June 17

Luckily we came home to distraction, since the kids were very sorry to leave their extended family behind in Florida.  Kristin came down Sunday evening with her girls to spend a few nights.  Our kids are fast friends and it takes very little time before they are totally comfortable and engrossed in playing together! On Monday morning we headed up the hill to pick blueberries.  The kids were champs, even in the hot sun.  Jens and Matisyn would have kept on picking--we had to drag them out of the field!  As it was we picked almost 12 lbs. of blueberries.  And they were delicious!

 Emi taught Sylvie some great new dance moves, and they enjoyed dressing up, although the red dress was hot property.  

 Matisyn and Jens especially enjoyed working out, using hand weights and an exercise mat to get fit.  When I asked Jens what his favorite part of the visit, that won, hands down.

 Even when I reminded him about their ice cream sundaes after helping clean up the tremendous mess they made.

 I set Jens loose with the camera and he came up with all of the following pictures, some of which are pretty darn good!!

 We love our friends.  Come back soon!

Happy Father's Day!

We practiced with Sylvie, who had a scripture the following week.  The practice was great.  The scripture the following week was a total fail, although Mike did a great job reading it while Sylvie hid on his lap.  

 Dad and Jens wearing their matching jerseys!

 We are lucky to have the best and silliest dad around!

Florida, June 5-16

The trip begins.  We made it through a LOOONNNG security line just in time to walk onto our flight.  The kids were engrossed in their backpacks, filled with interesting snacks and new books.  First and second flights go smoothly, kids behave, minimal screeching and misbehaving.  

 Jens did borrow my phone for awhile (in airplane mode) to take some pictures.  I took it back when I realized he was making a video, sans commentary, out the window of the airplane.  If anyone wants to see a wordless 6 minute video of the view out our plane window . . . well, it looks like the picture below.  I erased the movie.

 A stop by the cockpit on the way out.

 The first few days were a blur.  We didn't do much aside from hanging around and swimming.  A 3 hour time change is hard work sometimes!  Uncle Loren came on Thursday and the Rhoduses arrived on Friday.  Papa splurged on some new pool toys, which were a real hit with everyone.

 Sylvie, Jens, and I shared a room with minimal problems.  They did a good job conking out most nights, but maybe that was because we had full days and they didn't get into bed until after 9 most nights?

 All dressed up and ready for church.  We got to hear Papa give a talk on families while we were there.

 We also squeezed in a beach day.

 Jens was quite adventurous this year, wanting to go out into the waves to play.  The water was delightfully warm, and the weather was perfect.  Jens and I also went for a shell walk together--he found over 100 shells!  (And brought most of them home, lucky us!)

 We had the best time at the butterfly garden that I have ever had.  The temperatures were apparently perfect, because the butterflies were going crazy!  They were flying all over in swarms.  It was very beautiful, and Jens and Abbie were especially intrigued with the butterflies and the little bird eggs they found.

 Sylvie is making a heart with her arms.

 Another highlight of the trip was certainly Peter helping the kids shoot his pellet gun.  Jens loved every minute. I tried not to look.

 The cousins were darling together and played so happily all week long.

 They even put on a talent show for us, featuring Jens on the piano, Abbie on the violin, Suzannah doing puppets, Sylvie dancing, and Jill singing and playing her violin.  Everyone did a great job.

 Other highlights of the trip include getting to see Peter row, Abbie's FHE about the Sabbath Day, La Chua trail, where we saw lots of wild horses, pedicures, a ladies' lunch out, watching the bats, and eating tons of ice cream.  We had a wonderful trip.  Sylvie did not want to leave, and said on a few occasions: "I want to stay at Grammys for 1000 days!" "I wanted to stay at Grammy's for 20 years!"  The flight home did not go so smoothly.  This picture was taken after Sylvie cried for 20 minutes about needing her own water bottle (good thing she is cute):

And it only got worse from there.  We had to get up at 5am to catch our plane, and the first few hours were okay, but the second flight was pretty rough.  She cried and screeched most of the time that she wasn't watching a movie, so as you can guess we watched two and a half movies during the flight.  Then she cried from the moment we stood up to disembark all the way to the baggage claim.  Her back pack was "too heavy" and although I told her she could leave it behind, she decided to carry it screaming instead.  We were very happy to see Daddy at the end waiting for us!  It probably took us 4-5 days to catch up on sleep and readjust to California time.  But we have, and we had a great time with our family!

End of May, beginning of June

In one of our most popular FHE activities, JP and Natalie took us out on the lake.  JP bravely let both kids take a turn at the wheel, which they loved.  They also loved going fast, going slow, going over bumps, and looking at birds.  What a fun time!

Over Memorial Day weekend, Mike went to Utah and rode bikes in Moab.  He had a great time, and if I had pictures I would share them, but he took none.  Zero.  Not any.  So just picture Moab and Mike riding a bike.  

While he was gone, Jens became quite the photographer/cinematographer.  I would share a movie of his, but they are all about 6 minutes long and just feature him walking around our house showing things.  Instead, I will share a few of his pictures:

 For Memorial Day we met up with friends at the park for a cookout.  It was so fun.  The kids loved playing kickball and flying the kite, although there was no wind.  They had to run really fast.  And this is the only picture I have:

We also got a dog!  Just on loan, though.  We kept Coco for a weekend and everyone enjoyed it, me especially.  She is a really good dog and was fun to have around.  She actually looks like a taller, bigger version of Casey.  She had very good manners and the kids loved playing with her.  She is welcome to come back and visit any time!

Our Yard: An Evolution

Our Yard has always made quite a statement, and not really in a good way.  After getting a patio set, I realized that the downside to sitting outside was that I had to look at my dreadful backyard.  So I thought I would work on it a little.  There is still a long way to go, but I keep telling myself there has been a lot of improvement.  

First, a little review of how it looked when we bought the house:

Then we cut down some trees and got rid of the weird planter boxes and ivy as well as the strange decks and fake rocks.  Oh, alright, we still have part of a mangled fake rock hiding in the back corner of our yard.

Mike and our neighbor replaced the fence, and then I got a jackhammer from Home Depot.  The older man who rented it to me was very doubtful about me taking it home.  But I made it work!  My stomach was bruised and hurt for days afterword, though. 

Once the concrete was all broken up, I hauled it to the side yard and spent some very worthwhile funds having some hard-working young men come and haul it the rest of the way to the concrete dumpster out front.  Once the concrete was gone, I had to redo the sprinklers and fill in all the low places.  It took a lot of dirt. 

 But once the yard was smoothed it made a big difference.  Then I planted grass and went to Florida with the kids, hoping it would grow while we were gone.

 And it did!  This is where we are right now.  I still have things I would like to do--a pathway next to the house, maybe with some herbs.  Also, although you can't really tell, the grass is VERY sparse.  I will need to re-seed in the fall.  I reseeded today, too, hoping to capitalize on a week of cooler weather. Cross your fingers for me that it works, because it is looking pretty weedy right now!

The front yard has also been a lot of work, but it doesn't look so finished.  I do have to put a little flower update, though.  I can't help it--they are so pretty.  

When we moved in:

Last year after I put in a flower bed: (I can't believe how bare it looks!)

Now: 

Obviously, we still have a dirt yard.  Some day that will be grass, I hope.  But not this summer.