A day at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

One of our days with Aunt Cheryl we drove to Santa Cruz. We spent some afternoon time at the beach, and then we spent the evening at the Beach Boardwalk. It was our first time there, and we had a great time riding the rides and eating pizza. We forgot how cool it can get in the evening, and since we were all in summer attire, we had some shivering children (and adults!) by the end. It was a lot of fun though and we're glad Cheryl gave us a reason to do something new!

Laurel and Samantha eating watermelon

Katelyn in her sun hat

Aunt Cheryl

Laurel enjoying the sand

Jamie, Mackenzie and Adam had fun playing with the boogie boards

then they had fun playing in the sand

Hannah, before she joined the others in the water

Katelyn spent most of the time in a tent, so she wouldn't eat the sand

Visit to San Francisco with Aunt Cheryl

Cathy's sister, Cheryl, took some of her vacation time to come visit us. Our first day together was a trip to San Francisco. We realized we hadn't been up there in a while and it was fun to have a reason to go there again.

Our first stop was at the Aquarium of the Bay. We had a nice time there looking at all kinds of interesting sea and land animals that live in the bay area. Derek and some of the children touched and helped feed the bat rays.

Adam, Mackenzie, Jamie, Laurel

After we spent time at the Aquarium, we spent an hour or two at Pier 39 (which is where the Aquarium was). We ate lunch at a great seafood restaurant. There were large windows with great views of the bay and Alcatraz island. Afterwards, we watched some sea lions, a juggler show and Cheryl did some shopping. Adam, Mackenzie and Jamie enjoyed something new--a mirror maze. They thought it was pretty cool even though it took them a little while to figure out how to get back out.

Hannah was still at Girl's Camp, so she is missing in the picture.

Katleyn

Jamie looking through a telescope

After our time at the Pier, Derek, Adam, Mackenzie and Jamie got out their bikes and rode all the way across the north part of San Francisco to the base of the Golden Gate bridge. The rest of us drove over and met them there. Derek loved the ride, though he said it was super windy which slowed them down quite a bit. One of the bikes wasn't working well, and that also helped to slow them down. But all three children did such a great job and made it all the way without help. It was about 4 miles.

Mackenzie, Adam and Jamie after their bike ride

Once the bikers joined us, we walked over to the bridge to get a closer look. It was very windy up there!

Golden Gate Bridge

Derek, Mackenzie, Laurel, Samantha, Jamie and Adam

Adam

Laurel didn't like all the wind in her face and she was covering her head most of the time on the bridge

A view of San Francisco from the bridge

Fun with visitors

We love to have visitors. We get extra visiting time with family or friends, we enjoy more game playing, and the children get to ride the air mattress. What's that you say? Take a look below.

Play camping

Some of our children are very excited about going camping. They just can't wait until our reserved date in early July, so they asked for a camp-out in the back yard.

The tent's all set up and ready to enjoy

Adam made a special sign to make it look like they were at real campgrounds

Here are the campers--Adam, Laurel, Mackenzie and Jamie

School's Out!

Last week was our final week of the school year. Our Co-Op had an afternoon swim and BBQ to celebrate. At home we had an evening of hearing the oldest children give reports that they had been working on.

Everyone is excited for summer! We bought a membership at the pool across the street, so we are looking forward to swimming more often. We are signing up for the summer reading program at our library, and making one day each week for inviting friends over to play (Friend Friday). We also hope to plan a camping trip or two.

Hannah is getting ready for Girl's Camp this week. It's her second year and she is super excited. She had such a good experience last year. In July, Adam will attend New Scout camp. It's two days long with one night camping with the dads.

With these and a number of other fun plans, it should be a great summer!

She 's a talker!

Katelyn has become very vocal lately. It has been a delight to hear her babble and try to communicate. Here she is talking away as she crawls towards Hannah. Wouldn't it be great if someone could translate her message?

Homeschool Choir Concert

Most of our children sing (some reluctantly) in the choir that practices during our homeschool Co-Op. Our group is called Scholars of Light (SOL). The choir has been performing monthly at a nursing home, but at the end of the school year there is a performance for family and friends.

Even Laurel participated with the "junior" choir and she was quite entertaining as you'll see below.


Here is one of the songs the big choir sang. You'll see Hannah, Mackenzie and Adam.

Boy Scout

Here is Adam in his boy scout uniform. So far he is loving his new patrol. Right now he is a Quartermaster; he is assigned to bring treats or assign someone to bring them each week. He also attended his first Court of Honor and enjoyed that.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was simple. Not big dashing presents, or big banners and whatnot. Just simple loving cards. I know this is late, but I would like to share a poem I wrote a couple years ago in a card that I made for Mothers Day. I wouldn't change anything but some words.

MY MOM
by
Your Hannah Banana

My mom is charming.
You are loving.
Sometimes I am troubled,
Pretty soon I'm better.
Especially you teach me,
Can I ever wander.
If you are always by me?
Although we may be parted,
Love never will part us.
Maybe you are busy, or tired.
My love will lift us up.
So, if you are depressed
I will always be there for you.

I LOVE YOU MOM!!

Cuteness

Little ones make life so fun. Here are some of the latest of our littlest ones.

Laurel

Katelyn climbing onto the dollhouse--7 months

Samantha

Katelyn in Sunday dress

Laurel ready for church. She's finally letting us put pony tails in her hair. Today she actually left them in all through church. Yeah!
Katelyn loves to smile

Piano Recital

We attended Hannah's piano recital yesterday. There were almost 30 students of Hannah's piano teacher who were performing. Hannah didn't like that she had to wait until almost the end (no fun being nervous the whole time). She did a great job and you can see her perform the whole song below. She played Waterfall by Jon Schmidt.

Roses

Hi! In our backyard we have a five rose bushes. Here are some beautiful pictures!

Mormon Helping Hands

All across California, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints performed service in their communities. In our area, Derek and Hannah were able to attend the service project of clearing out weeds and non-native plants in an open park space. They worked hard and had a good time.Hannah with some other girls working on removing a plant

Successful removal!

Below is a link of numerous news articles that ran about the state-wide service project.
http://www.mormontimes.com/people_news/church_news/?id=14720&hStack=1

Short trip to Southern California

We took a three day vacation to southern California, mostly to go to Disneyland. We had earned some free tickets through their Give a Day, Get a Day program, so we decided to make the trip during the off season (if there is such a thing at Disneyland).

We spent Monday afternoon/evening getting settled and walking through Downtown Disney. We then spent a wonderful time with Cathy's Great Uncle Eddie and Aunt Liz. We ate dinner at Mimi's Cafe and enjoyed lots of visiting.

Laurel didn't want to be in the picture, but after the trip when she saw this, she said, "Where's me?"

Adam's favorite ride was Indian Jones

We all loved It's A Small World. Here is Derek and Katelyn

Jamie and Mackenzie near Winnie the Pooh. They didn't want to stand in line to get a picture with him so they got as close as they could.

Our whole family. Matching shirts was a great way to keep track of everyone!

On Wednesday, we began our drive back home. But first we stopped at the Los Angeles Temple. The grounds there are beautiful and there is some nice views of Los Angeles downtown in the distance.

In front of a statue of a family

Mackenzie, Hannah and Jamie

All of us

A new look at food

Derek and I watched an interesting movie the other night. It's called Food, Inc. We are already becoming more conscious of what we eat and are heading in a more healthy direction, but this show reminded us of one reason why we are doing that! Enjoy