Weekend In California

We had such a great weekend in California. We left early Thursday morning and arrived at our "hotel" around 1:00 pm or so. The Miller's hooked us up with this great condo. It was so nice! We felt like stars!

After loading our stuff in the rooms, we headed to the beach to meet Sue & Randy. The weather had said that this was going to be a nice day at the beach. By the time we reached it, it was cloudy and cool. Probably in the low 60's. There were still a lot of people out-- some surfing, playing volleyball, and just hanging out. The kids did get in the ocean and swim a little. Sue's Kelton would walk up to the waves and as they would start coming in, he would run away from them. It was funny to watch. Some nice person let the boys play with a football, so they played 500 for a while. They also played in the sand building things.(Isn't Palo cute??!!)

After we left the ocean, we went back to the condo and played in the pool and hot tub. Then had pizza for dinner.

Friday we went to Knott's Berry Farm. We had a blast. There were some great rides. It is not nearly as crowded as Disneyland, so they were able to ride a lot of rides twice. It was Mykelle's 20th birthday, too. Here are some great pictures of our day.

The last ride of the day was the "Accelerator." They had been trying to get on it all day. It wasn't running for a while, then we would see it off and on. We went over a time or two. One time the line was huge, so we went to some others first. At the end of the day, we decided to see if we could get on it. They said that it was closed. We went to the end of the line and after some coaxing, Sue went up to them and asked if they could fill the seats on the last ride. Only Jadon, Kallan, Britton, and Dalton made it on. We have some great video footage of it. This ride goes from 0 to 80 mph in just a few seconds. It shoots straight up into the air, then back down. It is a rush just to watch it! We found out that it had been down for 31/2 months and this was the first day it had even ran, so we felt lucky to have even been on it.

After Knott's Berry, we went to Cheesecake Factory for Mykelle's birthday dinner.

Saturday morning, we slept in, cleaned up, packed and came home. It was a fun weekend!

Palo's Blessing

How can you not love a face like that???!!!! I am totally prejudiced and in love with this little girl! I just adore her! She was so sweet on her big day.
We had so many people there in support of her! I'll bet we fed 50-60 people. They were all over in the front living room, great room, kitchen, upstairs and back yard. It was a beautiful sunny day filled with lots of family, friends and food. Good thing the Tupe's were cooking-- YUMMY!!
It was so cute to see this little girl in the giant arms of her Tupe uncle's! So sweet!! They all just loved her!
We were grateful for our family's support as well--even though we were clearly outnumbered! We can still eat and party with the best of them!

Changing Seasons-- Ball Seasons

Basketball season is now over and we are on to baseball. Kameron and Kallan played basketball and had great seasons. Britton is the only one playing baseball and tryouts were yesterday for Major League, so we should know today or tomorrow if he made it. We sure love watching the kids play ball!

Dad's, Scouts & Cakes

Why is it that everything always falls on the same day around here? This year the Blue & Gold Banquet was on the night of my "Stickman Class." I was really staying pretty calm, all things considered. We baked the cakes the night before and I frosted them-- Kameron's white, Britton's yellow. Britton wanted to make a spongebob cake and Kameron wanted to make his favorite book. After a run to Hursts for some cake supplies, we had about one hour to pull off TWO cakes. I thought we did pretty good, all things considered. I didn't get a picture of Britton's cake because he took it over to the church before I got my camera out. I hope someone in the ward has a shot of it because it was cute and he did it all himself with some fondant and edible markers. He made spongebob's face. Kameron had a little more help from mom and dad. I rolled and cut the fondant, Paul drew the picture, Kameron "painted" the book cover red with some red water since I couldn't find any red fondant. Personally, I thought they both turned out cute.

They had a good time at the dinner. Kameron got his Wolf award. He has been waiting for it for a long time. He tried to become a Wolf in one week. ;o) Hope he keeps up his enthusiasm.

Britton got a lot of activity pins and they both got some belt loops. You have to love scouting!

Paul's 46th Birthday

Paul celebrated his birthday just the way he wanted-- on a quiet Sunday with his family gathered around. It was fun to have all the kids home and be together. I couldn't convince anyone to wrap his presents nicely. This is what I got-- The biggest box they could find to hold his clothes with a newspaper taped to the top. Well, they did wrap a couple of things separate-- rolled them up in newspaper. You can call this frugal OR just plain old white trash!

The funny part is that I asked Paul for some money to go get him something for his birthday and he handed me the Kohl's card his mother had given him for Christmas. So essentially he got his Christmas for his birthday. Now THAT is a trick in frugality! ;o) Just so you know, I did spent a chunk extra to get more clothes since he REALLY needs some. But his mom did get a kick out of us using her Christmas for his birthday.

Jr Prom

Here are a couple of shots of Jadon & Natalee Hunt for Jr Prom. Our kids grew up next to the Hunt's, so it was fun for him to ask Natalee to the dance since they had grown up playing together. They looked so cute and had a blast! That's what friends are for!