NYC

I finally made it back to NYC. This time I took my lovely sister-in-law Tamara, my neighbor and friend Maryann, and my friend Chelsea.  I have to admit we did a lot of the "touristy things", but I'm so glad we did. Over the course of the seven or so days we were there, I think I got a total of 24 hours of sleep.  It was great! Here are the highlights:

 The Met. 

 Central Park. *sigh* I love Central Park. We walked a little bit of it one day...

...and biked it another.

NY Cheesecake baby!

And other delicious foods like Japanese mochi ice cream, bagels, and this matzoh ball soup. 

Empire State Building? Not a total highlight. It was rainy/foggy when we went up so you couldn't see much. What we DID see was this guy from Europe proposing to this gal up there. 

 Top of the Rock. Absolutely stunning views on a gorgeous night. Loved this!

 The Lion King

 My absolute favorite part of the trip. We were checking into doing a tour of Radio City Music Hall when, by pure extraordinary luck, I saw that Rachel Yamagata, David Grey, and Amos Lee were playing that venue while we were there. I love Rachel and Amos. I wasn't familiar with their newer stuff so I was stoked to go check them out. I am so glad I did. Incredible concert. Funny, David Grey was the headliner, but we only stayed for a couple of his songs before taking off. 

 Hanging out on the Chelsea High Line after our food tour of the Chelsea Food Market. That was recommended to me by my friend, Amy, and it did not disappoint.

 The New World Trade Center

 The 9/11 Museum. Sad, but well done.

 FAO Schwarz

Improptu performance at Columbus Circle where we stayed

 Times Square

St. Patricks Cathedral

What a trip!

The Man Turns Thirty-Something

And we celebrated with his favorite dinner and a slightly dry cake. Poor guy. Happy Birthday, honey.

School's Out

I didn't even get a picture of the Boy on the last day of school. What kind of a mother am I? At least I pulled the camera out for the Girl's preschool graduation. 

I can't believe she is going to be in kindergarten next year!

Gilroy Gardens (Take 2)

Since our Legoland trip got cancelled, we took the kids and traveled north where the rains were nowhere to be found. Gilroy Gardens is a great place for little kids. The Boy will likely outgrow it soon, but this year we still enjoyed it. During the school year, there are virtually no lines at all.

Big surprise this year! The girl was just tall enough to ride most of the rollercoasters! It was her first time on one and she handled it like a pro.

No More Ball

The Boy played what was probably his last baseball game. After three years, he decided it really isn't for him. I really wanted him to enjoy it, but it's not meant to be. I won't miss ball season too very much.

Seriously?

Just a rant. We are in a drought. A pretty bad drought. Spanning years at this point. We pray for rain a lot. And I hate to be ungrateful when it comes, but so far, it seems to only come at the wrong time for us.

1. It rained on Halloween.
2. It rained on the Boy's first real, major birthday party.
3. It is now going to rain on Thursday and Friday of this week. The only two days we were scheduled to take the kids down to Legoland and the San Diego Zoo.  Not Monday or Tuesday. Exactly those two days. So we had to cancel.

It's rained two or three times between those three events, but seriously, the odds of this happening are just ridiculous.

For Dad

My father passed away almost two years ago.  Today is his birthday. Growing up, Dad always insisted on us going to church. He encouraged us to attend seminary and mutual. He even held callings in the Boy Scouts for our ward. He took the missionary discussions numerous times, but he never got baptized. Now that I'm older, I realize there were probably many reasons why he didn't.

Yesterday, though, he did. I took his name on the youth temple trip with us. Brogan Nicolds stood in for him and his father, Dean Nicolds, performed the ordinance. I was very overwhelmed. I was hoping to feel Dad there - approving, accepting. But that's not what I felt. What I felt was more like the Spirit telling me that I was doing the right thing. I'm grateful for that feeling and for my brother and sisters who had very supportive words the night before.

Pinewood Derby!

The Boy had his first Pinewood Derby this year and it was a blast! He and The Man put together a pretty nice looking car.  Unfortunately, it came it last almost every single race.  

I think this will motivate him to work a little more on it next year.

We Are Smart People

In the last two weeks there have been two home invasions in our neighborhood. One of the women actually came home while people were in the process of stealing her things.  At both homes, the theives got in through an unlocked door.  While we are usually pretty good about locking our doors, we made a note to be even more diligent.

Fast forward one week to today.  I came home from the Girl's dance class. The door leading from the garage to the backyard was wide open. I cautiously entered the house. Once I discovered no one was there and nothing had been taken, I saw that the sliding glass door was also unlocked. And just to put the icing on the cake, I had a note on my front door leftover from a party I hosted last night that said, "Roll On In".

We almost deserved to be robbed.

Science Fair

Since we didn't have any plans for spring break this year, the kids and I stuck around the house. We did extra Easter egg hunts inside the house and we worked on the Boy's science fair project. He decided to fill up balloons with gas made using baking soda and vinegar and see if they would float or drop.

It wasn't until days before the Science Fair that we found out we could not use balloons in our display or demonstration (since someone had a major latex allergy). We quickly rearranged the board and it turned out pretty well! By the way..........they drop.

Easter

It was a very simple Easter.  We made our traditional "eggs and bacon" candy and handed them out to neighbors. We didn't have church because it was conference weekend, so we lounged around the house. We had a lovely dinner and of course, the egg hunt! These are the only pictures we have because I accidentally deleted every picture I had on my phone and couldn't retrieve them. Ugh.

A Different Reason for Sitting at the Desk

This time to write an apology letter. I don't want to remember what he did, so I'm not going to write it here. 

Math Warrior

The Boy went Rambo on his math homework tonight. Take THAT subtraction!

Hiking

We did a gorgeous hike with our friend, Sophia.  It's called Valencia Peak in Montana de Oro State Park.  Now that it's green here, it was so beautiful. Unfortunately, it's hard to see in the foggy pictures.

I was so proud of the kiddos! It was nearly 4 miles round trip and about 1,300 feet up. The Boy made it all the way to the top and down on his own without complaint.  The Girl made it 3/4 of the way up! After that, she was a little worn out.  She got about 1/4 of the way down on her own before she hitched a ride on Sophia the rest of the way.  

Nice way to spend a morning.  We rewarded the kids by replacing all the calories we had just burned at McDonalds.

Baptism

The Boy had a wonderful baptism. Since he and his friend, Finley, have a birthday near each other, they wanted to have their baptism together!  I was happy to share the responsibilities with her mom and my friend, Melissa. She is a very talented lady.

It was too far for my family to travel, but they sent their love and congratulations. From The Man's family, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jamie and Uncle Eric, and Uncle Michael all came.  Grandpa baptized  and confirmed the Boy and Grandma spoke about the Holy Ghost.

A very talented girl in my Young Women's group named Kyra sang "When I am Baptized" with her ukelele. It was so sweet!

Speaking of sweets...

There were 130 people in attendance! Many friends came and some bearing gifts. The Boy was beaming.

 It was a very special day indeed. I feel so blessed to be a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am so proud of you, Boy!

It's Great to be 8!

I finally threw the Boy his first, real birthday party.  He turned eight and that's a doozy.  So we hired a laser tag system and went with the camoflauge theme.  Now, I can count on one hand the number of times it has rained in the last year or so around here.  The last time it REALLY rained was on Halloween.  So of course, it was due. On his birthday party weekend.  That did not stop us. We carried on with canopies and ponchos and the kids enjoyed an "authentic" experience of playing soldiers in the rain.

Happy Birthday, buddy.  We love you so much!

Serial Chess

Last night the Boy tried to teach the Girl to play chess.  During the course of his instruction (which was not going that well) this exchange took place:

Boy: And now my guy is going to kill your guy.  (The Girl becomes upset and is about to start protesting).  But wait, Sis! Now your guy can kill that guy.

Girl: (quite properly) Oh! Thank you, Bubba. I've always wanted to kill someone.

Upon reflection, I do not think she got upset that her pawn was taken.  I think she was annoyed that the Boy was doing all the killing and she hadn't dont any yet.

Scouts

Turning eight means you get to be in Cub Scouts!

He is so excited!