6-17-13 Hanging in SD

Emery and I have a few days between my sister's actual graduation and her party. We are taking EVERY opportunity to bask in the sweet San Diego sunshine and PLAY PLAY PLAY!

There is a new park area in Santee (new to us Tennessee-ans! ). Emery LOVED playing and exploring with his Auntie Ro (one of the only people that can match him in energy and excitement!)

His day was full of...

Climbing 

Posing 

Spinning

Following

Chasing

Running

Water break...

Chugging

Thinking

And all around being awesome. 

Then during lunch, Emery got SO sick of me taking photos. He refused to participate. 

So he napped. 

When he woke up, it was more ruckus. 

We could not have had better weather! 

What can I say, San Diego sure does look good on Emery! 

We LOVE it here and we are so thankful! We only have a few more days on vacation, so we are making the most of it.

Thanks for reading,

Love

Team Oakley

6-19-13 Rosy's Graduation

Do you ever have those moments when you feel old? 

Well our littlest sister, the youngest of us seven, is graduation from high school. Words cannot descirbe what a pleasure it has been watching her grow up. I vaguely remember some of my other siblings being born, but Rosy is different.

I remember being told my mother was pregnant, I remember watching my mother have morning sickness and grow. I remember when Rosy was born, going to the hospital to pick her and mom up, and watching her become the sweet, strong, beautiful woman she is now. I cannot help but get nostalgic as I look at how she has grown, and what this day means.

This is one of my favorite photos of her and my other little sister, Roxanne, on the Ranch that we grew up on. 

And this is my "little" sister now. Beautiful, smart, kind, and so sweet. 

The day of her graduation was a HOT one! But there was one uber cool thing there...this guy. 

It was SUPER weird being at my old high school. I was immediately stressed about missing the bell and being late for class. DONT WALK ON THE GRASS!

After the ceremony we got to see the wonderful graduate in all her splendor! Emery ran to greet his auntie Toad.

Then, as any family on graduation day would do, we took far too many posed family photos. And with how big my family is, it took a while. 

Sisters (and Emery). 

Mother and Father.

Father and Step-mother. 

Mother and step-father. 

Sisters (no Emery). 

Ok, that is not all of them, but that is enough! It's time to party! And by party I mean sandwiches at hime with just the family. Rosy had grad night that night, and her real party was in a few days, so we lived it up! Ow ow! Costco sandwiches for all! crazy times! 

It is not often that all the sibs are in the same state, so we took advantage of this special time with...yep, more photos!

My siblings, Emery (the only grandchild so far...yeah, we own that title...for now), and my sister and brother in law. 

After lunch Emery was SPENT! He napped good. I was jealous. 

Later in the day, while Rosy was on her way to Grad night at Disneyland (jealous, yeah, us too!), we had a family trip to the new buffalo wild wings in town. Emery was cool as ever. He enjoyed spending time with his Uncle "Tibby".

During the meal Emery needed some time by himself. He got out of his seat, went to another table, and sat. I know we are a crazy bunch, but really? 

After some coaxing (aka bribing with food) he came to us again. 

We all ate, laughed, and took turns walking around the patio with Emery. It was such a sweet time.

Rosy, I love you so much. I know you know this, but I thought I would take the opportunity to tell you again. I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!

Love,

Team Oakley. 

6-16-13 Father's day!

Happy Father's day! 

We (Beka and Emery) are THRILLED to be in SD for Father's day. Beka had set up a day to celebrate Michael at home with friends, so he is good to go. It has been YEARS since Beka got to celebrate with her Father, so it was a mighty special day.

The day started with Emery going to the park with his Grandma, something that does not happen enough!

While Emery was a'swingin away, my Dad, brothers, step dad, brother in law, brother in law's brother, and brother in law's father (weird, I know. We are functionally dysfunctional and proud of it!) all went golfing and threw back a few in celebration of the Dads! 

I am not sure what happened in this photo, but something made my Dad laugh uncontrollably, and it was hilarious! 

After golf we all had a barbecue and celebrated with gifts, food, and love. 

It was a WONDERFUL day, and we are so thankful to celebrate it with my Dad in person!

Love to all the Dads!

Love

Team 

Beka and Emery 

Oakley

6-14-13 Vaca to SD!

Emery and I are besides ourselves with excitement! We are on our way to San Diego CA for my littlest sister's high school graduation! We have not been home in months, so we are thrilled!!! 

Michael cannot come. He has work and has a theatre conference in NorCal in a week, so our timing just did not work for him to come. Though it is a bummer it wont get us down! We are headed to America's finest city!

Emery will be two in Sept, so getting him free for this last trip was important. It is always hard traveling by ourselves, solo parenting a toddler riding on your lap for 5 hours, but Emery is always well behaved, so it was not too stressful a process.

Before we even headed to the airport Beka tried to tire out Emery before the flight. That included lunch at cracker barrel, and time at the park. The flight is smack in the middle of Emery's usual nap time, so I thought if I made him really tired he would sleep on the plane. What could go wrong in that plan?

We are lunch at the park between epic play sessions. 

Once we had played and ate and played and played and played and played we headed back home to get our bags. They were already packed and ready to go.

We were heading out the door and Emery ate it in the driveway. We ALMOST made it out the door without an incident. This was a mild photo of how his knee looked. It bled pretty good. 

We got the the airport, did the printing and the baggage and the checking and that whole headache. Once through security, we were free! We relished in being HOURS early and Emery got to play even more!

After all the play was done it was time to get on the plane! Thank goodness for family boarding! Emery was a peach during the whole trip. I had bought him head phones and my bag was FULL of snacks. We were set! He did not sleep, like I had so very well planned, but we made it in with only a few tears of tiredness. I am so thankful my boy is so easy going!

Once we landed in SD we were greeted by my wonderful older sister! She watched Emery as I grabbed all our bags and stroller.

We headed form the airport to the Padre game! We were a bit late, but my brother in law and little brothers were there waiting to greet us! It was very late for Emery with the time change, but he loved seeing everyone, and eventually fell asleep on my chest. He slept through the cheers and the fireworks! What a trooper! 

From there we finally made it home and both slept soundly. The next day we just hung out around my sister's house where we were staying. We lounged in the back yard and enjoyed the wonderful weather. 

We LOVE that we are able to spend this time with family in our home town. 

We know there will be many more adventures to post, so stay tuned!

Love

Beka and Emery