Uncle Shawn

Late night card games and ice cream runs (I think Jeremy and I counted a total of 5 different ice cream shops that we hit up)

Papa Harm treated everyone to a wonderful birthday dinner in honor of Amanda at Macaroni Grill

Eating at some of our favorite restaurants that we miss out on in TX (In and Out, El Sombrero, Jack in the Box, and Chipotle just to name a few) This truly was a vacation from any form of good food sense...

A wonderful impromptu trip to the Grand Canyon on the way home

And of course best of all was seeing everyone and enjoying each other's company

I can say that all the Clements came home tanner, well rested and in some cases fatter (diet starts today). I suppose all of these things are a sign of a good vacation. Now we are back to our real life if only I can get inspired to finish my laundry and do a big grocery shopping...


We love our family so much and hate that we live so far away however the miles apart and time spent away sure make our time together that much sweeter. Thank you all for the wonderful memories!!


Please enjoy the incomplete photo montage of the trip. Our camera went dead a few days into the trip so I had to rely on others to document everything. I should be getting everyone's pictures soon and I will add more then.


Abby and Riley celebrating their "luau" style birthday party on the patio of California Pizza Kitchen.

Abby, Brooke, and Riley posing for a picture on the Santa Barbara pier, it was slightly windy and overcast that day which was a nice break from the Bakersfield heat.

The whole gang takes a group shot while waiting for our little boat tour of the harbor, everyone was able to make it for the trip except for Sarah's husband Sean and Clare's husband Chris (they both had to work).

Morgan questions, "does this pail make my butt look big?"

Despite the cool temperatures and wind nothing was going to stop our kids from playing a little tag with the ocean.

We have all become big Wii fans, Jake is playing Wii baseball here but I think his favorite was either bowling or the Mercury Madness game.

a parenting bridge has been crossed

I can remember being in high school (maybe even Jr high school) having questions about my math homework. I would ask my mom for help and she would say, "wait for dad to come home I can't remember how to do that". At the time I thought it was strange because in my mind my mother knew everything (which is pretty much true). Now here I am a mother with my own four little babies and they are all so easily impressed. I can whistle a tune and they will ask in wonder, "how did you do that?" I can type something up on the computer and they are amazed with my speed. It seems to them that I can do everything. I can still run faster then all of them (I'm sure not for long), I can beat them every time in a game of tic tac toe, I can always find their missing shoe, and I am the family dictionary (thank goodness their vocabulary is still pretty immature). A couple of weeks ago things changed in the Clement household.

I have always been one of Jake's football buddies in the backyard, he likes when we throw the football back and forth to each other. I'm not very good but I would say in the beginning I was still better than my 5/6 year old and as he got better I was about as good as my 7/8 year old. Well sometime in the past couple of months Jake has definitely surpassed me in football throwing skills. He throws it harder, straighter, and with a much better spiral then I do. I also discovered that he is much better at yo-yoing than I am. These two realizations got me thinking, when did I become a mother of "older children"?

It so strange to have my kids get older and start "beating me" at different things. I mean believe me I want my son to be better at football than his mother, it just seems to have happened so quickly. One day they all were amazed at every silly thing I could do and now they seem to be slowly catching up to me. My Jake and Riley can both read their own bedtime stories now, all three of my older kids do their own tooth brushing and most of their hygiene stuff. As I write this I'm thinking to myself how silly this all sounds. I guess in our busy day to day lives I didn't realize how old they were getting. Then one day when I'm outside playing catch with my son it dawns on me (when he's trying to teach me a better way to hold the ball to make it spiral the way you want it to) that I am no longer able to impress him with my football skills. HE is the one that is impressing me. When did he get so old? So skilled? Other people have big kids... I have little kids. At least that's what I thought a couple of weeks ago. I guess I need to face the facts, I have graduated into being a mother of older kids. Any advice from you veterans out there?