Outfits left at the hotel, and Tammy unable to make it to the session, but a few awesome photos nonetheless…

If there was ever a time that we needed a vacation, this was it.  What a great way to celebrate Shoshana’s 70th birthday.

16 people, 9 kids.  Lots of sun and fun!

The kids behaved so well the whole trip from the flights, to sleeping in the hotel, and everything in between.

The first night in Maui was Father’s Day and also game 7 of the NBA finals.  Great timing!

My best Father’s Day yet

And then right to the pool

And then right to sleep

Second day excursion

Gotta end every day like this

Next day relaxing at the resort

And then of course this:

Breakfast buffets.  Yum.  Eli now calls bacon “those ribs.”

Our next excursion

Pooped

And silly

And happy

And back to the pool

For the next couple of days…

And more fun

Wish we could go back tomorrow!

Maya had the honor of being the first in the family to have her Bat Mitzvah.  She was so impressive.  She never looked nervous.

We love to get Jordan and Eli dressed up in ties

Attempted family pics

Jordan was slightly obsessed with Shirley Temples, and served one up to Eli

Fun Party!

Last day of school

Jordan teachers Lani and Terri

Jordan’s stepping up ceremony.  He’s done with pre-school!!

Fun with Eli’s friends and Tammy’s new friends

Eli squared (Eli K and Eli W) – best buds

As summer began, Jordan and Eli finished Soccer Shots.  Jordan came a long way in soccer.  He gave it his all every week, and always wanted to go for every class.  Eli didn’t love it so much, but we’ll try again in a year or so.

So many things to report, so little time.  These pics go back to February and go all the way through May.  You can see their growth just looking at the difference between Feb and May photos.  Without further ado…

Spring in Cali

The Camus moved in behind us!  Here’s the view of our house from their balcony.  SO CLOSE!

The kids are so excited to hang together more

Hangin in the backyard

Jordan

Special day at school: they brought in service cars and trucks, police fire, tow trucks, etc

Eli squared riding around

Hangin on the porch with Gia

Dinner at Avi and Jan’s

Park time

Hangin with the Brauns

Backyard fun

My trip to Chicago to clean out my Mom’s house.  Very emotional time, but so grateful to have Lisa’s help.

There were some crazy finds

My science fair project from 8th grade

Hard to say goodbye to the drawings my mom did that were all over the walls

We filled the garage with books and other history

And then we said goodbye

Counting fruit with the boys back at home

One of the big things this Spring was enrolling J and E in soccer.  Jordan really enjoyed it.  Eli not so much.

Zootopia viewing with friends

Annual Descanso Gardens outing. Nanny and Poppy came too!

Purim and carnival at kids’ school

Park time

Dinner at Yamato with Poppy

School buds

Living through another demo/mcmansion next door

They took down 2 trees providing shade to our house 🙁

Silly bean

Cute trio

Tammy’s trip to Chicago to visit Jessie and baby

Eli and Hayley

Passover

I love this video

More fun!

Beach day in Oxnard

Trip to Underwood Farms

Watering the kids

We did a little work in our backyard, getting rid of a big planter and extending our patio

Here’s during and after

Miscellaneous fun

Mother’s Day in Santa Monica

Cousin sleep-over!

Last but not least, Eli conversing over Fro-yo

It’s official.  We’ve got a toddler on our hands.  “No” and “why” are currently Eli’s favorite words, but he still makes us smile every day.

He’s such a happy kid.  And even when he dips into the toddler zone, it seems not to last too long.

He’s got great teachers who take pictures of him throughout the day and post them immediately for us to download.  He always looks very focused and happy.  He also got lucky with a great group of kids:

He’s making good friends

And he loves to giggle

His cousins and brother take such good care of him

He did great at his first soccer class!

Here he is sitting in front of the Camu’s new house.  “It’s fun!”

And as always, fun with Mommy

Jordan had his second annual Shabbat boy day at his school where gets to be the star of his class for a day.  We were so proud of him watching him stand confidently in front of his class talking to his friends.  Me and Tammy were there along with Nanny, Poppy, and Safta.

We also love both of his teachers.

Off to the temple

Hugging the cushy Torah

Singing and spinning

Jonah had his party at one of the coolest places I’ve seen yet.  Video games, glow in the dark mini-golf, air hockey and other fun stuff.  Maybe a good place to host a birthday party for Jordan or Eli in a couple of years.

Happy birthday Jonah!

Poppy joined us too!

Mini golf

Bike ridin and video games

We’ve survived our share of flues, stomach flues, and colds in the last couple of months. But who hasn’t?  These photos date back to New Years Eve and the first couple weeks of the year.  We’ve had a little rain, but not quite the El Nino flooding predicted.

Just before the new year, Jordan went bowling for the first time and did pretty well

I went to see “Dead & Company” – John Mayer, Bob Weir, etc. with a friend at the Forum and I was blown away by Mayer’s energy and guitar playing

I Know You Rider

New Years with the Gordons

Partying up

Home made Popsicle time

Spiderman singing duet

Slide duet

Backyard orange harvest

New Years Day hike

Snow day at school

Lucky kids with their well-planned, colorful lunches by Mommy

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na – BATMAN, BATMAN, BATMAN!

Daddy & Eli pics

Here are the photos from our Christmas trip to Palm Springs…

We hit the dinosaurs in Cabazon on the way

And no trip to Palm Springs would be complete without a stop at In N Out on the way…

The view from our room was awesome:

The kids enjoyed it too

Lots of good meals

Jordan’s new thing is bringing the Lego instructions wherever he goes to study them, since we won’t let him take the actual Legos out of the house

Drinking hot apple cider

More meals

Hiking at the Indian reservation

Break time

Jordan makes this unintentional face these days that can only be described as “side-face.”  I sort of captured it here

We met up with some friends on the second night to go to the Living Desert for the annual light show.  They had some sort of Hanukkah dog to make the Jews feel festive

And the kids loved the model trains there

Requisite selfies

The hotel made a feeble attempt on Christmas to have a Santa for pictures with the kids.  The guy they got was a skinny kid who had no idea what to do.  Jordan wanted to know why some dude was dressed up like Santa.  Smart kid.  He wasn’t buying it.