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.

It's Official

Well, it finally came in the mail. After many years and a lot of work, it's official, I've graduated college from Chico State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Education.

Now what?

Well, I could go on and get my teaching credential or work towards a masters degree. However, right now I'm going to try out substitute teaching for a while and see how that goes. Wish me luck!

San Francisco

I was able to go with Andrea on a field trip to San Francisco with her art class from PV. We left early in the morning on a chartered bus and drove down to the big city to view various art museums.



We saw many different works of art. Here are just a few of my favorites.


The Metamorphosis of Medusa
Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Medusa, 1640s. Carrara marble



Monet



Jim Campbell, Exploded Views
Robert Arneson, No Pain, 1991
Amy Franceschini, Shovelpogo (2006)



This one needs some explaining . . .

One of the exhibits had a large screen on the wall that was constantly being updated with random sentences. A young woman in the corner of the room, sat quietly at a computer typing in various observations that she saw in the room about those who had come to see the art work. I don't know why this was so fascinating, but we stood there for quite a while reading everthing she wrote and trying to figure out who she was writing about. At one point she actually wrote about us. It was a lot of fun. We could have stayed there for hours, but there were many others things to see too.


Overall, the day was great. We had some time to walk and shop around Union Square for lunch and even found a Chipotle for lunch--Yum! Even the weather was perfect--high 60's. The only bummer of the trip was that when it was time to head home, our bus broke down and we had to wait about 2 1/2 hours for it to get fixed. But we made the most of it, goofing off and enjoying leftover chips from our favorite lunch restaurant. I'm so glad Andrea asked me to go with her. It was an amazing day!

Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!


I love Valentine's Day! I don't know if it's the abundance of chocolate, the color of pink & red, the promise of a date night with my hubby, or the variety of flowers everywhere, but I LOVE having a day to celebrate my love for those who are closest to me.

Pirate Day

The girl's and their friends always seem to find ways to have fun. One day their friends, Sariah & Grace, came over dressed up as ninja's, snuck into our house (pre-arranged), stole some movies, and left us cookies.

Andrea & Kiana wanted to repay them. So, they dressed up as pirates and went to their house, sang them the song, "The Pirates That Don't Do Anything" and left them Cap'n Crunch cereal

Lookin' good girls!

Andrea & Seth

I came across this picture the other day . . .


I soon realized that the years pass too quickly . . .


But I'm sure that their brother sister bond will last forever!