IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE....IT'S A SUPERHAWK!!



This last week we went to the 8th grade awards ceremony (2 hours long) to watch Taylor get all his award for his time at Amelia Earhart.

It was kind of cool that they had a band playing as we came into the gym and during intermission that was made up of students. They did a really good job. Even Jacob and Ashley perked up when they were performing.



During the awards ceremony they called off all the award winners and all of the awards they won all together. For example - Joe Blow...science, PE, superscholar...

At the end of this they announced some special awards. There was the perfect attendance awards (Taylor wasn't getting any of those), PE awards and SuperHawk awards.

To our surprise Taylor was called up for the special awards for being an outstanding student athlete. I guess he really impressed his PE teacher this year. It might have something to do with staying after to run the mile when he didn't have to and constantly trying to improve his time at the mile this year (his teacher didn't know that this was also a goal with scouts :)




After receiving this award he was called up to receive the SuperHawk award. I guess there is one boy picked and one girl from about 3 groups of teachers to represent the most outstanding overall student that embodies the school motto. Taylor was picked for the honor for his group.

Way to go Taylor!

He really has impressed his teachers this year with his hard work and his effort. I guess it's paid off. These are his plaques and the medal is for receiving the presidential scholars award for his grades over the last year. (He said his medal would've been gold if it hadn't have been for his one B in Mrs. Stearns class :)



His other awards were certificates for being a presidential scholar, being part of the honor band, being an outstanding musician and a science scholar award.

We are so proud of you Taylor!



EAGLE PROJECT DONE!

Taylor also was able to finally deliver all his books to the Loma Linda children's hospital along with his scout troup.



He was able to collect 1767 books for his Eagle project. The hospital was very grateful and we're excited about some of the book series he collected that they have in mind for some specific patients that are in there a lot.

He also was able to donate a book shelf that the emergency room requested for their department. There is a lot of children that have to come in for out patient proceedures like dialysis that would be able to enjoy the books.



This was the spot that they had available for the book shelf.



This was their previous library for the emergency room. Needless to say they were very happy.



A HOUSE FULL OF HOVEYS

This weekend we enjoyed a visit from the Hovey's. My uncle David and his wife Lorene (who I just got to see at women's conference) came down for a Disneyland/California trip this week. They were happy to escape the snow (Yes it was snowing when they left) to meet another set of Utah cousins for 3 days of fun at Disneyland and then a visit to the beach.



We decided to crash the party and meet them on the beach. We suggested Corona del Mar for our beach newbies and they loved it.



The air was great that day, just hot enough but not too hot. But the water was freezing!



We only got used to it by letting our legs go numb!



Taylor was done pretty quick with the water and opted for digging in the sand.



The rest of the Utah cousins braved the water though and had a great time. Lorene's sister's family including their 6 kids had never really spent a day at the beach so they really seemed to enjoy it.

They weren't the only ones enjoying the water. We were witnesses to a whole group of baptisms being performed right next to us. They had about 100 people clapping and singing and a guy with a megaphone. Everyone seemed so happy and excited. We couldn't figure out what they were doing until the baptisms started happening. They would high five each other when they came out of the water and they had a great time. Their enthusiasm was catching and I was thinking that it was nice to see people so excited and open to show their commitment to Christ :) :)

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The longer we were there the more they didn't seem to mind the water. (Probably because they were all numb)



Taylor spent about an hour and a half on his hole and pretty soon he got it pretty deep. It swallowed up Ashley when we put her in it. He dug it all with a little blue plastic shovel.



Man made sink hole.



What was hilarious was that when we were leaving there was a couple of guys about 19 years old or so who were talking to each other "there was a hole around here somewhere?" Taylor asked them if they were looking for his hole and pointed it out. Since we were leaving they asked if they could take it over.

No problem, Taylor told them. Then they asked how long it had taken Taylor to make it and what he had used. They were clearly impressed. "Props brother." What was the funniest was them calling over all their friends. The friends weren't too impressed until one of the guys jumped into it and they saw how deep it was. Here is a picture of Taylor's fan club checking the hole out after we left. Ha ha.



The next day was Sunday. We loved that it was a 5th Sunday and neither one of us had meetings or too many responsibilities. So we got up a little late went to church and then got to hang out with the cousins.



We thought dinner would be fun to include some good summer stuff. We had pineapple, corn on the cob, watermelon...



and shish-ka-bobs. It took some doing to get our grill working however...long story short Jeff is buying himself a grill for father's day :) He did a great job though they were yummy.



Some of the kids were all worn out from too much fun in the California sun.



Taylor's favorite thing to do was to tease the kids and make them laugh. I can see some of Jeff's personality in there :)



Monday morning they were off for their drive back to Utah. We were glad for the visit and look forward to getting together with them again.



So as for our Memorial day plans we decided to finally use our Knotts Berry Farm passes that I bought in March.

Jeff was worried that the lines would be horrendous but really they weren't that
bad.

I think the most we stayed in line for a ride was 1/2 hour. Not bad.



Of course with Dad around the kids got treats that they wouldn't have gotten with just me. Against my better judgement (I'm always the party pooper) we got a cup to fill with Icee.



Icee cups bigger than your children are always a good buy. Haa haa. I warned everyone that I wouldn't be carrying it around for them...of course it eventually ended up in my backpack.



Taylor was thrilled to be able to go on Acelerator for the first time. He ended up going alone (Jeff was too short and I didn't want to go). The lady he ended up sitting next to was going on for the first time too. Taylor said it took off so fast you were pushed to the back of the seat and couldn't more. After the ride the lady said "THATS HORRIBLE, NEVER AGAIN" Taylor said he was thinking he wanted to go on it again. He's definately into the thrill rides.

Here's him stuck on the kiddie ride with Jacob and Ashley. He asked 4 times if he really HAD to go on it with them. You can see how much fun he's having.



We were excited that Jacob is finally 48 inches with shoes on!! Whoo hooo!! He actually got to go on a couple of rides that you had to be 48 inches for and go figure there wasn't anyone even checking heights. He could've gotten on anyways :)

Here's our last ride meeting some new friends. Then we decided to head over to Soak city.



On the way over we stopped to feed the chicken and the chicks some of our chips. So cute!



We had enough time to spare to check out soak city which is across the street from Knotts. It was a little cool because it was late afternoon but it was still fun.



Jeff and Taylor got to go on a few of the bigger slides, Jacob went on a couple of the smaller ones and we all got to hang out at the wave pool.



We're looking forward to spending more time here this summer.

On the way back to the car we pulled out popcorn to feed the fish. I swear the animals ate more snacks than we did :)



All in all it was a great weekend.

And for a mom moment....

I had Sharla and Clark over to hang out for a morning before she's off to her new life in Oregon. Ashley ended up staying home from school sick that day so I was trying to keep her separate from Clark. She did pretty good for awhile but then he started getting cranky and she came downstairs wanting to play with him. Sharla didn't seem to be too stressed about it so Ashley ended up babysitting/playing with him. It was such a crack up because he was taller than her and yet she was leading him around. She took him up to her room to play with her toys. He found every ball in her room and brought them downstairs (he loves balls). When they were in the backyard she said he was checking out a rolled up roly poly and called it a ball. They played on the teeter totter perfectly because they were close to the same height and my favorite part was her pulling a stool out to the backyard for Clark to climb into the swing. She then buckled him and pushed him until he was done. Then she got the stool back out and let him back off the swing so he could come back in the house.

It was fun to hang out with them. We'll miss them and we wish them all the best.