School Starts

Today is the first day of school!  Robbie started high school, which means he also started seminary nice and early at 5:45 am. 

Thomas and Lydia also started 2nd and 5th grade.  Everyone is beginning at a new school this year.

lined up and waiting for teachers

off they go

Summer Happenings

Our law school friends from Texas, the Fabelas, came to California for a softball tournament.  We haven't seen them since graduation, so it was fun to catch up with them and watch Kaiya play.  Robbie and Kaiya were born one week apart after the first year of law school.

Tom keeps playing basketball.  He loves to play every week!

Robbie and I went on a youth trip to the Newport Beach Temple.

Lydia started sewing her first quilt...she loves pineapples!

We also bought a pool table!  Kids are excited to get better at playing.

Kids and I went on a beach trip to the tide pools at Crystal Cove.

sea anemone

We stopped at In-n-Out on the way home.

 We also finished the puzzle I picked out in New York.

 

Big Bear

 I had the opportunity to go to Big Bear with the YW for an overnighter trip.  We spent the first day at Sky Park, which had axe throwing

archery

and a super fun zipline

The next day we rented kayaks.  Here I am with a few of the other leaders.

It was fun to get to know others in YW and our new ward better.

California Science Center

 We visited the California Science Center a few weeks ago.  We love seeing the Endeavour there.  They have a new exhibit planned for it where it will be displayed with its booster vertically.  It'll be pretty awesome when it's done.

We also wanted to see the Art of the Brick exhibit.  Nathan Sawaya creates art with Lego bricks.  He had a whole animal display section.

He also recreates famous cultural artifacts and fine art from around the world with Lego bricks.

He had a quote displayed talking about how kids learn through play and why not teach them about art through Lego.

Summer Fun

We went to a local splash pad one afternoon.

Brian and I got to attend the temple!

We made cherry crumble.

I'm working on some quilts to hang in our family room.

Thomas started Summer Basketball League, which he loves!

We are finding all sorts of goodies in our yard including an avocado tree

and two pomegranate trees.

 

Disneyland, Day 3

Our final day was at Disneyland again.  Since it was over the 4th of July holiday, we got all of us matching Hamilton shirts.  We're just like our country, we're young, scrappy, and hungry!

Back to the Millennium Falcon

Indiana Jones

 

Brian took Cat to the Tarzan Treehouse.

 

Matterhorn

Big Thunder Mountain

Tea Cups

Small World

Minnie Mouse

Mickey Mouse

and Pluto again!

Go-go coaster

 

We got ice cream from Gibson Girl on Main Street.

 

Our epic moment this day happened on Space Mountain.  

 

We didn't get reservations at the beginning of the day for Rise of the Resistance.  Our next chance was at noon.  We got in line for Space Mountain thinking we would be able to get the reservation while in line.  Well, our turn came up and we got on the ride a minute before noon.  The kids all thought we had lost out on our chance to ride Rise again.  We got off the ride and they were so bummed.  Brian told them though, "I'm feeling a little sick, but I got reservations mid-ride!"  While we were tumbling around in the dark, Brian was on his phone and scored us another turn at Rise of the Resistance!  We didn't get any pictures the second time we rode it though, we just enjoyed it.  It was such a fun and exhausting 3 days!  Loved being there with my favorite people!