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.