Swim Parties

We've gotten to have some small "swim parties" this week with some of our friends.

First, Bella's best friend from church, Violet, came over with her two sisters to swim on Monday. It was evening and I didn't get a picture until after they got out of the pool, but they had A LOT of fun!!

On Wednesday, we had some friends from our home school group over to swim. We had a GREAT day with a delicious pot luck and lots playing in the back yard too!

Today we had some church friends over to swim which was also super-fun. We feel so blessed to be able to share our pool and be able to spend special time with our good friends! (Thanks everyone for coming!)

The VW's

Yesterday we visited our dear friends, the VanWagenens. They now live in Texas but came to visit Michael's family in Newport. We LOVE to catch up with them when either they visit us or we visit them. Michael introduced Craig and I!!

We were super-lame, though and got to their place way later than we meant to. (Traffic, not finding a Trader Joe's and a loooong line at the ferry that Craig insisted on taking.) It threw everything off, because WE were bringing dinner!! We all ate late, and after what seemed like a very short visit, it was midnight. All our kids fell asleep before I could even think to take a picture of them! I just hope the VanWagenens still like us! We sure love them!

Balboa Island

Yesterday we went to Newport Beach and Balboa Island. Lately, I've been remembering a summer when I was 9 (1978) when I went with my family and spent a week there at a beach house. Besides tons of swimming and shell-collecting, one of my favorite things we did was go to Balboa Island. We played skee-ball, rode the ferris wheel, and got Balboa bars. We got to the island by the ferry and it was so cool to take our car across! These memories inspired yesterday's family outing.
We drove onto the island and then took the ferry to Balboa. We went on a really crowded day, so the line was pretty long. When we got to the other side, we played games in the arcade and rode the ferris wheel--they sent us around LOTS of times, it was sooooo fun! (If you click on the picture, you'll see us up at the top!













We also rode the carousel.

























Later, we went to the beach where the big girls played in the ocean while Ceci napped. The waves were HUGE!!! (Like, in-the-news, huge!) They were beautiful, but a little scary!





























After swimming, we wandered around Balboa a little more before taking the ferry back to the other side.




















We then got some frozen bananas covered in chocolate!










We finished off our day by having dinner at Whole Foods-- soup and sandwiches. The Tustin Whole Foods is reeeeaaallly nice! What a fun and exhausting day!

Go see Food, Inc!

I absolutely loved this movie. If you care about your health, the health of your family, and want to change a bad system-- go see this movie to get started. It was very well-done and although hard at times, very positive and leaves you with a feeling that we all can make changes for the better. Truly, this movie could change your life!!

GO SEE IT!!






* PS-- I've got some posts to fill in--I've been a really lazy blogger this summer. We've been so busy and partying a lot-- just not blogging it. So check back for some fill-ins if you are so inclined.

A Date!

It's been a loooooong time since Craig and I have been able to go on a "date." He really deserves to do something fun because he's been working really hard this summer on a curriculum planning team with his school district. (Which is a HUGE blessing to us that he actually had a summer job!) He also just finished a super-hard first year of teaching in a very tough district. ( I think our last date was the "nightmare" Grad Night at Disneyland!) So we finally got to go out!

We went to a wonderful, healthy restaurant in Brentwood for lunch called "A Votre Sante." They serve mostly organic food. We got a salmon salad and a grass fed hamburger. We shared both and they were soooooooooooooooo good!! We've been working really hard on eating really healthily for the past couple of weeks so it was nice to go out and still eat healthily! I highly recommend this place.

After lunch, we went to the Temple which was very nice.

We were then able to go see a movie, called "Food, Inc," which was so fantastic, I had to write a separate blog about it!

Farmer's Market with Brieanne!

Today we had a wonderful surprise visit from Brieanne and her dollies. It was so fun to meet up with her at the Farmer's Market!! It was crazy, hot and the kids were all over the place, but it was just so nice to be together. We bought tons of rainier cherries and they may be the last of the season. SO YUMMY!!

It was just so great to see my dear friend and to be at one of my very favorite places!

My iPod

I just had to report that yesterday, for some very strange reason, I finally decided to open an iPod that Craig and I bought.

Two years ago.

We are old and not with the times.

We're not used to these newfangled devices!

I'm still not sure what made me do it.

But it inspired a crazy uploading frenzy and now I have about 1/4 of our CD library on our ipod. (We have A LOT of CD'S.) I've been making lots of fun playlists and occasionally buying songs from itunes.

We are having fun and are kind of excited to take it in the car on our road trips. Imagine, I don't have to put all the CD's in that giant case I have and lug it along! It all fits in this tiny box that fits in the palm of your hand-- and it holds 30MB!

Welcome, Craig and Suzy, to 2009!

Mid July Report :)

This past week has been a bit of a recovery time. I've cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned some more. I washed every towel in the house (since every single one was dirty!) Besides cleaning and doing laundry, we've just been mellow. A big highlight of the week was when we went through some bags of clothes that a friend gave us-- it was seriously so exciting for the girls, some of the things fit Bella and some of them fit Lala and they were both so happy!! Ceci LOVED trying it all on, thus the picture.

We also had some home school friends over to swim but somehow I failed to take a picture. (I know, not like me at all!)

Today we went to the Pasadena Farmer's market which was fun, although super-hot. We got fresh corn, strawberries, lots of nuts and some dried apples among other things. It was really nice. Craig's about to drink some wheatgrass juice in this picture.

We also said goodbye to our rooster, Kathryn. Wasn't he pretty? We knew we could never keep him but on Friday he started cock-a-doodle-dooing pretty loudly and so it was time. He is going to live at Brieanne's farm until his luck runs out! In exchange, we got two new little hens from Brieanne! I need to get a picture of them.

Tonight we did some night swimming which is very fun! The water feels really good at night for some reason. Hope every one else is having a nice summer!

The Triplets' Baptism!

Yesterday my sweet triplet niece and nephews were baptized! It was a beautiful service. We sang many beautiful songs and their ninety-year-old Great-Grandma on Hector's side gave a fantastic talk on the Holy Ghost! It was so wonderful to all be together as a family and see there precious kids take the important step of baptism. I made Sophia her pearl bracelet and got tie tacks for the boys that say "I am a child of God."

Before the baptism, we took the opportunity to take a picture of all the cousins who got baptized over this past year in their white clothes. Josiah was baptized last November, then Yazi in February, then Bella and then the triplets. What a special year for our family. And these cousins are so lucky to have each other!

Yvonne made a DELICIOUS meal for us--a huge taco bar all cooked and prepared by mostly herself ( we all helped chop some veggies!) It was soooooooo good!






















This night was bittersweet because it meant our big, crazy family visit was over. Brenda and Cindy drove to Utah first thing in the morning from Yvonne's. So we all had to say our goodbyes last night. :( As I said before: How I wish we all lived close to each other!!!!

Special Time with my Sister

Today I got to spend really special time with my big sister, Brenda, who (waaaa!) lives in Japan. I am so grateful that she makes the trek all the way out here so that we can catch up every year. We had a WONDERFUL morning going to the Los Angeles Temple. After that, we had a delicious lunch at the Scarlet Tea Room in Pasadena. It was such a nice time to take a break just the two of us amidst the chaos!

This morning, before we decided to go to the Temple, I was feeling really sad knowing that she and my other sister, Cindy would be leaving tomorrow. So I am so glad we got to go!

How I wish we all lived close to each other so that we could all get together as often as we wish!

Vincent Lugo Park

Today we went to this awesome dinosaur park that we used to go to all the time as children in San Gabriel. It is such a cool park. The kids had a blast. It was really hot though, so we're glad we could hurry home to the pool!

Santa Monica with my Dad and the Klevens

We started with lunch from Hot Dog on a Stick.

Then we checked out the little aquarium that had lots of neat things to see!






I loved that the kids could touch the starfish and other sea creatures! And the jellyfish were so pretty!















Then we went down to the ocean where the kids swam and played in the sand for hours!















Got some yummy ice cream!






















Then we went to the pier for some rides. Josiah and Bella did the roller coaster together. Then Cindy and I rode the ferris wheel with our younger kids. I LOVE the view from the top!! I LOVE this ferris wheel! What a fun day!