Joe's B-day

Joseph is growing up. He schedule parties with friends,, attends church dance and goes off to scout trips and EFY weeks without parents. He prizes his height and loves to tell me how much taller he is than me. He loves to play games with the family and hang out with the cousins. He love blue BYUI hoodies and enjoyed getting new shoes. He loves to hug on me still tells me he loves me. I'm grateful for this young teen. He is my best cooking helper and he has recently started being nice to his younger sister, Celia. Joseph had a party at Rah Rah's. Philinea, Jeremiah, and Willow were there too. We had ribs and Grandma's ice cream cake. Joseph enjoyed his box full of one dollar bills and getting money for his birthday.

 I had my Mom's help embroidering his name on his new towels and he got a lot of star wars paraphernalia and the movie. He is prepared also with gear for his backpacking trip in June. So far raising a boy in high school is different than raising a girl. I'm hoping the expectation of finishing his Eagle scout award before driving will motivate him to do his best with his time for scouts. I help a lot of young boys progress in cub scouts, why is it harder with your own boy? Joseph has a field trip to San Francisco for art soon and he went golfing with the Varsity scouts. How fun to be a youth trying new thing and seeing great sights. So grateful for my boy and that he is Fifteen!

Easter 2016

After returning from our little vacation, it was a rush to get in Easter mode. I even bought eggs that were boiled and colored already.:) On Saturday, we went to our ward Donut Social/Easter egg hunt. They had the hunts separated by age. Good thing we had already had an egg hunt with Merlene in our back yard for the big kids because they were too old to hunt at the church function. The Easter Bunny came and they had a little photo booth. I got to hold a few babies. I forget how little they are. Our new cousins are in our ward now, moved here from Albuquerque and they have the cutest 5 month old twins, a boy and a girl. Celia wanted to hold one and really enjoyed that. I think Celia had a blast at the party. She said to me" Were you watching me be awesome"? She is such a fun character in our family. We went for family ride on Saturday and found a Pizza hut with a sit down area. Those are hard to find, but the family sure enjoyed it. Emmy will be going back to school soon, so we have to get in all the time we can with her and all of us as a family. It is heavenly when all of them are getting on well and we are enjoying each other's company. Church was great on Sunday. Emmy and I taught my Primary class and Brian taught in Priesthood. We had a yummy steak dinner at home with our new cousins and my folks. Family makes it better. Melanie brought amazingly yummy homemade rolls an my mom make a ice cream cake that was very delicious. Our BBQ is on it's last leg, but all was yummy. We were pleased to see RahRah who brought Easter to us too. We are so loved. I'm grateful we have our health and strength to celebrate our Savior's resurrection with family and food.

Monterey, Woohoo.

We were talking about going to the Monterey Aquarium and spring break was coming up soon. I found a great deal at the Monterey Plaza Hotel and booked it. Last time, Spencer got to go with us there, but he wasn't into the Aquarium. Since Emmy is in town from college she stayed and watched Spence while Bri, Joseph,& Celia and I went to see the Aquarium . Buying tickets with the hotel we were able to go two days for the price of one. I was glad because there was so much to see. I loved the Jellyfish and the sea turtles and hammerhead sharks The aviary was fun too, and Celia liked all the hands on stations where she could press buttons.

We ate dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. and had a seat right by the water. We love the grounds near the hotel and sat by the fire in the evening and had hot chocolate to warm us up. The kids love the room and slept well. The next day Brian, and Joseph enjoyed the hot tub on the roof with the ocean view and Celia and I played at the beach. I had a chance to relax up at the spa too.  We enjoyed the Aquarium a second time, ate at Johnny Rockets, and explored the historical parts of cannery row. We went on the 17 mile drive and it was gorgeous there. The wind brought endless waves and beautiful blues in color. We saw many seals and enjoyed the beach, views and road trip together. We will be back with the whole family soon. It was a wonderful short reprieve and vacation. We are so blessed.