Backyard fun

Here are more pictures from my new lens, which I'm still getting used to it. I like that it has a wider view (i.e. not as zoomed in) but still has a nicely blurred background. I took these right before I weed-whacked the long dead grass around the swing set.

We're still into dress-ups around here. Luke gave us a bunch of his dress-ups awhile ago, and Chloe especially likes the lion costume. My good friend Nancy (who is moving away, so sad!), gave us tons of their old costumes and dress-ups. She said she couldn't think of another family that would enjoy them as much as we would.

As you can see, we're in the process of growing out Chloe's bangs. Remember when she cut her hair last summer? People assured me it would grow out. Yes, it did, but it took 9 months! Now it's finally long enough to put up in a partial pony tail, so we can see her eyes. Yay!  

This is totally unrelated, but Brennan wins the longest-lasting-shoes award! We bought new shoes for everyone at the beginning of the school year, and they were all full of holes about halfway through the year. Brennan is still wearing the same DC shoes from August, and he does not go easy on them. Wow!!

Ditch day

On the day the three oldest skipped school and went to Magic Mountain, I got an idea. I was so impressed that the three youngest never complained that they couldn't go, and in fact Brennan asked in several of his personal prayers that they would have fun and be safe. So sweet! I decided to surprise them by getting them out of school and going to the beach!

I picked them up around 11:00 (they were so confused, heehee!) with the Suburban full of beach toys. First we tried to go to Avila Beach. I like that beach, but it's always so crowded and hard to find parking that we rarely go there. I thought this would be a perfect day to go, but turns out the Amgen California bike tour was going there that day, and it was packed. Go figure! We stopped by Dave's work to say hello, and then we headed up to Morro Bay.

 First we played at the park at the end of the Embarcadero. 

I was excited to try out my new lens, which I used for most of these (a couple came from my phone). Notice how the background is blurred but not too much, and it has a slightly wider range of focus than the 50mm. This is less of a portrait lens and more of an everyday lens for outings - and it's still nice and small!

After a while we drove over to the rock and played at the beach. It was so nice not to have to hurry back to pick up kids from school and run around to after-school activities. It felt so incredibly free, like we were getting away with something! 

When we got home I gave these two boys much-needed haircuts!

Much better!

Spencer's 15!

Spencer turned 15 a couple weeks ago. He said it was the perfect birthday. 

As usual, we combined his birthday with Mother's Day. He requested a white cake with raspberry filling.

He had been sick that day, so we put a candle on just one slice. No need to infect the whole cake.

We all got together at my parents' house and ate dinner on their deck. It was lovely.

On his actual birthday, he skipped school and went to Six Flags/Magic Mountain with his cousins! That is pretty much his favorite place ever. This was Dallin and Peter's first time there, and he was so excited to show it to them.

Thank you, Nathan, for taking the group. You made them so happy! 

The lines were very short, and they went on Tatsu (his favorite ride in the world) FIVE TIMES! 

The next day we had Panda Express for dinner and opened presents.

 He was excited to get Ticket to Ride. He played it with his cousins once.

It's currently everyone's favorite Sunday board game. A few days after his birthday, he had friends over for a movie and shave ice party. They watched Monty Python. There were about 20 kids - mostly from church and a few from school. They are such great kids!

Spencer has one year of high school under his belt, and he did great. He woke up every day at 5:40 for early morning seminary at 6:30 (a scripture study class at church) and wouldn't get home from sports until after 5. He actually goes to bed earlier this year because he's so tired! He just finished up his tennis season. 

He had 2 matches a week, and half of them were at home (at a local tennis club). It was really convenient for us to run over and watch. He was on the JV team with 6 other members, and he played singles. They had a great coach, Jan. They ate out at a lot of restaurants while they were away, so that was fun for him.

He had never played tennis before, and he improved a ton over the season. It was more fun than cross country, which he did in the fall (more fun for us to watch, too!).  He and Dave have started playing together for date nights and on Saturdays. 

 

He is getting ready for a 60 mile kayaking trip this summer with the scouts, and they have had several shake-down trips. He loves it SO much. Dave and Tyler have gone a few times too.  

He always comes home with some crazy stories! Luckily they haven't lost anyone. I always appreciate how much detail he provides.  

Spencer is such an awesome big brother! He's great at including all the kids and organizing games and activities. He is able to mobilize the troops like no one I know. If I ever need the kids to do something and can't get them to respond, I tell Spencer, and he gets them to do it. He gets them excited about things, and they really follow his lead.

He is so good with Chloe! There are times when she is sad or throwing a tantrum, and he is the only one who can calm her down. She calls him "Tencer." 

My birthday weekend

I turned 39 on April 17th. My friend Marilyn has the same birthday, so we decided to go out to breakfast with a few friends to celebrate.

It was really fun! We dropped big kids off at school and met at a bakery with our little kids.We filled up half the restaurant! 

Great idea Marilyn! We should do this more often. 

After everyone got home from school and work, we drove down to Los Angeles and checked into a temple apartment. We were on the top floor, and this was our amazing view from the balcony. 

It was stake temple day, and we took turns watching kids and going in the temple. 

We walked around the beautiful temple grounds for a bit while Dave and Spencer packed up the car. Our time there went by way too fast.

Don't stand too close - that's one pokey tree! 

We also went in the distribution center and bought everyone CTR (Choose The Right) rings. They were thrilled! 

Quick stop at the visitor's center. We could have spent a lot more time there, but we wanted to head over to the science museum. It didn't seem too far away, but there was so much traffic, it took awhile to get there. That is the main thing I don't like about big cities!!

Kristen's family also went to the temple that day, and then we all went to the California Science Center. There was a $10 parking fee, but then it was free to get in! Chloe was amazed by the escalator - you can tell we live in a small town!!

They loved the hurricane simulator! 

Kristen and Nathan took our 4 oldest with them to see the Endeavor space shuttle (which had a small fee), while Dave and I took all the little kids around to see other exhibits.

This place was really big, and it had a lot of cool stuff. We especially liked the Ecosystem section.

 I can't walk past jellyfish and not take pictures. 

Chloe literally could have played in this sand the whole time. There was water on one end, and she took handfuls of sand and washed it off in the water. Over and over and over again. We didn't see everything there, so we'll have to go back another time. There was, of course, lots of traffic on the way out, and somehow we ended up driving through Korea-town. There was a big crowd of emergency vehicles, and Spencer saw police zipping up a body bag. Lovely. After we got out of the city (shwew!) we stopped for dinner at El Toritos. Just as we were finishing our wonderful dinner,a stranger came up to us, told us he came from a large family, and gave us his coupon for 30% off our total bill. That saved us $30! I love nice people! It was a really fun birthday weekend. For my present, Dave told me to choose a new lens; so I bought (after hours of research) a 35mm 1.8 prime. It's great!