July 18, 2010

July 18, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday started off as a slow day, but ended well. We started off working on some cleaning so that the house could be ready for a bunch of new visitors that were arriving at the end of the week. We decided to go to the Wild Animal park after my sister E finished her work for the day. When she got home we tried to quickly pack up and get out the door. There are always a bunch of things that slow us down, but we managed to get there. The weather has turned from very cold, to very hot and we were happy that we were at the Park in the evening. We first went and saw a new acrobatic dance show featuring some African dancers. It was a pretty impressive show. It even kept J's interest. The elephants were super close by and so we headed over to see them. There were three very new baby elephants in the enclosure and two juveniles. The babies were all very active and playing with each other. They were wrestling, head butting, and romping around. Eventually B-man convinced us to go see the lions. The lions were not as active but we did get a good a view. We then went on the train ride around the Africa enclosures. The weather was just glorious and everyone had a great time. We then started to walk back to the front. We tried to see the gorillas but they must have been taken in for the night. We loaded into the cars and then headed home with a stop for an ice cream cone on the way. Once home we had a very simple dinner and then put people to bed.

Tuesday we did more cleaning and organizing. I did take J and B-man to the beach. I was not expecting J to like the water or the sand. However, he surprised me and loved both. Even though the water was frigid he was super excited to "walk" around in it holding my hands. He didn't even seem to mind when the waves would crash into him. My sister met us there for a while and helped carry some of the things back to the car. Later that afternoon my mom and I did make a quick fun shopping trip in the afternoon. We then came home and tried a very easy but tasty recipe designed to help us use up the terrific amounts of yellow squash we have coming out of the garden. Summer 2010 is the summer of the squash. If you stop by you will probably take some home with you.

Wednesday must have been slow because I can't remember anything that happened. Sometimes that happens with me...

Thursday afternoon I drove up with the boys again to visit Jewels and her kids. The weather was so hot, and this time when we took the kids to the pool they didn't mind not having a splash park. The weather was so hot that a thunderstorm came through. That never happens here. I didn't mean to stay too long, but Jewels was very sneaky and kept convincing me to stay longer by feeding me dinner, and other such things. E came up and we crossed paths for about an hour before I really had to get home. While we were driving home B-man really wanted to go to sleep, but the rain on the windows was bothering him. He mentioned it and right after talking about it the rain stopped. He was so excited is convinced that it was a miracle from God. He has mentioned it a lot since then at random times too. Children have such great faith. Once the rain stopped he was able to go to sleep. It was a nice peaceful drive home. Later that night after my boys were sleeping my older sister made it into town from Utah with her three kids. It's been a long time since I have seen them and I couldn't believe how big they have gotten.

Friday was a busy, busy day. My mom and Sister drove up to Long Beach for a convention, and so I watched my sister's kids while they were gone. We had a good day, although the weather had finally turned very hot. (Making the house hot too.) In the afternoon when the weather had cooled down a little bit we went to Stagecoach park by our house. The boys had a great time, and J was so excited about the dogs that were there. He can spot a dog from far away! That night we had leftovers for dinner and then I put my boys in bed.

Saturday my dad was home and seemed to have a great time taking care of the kids. He even organized a trip to the beach with all the kids. Something that was WAY too daunting for me on my own the day before. The timing was bad for J's nap, so I went with my sister to make sure she didn't get eaten by a shark while she swam in the ocean. We then gathered the kids together on the beach and eventually had to head back home so that J could take a nap and E could get on the road. My dad only expected to stay at the beach for an hour, but they were having so much fun that they ended up staying much longer than that. Later that day he even turned on the sprinklers in the front yard so that they could go run through them again. B-man loves having so many people around to play with. He basically spends all his time either riding this silver tricycle that we've had forever (and is awesome) or playing with the Rokenboks. That night we capped off the day by letting the kids watch "Star Wars Episode 5." B-man was in heaven despite the intense scenes and has been really excited to watch the sixth one. He asks every day if he can watch it. My dad got pizza and right when the movie was over we fed the kids and then they went to bed.

Sunday was a crazy day. We made it to church on time, but not early enough to save enough of the good seats for our whole group, so we ended up way in the back in the cultural hall. I hate it back there. It is so much noisier and harder to do with kids. Oh well. I went to my dad's Sunday School class for about five minutes before J decided that he was too excited to be quiet. We spent the rest of the church time wandering the halls. He wasn't sad, just super loud and talkative. I felt like I needed to leave the building at one point... B-man had a great time in his Primary class. They did a bunch of Pioneer day activities, and he loved having his cousin Julia in his class too. After church we came home, and before too long Jewels arrived with her kids. We had a good afternoon all together, although B-man kept complaining of a headache and spent most of the evening lying down. I could tell he wasn't feeling very well, but he was being so good I mostly just let him lie down and didn't bother him. Dinner was very late because my dad had to take some people to LAX airport after church, so once he got home we ate dinner. All the boys were pretty rambunctious and excited to eat by that point. Poor B-man really wasn't feeling well because he fell asleep waiting for us to say the prayer. After dinner I eventually decided just to put him in bed and see what happened. I could tell he had a fever when I took him upstairs to bed. Poor guy.

We love you all!
R, M, B-man, and J

P.S. One of the days my mom and I teamed up to give J a haircut. We would take turns holding or cutting. B-man even helped by feeding him tiny pieces of chips. He looks so different, but so cute.

While we were having fun M was too. Note-able this week was that he finally finished his work trip and was able to spend two days in Hong Kong on a layover with his Grandparents. They are there serving a mission for our church. He had a great time