Andrew - EIGHT

Happy 8th Birthday Andrew John Nullmeyer!! You and your siblings are now 8, 10, 12 and 14. 

8 years old feels like such a big milestone!

This year you grew a lot, played a lot of sports, ate a lot of food, made huge strides in your reading skills, sang a lot of songs that annoyed your siblings, built a lot of forts, and moved into your own room. 

You spend a lot of time with Jenna, and you are both currently obsessed with water coloring birds.

Sometimes Jenna drags you in to her creative play and I try to sneak a picture whenever I can, because I know it won't be long before you're "too cool" to play with her.

Your favorite subject in school is math, and you enjoy it because it is easy. You are very confident and a bit of a "know-it-all". Certain things come very easily to you, and that can make you a bit cocky when someone is trying to talk to you and explain something. On the flip side of this, you can become frustrated very quickly is something feels hard.

(Look at your Nullmeyer nose!)

You also spend a lot of time with your big brothers, mostly playing hockey or soccer out in the street. They do NOT go easy on you just because you're the youngest. Definitely no special treatment for this baby of the family!

You are still a big eater. 3 regular meals plus many snacks each and every day. You definitely grew a lot this year, and you are my biggest 8-year-old when compared to your siblings at this age. (You weigh the same as Jenna, who is 10) If you're hungry and not able to eat right away, you can become quite "hangry". 

You are my most cuddly and affectionate boy. Your brothers have always had an aggressive side to them, but you've never been that way. You do get upset, but you're much more likely to go and cry than lash out and hit someone. You love to wrap your arms around me and say "My Mommy" in your sweet little boy voice. I love how in tune you are to others' feelings. And of course, you still sneak into our bed most nights and sleep with your arms wrapped around me!

Favorites:

Color: Teal

Food: Homemade Pizza that Daddy makes in his outdoor pizza oven

Drink: Root Beer

Place To Go: Great Wolf Lodge

Friend: Noah

School Subject: Math

You seem like such a big boy now to me, especially now that you have your own room. You often go in your room and just sit and listen to music (reminds me of your teenage brother!). However, you don't play with your toys in your room very much, and you explained that it's because you don't want to make your room messy. 

You are about to start playing baseball AND soccer at the same time. 

Happy 8th Birthday Andrew! We love you so very much and pray that God would bless you and watch over your coming and going. (You got your own Bible for Christmas, and you've highlighted your special verses that were given to you at your baby dedication. Psalm 121:5-8) 

Just for fun, here are your brothers when they turned 8!

Jenna - TEN

 Happy Tenth Birthday Jenna Mae Nullmeyer!!

You are growing into such a beautiful young lady! Here you are on your 1st birthday.

You are still the perfect mix of personality traits. Shy but goofy. Athletic but gentle. Calm but silly. Creative but studious. 

In group settings you are extremely shy. It even became a "thing" on your soccer team this year, where the coach teased you during every single practice about not talking. 

However, you are very goofy and talkative around those you're closest with, such as your family and cousins.

You are so incredibly creative! Almost daily you write and illustrate amazing little stories

You are constantly making the cutest things. We recently did a movie night on our living room wall using a projector, and you made each of us our own movie ticket, including a QR code. 

You also recently wove a basket:

made a birdfeeder, sewed a pillow and baked frosted sugar cookies from scratch. I love how your creative mind always allows you to find something to do when you're bored.

You love all things squishy and cuddly and beg me for stuffed animals everywhere we go.

You have gotten very particular and stubborn about certain things, such as clothing. You hate looking bulky and refuse to wear any sort of shirt or jacket that makes you look poofy. This has resulted in a few little arguments, and I sure hope this isn't a glimpse of the future teenage years! I do understand your desire to not draw attention to yourself. It comes with the territory of being shy.

You currently still share a room with Andrew, but we are working towards moving him into his own room. You are so excited to have your own space! You adore writing in notebooks, and often hide them all over your room, away from brothers' curious eyes. 

You continue to be a peacemaker. You hate when your brothers fight. You just want everyone to get along and be happy. Your happy place is sitting out in the backyard, reading a book and soaking up a little sunshine. You still read a LOT. You will often read an entire book in bed at night (we can't get you to go to sleep because you won't stop reading!)

Some of your Current Favorites:

Food: Spaghetti

Drink: Lemonade

Subject: History

Thing To Do: Play Stuffed Animals

Color: Light Teal and Violet

Place To Go: Cousins' House

Want to Be When Grow Up: Author/Illustrator

Jenna I feel so blessed to have you as my only daughter. I love you so much and pray so many blessings over you as you turn 10! Happy Birthday my sweet Jenna!

Pajaro Dunes Vacation

Last week we spent a few days at the Pajaro Dunes Resort for our summer vacation and had a wonderful time! I visited Pajaro Dunes with my family as a child, and it was pretty much exactly as I remembered. We left Monday morning and of course stopped by Dino's in Newark for a quick lunch:

Our next stop was the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. I had been here before but this time I hated it! As soon as we stepped into the slanted building I became extremely dizzy and basically unable to move. The vertigo only improved when I stepped outside and looked up at the sky. So weird.

After a stop for groceries, we arrived at Pajaro Dunes!

Our condo was small but fit our family of 6 perfectly. 

The best part was the 1-minute walk down to the beach! 

The weather was in the beautiful 70's all week and a welcome break from the 100+ temps in Rocklin!

After exploring our new beach, I made a simple spaghetti meal for dinner and we relaxed after a long day of travel.

Tuesday we woke up to my birthday! We drove down to Monterey and visited the aquarium.

The penguins were my favorite!

Jenna loved the penguins so much she had to bring one home.

We walked around Cannery Row while waiting to eat a late lunch.

At Bubba Gump's!

I ordered the Shrimp New Orleans and it was SO fabulous!

Back at the condo, I snuck down to the beach to read while the rest of the family watched TV.

I was soon joined by the rest of the family. The tide was really high this evening and the boys had so much fun splashing through these really shallow areas.

While Jenna went shell-hunting with her Daddy.

And I posed in front of "stick man".

Wednesday was our planned "relax and hang out at the beach day". I made us a croissant casserole for breakfast and then Ryan and Lucas wanted to try out the tennis courts with me. We had fun and only lost 1 tennis ball!

We then headed down to the beach for a couple hours.....

We played frisbee, dug holes, built sand castles.....

And even received time-outs on driftwood.

I fixed us sandwiches up at the condo and then we all headed back to the tennis courts. Parents vs Kids.

We got hot quickly, so we retreated back to our condo to watch some I Love Lucy. I fixed an early dinner of tacos.

We were able to purchase a kit in the lobby to build a bonfire. We almost didn't use it because for some reason it just sounded hard to haul everyone down to the beach at night and start a fire. But we ended up going down right before sunset and I am SO glad we did! This was definitely our favorite night of the trip. The view of the sunset was beautiful, the crashing waves were a soothing soundtrack, the temperature with the fire was perfect, and it just felt like a magical evening.

Press play to watch my video below:

We did have a man and woman approach us with marshmallows and ask to "borrow" our bonfire. The kids thought they were weird and were convinced they were aliens, but we shared our fire for a while and they shared their marshmallows and graham crackers.

Thursday was Santa Cruz Boardwalk day! When we arrived, it was overcast and cool, but it ended up being out hottest day by far.

Does anyone else get nervous riding the Sky Glider? Just me? I shakily snapped this photo.

Some of the rides left us a little queasy.....

We rode rides, went to the car for our packed lunch, rode more rides, and then decided we were done by about 5pm. I think the Logger's Revenge water ride was our favorite ride of the day.

On Friday I was so sad to say goodbye to Pajaro Dunes. I found myself wishing we had just 1 more day to enjoy the calming beach. (It's a good thing we came home Friday because I started getting pretty sick late that night!)

We drove through San Jose and stopped at the Winchester Mystery House for a tour. We had never been before, and I really disliked it! I think I was mostly bothered by how HOT it was. I was literally sweating the entire time, and once the tour begins you can't just duck out because you will get lost in the huge house. I felt like I was trapped in this really weird house on an endless tour with no AC. Yuck.

But alas we made it out and finally headed home. Pajaro Dunes was a perfect family trip and I highly recommend it for an easy and relaxing family beach vacation. I hope we get to go back someday!