Mother's Day - time to blog

Hey, I actually have time to catch up! Dale is grilling and cleaning. We even got to play some scum! Jaden has been begging to play for weeks now.

Easter was lots of fun with many more boiled colored eggs this year and less candy eggs. I believe we had 9 colors in all and Daddy has a great time making a mess while coloring eggs with 3 children. I should have got a picture. We don't know how she did it, but Beka got a most gorgeous brown colored egg. We held our egg hunt after church on Sunday and enjoyed lots of egg salad sandwiches.

We were lucky enough to have spring break the week following Easter. It was nice to just hang out at home without schedules. Dale took Nathan at the end of the week to Yosemite National Park. They found a hotel in a small town about 25 miles out and were able to enjoy a couple of days of hiking without hauling all the camping gear and putting up with bears. I hear that the bears there have no fear and will remove car doors to get what they think might hold food. They had a great time and forgot to take the camera into the park! Yosemite is so beautiful - what a shame.

We thought it only fair, because the big boys got a trip, that Jae and I have some time alone. We went drove to Monterey last weekend leaving after school. We stayed in a small hotel and hit the jacuzzi as soon as we got there. Very relaxing in the quiet, dark and warm. We enjoyed some TV and snacks before sleeping. What made our stay unique was our non functioning toilet. One of the newer low water deals with a black tank inside the white tank. The desk clerk came to take a look and got it to work. She said if we have more trouble lift the tank lid and push the white button down. That never worked the next morning. Oh well, something to laugh about now. The next day we went to Fisherman's wharf to poke around some. It is pretty small, so I think we looked in all the shops. Jae did find an earring she liked. We had some delicious clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. We were so full we didn't even stop for dinner on the way home. Although we did stop for ice cream and later roadside cherries that were very good. We drove the scenic 17 mile drive along the coast and stopped at the beach for Jae to do some rock climbing. We drove back to Gilroy in the late afternoon for some outlet shopping. We had a great time together. =)

Other tidbits: Jaden lost his two first teeth in February. The little boys took a 12 week soccer class at the park. Beka loved going to play. We are now trying a indoor class with a new sport every week. And Nathan is now a volunteer at the library once a week.

January Happenings

We always start the new year with a bang - Justin's birthday on the 9th! Such a cute 4 year old. Justin fell in love with Walle over Christmas, so that was our birthday theme, cake and all. He received the movie and the biggest box of snacks he has ever seen from Tamara. He got exactly what was requested. Overheard at Christmas was Spencer and Justin making plans to attend each others birthdays once they realized they are the same month. So sad to live apart.
Justin's birthday also fell on the night of the high school's winter formal. So Jaelyn was off to dinner and the dance with friends. She was able to find a nice dress in Arizona. I think she tried on half the dresses in the Junior department. She almost picked the same dress as her friend up here. We talked her out of it because of length and coverage. They all had a great time and looked beautiful. I worried about getting Jae out the door because she kept saying her dress made her look fat! hah! She is stunning in red.

Dale had Martin Luther King day off of work so we had a family picnic. After Christmas, Dale purchased a gas grill. We decided on a camping one so we could use it at home and be portable. He was excited to take it to the park and try it out on the go. We went to a large park with a lake and small train in Los Gatos. Unfortunately, the lake was about dried up and the train not running, but we brought bikes for the little ones and no one was disappointed. It was a very busy day at the park, but we got a nice spot by the playground. A hike was involved for the bathrooms. After lunch we played bean the monkey in the middle with a play ground ball and then a round of kickball. The little ones liked this better. We gave them just one base to run to. Dale likes to take that grill everywhere. He took the kids to the park a week ago, while I got my hair cut, and cooked them up some hamburgers. Nathan is a pretty good sport and goes along to play with his little siblings. Lucky for me, Dale has tomorrow off! President's day landed on my birthday. He will grill at home because we are finally getting lots of rain.
On a side note, Justin and Jaden are now soccer players. We signed up for the once a week classes back to back. They seem to enjoy it and get lots of running in. Beka gets a couple of hours at the playground right next to the field. I have even gotten to know some of the other moms. People are so interesting. One little boy is also in Justin's preschool and his mom is from Egypt. It is fascinating to hear about that part of the globe and how she came to the Bay area. I will leave you with this final picture/commercial ad for 'Got Cheese?' taken by Tamara. One little girl did not want wait for mommy to finish exercising. Helping oneself is much better!

2008 catch up

Whew, I am a bit behind. Thanksgiving was a semi- quiet affair with just us Miles. We went on a hike in the morning at Rancho San Antonio. We brought along a toddler pack for Beka, but she didn't like it so only spent 5 to 10 minutes in it. We were amazed at our energizer bunny. We stopped at the farm that is one mile in and looked at the animals and ate snacks. Once we were refueled we started on the gentle uphill trail to make a big loop. Beka outdid her younger brothers; they would get tired and complain and she would say "No! I walk" She did have a couple of rides courtesy of Nathan. The best part was getting passed by two horses and their rides. Beka was very excited, so when she started lagging we would say the horses went this way, let's go find them. Well, our hike was a least 3 miles and took a couple of hours with little legs, but we worked up a good appetite! We went home and cooked up a storm with lots of pies for dessert.

This is a picture of Grandma and Grandpa visiting us in mid October. We had a great time with them. This is outside the new Science and Natural History Museum in San Francisco. We had an interesting time finding it without specific directions in Golden Gate park. Their roads aren't well labeled. Our favorite was the South African penguins that loved following children back and forth in the water.

December 9 was Jaelyn's birthday! We had a family party with her boyfriend Christopher and her favorite dinner and cake. Jaelyn and I had a private party the Saturday before when we went to see "Twilight" and have lunch together. See received tons of snacks from her friends plus came home from school with an armful of cake, cookies, brownies and balloons, crown and boa. If I couldn't find or hear the little ones I would know they had snuck into her room to get into her large box of snacks!

I know that I jumping around randomly, but as I find pictures, I am reminded of events. Matthew came for a visit the week before Thanksgiving. He was attending an Anthropology conference in San Francisco. He did very well navigating Cal train and Bart everyday and would get home between 7 and 7:30 so we had a little visiting and movie time. The kids loved Uncle Matt swinging them about. On Sunday we drove him to Sacramento to visit Bobo for a couple of days. We took dinner to share with him and managed to keep little ones out of trouble. Lets just say no child proofing and a pool out back. When I find my camera cable I will upload pictures of my two December birthdays. Sadly, we left the camera home over Christmas by accident, so all we have are mom's film. I have to figure out how to get them in the computer.

Anyway, Nathan's 18th birthday was on the 11th. He had about 5 friends over on that Saturday for a gaming fest. If you can imagine two games systems, two TVs and one computer, you have it. I guess they were able to link the two game systems and battle each other. There was plenty of pizza, chips, sodas and cheesecake. Plus they got some quiet time while we left for our ward Christmas party. Maybe someday soon our "adult" son will get a job and a license to drive. We are still in permit mode. At least he was able to help drive home from Arizona.

We had a fabulous time with both families. Lots of new toys, a car loaded to the top with acquired goods, and wonderful memories of time spent with cousins. We had a trip to the zoo, to the park more than once, Temple lights where Jaden got lost in the crowd and gave his mother a heart attack, pony cart rides courtesy of Aunt Sandy and Heather. Dogs and cats to pet and pester - by Beka and cookout with Beka's birth family. We fell in love with Wall E and played lots of card games. Dale is fun to play with when playing scum. Read some books, talked lots and rocked a baby for a day. Only one sick child this trip! It was a treat to get to hold her uninterrupted - my busy toddler. Dale took the boys on a hike for the day and watched lots of football! Well that is a pretty good summary. Tell later...