Georgie's Last Day of Terrific Tots

Today was Georgie's last day of Terrific Tots. She has had such a great year. Ms. Diane & Ms. Lindsey have been so good for her. Watching her grow & mature has been really fun to see.

 I was able to stay & work in the classroom today which is always fun, especially for Georgia. She'd prefer we stay with her everyday and she loves when we actually get to!

 Instead of a big party, Ms. Diane & Ms. Lindsey decided a Popsicle party would be perfect and it was!

Georgie absolutely loves Ms. Lindsey & Ms. Diane, she's already talking about how much she's "going to miss them when she doesn't have school anymore." We have loved them too. They have been absolutely perfect for our girl.

{ Ms. Lindsey & Ms. Diane}

And I am fairly certain that Ms. Lindsey will always hold a special place in Georgie's heart. She loves, loves, loves her!

So long Terrific Tots... now onto Primetime Preschool!

Melly leaves~ Memorial Day

Melly was up and out by 8am this morning. I was sad to see her go, but thankfully, this time, we have a plan & a date when we'll see her again.

Poor girls were so tired they didn't even get to say goodbye. (and they weren't happy when they realized she was gone, but they sure were cute all cuddled up together in our bed.)
The rest of our day was pretty relaxed. We played around the house and spent time together. Jacob drew this sweet picture for John.

It's been a great weekend... just what we needed: good times, lots of fun, lots of relaxation, quality time together, and dear friends.

Can't wait to do it again...
{July 24th. Pioneer Day. Logan, Utah. be there!}

Melly's still here!

This morning we all drug ourselves out of bed to get ready for church. It was nice having an extra set of hands to keep the kids entertained because... they were tired and not at all wanting to sit nice & reverently. (It was a disaster really...).

After chruch is was home for lunch and figuring out how we wanted to spend the rest of the day. We knew Gram was planning homemade pasta and bbq for dinner so we didn't want to venture off too far for too long -- no one wanted to miss dinner!

We finally decided we'd head to the Griffith Observatory to see the sights of Los Angeles. By the time we got there it was pretty apparent that most of the city of LA had the same idea, the parking lot was full, the hill was packed with parked cars, and people were walking up it from miles downhill. It was fairly obvious that today's plan was a no-go as well. John & Lin parked the cars for a minute, chatted about where to go instead, and we were off on a new adventure (much to the kids dismay!).

Driving across LA's city streets takes forever so our thought of going to the Getty was scraped, there wouldn't be enough time to go, tour, and get home in time for dinner.

The kids were completely having a breakdown in the cars so we decided treats and then possibly temple. So we made our way to Westwood for some Didy Reice.

Twinners in their mermaid shirts (completely unplanned...)

The kids loved their treat,

Amelia wasn't even interested,

 but Alice... she tried and stretched, stretched and tried to get some of mine!

Treats were really good but they took too long so we just headed back to Gram's for dinner and more visiting.

Dinner was great, visiting was perfect, but it all ended far too quickly and it was time for the Wilde's to get their kids home and all of us to head to bed (it was after 11...).

It was another wonderful day with plans completely foiled, but still perfect!

Melly came to play!

I've said it before & I'll say it again, I have been blessed with incredible people in my life. Throughout my entire life I have made deep, lasting friendships that I hold very dear. This weekend we were able to get serious quality time with my incredible friend, Melanie, who was my roommate at USU and in Salt Lake after college. She's one of those friends I consider a sister more than a friend. She's been there with me through some really fun and really challenging times and I love her dearly. These days any time I get to spend with her is something I look forward to with great anticipation. 

I've been counting down the days to her arrival for the past few weeks. I love being around her. She's always so fun, full of life, positive, and inspirational. She's just good. Really, really good and she makes others feel good too.

She arrived yesterday afternoon to a houseful of children anxiously awaiting her arrival! Then it got really crazy as we visited and tried to figure out dinner and breakfast for today and who was going to Costco and how we were going to wrangle 7 children while there (Meme was here too-- the three of us were roommates). It was lots of fun... until my car battery was dead so all plans were scrapped and we started over. Meme & Mel took Amelia and went to Costco, the rest of the kids stayed here with me until Gram, Debie, & Myah arrived, then I left all the kids with Gram and headed to In-N-Out to pick up dinner for everyone. By the time I returned everyone, including John, was home and ready to eat!

Meme & her babies stayed until after 10pm visiting and playing and I'm so glad they did! Then she had to get home because Aaron & Lauren were arriving at her house sometime after midnight.

This morning we all met up at Meme & Lin's for breakfast. It was so fun to see Aaron & his new bride, Lauren. They are adorable together and I am so happy for them both!

Too bad they had other friends too visit so they were unable to spend the rest of the day in Ventura and the beach with us, but it was so fun to visit them & meet Lauren even if it was just a couple of hours.

By the time we got out to the beach the wind was blowing, I mean seriously blowing... causing the air to feel really cold.

So... instead of going down to the ocean we decided to check out the "observation tower".

I had NO IDEA the observation tower was actually the visitors center for Channel Islands National Park!

 Inside the kids saw all kids of ocean-dwelling creatures

 We even watched a short movie about the Channel Islands, someday I'd really like to go there!

Outside we saw the harbor,

rode the little seals & dolphins,

 

 and took a family picture.

 Then we went upstairs to the observation tower and saw the harbor from above,

 and the ocean,

 and sea lion sleeping on the dock (just past the boat... the brown blob is a pile of them)

 and the beach where we usually play

 It was lots of fun up there!

 Then it was back downstairs to see the "local" garden and let the kids run & play.

 

While we chatted and loved on babies.

 Wilde family

 Then we walked along the sand on our way back to the car. I sure love these girls! And, although this trip didn't turn out as we'd planned, it was absolutely perfect! Being in the National Park museum actually made me feel all nostalgic and like I was really on vacation somewhere... it was just what I needed!!

 By this time everyone was starving so we drove into Ventura and found a little local Mexican restaurant for dinner.

Amelia was adorable as Jacob kept her entertained. She would smile and giggle at him, it was so stinkin' cute!

 The whole crew (well, almost. I'm taking the picture and John is chopped off and Lin is hiding behind John and Tommy's only partially visible, but we're all "here"!)

 Alice loved dinner too... she had lots of avocado. yummm...

 We left Ventura after dark and headed home... to make plans for fun tomorrow. Today was a really, really good day. I love having Melly here!

Jake's School Open House

Today was the long awaited Open House at Jacob's school. The night where we get to go inside his classroom and see all the amazing things the students have accomplished this year. I've been really looking forward to it, as has Jacob (he's been talking about it for weeks!). 

Thanks to Open House he had a minimum day of school. Those 2 extra hours in the day made for some major arguments until... the got out the Lego Rock Band game for the Wii and then it was all fun & games.

 Except for Naomi. She pretty much got the shaft. Poor girl.

 By the time we got to Open House Jacob was a total grump. He'd had too many hours of playing and arguing and was not happy about us making him leave the house...

 Thankfully, as soon as we walked through the classroom door he was much happier to be there. He showed us all around the room. We saw writing projects and art work, science experiments and math papers. It was wonderful seeing the improvement in each of the children throughout the school year. Mrs. Halstead has been the perfect teacher for Jacob this year, we have seen incredible growth in him.

And lastly, a picture with Mrs. Halstead.

 Then it was outside to enjoy a lovely evening playing on the playground with lots of school friends.

 While Alice took it all in and laughed at us all!