School's Out!

Well, the performances are done, the projects are complete.  What better way to welcome in summer, than to save your money and buy a motorized scooter to have a little fun after all the hard work that you've accomplished. 

 

Goodbye 5th grade--hello summertime fun.

 

 

 

Piano Recitals

I love this time of year.  School is winding down, plans are being made for the summer, and I get to hear my children make beautiful music. Many thanks to Sister Teri Ogden, Roxanne Bartschi, and friends who support my children in developing their talents.  I hope they continue to have music be a part of their life for years to come.

 

 

Girl's Weekend

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy,

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom" 

~Marcel Proust~

 

This year, the girl's headed west to Bolinas, Ca. This small town wasn't much, but it offered us a great place to be together. We rented a small, old house near the coast and enjoyed eating great food, hiking, visiting, sharing, firewood hunting, sightseeing, laughing, rock climbing, talking, staying up late, listening to music, and playing on the beach. (It's amazing what you can fit into 3 days!) Of course we concluded our trip by eating some yummy food at the Cheesecake Factory. The weather was perfect and our husbands were wonderful--allowing us some much needed girl time.

 I love these ladies!

 

 

Mother's Day 2012

Guess what I got for Mother's Day? 

Yep, you guessed it--a new sprinkler system in the front yard. 

You may be wondering if I was happy about this gift--YES!  After living in our house for 15 years, I no longer have to put out the sprinker to water our grass and plants.  I will always remember the time (ALL DAY) that we spent working together putting in our new sprinkers. 

Happy Mother's Day to ALL!

Andrea's 17th Birthday

Andrea wanted a simple birthday this year.  She only asked for flowers, delicious food, family, and friends  She received everything she wanted.  What a beautiful birthday girl!

I took Andrea out to lunch at one of her favorite restaurants with some of her favorite friends.  I think they really liked it today because they were able to get out of school for a little while.

She had family over in the evening for dinner and had each of them bring a delicious dessert to share with everyone. 

Andrea also gets to share her birthday month with one of her favorite cousins, Hazel.

Birthdays are a great time to get together with family!

The grandpas specifically loved the variety of desserts at this family party!

Young Woman Recognition

Well, she did it!  After working hard for 5 long years Andrea completed her personal progress.  We were able to attend the stake young women recognition night.  Both of her grandparents were also able to be there.  It has been so amazing to see my daughter develop into a wonderful young woman. 

Prom

Andrea was able to help her friend Hannah with a personal progress project of collecting prom dresses and allowing girls from the stake to come and choose a dress to wear for the stake prom.  It was a lot of work collecting dresses, but the girls also had some fun trying some of them.  (These first 3 that Andrea is wearing were my prom dresses--check out all the lace & puffy sleeves!)

Too many dresses!

Here are the girls and leaders with over 100 dresses!

Andrea was also asked by the stake to help organize and decorate for the prom.  They decided on an Italian theme.  With help from her friend Niki, Andrea drew and painted these pictures for the walls.

Here are some pictures after all the decorations were in place. 

Andrea did a fabulous job!

Oh, and we can't forget some pretty pics of Andrea all dressed up for the dance. 

I love this talented, beautiful girl!

Fort Bragg

Well, we took our annual after tax season trip with the family.  This year we voted for Fort Bragg.  We could only stay 2 nights & 3 days, so we tried to fit in as much fun and exploring as we could.

  The first day that we were there, we enjoyed exploring the rocks, playing in the the chilly water, and of course we buried Seth in the sand.

We had been to Fort Bragg several years ago and loved it, so we decided to stayed in the same hotel, which was right across from the beach.  It also had an indoor pool which Kiana loved.  Andrea and I also had a lot of fun taking pictures in an underground tunnel that led from our hotel to the beach.

Around the beaches in Northern California there are a lot of signs to warn you about the dangers of getting too close to the edges of rocks. Even thought I was freaking out about them being careful, I don't think my family took the signs very seriously.

Our second day there, we started the day with a short hike down to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse.  We were able to enjoy some good exercise and explore not only the lighthouse, but the surrounding area.  Some of the kids thought I had tortured them by making them HIKE!

We also made sure to visit Glass Beach while we were in Fort Bragg.  We loved looking for pretty pieces of glass and trying to find some sea life hidden in the rocks.

While at Glass Beach we were able to see 3 sea lions swim and place themselves on some rocks close by.  It was fun taking pictures of them.  It looks as if they actually posed for several of the pictures.

That afternoon we went to Mackerricher State Beach.  We were still very lucky to have the sun shining so we could have fun in the water and sand.

 It was very hard to say goodbye on our last day, but we know we will visit one of our favorite beach spots again someday.

We will miss you . . .

You have been with us for 10 long years!  You have always kept us safe and dry. You have driven us to countless trips to see grandparents in Paradise and taken many family vacations with us to Utah, Disneyland, Fort Bragg, Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Oregon, Oceanside, Point Reyes, Table Top Mountain, Marine World . . . the list goes on and on.  You have put up with endless gum wrappers, spilled food, field trips, various car seats, car sickness, endless crying & noise, and a decade of radios tunes.  We will miss you!  May your road be easy and the scenary breathtaking!

(Grand Dodge Caravan--1998)



(Toyota Sienna--2005)

Lookin' forward to good times ahead!

Sacramento Field Trip

I was able to go with Kiana and her 5th grade class on a field trip to the state capital in Sacramento. Their class had been recently learning about the U.S. government and this was a great way to see what it was all about.  Touring the capital was a good history lesson as well as a teaching opportunity for all of the students. I think the kids also enjoyed not having to be in school for the day.

Easter

Saturday we spent the afternoon and evening at my parents house.  Nothing is better than cute dresses, coloring eggs, cousins, Easter egg hunt, lots of chocolate candy & great food.

These are our special Easter photos of the family.  It's still a challenge sometimes to get everyone smiling at the same time and not goofing around.

Even though we had an egg hunt on Saturday, the kids still wanted one in our backyard.  The Easter bunny made sure to hide some hard eggs--Seth was the last one to finally find all of his eggs.

Sunday afternoon we had dinner with the Chatfield grandparents.  Once again we enjoyed delicious food, had fun with some cute cousins, and found more eggs filled with candy. It was a fun-filled weekend.

Spring Break

What did we do during spring break . . . ?



Yep you guessed it . . .

Basketball Tournament (Seth)
Sleepovers
Merlin (Netflix)
Play Dates
Ears Pierced (Kiana)
Yard Work
Trip to Truckee, Ca (Andrea)
Homework
Hunger Games Movie (Seth & Gina)
Taxes (Aaron)

St. Patty's Day

On St. Patrick's Day, we took the youth down to the Sacramento Temple to do baptisms. It was a fun way to spend a holiday and a Saturday together.


Maybe we should color our hair green everyday--it is my favorite color!


(No we didn't actually color our hair green--just a little photo editing by Andrea)

Youth Snow Trip

We took a fun weekend trip to the snow with the youth of our ward.


The snow was cold and we had a lot of fun sledding down hills and having snow ball fights.


When we had our fill of fun, it was nice to return to the cars and enjoy some hot chocolate--YUM!


Since Aaron and I are both involved with the youth, Kiana always gets to tag along.