This month school was out for Ashley and in the beginning of June I took Virginia with me and went to a Bunco day at the Riverside Woman's Club and won this huge raffle basket along with the prize for most Buncos. It was pretty fun and it was fun to go with Virginia.
Ashley got to go to her last girls camp this year.
Taylor Rose graduated from UCR this month. In preparation for her big day I made her a money lei with paper flowers. Learning how to make paper flowers was a new thing for me.
Taylor went to Taylor Rose's graduation and all of us got to go to a lunch to celebrate with her family. Her family was very nice and we were glad to get to know them.
Ashley is loving driving to the beach this summer on her own.
Jeff and I went to see Andrea Bocelli at the Holleywood Bowl. We got the tickets last minute and moved our seats from the very back to up closer. Jeff has wanted to see Andrea in concert ever since he was in Italy 27 years ago.
Andrea did a great job and we were very glad we got to go.
Ashley and I decided to take a impromptu quick trip to LA to stay for a night at Taylor's place before she took off to EFY. We got there in the late afternoon and shopped at the Marshalls right by his place. Since Taylor was close to getting home from work by the time we were done we hung out in this cool Japanese store that was right across the street from Taylor's place. Ashley found her perfect sized chair.
I brought dinner for us and after we ate we went down to Hollywood Blvd to walk around and try and hit the mall that was down the street.
There is a 3 story mall right by Taylor's place. It looks impressive but there aren't actually a lot of stores in it. It's mainly food places and the entrance to a couple of movie theaters, including Mann's Chinese movie theater.
That night I slept on an air mattress and Ashley was on the couch. I actually slept pretty good and Taylor even made us breakfast.
The next morning Taylor took us on a hike that was about 1/4 mile from his apartment. When we got to the entrance to the trial we were given free protein smoothies samples to take with us.
The top of the hill had some great views.
The hike was probably a couple of miles round trip and Ashley was a trouper and did the whole thing without complaining.
Waaaayyyy in the background you can see Ashley pointing to the Hollywood sign.
After we said goodbye to Taylor we packed up our stuff and Ashley and I went to the Getty. It was her idea and I was thrilled. I always love visiting the Getty.
Some of the pictures I liked...
Their temporary display was of illuminated manuscripts and focused especially on beasts in them.
They had some interesting drawings and sculptures of mythical and realistic beasts.
There were some odd depictions of some mythical people too.
These were some modern sculptures...
This was Ashley's favorite picture. The more I looked at it the more I liked it too. This is a satirical picture of what the artist felt it would look like if Christ returned to Brussels. He is in the center of the picture but nobody is paying attention. The people are all pointed different directions and thinking about themselves and distractions. I actually think this is pretty timeless.
We had a great time there other than the fact I backed into a pipe and blew out the back window of my car!!
A few days later Ashley was off to EFY in Santa Barbara!
We found out later that the church was changing it's programs and this would be the last year of EFY. I'm glad she got to go.
She had a fun and spiritual week.
While she was gone I planned a beach day. Just Kristen Cowden and I came in my car and there were two other moms of young children that came too. Robin Johnson and Kate Poulsen. It was my first time going to the beach this summer and it was nice.
Virginia and Joel ended up meeting up with us too!
We came home that night to listen to Grant Thompson open his mission call to Australia!
Lots of people were there and they skyped all the kids at Youth Conference so they could share in on the news.
Jeff and I drove up to Santa Barbara that Friday night to pick up Ashley from EFY. After picking her up we were heading off to San Francisco for the Little People of America conference.
