Girls Trip

Jaime had the idea one day of a girls trip with Joelle, Lizzie and Natalie. My girls and I had had very little social time for more than a year. Joelle had had a rough year, too, with a diagnosis of epilepsy. I hadn't been away from Eve since she was born. We all thought it was a great idea. We settled on San Diego where we could go to the beach and also Joelle could see animals, since she loves them so much. It was so fun!

We drove down and went right to the beach. The girls all had fun playing in the ocean:

Then we found a really good seafood restaurant just a walk away from our airbnb. Our airbnb wasn't the best but we weren't there too much. 

The next day we went to Seaworld. That was really fun but pretty hot. We got to see the orca show and the dolphin show:

Jaime and Joelle paid for a "dolphin encounter":

We also had fun with the tide pools:

We made dinner at the place that night and watched Ocean's Eleven.

The next day we drove to Coronado Beach and hung out for a bit. We had wanted to rent kayaks or paddleboards but they weren't as close as we thought and the waves weren't great there. We didn't stay too long before walking to find lunch. Jaime, Joelle and Natalie wanted sushi but Lizzie and I were kind of tired of seafood so we went to an Italian restuarant. Then we came back while they finished their food:

We walked around some more shops and found this Zoltar:

We got some really good gelato and stopped at a bookstore. Then we headed back to our place and watched Les Miserables together. We couldn't help but burst into song at parts. :)

The next day we went to the Safari Park and the Zoo. The Safari Park was fun but again, quite hot. It was cool how you could see elephants, giraffes, etc, all in a huge grass area. The zoo was a lot of fun, too.

That night we found an Indian restaurant for dinner that was really yummy. 

The next day, Jaime and Joelle had to leave early for their long drive back. The girls and I took our time since we had prepped our house to be shown that weekend and couldn't come back until the evening. Joe had taken the boys and Eve to Idaho for the weekend. We got brunch at a not-great restaurant that at least had a nice view of the beach and then drove back. It was such a great trip. Just what we all needed. I'm so glad my girls have their cousins and that I have my sisters (and sisters-in-law) as best friends. 

May

May was a big month for us. It definitely wasn't as busy in years past since there weren't any school events and we didn't have sports going on, although Nate did do an after school baseball and football program. But, it was still busier than normal. 

Eli had fun going to Primary activities every week and they had some really fun ones like building fires and eating s'mores:

While he was there, the older three and I would go to YW every week since I was called to be an advisor and then 1st counselor. Joe would stay home with Eve. Speaking of her, here are some cute Eve moments.

Playing with George:

In this cute yellow dress one Sunday:

And just being cute:

As she started walking around more, of course that brought more injuries. She got a pretty bad one one day from tripping and hitting her head on the concrete outside. This was the next day:

Natalie's voice teacher put on a recital in her backyard. She performed "She Used to Be Mine" from the musical "Waitress" and nailed it! We were all in awe and so proud.

Her with her teacher afterward, Allison Selah:

Natalie got these pictures in the car one day when Eve was cheesing big time:

Lizzie passed her driving test and was officially a licensed driver:

Because I can't help but take sleeping pictures sometimes:

Eli was desperate to have a birthday party with friends since it was his year for that. We didn't think anyone would come in the middle of the pandemic, though, so we waited as long as we could and planned it for the end of May. We weren't sure who to invite since none of us really had any friends yet so we invited a lot of kids--all of the afternoon kids at school (half the class), his karate class, his primary activity group, and the few neighbor kids. We did it at a local park and rented a bounce house. We got a great turnout and he told me after that it was SO fun so I guess it was a success! 

We had our nerf guns for the kids to knock down targets:

We also had a bubble machine in the back there.

We had Costco pizza and then did the pinata:

(Look at all those kids!)

This butterfly was hanging out by us and kept landing on kids:

Eve loved the bounce house:

Cake time:

It was also nice having Lizzie walk her home for nap time while we finished up the party.

One Sunday at the end of May we found out that the Ashby's were going to Yosemite as a family before they left California to move back to Arizona. We wanted to see them so we took another trip to Yosemite. It ended up being an eventful day--we got a flat tire soon into the trip and had to come back. We couldn't find any place open on a Sunday that had the right tires so we ended up renting a van for the day. Then, our kids started to feel nauseous again (they do every time we drive that route), so I ended up sitting in the back so Nate could sit in front. I took some pictures to remember our packed van with 7 people and a puppy:

Thankfully, no people threw up this time but unfortunately George did. 

It was later in the day by the time we got in but it was so fun to see the Ashbys for a little bit:

These guys have been such good friends to us. We'll miss living somewhat close:

In May, we also decided to leave California to move to Jerome. I think in the end, we just really wanted the extra support of family close by. The idea of moving again was terrible but we were excited about housing prices having gone up so much and the prospect of making a good amount on the house we bought. Of course, housing prices also went up in Idaho so we weren't sure we'd find much of anything for awhile. Joe was back and forth a bunch looking. I was on a walk one morning and saw this sign:

So many of our friends from Fremont left California, too, or just moved to a different area. I think the remote work contributed to that the most but the lockdowns didn't help.

We tried to make good use of the pool while we could and since it really started to heat up. I got these pictures I loved one night:

For a little bit, Eve only wanted to go to Eli in the pool. It was pretty cute.

Nate made an awesome slow-mo video firing his water gun. Here's a screenshot:

We had a lot of fun in that pool.