Feb 2019

Sweet Snugglers

We finally had the post-Christmas playdate with the Swigert's. Kjersti was cracking us up riding around her motorized unicorn.

 

It makes her very happy

Jace and Adam reenacting WW2

Real life continues, Rachel's constant search for modest jeans.

And ballet classes.

Mom works out in the mornings with Bronwynn as her personal trainer, then works on Relief Society stuff till kids are ready to be picked up from school. This is our attempt at limiting announcements as the prophet has asked. It's very stressful to make sure I get everything up there on the board and not miss something or make it illegible.

This sweet lady I think of all the time. She wishes she could come to church, but her incontinence prevents it. Glenda Owens and I gave her a book and had a nice visit. It was hard to leave her there alone, she was so happy we'd come to visit her in the Gardens. She passed away not long after never having been able to come to church one last time as she wished.

Sarah trying to get healthy and manage pain by doing physical therapy.

Social Adam having friends over. Seth and Andrew

Adam driving his remote control car.

Adam practicing minimalism.

The whole family got allergy tested and now we have our results.

I never thought we'd be "that family" that needs to read labels and eat the weird food. I hoped we would never have that trial, of all the things, I did not ever think I could do this.

These cookies mean Grandpa Gary is coming to town.

Sybil and Gary took us out to eat at El Palacio and then we walked around downtown looking at the shops.

Sybil got a kick out of this sign.

We went to see Lego Movie together.

Dinner

What could be better than topping off the night with a big juicy burger as big as your face?!

That is one happy boy!

Time to say goodbye

Sometimes, the hug-fest continues when our guests leave.

For Valentine's Day we got in the car and drove to the beach.

Aunt Luise and my parents were staying in this condo south of LA. When we arrived teenagers on one of the balconies threw cupcakes at us for some reason.

Sarah with her Valentine.

The old fogies waiting for the adventurers.

These two sister are pretty much opposites.

Adam asking me if he can play with the bamboo sticks that have washed up on shore along the rocks.

He proceeded to choose one and whack it to death and continue until he found the perfect staff and brought it home (and kept it for 3 years)

After the adventure we had a little soak in the hot tub.

The next morning at Aunt Luise's house Adam gets building with the Lincoln logs.

I headed out for a walk and started dreaming of moving into this cute house a few blocks away.

Aunt Luise installed an elevator. She loves it and sure needed it!

Manuel and Mandy's ward had a Valentine's Sock Hop. 

Aunt Luise and Mandy Melendez swing dancing.

Adam let Rachel teach him.

Manuel band performed the music.

McKenna and McKayla sang with the band too.

Tyler and Rachel dancing. I was glad he had someone to dance with. I wasn't doing well that night and spent most of the night sitting on the floor or in the bathroom.

In church on Sunday Aunt Luise played with this little baby. I'm glad she is finding joy in simple things.

Aunt Luise always sends us off in the driveway,

but this was her first time doing it without Uncle Van.

Tyler being cool as we drove home on Monday.

It was cool at home! Snow!

This was at Adam's elementary school.

I thought it was pretty cool to catch the odometer at almost all 2's.

The next day, there was tons of snow. In all our Kingman days, the most ever. 18 inches.

Tyler was expected to work from home, but we had to get downtown to get his laptop so he could. We took quite a while digging a path out of the driveway with dirt shovels. No one here owns snow shovels, our neighbor did come help. Our vehicle is not snow savvy. It slipped all over with rear wheel drive. We made it downtown, but Ty had to leave the car in the middle of the street (with me in it) and retrieve his laptop while angry people honked. There were not any other options. Nothing was plowed, just two grooves made by a giant truck that everyone was bound to.

School was cancelled, so we went sledding on our boogie boards, but quickly learned that our river rat tubes work much better in snow. Then we cozied up.

The snow continued another day, then everything was melted.

Look in the basketball hoop!

The kids were all flopping in the snow where there is dirt. I said it looked fun and flopped, onto the cement. Woof, that was not pleasant. They all got a kick out of that.

I love the sayings this church puts up. So true!