Spring Break - Day 3

That girl did not want to smile.

Today was another great day in San Diego. We went to Old Town San Diego. This is a 6 block section of San Diego that is now a State Park. It was fun for the parents and big kids, but Kelsey thought she was going to die if she had to walk one more step during the 50 minute tour. She must have woke up too early, because she was a stinker this morning until we got to the Candle Shop. Then each child got to dip a candle. They started with a white base, then dipped it into different colors. They turned out very rainbowy.

The flash makes them look like glow sticks.

That gun was heavy!

After the state park, we walked over to the Mormon Battalion museum. That was SO fun! It was a great mix of things I love, church and Harry Potter. OK, OK, only because the photos moved and spoke to us. There is a great story shared in a very inventive way. Kelsey was also very happy once the photos started talking to her.
At one point during the tour, Austin was asked to put on the gear the men of the Mormon Battalion wore. These men were offered $42 as a clothing allowance since they were not given uniforms. They decided to send the money back to their families and just wear the clothing they already had. Austin had fun putting those things on. After the tour and presentation, there was an area where the kids could build with bricks, scrub laundry, pump water, and pan for gold. I would go back again anytime.                                                                    

      

Yes, Jason and I were there, too.

Then it was time for lunch. We went to the Coyote Cafe. It was a Mexican food restaurant. Everyone loved their food except for me. I ordered a chili rellano, it was very bland. I was hoping for some spice. But my beef taco was good and Allynn's tamale was really good. One highlight was the entertainment with our lunch. Two guys and their guitars serenaded us with La Cookaracha. It was fun and they earned $2 from us. (We are on vacation.)

After lunch we started back to the hotel when Miss K fell asleep, so we used that quiet time to drive back along the coast. Beautiful houses and coastal views.

I am annoyed that the pictures didn't go where I wanted them to go, but now it is time for bed. Tomorrow we are headed to the Birch Aquarium.

Spring Break - Day 2

Day 2 was spent at the beach. And it was a gorgeous day for the beach. I just forgot how long it takes to get everyone ready for the beach.

1st I covered myself in sunblock and got myself ready to go. 
2nd I got the kids up and covered each of them in sunblock.
3rd I got breakfast ready (egg mcmuffins)
4th Helped The Dad get covered in sunblock.
5th Made sandwiches and gathered lunch stuff.

It was a busy morning. The thing that took the longest was convincing my children that they wanted to wear their swimming suites to the beach. They all thought for sure they would just sit on the blanket and read a book. No one was going to go near the cold, salty water, that pushes you over if you are not watching. After I made sure they all had their suits on, we were off. We were meeting Melanie at Tamarack Beach which was only 10 minutes from where we were staying. We were totally late. But finally got there. It was so beautiful.

The kids were still sure they were not going near the water. They are spoiled Lake Tahoe swimmers, where the water is clear and still and not salty. Aunt Kirin marched right to the water and they followed her like the Pied Piper. After that, they were hooked.
So while we visited, they played and played. Sydney was the first to get tumbled by a wave. Then Austin, determined to stand his ground, got a face full of wave that beat up against his body. Kelsey did a few funny things that I got on video, but haven't figured out how to add it to this blog. Allynn was disturbed by the sand crabs, but still kept coming into the water. As they got braver, they would go out a little farther. This beach was a surfer beach, so they couldn't get out too far or they might get hit. That was probably a good thing for this mother that didn't want to have to go rescue anyone.

At one point while we were there, a pod of porpoises surfed the waves for a few minutes. I will have to get that picture from Kirin or Papa. That was so fun to watch. We could not have planned that. There were probably 5 of them just out there with the surfers, riding the waves.

Thanks Odude for a great time at the beach. We will have to come back again.

After being at the beach, we all showered off at the pool and swam there for a while longer. I am surprised no one was all pruney before we were done.

The view from the pool. (There were too many other people in the pool, so I didn't think it would be a good idea if I took a mass picture of them.  I will try again. The dark blue on the horizon is the ocean. And right through the trees you can see some lights, that is Legoland.)

The evening was finished off with dinner and a great Easter Family Home Evening taught by Sydney and a card game called BANG. No one complained about bedtime at 9 pm tonight. And all were asleep within minutes of laying down.

Tomorrow we are headed to Old Town San Diego. (I keep saying Old Town Sacramento).

Spring Break - Day 1

Thank goodness Day 1 is a Sunday. We are all in need of rest. And it is Easter Sunday. The kids were told the night before that they could not turn on the TVs until after 8 am. My hope was that they would sleep until then. The girls did great about sleeping. Austin was probably up with the sun. When I came out to make breakfast, he was excited that the Easter Bunny had found them and come in the night. There was all kinds of candy on the table.

We started the day with breakfast casserole (our favorite). As I made that, everyone else got ready for church. We were lucky enough to be staying close to one of my high school friends, Melanie. So we went to her ward. What fun that was to see her and her parents. We talked about things we used to do and how Allynn is the age we were when we met. Sometimes I still feel like that 16 year old gathering friends to go drive around Almaden. More so lately since Allynn is already starting to talk about "When I can drive..." She is counting down the days until she can get her permit.

Anyways, after chatting with Melanie for a little bit, we decided to all go to the beach together on Monday. The weather is supposed to get rainy as the week goes on, so now we will be sure to have one great day for the beach. If we get anymore, that will be a bonus. I am looking forward to going to the beach tomorrow. The kids are dreading the waves and salt water.

In the afternoon, the resort had a HUGE egg hunt. Sydney, Austin, and Kelsey went with Mema to see how many they could find. They probably came back with over 100 plastic eggs filled with different candies. Then we had a lovely dinner of country style pork ribs and then spent the evening watching The Muppets and Inception. It was a really relaxing day.

Spring Break - Travel Days

It is Spring Break. We have been looking forward to this since October of last year. Jason's parents have a time share in Hawaii that they traded for San Diego and invited us to go with them. So finally the trip is here.

We left Friday April 6th in the afternoon after watching it snow most of the day. We had dry roads and a clear sky as we drove that first evening to Cedar City, UT where we stayed at our favorite hotel chain, Holiday Inn Express. (Nice rooms, one room sleeps all six of us, and free hot breakfast in the mornings).

After our breakfast, we loaded up again for the long drive across Utah, small stint in Arizona, across the bottom of Nevada and then across California to the coast. We left at 8:30 am MDT and arrived in Carlsbad at the resort at 4:00 pm PDT. (I love driving west and gaining a hour!) We are staying at the MarBrisa Resort in Carlsbad, CA. (We can look into LEGOLAND from the parking lot. We are above it. We are not going there this trip.) Here we met up with Jason's parents and his sister and her daughter (Uncle Josh couldn't make it). Then we hit Costco and Walmart for groceries. When we got back, Papa had cooked the hamburger patties and dinner was served. After some fun visiting and a little TV, we were ready for bed.

Austin was sure he was going to watch TV most of the night since he is sleeping in the living room and had it all to himself. I showed him how to activate the timer so that just in case he fell asleep, the TV would turn off by itself. We set it for 90 minutes. If he feel asleep, it would turn off. If he was still watching, he would know that his time was up. I went out there for something about 10 minutes later and he was out like a light. Too much adventure for one day.

This is going to be a great week!

Lots of fun things

2012 has been busy.

The house we were renting was listed for sale. We worked at being able to buy it. When that didn't look like it was going to happen, we started looking for new places to rent. Our dilemma was that none of our children wanted to change schools. The house listed at the end of November, so we also kind of thought it might not sell until spring or summer. In February, we looked again into buying the house and found out we could make it work on the same day the owners accepted an offer. BUMMER! So we started looking for houses again. There are not many rentals for large families. And we found that the school boundaries are smaller than we thought. We did finally find a place near Julie. That would change the elementary school, but not the Jr. high or the high school. We looked at the place a couple of times and filled out an application, and chose a move in date, but it just didn't feel right. We kept looking for other places, too. Then my mom called and invited us to move back in with her. I know living with your parents as married adults is not the ideal life we choose for ourselves, but this was the answer to my prayers!! Thank you, thank you mom for wanting your daughter, her husband, and four children to move in with you!! In all the times we have moved, this was the first move I did not want to make, so we took mom and dad up on their offer and have moved back in with them. This keeps the schools the same and our ward. We have a great ward.

OK so...In January, Allynn and her parents were called in to chat with the bishop. He called her to sing in the General Young Women's Choir in March. What a great opportunity. I was bawling as he explained the details. All I could think of were the experiences I had had with 15th ward youth choir and stake youth choirs. And now my daughter was going to have some of the same experiences. She will remember those songs forever. She was not the only girl, three stakes in American Fork were asked to participate. The best part were the rehearsals. The director, Merrilee Webb, taught the gospel more than she taught music. She told the girls to listen to their practice CDs everyday. She wanted them to internalize the music and the words. The girls were asked to diligently pray and read their scriptures daily and to attend the temple to do baptisms as often as they could before the broadcast day. We are so blessed to have a temple only 5 minutes away. As a bonus the leaders and girls that were not in the choir and all the mothers got tickets to the Conference Center for the broadcast. I also got to bring Sydney and Jason's mom. This was Sydney's first young women activity. (I can't believe she turns 12 this year.) Allynn and the other choir girls boarded the buses to Salt Lake at 11:30 am Saturday, March 24 and had great experiences of devotionals, practice, snacks and getting ready. Sydney, Mema, and I went to lunch at the Lion House, toured around Temple Square, and sitting in the Conference Center. After we got some dinner at Applebees. What a great day!!!!

Our next adventure is Spring Break. San Diego with the Wells Family. Only 3 more bedtimes. Kelsey has been wanting to pack her suit case for a week now. I am right there with her.

When we get back from Spring Break, I will be taking a long term sub job for my cousin while she has a baby. I am looking forward to that and am very nervous about it, too. Just another adventure. She is due the middle of April. So once the baby comes, I will then finish the school year in her 3rd grade class. I have subbed for her several time throughout the year, so I know the kids in her class. It will be fun (that's what I keep telling myself, then it will be).

Getting Older

October 30, 2011 was Allynn's 14th birthday. I started to post pictures of her at Halloween over the years, but then I got distracted. Now lots of her younger pictures (before digital) are in storage. So This is what I have.

Age 4

Age 5

Age 8

Age 9

Age 11

Age 13

Age 14 1/2

She is a WONDERFUL daughter. Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent her first. I am sure she was part of the planning and volunteered to come first.

1st annual Moon party

G & G Alger invited all the kids to the 1st Annual Moon party. Each of them were given an assignment to contribute to the moony events of the evening. Allynn was asked to make a poster of the moon cycle. Sydney was asked to read Good Night Moon. Austin was asked to make a poster about the first lunar landing. Kelsey was asked to recite Hey Diddle Diddle. I was then asked to make macaronni and cheese (because the moon is made of cheese).


They are to arrive at 6 pm with a sweater and camping chair. They will then be picked up at mid-night. I am looking forward to hearing all about their lunar adventures.

Us Updated

New School Year

OK, I have something to blog about and time to do it.

School started last Tuesday. Allynn started 8th grade. Sydney started 6th grade. Austin started 4th grade. Kelsey had to wait a week, for today, to start Kindergarten. She was most upset about having to wait while the big kids went to school without her.

Big kids say school is "Fine". So I don't really have anything to say about how the first week went. They are happy to be in school and not doing jobs around the house all day.

So today was a much bigger deal. We set Kelsey's clothes for today out last night. She found her shoes and put them by her bed so she could put them on quickly. Then she went right to sleep. I thought I was going to have to keep reminding her to go to sleep.

This morning we ALL got up at 6:30. When I went into the girls room to say get up, Kelsey asked "Even me?". YEP today's the day. She jumped out of bed and was getting her day on. (She has always been able to stay in bed until it was time for family prayer and scriptures an hour later.)

We ate scrambled eggs and pancakes (I told them to not get used to it and that we would buy some milk today.) Took some pictures. Read and prayed and then it was time to go. Sydney and Austin wanted to ride their bikes, so they left. Allynn was moving slow like any other teen I suppose. She also walks to school. Then it was time for Kelsey to go. Even The Dad got to go with us this morning. (Sorry, Dad, we should have taken a picture of you too.)I did pretty well keeping it together until she marched right in with her class. Then the tears came. Now I am watching the clock so I don't forget to go pick her up.

It has been a very exciting morning!!

It's about time...

If I would make time, I would have plenty of things to blog about.

We finished school with out too much harm to the mother or children. And all children managed to make it to the next grade.

We have been busy doing nothing for most of the summer. I instituted Bathroom Mondays. I thought that would be fun. We have three bathrooms and three big kids. Each kid cleans a bathroom on Monday. There is the small half bath downstairs and then two huge tub/shower bathrooms upstairs. They rotate through them each week cleaning a different bathroom. The dad and I are always glad when it is Allynn's turn to clean our bathroom because she does such a good job. The other two do good, too. Allynn just seems to leave a gleam.

Anyway... Allynn had summer band for the month of June. She is still playing the trombone and having a good time. She is one of two girls in a group of boys in the trombone section. She has spent the summer babysitting, hanging out with friends, and getting ready for girls camp.

Sydney has done a great job of keeping her room clean and the dishwasher empty. Those are the jobs she had to have done before exiting the house to play with friends. This neighborhood we are in has two girls her age and they are always busy floating from one house to the other. The decided to have Alphabet parties this summer. They started with A and did things and ate things that started with A. They got very creative. N happened to be the same weekend as the father's and son's camp out - so they had a No boys party. Those three girls wrote a skit and then performed it while we had cake and ice cream. I think a fun time was had by all.

Austin has been having just as much fun in the neighborhood. He is surrounded on all sides by boys his age. There is something in the water here that our ward is full of boys. Austin also has jobs he has to do to be able to get out and has done a good job getting them done. Some mornings he gets up early to get his jobs done and then wants to leave right away. We have to remind him that not everyone is up and ready to have friends over at 8 am. My favorite thing he has done with his buds is fill the large green and blue tubs we have with water. We happen to have four and there always seems to be four boys. They set the patio chairs in front of the buckets and put their feet in the water while sitting in the chairs. They look like little old men sitting on a porch talking about the weather. Then someone will challenge another to old his head in the freezing water for as long as he can and then a water fight breaks out. Silly boys.

Kelsey is also lucky to have friends in the neighborhood. She mostly talks about when school is going to start and how many more days until.... whatever (my birthday, Christmas, school starts...) She seems to always have a pen and paper in her hand writing things down. She has also been sick and on an antibiotic for some of the month of July which meant she had to stay out of direct sunlight. She is finally better and able to get out to play with all the kids in the yards. She was a trooper through it all.

Jason has been working. He was called to the Elder's quorum presidency and seems to be having fun doing that. He also has been working on getting healthy and eating right. He lost over 30 lbs in the spring and is still working on more. He has more energy. So much that he put in our beautiful garden. We have two rows of corn, a tomatio plant, two sunflowers (volunteer), 6 tomato plants full of tomatoes (we are waiting for them to turn red), squash, zucchini, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, and peas. Everything has grown big and beautiful. No food from and of the cabbage plants (probably too hot), and the radishes just went to seed. It has been so fun watching it all grow. The kids did have to do some weeding and they did a good job of not complaining too much about it.

I have been crocheting. I started at Christmas time with some YouTube videos. Then I got myself a book and have made some cute things for Lola. This week I made two blue hats for Thing 1 and Thing 2, an elephant trunk, and a Cat in the Hat hat. I have been having LOTS of fun. I have also been getting ready for girls camp. I was called as the Laurel adviser and have been having much more fun than I thought I would. We have a great group of girls who seem to like each other. Next week it camp. The last time I went to camp, Allynn was 8 months old (she will be 14 this year). Jason's parents will be here the Friday we get back from camp for the weekend. Then the next Thursday we will leave for West Yellowstone for the Alan and Joy Busath family reunion. We have been looking forward to that for almost 2 years now. All the planing has come together and now it is time to go. That will be more fun camping.

Then we will come home and have about two weeks and school will start. All the kids will be in school this year. I asked Kelsey what I would do without her if she went to school. She said, " I don't know you will be OK." I'm glad she thinks so. I will substitute teach again and I will have Percy to keep me company.

Big long blog, but thought you might want to know what was up.

Homework

What is the purpose of homework?

Is it to teach a new concept to the student or to reinforce a idea that was taught during the day?

Should the student be able to do all the homework on his or her own?

Are parents supposed to help get it done?

How long is too long for the student to get the homework done?

If the student is taking too long to do the homework, should the teacher be told?

Or is homework sent just so the mom has a reason to be mad and yell from the end of school till bedtime?

I am so ready for summer!!!

New Post

I got an email from my mother telling me it was time to post something new. I am sure I could think of lots of things to write about, what i am having trouble with is finding time.

Since November, we have had a lovely, family filled Christmas. The Dad's parents came out in early December, along with his brother's family for a baptism. It was fun to watch the cousins, who don't get to see each other very often, play games and pretend all together. There was also lots of "Rock Band" thanks to Uncle Josh. My family had the annual brunch at my parents home. This year proved that no matter what, we can fit everyone in at a table somewhere in the house. I think we counted almost 50 people for brunch Christmas morning. There were people in the kitchen, Living room, and back bedroom, eating waffles, sausage, and my favorite, breakfast casserole. That was a really fun morning.

December also brought band concerts and student parties. I subbed four days that month. I thought I was doing pretty good with that. Then January brought sickness and I have been busy every since.

I think I subbed six days in January between teachers being sick and district meetings. February was even busier. I will have to get my calendar to check for sure, but I feel like I was gone from home at least two days a week. Included in those days of February was a big move for the Wells.

Maybe not a BIG move, but we did move two blocks over from my parents basement into our own rental. This house is in a perfect location for us. We didn't have to change wards. (This made the bishop happy, who is also our new neighbor). We didn't have to change schools, which made all the kids and mom happy. We are still close enough to the Elementary School that the kids can walk to and from school and we are closer to the Jr. High that Allah feels better about walking to and from school. This is also great because they can get there without incident when I am subbing. They beat me home most days.

This new house has been great for us. We have spread out and are loving it. Long lost toys that have been living in boxes for two years have been found. For a couple of days, these toys were scattered all over. Now we have found homes for them and are working on taking one out at a time. The best box the kids found were the board games. Since we didn't have TV or Internet for almost a week, they played Life, Monopoly, Uno, and more.

We have 5 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen large enough for our table, a family room, and a large storage room. The two middle girls are sharing a room while the oldest and the boy hot their own room. This was decided so there could be an office/craft room. While moving in the youngest, most opinionated child informed me that we needed a 6 bedroom house because she needed her own space. We told her she could have her own room when Allynn when to college. Kelsey seemed to be satisfied with that.

I will need to take some pictures for all to see. We are happy and healthy. Jason loves his job. I sub lots and look forward to summer.

It seems like it has taken us this long to get better. Although we did have things happen in the middle of flu and now colds. So I best get posting.

OH, Man

Have we been sick!!!

And of course the kids can't all be sick at the same time. That would be too nice to mom. That would mean she would only have to stay up all night one time and then sleep the next day while all the sick kids sleep. NOPE, not gonna happen.

Instead it starts with one. One child at 2 am who can't get the door open of the bedroom to get to the bathroom because she is still asleep and therefore throws up all over the door. She has forgotten her mother's words of "if you can't make it to the bathroom, throw up on your blanket". This is much easier to clean up than the carpet. The mom is alerted after Oldest daughter comes in yelling something about throw up.

After a shower and some clean up, this child now has a bucket (gallon ice cream buckets, the best) and is resting on the couch while the mom is cleaning up the rest of the mess in the carpet. Only now, 1st child is in the room next to the child with the trigger gag so he is now throwing up. (he did remember to throw up on the blanket, good boy). Now two are sick, but only one has the true bug causing the sick. The Dad is pretending to be asleep because his trigger gag is just as bad as the boy's.

By 4 am all children are clean. EVERY bed now has a bucket next to it, and all seem to be asleep. Except for the mom who now needs to wined down to be able to go to sleep to be able to get up in 3 hours.

This was Sunday Night.

This same thing happened again Monday and Tuesday night light Groundhog Day only they all had buckets this time and it was a different child.

I was SO happy that this last week was a short week. The kids all had Thursday and Friday off. I thought for sure we would all be able to rest on Thursday and be all better by Saturday. Well, the kids were all better, but then it was my turn to get it. Horrible, horrible.

Then The oldest who thought she was going to be better than the sick, could not hold out any longer. I think she got it the worst. She was probably tired from being the one to get the mom every time someone was sick.

The dad is the only one that did not get so sick he thought death would be better, but it is only Monday and who knows what 2 am tonight will bring.

As for me, I feel much better today. And all kids went to school.

Personal Revelation

Background:

We have been talking about the importance of having a strong work ethic. Our kids don't have a lot of chores and almost never have to do the dishes while we are here in Grandma's house. But the few jobs they do have, do not get done regularly. So, last night for FHE, The Dad shared a website with us call My Job Chart (http://www.myjobchart.com).

He was able to create individual job charts for the kids. When they are done with the job, they log in to their own chart and mark that they have completed it. They are really excited about it. The Dad was also able to create a reward system where each job has so many points assigned to it. When the kids accumulate enough points, they can cash them in at the Job Store.

Story:

One of the jobs on the chart is to have personal scripture study. I know they are probably not reading for a long time, but we are hoping this will get them in the habit of reading themselves in addition to family reading time.

Kelsey seems to be the most excited about the job chart. She always wants to log in to check off her jobs. She may be excited because her jobs consist of brushing her hair, getting dressed, making her bed, saying her prayers, and reading scriptures. She is excited to do all these things BY-HER-SELF. Even reading the scriptures. She has been carrying around a Bible and opening it to read whenever.

This afternoon, she came to me with Hosea chapter 11 open. She pointed to the words then proceeded to tell me...

"Mom, it says here that you need to give me markers to make a puppet with this brown bag."

I figured I should give her the markers to make the puppet since she did receive personal revelation from the scriptures. Who am I to tell her that is not right?

New School Year

I can hardly believe that this year Allynn started Jr. High School. She is in the 7th grade. Where had the time gone. And she is so beautiful (see picture). And I am so glad...kids call her to hang out. I worry about all my kids not having good friends. Allynn seems to be making good choices when it comes to friends. She tries to be friends with everyone, but also knows the difference between the kids to hang out with and the kids to say Hi to at school. We really have lucked out with her.

Sydney has started the 5th grade this year. She says she likes to be in school, but doesn't really like school. She enjoys being social. She has started playing the flute this year, and seems to be really enjoying it. Last night she asked if she could bring the flute to school. I thought maybe she had a show and tell and wanted to play for her class. Nope... she wanted to be able to play at recess. We talked about it and decided that was probably not the best place to practice. I am glad she has an interest. She is still pretty good with math and is working hard on her reading. Now if we could just get her to organize herself...I guess we just work on one thing at a time.

Austin has started the 3rd grade. When did the baby boy start growing up? He was baptized this year and started Cub Scouts. (I need to post picture of him in is uniform.) He also likes school and has really been doing a good job of getting home to get his homework done quickly. He is also quick to get his 25 minutes of reading done before dinner. I am sure the motivation for that is his desire to play flag football. He started that two weeks ago, and the rule is that he has to have his homework done before 5 o'clock in order to go to football. This has been a great incentive. Now I need to find the next sport that will continue this great work since football ends at Halloween.

Kelsey is pretty mad she is not going to school. She talks about turning 5 and how that will change her life over night because she will get to go to school. I keep reminding her that she will still have to wait until the next school year to start in August. I think it is sinking in. We register her for Kindergarten on March 10th. WOW! That is coming fast.

Another change this school year... THE DAD GOT A NEW JOB!!! WOOO HOOOO!!! He is so happy. He was working for Integra Telecom in the customer service department for almost 2 years. He said it was not a hard job and that the people he worked with were great (for the most part), but he did not feel challenged. He has been applying to anything and everything for the past year here in UT and networking to meet new people since it seems that job come from the people you know. Well, thank goodness we know Dave!!! Yes, my cousin Dave. An opening came available at ProPay and Dave told The Dad about it. He applied. He got the job. The Dad is so happy when he comes home from work. But he says his brain is so tired. He is learning new things. Then this week they put him "on call". Even though he is tied pretty tight to his new Black Berry, he is excoted to have the responsibility.

I am home with the Kelsey and watching my cousin Jeremy's little boy. He is 15 months old and plays very nicely by himself or with Kelsey (if she will let him). I am also subbing again this year. I have already been once and will go again this Friday. Julie is kind enough to watch the little kids for me while I am out on those days.

It is nice to have the chaos of summer over, but we have now fallen into a new chaos of practices, homework, appointments, and more.

Baptism Pictures

The Dad and The Son

Sam and Austin

Keagan and Austin

The family with Grandma and Grandpa Carlile

Eight is GREAT!!

He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 5. We had a great time with friends and family. He was also excited to be baptized on the same day as one of his friends from Primary.

Thanks to family who came and shared that great day with us. And then picniced with us at the park. We thought we would be able to just go use the picnic tables without a reservation since we were there so early in the morning, but there were people already camped out there. We still had fun visiting with all of you!!

So far behind

I am so far behind in keeping a record of what we have been doing that I don't even know where to begin.

School is back in Session

Mom: Sydney did you read for 25 minutes?

Sydney: Yes

Mom: When?

Sydney: While you went to Costco.

Mom: Who did you read to?

Sydne: Kelsey

Mom: The same Kelsey that went with me to Costco?