Cousins!

Not only do two sets of Grandparents and two Aunties live up north, so do Marissa, Cece and Johnny! Everyone came over to Jodi's house for dinner on Sunday and the kids got to play for the first time in months! They really missed each other.









The next day LoRen was watching them, so we all got together for a picnic at the park! We played for hours, and got pretty sunburned! I felt especially bad about Johnny's burn:(





Aaron had tons of fun flying (and repairing) his air hog from Aunt Charity!











It was sad to say goodbye. Hopefully it won't be so long before we see them again.

Park Pics

While we were at the zoo it was pretty warm, but the next day it was freezing! We went to this fun park, but couldn't stay long because we were so cold!

I hadn't taken any park pictures in a while so I brought the camera.

Horseback Riding

Aaron and Charlotte got another riding lesson while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa! Elsie still wasn't ready. They got to do a little bit more this time and they both had lots of fun.

To Grandma's house we go!

Since Nick was out of town we decided to spend a week at Grandma's house! We left as soon as the kids got out of school and met up with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Charity at the rodeo in Livermore. We had never been to a rodeo before, and it was a great way to kick off the summer.

The next day we went to the Oakland zoo. We went a few years ago and it was fun to go back.







I told these goofy balls to get together for a picture and they came up with these poses.





I think I was pregnant with Lila the last time we were here and we haven't been to the Fresno Zoo much since the older kids started school. It was fun to watch her explore everything.



She wasn't really sad here. Just being silly.

Kindergarten Graduation

Charlotte did such a good job in Kindergarten! She loved every minute of it and wished it was a full day instead of only half. She had a fabulous teacher and made good friends.



She got every award that was handed out!! (Except for perfect attendance, which doesn't count in my opinion!)















Mrs. Lindscheid is retiring and we are so glad that Charlotte got to have her before she did!

(and doesn't Charlotte look cute with her new hair cut!)

Desi Graduated!!

Lucy's Lair

In one of my dad's classes he had to attend some sort of event from a culture completely different from his own. Eating at this Ethiopian restaurant was one of his options so he treated us to dinner!

The kids thought eating with their hands was very fun, but surprisingly it took them a minute to get comfortable with it. Aaron and Charlotte were very good eaters. Elsie and Lila pretty much only ate the chicken, but they really liked it!

I liked everything, but my favorite was the lamb.

I'm excited to go back on a date with Nick when he comes home!

Goodbye Daddy

In April 15th Nick flew to Salt Lake City to interview with SkyWest and was hired!

On May 28 we took Nick to the airport to begin his 6 weeks of training.



They are all smiles here, but before Nick was out of sight all three of them had tears in their eyes and Elsie was crying pretty hard. Which of course made me cry too!

Luckily Lila was in a consoling mood and kept telling us "Don't cry, daddy be back." in her sweetest voice ever.



Hurry Home Daddy!

My Kitchen

My kitchen isn't a horrible size, of course I would like bigger, but overall it works nicely for me. However, it is very ugly. Our house was built 52 years ago and surprisingly, ours is more up to date than some of our neighbors. It looks like ours was remodeled about 30 years ago when they added on the new master bedroom and bath, and tore down a wall making our living room a decent size.

We are very slowly trying to update the place. Up until this point nothing had been done to the kitchen. One day we had a service guy out looking at our oven because the self cleaning function wasn't working. (I can certainly clean the oven myself, but we still had a home warranty, so why not use it?) While he was here he asked me if I wanted him to fix the oven or just give us a check for the amount they would have spent and we could use that toward a new oven. A new oven wasn't in our budget, so I told him to just fix it.

Well, I got on craig's list, just out of curiosity, and I found someone selling their matching dishwasher, cook-top, microwave, and double oven for $500. They were upgrading to stainless steel appliances. If I had the choice I would have chosen the stainless steel too, but going from 30 year old appliances to 5 year old appliances sounded pretty good to me!

Not to mention the DOUBLE oven. Being summer and really hot I haven't actually used them both at the same time yet, but come fall and winter... I can hardly wait!

The best part was that after the appliance guy left I realized that my self cleaning function still wasn't working. This time I told him not to fix it, just give us a check. Which he did, bringing our total purchase down to $300!



This is what my kitchen looked like while my dad and Nick were installing the oven. We had an electric cook-top, but the one we bought was gas. We really wanted gas anyway, so we didn't mind, but it did require Nick spending lots of time under the house (not his favorite place in the world)



And here it is in it's new home! They made a new cabinet face for it and it looks perfect. Maybe sometime this year we will get to painting the cabinets! But progress is progress, and for now, I'm happy!