The Month of May

Here are some things that happened in the month of May . . . . 

A visit from my sister Kate from good ol' Georgia!

Kiana and Caroline at Hazel's pirate/mermaid birthday party

Yearly piano recital

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

I bought my first car at the age of 19.  A 1990 Geo Prizm.  I was in love with the red small design and paid special attention to keep it clean and polished, weekly.  After Aaron and I married, it was our transportation to and from college, work, church, lots of trips to Paradise to see family, and many other married life activities.  Soon, it brought home our first born and subsequent births after that. It was always reliable and did a great job at protecting our precious cargo.

As our family grew we passed it on to my youngest sister for a short period of time.  However, as soon as our youngest got her driving permit, it was back in our hands.  Now it transported the kids to seminary, friends houses, high school, and church activities.

We knew that one day we would finally have to say goodbye to 2SRW348 . . . .

We listed an ad on Craig"s list, and after several calls, we finally sold old red.  It was a sad day when we had to part with a car that had been with us for over 20 years.

But with each goodbye, there's always a hello . . . .

1998 Nissan Pathfinder

Varsity Golf

It's golf time!

Low score of the season: 49! (9 holes)

River Valley Varsity golf team won league!

TCC Champions (Tri-Counties Conference)

Easter Weekend

We spent Easter weekend in Utah with Heather & Bryan's family. We were also able to see Ron & Rachel's Family. It was the first time we had ever been away from home for Easter.  We filled the weekend with a haircuts, golfing, shopping, pictures, and some long overdue visiting.

Andrea's haircut--12 inches donated to Locks of Love

The Golfing Crew

Traditional Family Easter Pictures

Cousins are the best!

Idaho--Part 3

Now this is the Idaho I remember--cloudy, cold, and windy.  After enjoying a beautiful sunny day yesterday, Idaho showed us what she was really about--Brrrr.  Before heading south to Utah, we stopped in Idaho Falls to check out the Salmon River and to see the temple.  If you look closely, you can see the temple in the background against the grey clouds.

While we were making the drive to Utah, we stopped for lunch.  Since we will not be together on Andrea's birthday in May, we decided to take her out to one of her favorite restaurants to celebrate her 19 years.  Olive Garden it is!





We made it to Utah.  Our first stop was to see my brother Kyle and his family.  We enjoyed dinner together and the kids took part in the traditional egg coloring for Easter.  It's fun to see the cousins get together even if some are too cool to show us the fun they are having.

Idaho--Part 2

We woke up early the next morning and went to the Rexburg temple. Since it was a break between semesters at the university, the temple was not very busy.  We were able to have the baptistry mostly to ourselves We brought several family names with us and did part of their temple work for them. It was amazing to all be in the temple together. 

For lunch, Andrea took us a fun pizza & pasta restaurant called, Pizza Pie Cafe.  It's an all you can eat pizza, pasta, salad, and even dessert pizza.  It was delicious!

We then went on a tour of the campus (Andrea was our tour guide).  We saw many buildings on campus and walked A LOT, but the highlight of the tour was the BYU I center which looks just like the one in Salt Lake City . It has a 10 court basketball gym complete with a running track on the upper level--amazing!  (Trivia:  Idaho seating 15,000/Utah seating 21,000)

During our tour we stopped by the Manwaring center, checked out the bookstore, and took a quick break to play some Foosball and pool before finishing our tour.

For dinner, we went to the famous Big Jud's restaurant.  They are famous for their 1lb burger.  No one ended up ordering the famous burger--we just enjoyed our own personalized food.

Before leaving we each decided to play the love meter game to see how lovable we are.  Below are our love ratings . . . . I guess the kids need to work on being more lovable.

We then finished the night with some swimming, hot tubing, games, and just hanging out together at the hotel!

Idaho--Part 1

All the stars aligned for our after tax season trip this year!  Kiana and Seth had spring break this year AFTER April 15th--this doesn't happen very often.  Many times Aaron is still in the middle of tax season when Easter/spring break comes along.  Even Andrea's break between semesters was at the same time, so we decided to head up north and spend time seeing her and the BYU Idaho campus.

As we headed East, our first traditional stop is always Circus Circus in Reno.  We spent a couple of hours playing and enjoying a delicious buffet before getting back in the car to continue the long drive.

After stopping in Elko for the night, we got back on the road the next morning and headed North East toward the small town of Rexburg.  We arrived by mid-afternoon where Andrea was waiting with open arms! We hung out in her apartment, went food shopping (Mother Hubbard's cupboards were bare), and enjoyed yummy homemade taquitoes for dinner.  We then ventured out for a delicious treat at Artic Circle--Good Times!

Table Top Mountain

It's a tradition . . . . every year we try to visit Table Top Mountain.  It's best in the spring when you can see all of the colorful wildflowers.  Having a picnic, flying kites, enjoying the sun, and hanging with family are our top favorite things to do there.  This year we added catching lizards to our list of activities.

We tried to tell Kiana that it was too windy for an umbrella. 

Despite several failed attempts, she finally found some shade. 

Sadie's Dance

Seth was asked by his friend Megan to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance at Sutter High school.  

It's always fun to see the creative ways kids ask each other out to dances.

"Now that I've Kissed the ground you walk on RV boy, will you go to Sadies with a Sutter girl?"

(Hershey kisses on his bedroom floor)

Seth & Megan went to Chili's for dinner and then met some friends at the dance.
Afterwards, they all went out to Janyo's Frozen Yogurt. 

Awesome Shirts = Fun Times!

Month of Love

Here are some various pictures showing our LOVES.

Kiana LOVES to cook and make things.  

So, she invited her neighbor Camryn over to make cup cakes and then go sell them to the neighbors.  

I LOVE that this hobby keeps Kiana busy.

Kiana LOVES babies.  

The newest baby in our family is Caroline.

Seth LOVES to smile.  

His golf buddies commented that he is always happy. 

 Seth also LOVES his Uncle Branndon!

Seth LOVES dancing.  

Here he is with his buddy Trevor at the church Valentine dance.

Andrea LOVES us!  

She sent us all Valentines in the mail.

(Quote from the movie, "Night at the Museum 2")

I LOVE the painting of lilacs Andrea made for me. 

(Hey, it looks like someone hacked my blog and added a comment--I LOVE that girl!)

I ♥ MY MOM!!!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:)

Roommates & Assignments

Since Andrea has been away at college, a lot of my posts don't include her or what she's doing, so I thought I would post some roommate pictures she took and an assignment for one of her art classes.   We usually Skype with her on Sundays, but we also get calls and texts from her throughout the week.  A lot of times she has a question about cooking . . . . ahhh, it brings back memories of when I would call my mom for the same reason.  I'm so glad she is having this experience of living on her own.

Kara, Julia, Brooklyn, Kendall, Shelby & Andrea

Andrea's Art Assignment:

"This week, you and your group will be working for three different companies: Amicus Motors, Jack and Jill Clothing, and Astro Burger. They each hired you to create a logo and they are each very different companies, wanting very different logos.

Amicus Motors is a high end car dealership. The image that they want to portray to customers through their logo is expensive and luxurious.

Jack and Jill Clothing is a children’s clothing store. They sell simple, classic clothing that never goes out of style, which is perfect for money-conscious moms who want these clothes to be worn by more than one of their children. Their logo needs to reflect that image.

Astro Burger is a fast food restaurant. They are a retro, family-focused diner, and that is the image they want to portray through their logo. "

Andrea's Logos:

More Basketball

River Valley completes season sweep of rival Yuba City with 74-60 victory

On paper, Friday night's game between Yuba City and River Valley High's boys basketball teams had little meaning.

With the Honkers already locked into the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs and the Falcons left on the outside looking in, the regular season finale between the two rivals amounted to school pride and crosstown bragging rights.

And for the second time this year, those bragging rights belonged to the team from the west side of town.

Led by the stellar play of junior Josh Dhatt and senior Isaiah Halstead, River Valley closed out its season in impressive fashion by racing past Yuba City for a commanding 74-60 victory before another packed crowd at Falcon Gymnasium.

And the crowd goes wild!

Seth received the most improved award from his coaches and his teammates predicted Seth to be captain of the debate team.

Varsity Basketball

Seth made the Varsity Basketball team for River Valley High School.  The first thing on his list was a new pair of shoes--FANCY!

This is a good looking team.  

Seth LOVES playing basketball and tries to never miss a practice.  He wishes he had more playing time, but his attitude remains positive and he is growing and improving everyday.  He looks forward to playing next year too.

Here is a clip from the local newspaper--

River Valley 67, Lindhurst 34

Josh Dhatt scored 17 points and distributed eight assists as the Falcons (9-5) stretched their win-streak to four games with a rout of Lindhurst in the shootout's early game.

Rohin Basis chipped in 16 points and seven rebounds and Seth Chatfield contributed eight points and 11 rebounds for River Valley, which has won nine of its last 11 games.

 Although his eyes are closed in this picture, you can still see his awesome rebound skills.

This next newspaper article describes the game between the town rivals--River Valley & Yuba City.  It was a very wild, crazy, intense game with River Valley winning in overtime by 3 points--the first time in the school's history for River Valley to win while playing at Yuba City's gym.

Prior to Friday night, Yuba City High's Honker Gym was nothing less than a house of horrors for River Valley's boys basketball team.

In 10 all-time meetings between the cross-town rivals on the Honkers' home floor, Yuba City was a perfect 10-0 while winning by an average score of 77-52.

That all came to an end on Friday night, and it was clutch plays on both ends of the floor that finally did the trick for the Falcons.

Cris Lamas' block and steal set up a Rohin Basi jumper with 27.4 seconds left to play and River Valley exorcised the demons of years past by rallying back for a thrilling 62-59 Tri-County Conference victory in front of a raucous, standing-room-only crowd.

As you can see, the fans (falcon freaks), the team mates, Seth, and the coach were VERY excited during the game.  In two weeks, the teams will play again in our gym.  We're predicting they will be coming back with a vengeance--should be a good game!