Spring Break

We had a really fun spring break this year because Jon and Jaime and their kids came to visit us!  We had a blast together.  

The day after they arrived, we drove to Monterey to go to the Aquarium.  It was a bit chaotic since it was pretty busy for a weekday and keeping an eye on 9 kids at a busy place like that is stressful.  We only temporarily lost children, luckily. :)  We all had fun there.  I could sit and stare at the jellyfish all day long.  It was so mesmerizing.  Here are the pictures...

Happy to be out of the car!

Amazing creatures:

Some fun exhibits:

After that, we headed to an airbnb that we rented close to the beach in La Selva.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate so well for the two nights we were there and it was rainy and kind of cold.  We did still have some fun at the beach the next day, though.

These are from Jaime's nicer camera:

Eli loves being photographed. :)

We had fun playing games and hanging out at the house, too:

I saw this beautiful sunset one evening:

Jon, Jaime, Joe and I stayed up way too late one night talking but it was so fun.  We love those hanging out with those guys.

The day we left, we split up.  Joe went back to work for a day, Jon and Jaime took the younger kids to see some of his mission areas, and I took the older kids to a field trip at NASA.  My friend Deborah Anderson from San Jose had emailed trying to get a group together so we signed up our kids.  It was really fun!  I think they all had a good time and learned a lot.

The whole group of kids:

They had some really fun stations. The favorite was this one where they got to spin around and try to throw koosh balls to each other.

The next day, we drove to Muir Woods and had fun hiking there.  The kids were grumpy about going but perked right up when we got there.

It was so beautiful!  Those redwoods are amazing.  We learned a lot of cool facts about them from the park ranger.  We drove across the Golden Gate bridge and through SF on the way home.  That night, we got to take Jon and Jaime on an adults-only date to one of our favorite restaurants, Banana Leaf.  That was fun, and delicious as always.

Our last day together was spent at the beach.  We opted for a closer beach so we went to Half Moon Bay.  Unfortunately, even though it was sunny, it was super windy and cold.  We've decided we just don't really like Half Moon Bay.  The kids still had some fun.  Jaime got this great picture of a dead crab the kids found:

We were all sad to say goodbye them on Saturday.  We had so much fun! We're so grateful for family members who drive so far to come visit us in CA.  

My Birthday

I had a great birthday.  It was great listening to Conference and then going out to eat at Outback with my family.  I loved it.  They made me brownie sundaes and got me some thoughtful gifts.  Elizabeth got me this book of hairstyle ideas and we have been trying them out.  

A dutch braid on Natalie:

Then, I got to go to my parents' house the day after for Conference omelets.  That was so fun.  We're happy to be close enough to go to that again.

The biggest gift to myself was tickets to Hamilton!  Katie had texted me that some regular price tickets opened up and I seized the opportunity.  They were all along the sides so we had a limited view but it was still so worth it!

We grabbed some dinner and then hurriedly took this picture as we ran to the theater:

I was so giddy.  It was amazing!!  Joe loved it, too. The quality of the performances blew me away.  I couldn't help but wish our girls could be there to see it, too. We will have to take them someday.  They are obsessed with the music and I know they will love it too.

It was a great way to celebrate turning 33!

Chinese New Year Parade in SF

Mary and Andrew told us about the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco and we decided to tag along with them and their friends to watch.  The kids loved taking BART there and then we got a spot and waited for the parade. My pictures aren't great but it was pretty cool.

Gotta love the dragons:

Nate had made this headband in school and so he made sure to bring it and wave it:

Cute Luke was great there, even if it was past his bedtime.

We thought this huge motorized shopping cart was cool:

We left early because Joe wasn't feeling well but it was a great night!

Little Things

Here's a quick catch-up of some of my favorite little things from the last few months...

Nate put this sign up on the door to his room and I loved it:

I also found this on my bed one day after I had shown Nate the bathing suit I'd bought him:

Luckily we could take it back. :)  That kid cracks me up.

We went to his open house and I loved this little project he'd done:

He loves Wii!  Eli does too.  

It warmed my heart to see this one night:

Those boys love getting up early and getting their jobs done so they can have their screen time before school.

We've had some fun preschool times:

The letter F:

I saw this on facebook and thought it'd be fun for the snack:

We had a blast with a restaurant one day where they got to choose what they wanted and count out the coins to pay for it:

Probably their very favorite snack is popcorn.  They love getting bags of popcorn and then pretending to be dogs and eat it off of the trampoline.  Yum! :)

It always makes me laugh.

One afternoon, Eli wanted to snuggle on my bed and then he fell asleep!  He hadn't done that in forever and I couldn't help but savor every minute (and take pictures).

I love when he just curls up and falls asleep somewhere and I frequently take pictures of him:

I loved seeing Nate and Eli asleep next to each other on the floor one night:

Eli is really good at pretend play.  He loves playing with legos and building things with blocks.  He made a city and played with Natalie's little eraser guys:

He wanted me to write that sign for him, which says, "Queen Anderson of all Castles".

I also really loved how Nate's spring picture turned out:

I found this note on the computer one morning.  It had a rough morning since Elizabeth had forgotten to do some homework so she was frustrated and hurried and wanted my help.  I love this thoughtful girl.

She also got to do her wax museum speech.  She did her project on Susan B. Anthony and she did a great job with her memorized speech:

I loved her background, too.

Here's a poster about herself she made in the beginning of the year that turned out really well:

She made dinner for us one Sunday night!  Potato Bisque:

It was really yummy!  She makes some good soups.

We can't leave Natalie out.  Here are some of her antics:

She also made this berry cream pie for pi day:

She loved this butterfly she found in our backyard and named it Kevin:

Here's me and my beautiful girls matching one Sunday:

"Take our picture, Mom!"

We bought a whole bunch of girls scout cookies from Sienna and Jessica hand delivered them when she was in town for a wedding.  It was fun to see her for a second:

My view one morning on run to the lake: