No snow...

The plan was to go play in the snow over President's Day weekend. However there is no snow in the whole state of California due to our current drought.  My friend recently took her kids to Tahoe, and they had to sled in man-made snow. Pitiful! So we stayed home and went to the beach instead. It turned out to be a gorgeous day in Morro Bay.

There was a big surfing competition going on, so the parking lot was packed. But we got a parking spot right in front, and the beach is huge, so it wasn't a problem. 

Splashing pictures are always fun.

Spencer showed me how to use the lens flare feature on Photoshop. I think I've used it before, but I forgot about it. I may have gone a little overboard with these, ha ha!

We usually go to Hearst Beach, but we thought we'd go somewhere else for a change. The nice thing is that this beach has lots of big waves (thus the surfing competition), so the boogie boarding is a lot more exciting.

More lens flare.

Brennan got this great kite for Christmas. It wasn't that windy there that day, but the kite went right up. It's called an easy flyer. Perfect!

The beach is entertaining enough by itself, but it's always a good idea to pack a few toys.

Spencer said, "Take a picture of me catching the Frisbee." This was my favorite! With lens flare :)

 I must say, this was a lot less work than going to the snow. Not bad for plan B!

A faith-building experience

October 2014

Tyler and Dallin had such a great time performing in A Christmas Carol last December that they were very excited to be in the spring musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They auditioned (3 long evenings!), performed in a little preview at the PRYAF (Paso Robles Youth Arts Foundation) winter review  with a medley of songs from the play, and were cast as the 2 Bulgarian spies. They even memorized a scene for the audition, complete with thick Bulgarian accents. It was hilarious! We watched the movie several times and were all singing the songs. Then a few days before the first rehearsal, we realized the final performance of the play would be on a Sunday. Bummer! We didn't know what to do. We feel strongly about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy, and one of the things we really liked about their first play was that it didn't have any Sunday rehearsals or performances - we assumed it was always like that. This was totally an oversight on our part, since the dates were posted way back in November. We wrestled with it a couple of days, and Dave and I felt like maybe they should go ahead and do it, since it was our fault and they had already committed to be in it. When I prayed about it, I had a clear impression that the boys should pray about it and decide what to do, and that I would fully support whatever decision they made. The great thing is, this totally took all the weight off as I put this in the Lord's hands. I felt peace, and I knew that whatever they chose, this would be a faith-building experience for them. I trusted them to pray and receive an answer, and I was really okay about either decision. We talked about all the pros and cons and left them to it. They both received the same answer not to be in the play. When I talked to Tyler about his experience, he said that while he was praying, the cons just kept coming into his mind. He said he hadn't felt the spirit that strong since his baptism, almost 5 years ago! Some of their friends from church also decided not to do the play while others decided to go ahead and be in it. The staff at PRYAF was extremely understanding and respectful and said that although they weren't able to change the dates for Chitty, they have decided not to do any more plays on Sunday. 

Valentine's Day

The boys wanted to make these lollipop valentines for school again. I was even smarter this year and asked my friend to cut out the mustaches with her Cricut. That saved us a bunch of time. We had to make them early in the week because I went out of town.

Dave got off work early a few days before Valentine's Day, and we drove up to San Jose to watch the Capitals play the Sharks (ice hockey). I gave him tickets for Christmas. He had scouted it out ahead of time and found a good restaurant on the way. It was in Morgan Hill, and it was amazing. In fact we liked it so much we went back there for lunch the next day!

I've got to admit, I was a little nervous about wearing our team shirts there, but it was fine. In fact I couldn't believe how many Caps fans were there! 

Dave and Spencer went to a game there a few years ago, but I haven't been to a Caps game since we lived back East. They are seriously SO much fun! All the lights and music and excitement of the game. If you ever get a chance to go to an NHL game, you should go! 

The Sharks players entered the ice through a big shark mouth they lowered from the ceiling. That was cool. The Sharks fans were awesome too. I think if we lived closer we might go more often.

The game itself couldn't have been more exciting. We won 5-4 in overtime! We stayed in a hotel in Gilroy and went shopping at the outlets the next day. We got back home around dinnertime.

As hard as it is to leave the kids (making arrangements for rides and babysitting and meals, etc.), it's always so worth it! What a great way to celebrate Valentine's Day. Thanks for helping, mom and Kristen!!

Our wonderful neighbors dropped off cards and a huge hear-shaped cookie on our doorstep Saturday morning. That was a nice surprise!

The original plan was to take the kids to the snow that weekend, but we had to cancel due to the lack of snow in the entire state of California (dang drought!); we opted to go to Morro Bay Saturday. There was a surfing competition going on, and the weather was perfect. I'll blog about that next.