The Beaulieu Bunch: April...Easter and birthday combo

The Friday after we got back from Hawaii I had the opportunity to be a chaperone on Ashley's field trip to the San Diego Zoo.

I wasn't really excited to go that far away on the bus. When Ashley brought me home the form I realized that she wanted me to go and it would most likely be my last field trip with her.

If you've been on a school bus lately you'll realize the seats are not built for adults. The seat belts are made for child hips so unless you're a size 0 your sitting on a seatbelt the whole time. We hit traffic so it took 2 hours and 40 minutes to drive there and wait to get into the park.

Realizing we got there so late they said that we would leave a 1/2 hour later than planned. So they got almost 2 hours at the zoo. We did a high priority list of animals and tried to make a quick loop to be able to see them.

We walked around the zoo with 2 groups of girls combined. Great for me to have another mom to talk to but all the girls made for slow going. Some wanted to shop at every kiosk (we had to keep reminding them that we would let them in the gift shop at the end) and they lingered at the farm animals and the less exotic so we had to remind them to continue on.

The girls mostly got to see their one pick of the animal they wanted to see most.

Even though it was quick walking (and a lot of time on the bus) they were glad to be at the zoo instead of class.

Ashley's favorite animals were the monkeys.

The drive home was another 2 hours. I sat near the back of the bus and read a book. The students were fascinated that I could just sit and read the whole time. They kept asking me what page I was on now. Ha ha. (Ashley can't fathom reading for more than the 1/2 hour she is required to) With 4 1/2 hours on a bus and only 2 at the park I had plenty of reading time and I finished my book that day.

That night we were mystery shoppers at John's Incredible Pizza. Jeff got an email offering to give us 2 free meals if we go and then take a survey of what we thought of the food, employees, games etc.

So we went. The food was fine like always but it seems like a lot of games were broken or took our credits without working.

Only one out of these 3 tables were working and the bowling game we tried playing had to be reset and then still was working right. I counted 9 games that we had problems with. That's a lot of calling people over to help us.

So we got our review in and then got 2 coupons for future visits :/ after our visit I'm not too excited to go over there again.

The next morning was our ward Easter Egg hunt and breakfast at the park across the street. The boys could care less and Ashley was the only one that I got to come over. She had fun face painting for the party.

After awhile Jeff drove Ashley and Jacob to Irvine because it was also the LPA Easter party that day. Ashley actually participated in that egg hunt and came home with lots of candy.

There was quite a big group there that day.

Meanwhile I was with Taylor at UCR at an open house. He turned in his intent to register and we walked around. He wasn't interested in a campus tour or to hang out very long in the physics department even though they were doing a lot of interesting demonstrations.

We went to lunch together in the food court and then I dragged him back for some of the demonstrations. He said he's seen a lot of them in his physics class...well I haven't so he had to humor me a bit before we left.

This is Sound being pumped through a pipe that has gas burning. You can see the wave length of the sound as its traveling through the tube by the height of the flames.

The next week was more quiet. I worked at the book fair a couple of days, had a doctor's appointment, a hair appointment and went on a couple of walks. When all my walking partners are unavailable I take Maddie. I just wish she talked more, pulled less and didn't always try and roll in poo. I always seems to have to end up giving her a bath!

Saturday morning we woke up and found out that Jacob made school mascot for next year! He is going to be the baby wolf!!

Ashley got a haircut on Saturday (she hasn't had one in over a year)

Then I brought her and Kate to lunch and then the mall. They had fun shopping and window shopping and hanging out.

The funniest part was a pop in the Disney Store that resulted in an event lady insisting that they sit on the floor and do a sticker craft. A craft that she then gave directions for in a slow, loud voice that is geared for a pre-schooler. Ha ha. Instead of refusing they humored her.

That night Ashley was invited to a Beyond 5 concert that she went to with her cousins and their friends.

While she was gone the rest of us went to Claim Jumper to celebrate Taylor's 18th birthday.

I can't believe he's already 18!

The next day was Taylor's real birthday and Easter. After church we had some family over for dinner. It was only the local family so not nearly as big as it normally is..so we overcooked and lots of leftovers!

Here are the kids on the trampoline.

Zander is not even one yet and he was running all over the house. He was scared of the dog so we tried to keep her outside and away from him but by the end he would sneak a pet in as long as the dog wasn't looking at him or wasn't wagging her tail that is.

Olive and Violet had fun with Zander and Caden. It's fun to have holidays with younger kids running around :)

Another chance to sing happy birthday to Taylor...

Monday we finally had the next step of the work done on our house that we've been waiting for. There was some structural issues so we had a beam replaced in the kitchen. We were worried that there would be more problems than their was and we didn't know what was needing to be fixed until we broke into the wall.

The first guy told us we should move and quoted us all this craziness that we would have to do to get it fixed along with a big price tag.

The second guy was much more moderate and relaxed and seemed more comfortable with the job. It's ended up not being as extreme as we thought so we are happy.

The next day I found out that my cousin's 17 year old son died suddenly on Monday. They used to come out when the kids were younger to do Disneyland trips. (He is the blond one)