In Lieu of Science Camp: Santa Monica Pier

Upon waking up Tuesday morning (literally, 45 minutes before we were due to check out), we got everything packed up and headed out for breakfast at Denny's-far and away better than the disastrous meal at Cocos the night before! We watched people fly up and down the Mickey Mouse roller coaster at CA Adventure, which was right across the street!  After that, we jumped on the freeway and headed to Santa Monica Pier-a bit of a drive, but we thought that would be a cool destination.  We were right!

 The pier was amazing.  I have never been there, and Jared said this entire area made him love the beach much more (he doesn't care for the crowds or the grossness of the water, generally speaking).  I LOVE the ocean more than any other place on the wold-this pier was icing on the proverbial cake!  Karianna loved everything.  She was pretty young last time she was at the ocean, so this was a neat experience for her.  We walked the pier, took lots of pictures, wandered through the amusement park, played air hockey, and watched the waved pound into the pier supports.  The day was overcast and windy, so the waves were really on point!

 We had to get creative setting up my camera for the self-timer.....

 After we got our fill of the pier, we headed down to the beach, spread out the sheet we had brought, and just reveled in the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.  Karianna and I ran down to the surf and played wave tag for a looooooooong time.  We experimented with how deep we went, giggled at the sand shifting under our feet, and shrieked when the waves soaked our jeans.  We are fairly certain we saw a few dolphins a ways out-or something big.  We didn't find any shells, but we were so entranced with the waves, it didn't seem to matter.  Jared took a little catnap on the sheet, and by the time we got back, we all just laid there enjoying the sunshine that had finally popped out and the sounds of the ocean.  Have I said I LOVE the ocean?  I do.  Somehow, it just puts things into perspective....makes you feel more capable and confident than you normally are, and as if the big things don't really matter all that much.  I feel so invigorated at the ocean, and I think Karianna caught some of that.  It was so much fun hanging out with her-I really, really enjoyed myself.

 Jared saw this thing flying through the sky-I think he called it an ospry?  Apparently it is a military grade plane that is really rare.

 We stayed much longer than we anticipated-until 3pm.  It was so worth it though.  We knew we had to start heading home though, so we washed off our feet, listened to a few more verse of an unrecognizable song sung by a homeless lady who managed to locate an amp and a mic, and trudged for the car, leaving the beautiful ocean behind. Sigh.  I always get sad leaving the ocean.

Our drive out of the area was horrendous, as was the traffic jam heading towards Disney.  We got well out of the city and pretty close to the border before we stopped for an extremely late lunch/early dinner at Subway.  Karianna slept a good part of the way, and both Jared and I found it much easier to drive on a good night's rest and knowing we were heading home to the kids.  We arrived just after 11pm to relieve my mom-the house was still really clean, just as I had left it, which was impressive!  We woke all the kids up after she left, and must have played/talked with them until just before midnight-it was a sweet reunion.  All the kids were extremely jealous of Karianna, but also excited to see pictures and to hear about all our adventures.

I can't express how grateful I am for these last few days.  They meant so much to me and Jared, in terms of connecting with Karianna and sharing these experiences with her at such a tender age.  We love her so much and we are so proud of the young woman she is becoming!

From the Mouths of Babes

Karianna: Our house is really clean!

Me: How long do you think it will stay this way? Please say longer than a day-I worked so hard!

Karianna: Okay, but reality has so many expectations that we can't possibly hope to compete with.

LOL! Wise words have never been spoken, especially by a 10 year old, self-proclaimed genius!

A Perfect Birthday Gift

Jared gave me my birthday gift tonight, even though my birthday is not until Sunday.  He knows that day is going to be filled with cleaning projects before we go out of town early the next morning, so he opted to give it to me today.  He knows I have been searching for the piano sheet music to "Never a Better Hero".  Where I have had no success in finding it, he easily located it, along with 79 other memorable piano/vocal solos compiled in one spiral bound book!  Seriously, seriously amazing!!!!  Since getting our piano, my skills have improved a lot, I think, especially in terms of playing multiple flats/sharps, sight reading more easily, and adjusting my finger positioning so I am not using my two dominant fingers on each hand to play all the notes (I realized I was subconsciously doing that shortly after getting the piano). I am so excited to practice out of this book, I feel like the piano bring such a calm, positive spirit to the home, and it is certainly my prime form of a stress reliever.

Perfect gift, Jared-you are amazing!

Summer Plans in the Works!

I can't believe I am already putting together summer plans--how is it that time keeps flying by so quickly?  You think I'd be used to it by now!

Today I signed up JD, Jordan, and Sara for Boredom Busters, which is basically the same summer program through City of Mesa that I did as a kid, and then worked/supervised as a teenager/adult.  I love this program, though I am sad they made it only a 2 week session with swimming once a week, as opposed to a month-long session with swimming twice a week.  In any case, I think those three will have a grand time with BB, and it will give them a lot to do during those two weeks.  So far, here's what we got planned:

1. Cub Scout Day Camp: JD, end of May
2. Phantom of the Opera:  Me and Karianna, end of May.
3. Family Camping Trip:  Memorial Day Weekend
4. Dive Team: Karianna, June-July
5. Boredom Busters:  JD, Jordan, Sara, 2 weeks in June
6. Family Vacation to CA/Seaworld: end of June
7. Family Camping Trip: End of July

We'll have 4th of July stuff, and then a lot of free time that month that I'll fill up with other activities, mostly home based.  We will go to a splash pad once a week, the dump bucket pool once a week, and a MPS pool once a week during Karianna's dive meets.  We have Summer Movies on Thursdays as well, and of course, our near-daily swimming excursions in the backyard. I have booklists made up for the kids, and working on getting other basic summer school stuff together.  

With only 6 weeks or so left in school, I am sure these activities will be upon us sooner than later!  

Adding to His Limited Repartoire

 Jackson is the pickiest kid on the fact of the planet.  He has about five main foods he will consistently eat and that's around it.  He loves bananas, grapes, yogurt, applesauce, and string cheese; he also eats basic crackers and dry cereal.  Other than that, he is a really tough cookie in terms of eating new things.  So it was extremely nice the other day to realize he had snuck an apple out of a grocery sack before I could put it away and proceeded to pulverize it with his teeth, all the way down to the core.  Granted, it took him about an hour, and he ended up discarding it in a book basket, but I caught the latter before it started to decay, and at the end of the day, I can now add "apple" to his food list.

Have I ever mentioned Jackson has a fused tooth, just like James?  He does.  :)  Also a nice little side comment-Jackson was sharing his apple with James so very kindly for about 5 minutes.  For a toddler, I think that's pretty impressive!

Yellow Flowers!

 I LOVE this time of the year, when our huge palo verde starts to flower!  Sure, it makes a huge mess, but the bright yellow flowers are just so beautiful, as is the yellow carpet that inevitably forms on the ground.  So pretty!

Cousins!

As much as we get to see Jared's side of the family, we just don't have a ton of pictures of them.  We were able to take a really good one of all the Lautenschlager cousins today, and it turned out super cute!  This includes Aubrey and Brennan's little girl, Brielle, and David and Sarah's little girl, Olivia.

Easter Pictures!

Easter Egg Hunt 2015

 We went to Princess Park to do our own family Easter Egg Hunt today-a little out of the norm since we usually do a hunt with the cousins, but we are not doing that until the 18th of the month, so we opted to do our own after conference today.  The park was empty when we got there, so that gave me ample space to "hide" the eggs.  Each kid had to also find one large egg that they would get to trade in for a prize in lieu of getting actual easter baskets this year.  We had a great time finding all the eggs and then trading-Jackson was so cute in his deep egg-finding concentration!  I was super impressed with Karianna and JD for donating eggs when the little kids didn't get as many.

 Emptying all the eggs out and getting read to trad in the big one for a prize!

 Jordan finally got a pokemon folder and new cards-made his day!

 James and Jackson got this awesome red ball to share, which they went nuts over!  Sadly, the ball got trapped between my legs and this wall, and for oddly enough, it popped!  I was so surprised, and sad, as the boys really loved it!  I'll have to replace it next week.

We will have another Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow with the Lautenschlagers, as well as celebrate Easter in general with dinner and hopefully some great conference talks.  Happy Easter!