School Year Wrap-up

The end of the school year is always a crazy time and this year was no exception. Nate's teacher was pushing them right until the end and gave them a presentation and poster assignment on a historical landmark from Fremont. When Nate saw that our church building was on the list, he decided that would be the easiest thing to do. :) He and I went over there one afternoon to take pictures and finally check out the historical plaques we'd never looked at before and we learned a little bit of history.

 He ended up getting a good grade on it and even talked about his ancestor Abraham Hunsaker who was in the Mormon Battalion.

His teacher was really good about taking pictures this year:

Open House night:

Joe and our friend Darren (Cameron's dad) who we met in baseball:

I ended up taking charge of the FAME program midyear when my friend Laurel Child who was in charge of it moved to Utah. It was hard stepping into her big shoes but I kept it going at least. I taught in the boys' classes and also two other classes.

 I helped chaperone the field trip to Centerville for the International Fair:

Mr. Schneider also asked me one day if I'd be willing to teach a few Monart lessons to Nate's class. He'd gotten a grant to pay for them but needed someone to teach. I had a few lesson outlines to work with and taught 5 classes at the end of the year for a minimal amount of money :). It was good to help out and get to know the kids better.

 

 The girls had their end of year assembly and Eli and I went to support them. They both ended up getting tons of awards! You never know beforehand what awards they'd get so it makes picture taking hard. This was a funny moment, though, because Natalie got an award for history and then Elizabeth got one right after her:

 

Eli and I laughed out loud when Elizabeth got announced for the PE award :). She always complains about how terrible she does in PE but her teacher must have noticed her effort.

Of course Natalie got an award in Woods:

We took a celebratory trip to get frozen yogurt on the last day school:

It was a great school year but we were all pretty psyched for summer to start!

Baseball

We had another great season of baseball. Eli ended up playing his third year of t-ball since they didn't have enough players to field a farm league. So, he was a pro! He made a lot of progress on his throwing and catching this year, though. He and I did a game where he could earn gatorade by getting 5 and then 10 good catches and throws in a row. He eventually made it over 20 catches without dropping! He was on the Riverbandits this year and had a great new coach named Eduardo. He loved playing first base and got tons of outs. It was fun to watch how much progress he's made since his first year of t-ball. Hopefully, he'll be ready to go right to Minor B next year.

Eli's team:

Eli got to have a super fun swim party at the coach's house:

Joe ended up helping coach Nate's Minor A team this year, the Orioles. He didn't end up being on the same team as his friends, which he was sad about it, but at least he got to play them a lot. He would get really competitive with his friend, Carlo, and even caught a fly in the outfield to get him out. He had some great hits and battled fear at the end of the season after getting hit by some hard pitches. We were proud of him for getting back out there every time. He played a lot of 2nd base and outfield.

This was a really good double he got one night:

Their team struggled a bit but got some good wins.

Even though it's super hectic, I do miss watching the boys play when the season is over.

YW Backpacking Trip

This year, with all the changes to YW Camp, the overnight hike that was formerly for 3rd year girls was opened up to any YW in the stake who wanted to attend. I offered to go as a leader and the girls both came, too. We had a pretty good group of girls come and it was just a 24 hour trip to Castle Rock in Saratoga. It was hard but fun! I hadn't been on a backpacking trip since I was a YW and I forgot how much harder it is than just camping. 

 The trail got a little tight at this part but there were metal guardrails we could hold on to. The girls wanted to act like they were barely hanging on:

 We got to the campsite before dark and set up camp. Natalie and Nora helped hang up some of the food:

It was a bit of a rough night on just those thin pads. We were on a bit of a slope, too, which made it difficult. Look at all those tired eyes:

Back on the trail the next day:

 We stopped for lunch and the girls had fun doing an orienteering activity.

We climbed back into the parking lot, exhausted and hot but feeling quite accomplished. 

April & May

I had a great birthday this year. Joe and the kids made me breakfast in bed and decorated the white board:

That night we went out to Hana Japan for dinner. They used to have one of those in Stockton that we'd go to all the time and I loved it. When I found out there was one in Dublin, I was so excited. The kids all loved it! The food was great and it was entertaining. All of us caught the shrimp he flicked into our mouths except Joe. :)
That night Joe showed them all some funny videos from the Math program he is selling and I loved watching them all laugh and laugh:

Natalie has LOVED her wood elective this year and built a lot of cool things. Here's a picture her teacher sent me one day:

A cool tower the kids built:

Joe went on a work trip to San Diego and had a lot of fun riding around on these, going to the beach and eating good food. He likes the people he's working with (Joe is 2nd from the left).

We had a fun spring break this year. It was much more relaxing--no trip to Europe this time! Our spring break overlapped with the Ashby's for one day so we decided to meet in the middle in Fairfield to see them. We went to Scandia and had a lot of fun catching up with Mari and the kids. Our kids hadn't done laser tag before and they loved that:

The younger ones played some mini golf while the girls did the go-carts.

Nate sure missed Max. 

The Sunday after spring break started was Easter. We did our sunrise devotional again out on our trampoline. Then we ate cinnamon rolls and got ready for church. After church, we dyed eggs, did an egg hunt, and had dinner. It was a great day:

We went with the Allreds and the Winmills to the beach one day. It was a new one we hadn't been to (San Gregorio, south of Half Moon Bay) and we loved it! It was big but kind of hard to access since you had to climb down some rocks and cross a little stream so that meant there weren't very many people. The kids had so much fun playing in the stream and a little bit in the ocean (it was freezing!).

(Those are all courtesy of Kristen)

We also had fun meeting friends at an inflatable place and just hanging out at home.  Then it was back to school again in May.
I loved this picture that one of the kids took of a family game on Sunday.

 One Saturday morning in May, we had tickets to go through the Oakland temple open house. It was the first Saturday it was open and it was quite crowded. We didn't get as much time as we were hoping to stop and look at the different rooms but it was still nice taking the kids through and seeing where Joe and I were married.

 Next came Mother's Day, which was wonderful. The kids spoiled me with breakfast again and I loved the songs they sang in sacrament meeting. Here are the questionnaires the boys filled out about me in Primary:

 

 Nate's picture: :)

 I love that Eli always knows my birthday the best.
I requested another hike on Mother's Day and we had fun exploring at Dry Creek:

 

 I had to snap a picture of Eli sleeping in his tent one night:

 Natalie got to go to the Maker Faire across the bay for her wood shop. Joe got to go with her one day. She displayed her desk she made:

Isn't it awesome?

She got to do some other fun things too:

 One Sunday, Eli lost both of his front bottom teeth on the same day!

 It's crazy how he immediately looks older with missing teeth.
The day finally came for the Hamilton tickets we'd bought months and months earlier. Unfortunately, Joe needed to work since it was a matinee show. So, I ended up taking Nate in his place. He's grown to love Hamilton and was excited to go.

We were way up at the top but it was still awesome to show the kids one of their favorite musicals. Natalie was especially excited since she was most of the music memorized.

 We went back to the temple for another open house, this time with the Allreds and the Yeh family. The boys were good sports and came along. We also went to Fenton's after, so that helped. The girls went up another night to volunteer as ushers and I went up to help clean so we were at the temple a lot that month.

Another weekend we went to Rock City at the base of Mt Diablo to climb around and explore. 

Natalie and Nate were super worried about Elizabeth climbing things they thought were risky but she was fine and we all lived. :)

 At the end of May, Ann let me use a pass she'd been gifted for indoor skydiving since I chickened out of actual skydiving. Lareina and I did it and it was super fun.

We're going to take the kids back another time as a reward for completing a month without TV during May and June.