Knott's Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm opened up for rides!  We got reservations and spent and afternoon there.  It was fun to see it all and ride some of our favorites.

Lydia did her mission report on the Santa Cruz mission this year.  We found this model at the park.

They have a new ride similar to Toy Story at Disneyland that we tried out.  It was the only ride that we all went on together.

 

Afterwards we got a cookie-wich to share.

It's fun to be out and doing things again!

Graduation & Mother's Day

After three years, I finally graduated with my masters in education from Penn State!  Graduation was on Mother's Day and my family spoiled me!

It was such a special day and a relief to have my master's done.  I have loved almost every minute of it.  I miss being a student.  For my thesis I wrote and illustrated a children's book called Home.  It's a collective biography of women in my maternal family line and a really special project for me to work on.

 

Lydia's Birthday

Lydia turned 10 years old!

This year she's really taken off reading Harry Potter.  She's on the 5th book now.  She also got glasses this year.  She's an amazing cook and helper at home.

She made her own birthday dinner (Hawaiian Haystacks) and her own cupcakes (sorting hats from Harry Potter).  She hid colored M&Ms inside the cupcakes representing the different houses, so when you took a bite, you found out what house the sorting hat chose for you!

She got mostly clothes this year and since she's super picky about what she wears, she knew most of her gifts before hand.  Although we did surprise her with a jewelry making kit.

 Happy Birthday, Lydia!  We love having you in our family!

16th Anniversary

We've been married 16 years!!  We celebrated by going to Taste of Knott's on our anniversary.  It was really yummy with so many boysenberry options.  It was also fun to go out with just the two of us.

Moving

We moved to Fullerton!

We got the keys on March 20, but we had a few projects we wanted to do before moving in, so we didn't move until April 19.  Most of the little projects got done...one large project is still in progress.

We celebrated getting the keys by having a BBQ.  Our new neighbors came over and introduced themselves while we were there.  They were excited to see more kids move to the neighborhood.

Here are some pictures of some of our projects... Robbie built some new furniture.

We spray painted the outdoor furniture.

Lydia put epoxy on the garage floors.

 Brian and Robbie mounted a TV under the pergola.

We had a few fun nights with our last ward before moving to the new ward.  Luckily we aren't far so we will keep in touch.  The youth would get together once a week to play ultimate frisbee with the missionaries.

Saying goodbye to the YW.  They were so sweet and fun to serve.  They kidnapped Lydia and I for ice cream at Frostbites one evening.

Moving day arrived.  Catherine didn't know what to think.  The new people and loud moving noises made her nervous.  She was so excited when our neighbors came over with a plate of goodies to snack on for moving day.  We will miss our good neighbors.

Doing homework at the new house before our stuff arrived.

We have a lot of cool birds at our new house!  Hummingbirds, mockingbirds, robins....Catherine is looking them up.

We even had the famous Steve the peacock come visit us.  Bobby, Jesi and Liam were all there when he showed up.  We were happy to have family come visit.  I wish I had gotten more photos with them.

Our new ward has been so welcoming.  After only 2 weeks we've had 2 come to visit us to welcome us to the ward.  We also had one invite family us for dinner on last Sunday.  It was nice to get to know some new friends.