June summer fun

This is the tri-ward activity at Lake Perris that Jeff and I organized. We had food, games and swimming at the lake. 

Even with vacations and people gone there were enough youth to make for a fun night.

When the water-balloon toss was done she made sure Jeff got to be a part of it by getting him wet. 

The next week Ashley and I drove out to Oceanside to meet up with Virginia and her family and go to the beach. 

We walked out to the pier and had lunch... 

met some new friends...

then went back to swim in Virginia's pool to wait out the traffic back home. It's really nice to have the Oleson's closer so we can do fun stuff with them. 

Here's my crazy kids taking my phone at a family dinner. 

A DI assignment that Saturday. 

Our job was pulling clothes off the rack that had been on there too long. Ashley couldn't reach the rack so we would hand her the clothes so she could take them off the hanger. I'm sure she felt it was never-ending, ha ha. 

These kids were great about coming and working with a good attitude. 

This is the result of a summer sleep over on the trampoline with Ashley and Jacob....they lasted until about midnight then they ended up back in their beds. Sounded like a good idea but I knew that they probably wouldn't make it through the night. 

We went to watch Kelzey do her final dance recital and solo performance. She did a great job...

and she won dancer of the year. She was so excited. We were happy for her.

We had a beach day with the Cowden family on Kristen's day off. 

Ashley and Cassidy wore their matching bathing suits. 

Its fun to have friends where all the kids get along.

We did a mini-vacation this month in La Jolla and met up with the Oleson's.

We stayed in a hotel in town and as always booked one with free breakfast.

The highlight of our trip was kayaking the sea caves in La Jolla.

After having a lot of clear, warm days we happened to be out on a colder, drizzly day. 

The coldest part of the day was sitting on the beach waiting to leave. Once we got rowing it wasn't too bad. 

We rowed and then stopped to hear from our guide. 

Ashley got to ride in the middle of the kayak while Jeff and I did the work. 

I ended up putting her in charge of pictures so I could row. 

We heard stories about the sea caves and their history...

and the tide was right so we could go in one of the caves. 

Our guide had to walk us in because it was so narrow.

Fun excursion. I would recommend it. 

While we were kayaking we saw people looking out at us from one of the caves. Our guide told us about a man who built a store above a sea cave and then spent 2 years digging under his living room floor to get access to it. 

He charged money for people to be able to access to it and during the prohibition he ran alcohol from Mexico from it. Now it's back to a tourist attraction so we went over to check it out. 

It's called the Cave Store. 

We went into the gift shop, paid our fee and sure enough right in the back was the entrance to the cave...

Watch your step, Jacob ended up slipping on wet stairs.

At the bottom we had a great view looking out to the water. If you look at the silhouette it looks like a man's face turned towards the left.  

Here's a view from the cave we kayaked in from the outside.

The kids climbed down on top of it and hiked around. 

There's a baby seal right behind them.

You can tell that people are not the only ones who like the sea cliffs. 

Virginia and I waited at the top for everyone. 

Our last stop that night after dinner was at the Dr. Sues art gallery. I guess he was a "midnight painter" but didn't want his paintings to be on display until after he died. You could see the influence of them in his books. 

Soli came in town for a quick visit. She came over with friends on their way to their sleep over and then ended up talking and giggling until late before they left.  

We also ended up selling our van this month. 

It was 8 years old and had passed the 100,000 mile mark. 

Originally Jeff thought we might go to a smaller car since the kids are getting older. 

Nope, I wanted a van one more time and got the same make and model, just a different color. 

So far I've filled it to the brim with teens more than once and I'm glad I kept a bigger car ;)

We ended up selling our old one to a private party. He actually met us at the dealership, gave us cash and then we gave the cash to buy the new one. 

That week the odometer matched the temperature outside (that won't happen again ;)

Memorial day, Graduations and the end of school

So this picture represents Ashley's last concert that was held on a Mutual night that Jeff had to cover...

which was held at the same time as the Spring show for Jacob (his last event of the year).

All night I was driving back and forth between schools to drop kids off, see part of a performance and then go to the next one and then come back to pick up the other one. 

Between me and 3 other moms we coordinated saving seats, rides and taking pictures of each other's kids as we juggled both of these events. By the time I got to the choir concert my phone had died and so had the other mom's phone. So a copy of the programs is all that represents her concert. 

Jacob has had a lot of fun this year being the mascot he is looking forward to doing it next year as well. 

This is the only picture representing the Father and Son trip for the boys. It had been raining that day and so a lot of people came for the dinner, dessert and fireside but not a lot of people actually camped, included my boys ;)

That's OK we did a girls day the next day anyway. First I took the girls hiking in Sycamore Canyon.

Girl Power

This was made more fun by Jenae bringing her speaker so we could rock out to her music while we hiked. 

After hiking I took them to McDonalds for ice cream.

Maddie smelling like pond, had to stay in the car. 

On Memorial Day we went to the Oleson's house and got to celebrate Dean's 6th birthday.

We were introduced to the family's newest members...Chiweenie puppies. 

So cute! Especially when snuggled all up with you.

Dean and Ian were hiding in the ottoman when we were trying to say goodbye. Silly boys.

For our youth activity that week we went to the Path of Life ministries and served dinner at the Family Shelter.

We fed almost as many youth as we did residents!

I was excited when I found out that I passed the CSET for art! 

Studying for the test had me get interested in pulling out my art supplies again. I figured I'm not going to get any better if I don't practice. 

I've been pulling pictures from facebook of my friends and family to try my hand at portraits.

My first attempt was Janell.

I'm not the best at faces so it's a work in progress. Most people are pleased that I would attempt to draw them, (whether they really like it or not)

The next was my cousin Laurie...

A picture of Kate and Ashley at Sycamore Canyon. 

I hung it in Ashley's room. She allowed me to without much comment. 

My friend Sharla's birthday...just to let her know I'm thinking of her.

Kelzey's graduation. (My only Laurel graduating this year)

And Jenae's graduation. 

I've found even though some of the portraits are not the most polished the picture comes from the heart. I am thinking about the person fondly while I'm drawing them. 

My only regret is that I'm not good enough to capture them as beautiful as they are in real life. Maybe with more practice I'll get better!

We've had a lot of graduations and weddings...as you can see from our fridge. 

This is my favorite Pinterest idea for the cards...

The only graduation ceremony that we were able to attend was Jenae's. It was fun to be able to sit with family and watch Jenae on her big day. At King it is a limited number of people that can come in but at Ramona they could invite as many as they wanted.

While we were waiting Caden had fun squirting everyone with his mister fan.

Waiting for it to begin.

It was nice that the whole ceremony was only a little over an hour even with around 500 graduates. 

Way to go Jenae! We are so proud of you!

Ashley came home with a perfect attendance certificate this year. I think that's a first!!

(This is a rarity in our family)

I asked the kids what they wanted to do on their first day of summer...they all wanted to go to the beach. It wasn't the warmest day but it was nice enough to be a good beach day. 

There were riptides and the water was cold (as always) so everyone did more hanging out on the sand than anything. Except Ashley who had no problem getting in the water. 

She found a lot of shells and ended up with some pet sea snails for the day. 

Even though it was low key they all thought it was a great beach day. 

This week is starting off with appointments, assignments, Summer school for Jacob, planning for girls camp and a tri-ward activity. Don't know when the beach will happen again...