Girly, girly, girls, girls, girls!

I love these girls!

*9 months old! I keep telling her to stop getting older. She doesn't listen.  Love my Petite Princess!*

*I'm so obsessed with these toes!*

 *She has started pulling herself up to her feet! She's too little for that! It's too much!*

*Delicious little girl messy bun. So cute!*

• Camille is still such a little thing. Only 14 pounds, according to our bathroom scale. But she's army crawling like a champ, starting to pull herself up to standing, and crawling out of her high chair. She's a move, that one. 
• Camille still seems to love nursing. I have us down to: in the morning, right after she wakes up; twice for naptimes; and once right before she goes down for the night. It is funny, though, how upset she gets when we don't nurse in the morning. One morning this week, I went for my run and she woke up while I was gone. Daniel got her up and fed her some cereal for breakfast. But he said that she was fussy and grumpy and kept saying "Mamma!" (!) while I was gone. When I got back, I nursed her and she seemed fine after that. She really needs that morning nursing, a little time with Mamma. And I love it too. She has developed a few bad habits when it comes to nursing, and I'm sore again. I've tossed around the idea of stopping nursing early. But I'm not sure she'll be okay with that. :)
• Camille loves to hang out with everyone, and she especially loves her Mamma. When the girls are upstairs playing and I'm downstairs cleaning or cooking, I often hear Brooke yell down, "Mamma! Camille's coming down to you!", at which point I run up the stairs to keep her from falling down the stairs. Good little helper, Brooke! It's nice having her help with Camille. 
• Camille loves her sister. She likes to play in the loft and crawl around, following Brooke around and watching her and giggling at her. I love how my girls love each other. Brooke is always asking about Camille. When she wakes up from her nap, the first thing she says is, "Is Camille awake?" She just wants to play with Camille all the time. I hope this sticks!
• Brooke is such a social butterfly. Last week, she played at Lucy's house 2 days in a row while Allison Leishman and I did Relief Society visits. And she loved it. This week, she has played with Daisee Mapp and Thor. Little kids love playing with her. I think it's a gift of hers. Kids of all ages just love her and want to play with her. Even Thor, who is the wildest, most out-of-control kid I know, is so gentle with her and loves to play with her. It's so sweet. 
• Brooke loves watching tv. I try to limit tv time with her (it's hard, and I don't always succeed), but I let her watch during Camille's morning nap. She is really into Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood right now, and I make her watch an episode of Little Einsteins, too, because it's more educational. We always read a few books before tv time. She hasn't been as into reading lately. I hope it's not because of the tv. I think she's just bored with our books. We need to get some new ones. Brooke has also really liked taking care of Dolly, building things with duplo blocks, and dressing up. She has little plastic princess shoes that she likes to wear. She puts them on and bounces around the house in them. It's too cute. 
• Brooke has loved singing lately. She's been learning songs that I've sung to her. She'll sing songs that she doesn't know very well, which ends up being really funny, because she'll just sing the words she knows. Lately it's been Stars Were Gleaming. She loves I Am a Child of God, Twinkle, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, the Witch Song, and the ABC Song. Whenever I'm putting Camille down, after I'm done nursing her, Brooke will listen for the time to come in and sing with us. She comes in, asks, "Mom, can I sing with you?" and then comes and picks songs for Camille, usually songs that she knows. I love it!
• The other day, when I was making Pizza Monkey Bread for dinner, Brooke pulled a chair up to "help", as she usually does. I put on an episode of Sophia the 1st, and she watched and snitched the cheese. She said, "I love cheese!" so emphatically, it made me laugh.

New Job

Daniel got an official offer last week from Grant Thornton to work as an experienced staff member! After a year of researching and applying and interviewing, he finally landed something. I mean, I guess he's gotten other offers. But none of them seemed to be what he wanted. In fact, Grant Thornton offered him a job in December; but it was bad timing and he was hoping for something a little better, with a bigger firm. I'm not even going to approach that particular subject. I'm a little bitter with the bigger firms. One in particular, which kept making offers and promises that they didn't keep, that then put us in difficult situations.

ANYWAY ... I don't think either of us are particularly excited about this job change. Daniel wants to do it because he is hoping that it will lead to bigger and better opportunities. But it wasn't exactly what he wanted. It's a necessary evil to get where he wants to go. And I'm not particularly excited because he'll be commuting, working longer hours, and we won't see much of him. Also, he's not getting paid as well as he is with KKAJ. But I want to do it because I support and trust Daniel. And he does a wonderful job providing for us, so I should support and trust him. And I'm hoping (like he is) that it will be a good step towards a better future. It's kind of like we are still paying our dues here. And that's perfectly fine.

We're trying to be positive about it. It will be good. I think I've been struggling a bit lately, not because of Daniel's job or anything related. But ... I have been kind of lonely here, I think. I don't have any good friends here, I'm at home all day with my babies (which I LOVE, I really do), and I really miss my family. That trip to Medford when Daniel interviewed was good and bad. It gave me a little taste of what it could have been like, to live near my family. I think I've been a little out of sorts since then. We've lived in Southern California for 4 years, and I'm fine here. But ... I'm getting a little tired of it, too. I'm hoping we don't stay here for too much longer.

This next week, we'll be in Utah for the Holbrook Family Reunion. And when we get back, Daniel will work hard at KKAJ for a few more weeks and then switch over to the new job. At that point, I don't really know how life will change for us. It's very likely that we will rent out our house and find an apartment closer to the city, which I'm not excited about. We may move back to Burbank. But we'll have to see. It might be really good. And I certainly need to change my attitude. :)

Little Mamma, Little Helper

Brooke is just about the cutest ever! She's such a charming, sweet little thing. It's fun to watch her imitate me. She really loves to help me sometimes, especially when it comes to taking care of Camille. Almost every time I am feeding Camille, Brooke asks if she can feed Camille. And she does a pretty good job, for the most part. It's very helpful, too. One day last week, I was working to get dinner on the table, but I also needed to feed Camille so that she could go to bed. Brooke said she wanted to feed her, so I let her and kept working on dinner. It was awesome! She's such a good helper.

I do sometimes have to remind her that ... I am the mamma, though. :)

It's fun, too, when Brooke joins me when I'm working on dinner. She takes the scraps that I'm not using and makes her own dinner. Mostly, they just end up in a bowl filled with water, or even in the sink. But I like having her company in the kitchen.

These last couple of weeks have been, ya know, not too exciting. I've taken the girls to the pool a few days, which they love. We went to the pool as a family, too, on Saturday, after all of our other stuff was out of the way.

Last Friday, we had our neighbors, the Antwis, over for dinner with their 2 little girls. I made us some delicious Quinoa Casserole and salad. It was really nice having them over. I've been feeling like we need to do more things with them, and invite them to church and things. They are a really nice family, but we'll see if they are ready to hear about the gospel.

I bought Daniel a little present last week: the 4th season of Scarecrow and Mrs. King! We've been watching it a bunch since it came Friday night. I love how nerdy we are. We aren't super into current, modern tv shows. I have a few that I like, but for the most part, they're pretty trashy. So we don't watch them. We are into the old, and much more clean, tv shows, from the 70s and 80s: Scarecrow and Mrs. King; Murder, She Wrote; Columbo. They're epic, really. And much easier to watch.

So. This week my running buddy, Heather Delhoyo, and I finish our current running schedule. The purpose of this schedule was to get us running and build up our fitness and endurance, and just to get us into the habit of running. After this week, we'll need to start training in earnest for our half marathon. She wants to run one in November! I am not so sure we'll be ready by then, if we plan to finish it running. But I think we should give it a go! And besides. I made it a goal to run a half marathon before we get pregnant again, so I need to get going! My longest run will be tomorrow. 1 hour! I'm a little nervous; but then, I think about my Monday run, which was 55 minutes. I can do 5 more minutes. :)

A Rainy Beach Day

Last Saturday was the annual Ward Beach Party. But when we woke up Saturday morning, it was all cloudy, and before we were planning to leave, it started raining a ton. Daniel had gone for a bike ride early that morning, and the girls and I were just hanging out, and I put Camille down for her first nap. When Daniel got home, we were trying to decide if it would be worth going out to the beach, it being rainy. We weren't sure if anyone from the ward would actually go.

But, being the crazies that we are, we got ready really quickly after Camille woke up, and went anyway. The drive out was nice, and I was loving the cloudy weather. It didn't rain all the way there, so we were hopeful that it would be nice at the beach. Then, once we got to the park next to the beach, and we were looking for parking, it started raining really hard. I thought, "well that just figures, doesn't it? It stops raining long enough for us to drive out to the beach, and once we get here, it starts pouring down rain!" The rain didn't last too long, only about 5 minutes. Once we found a parking spot, it stopped raining, and we dragged all our stuff out to the beach where our ward was gathered. We hadn't been there 10 minutes before a lifeguard came around and told everyone to leave the beach due to lightening a few miles out. So, everyone packed up and left. We stayed for about an hour or so after everyone else was gone, walking the beach, playing in the water, making sand castles and playing at the playground. And we were not struck by lightening. We had a fun time, just with our little family and a couple of other families that stayed.

Someone got all sandy. Can you guess who? :) She loved crawling around in the sand. And Brooke and I had fun building sand castles. The sand was perfect for that, since it had rained and soaked the sand on the beach. Brooke and I got pretty sandy, too.

It kept raining throughout the rest of that day, even after we got home from the beach. Once we got back, Daniel cleaned up the girls while I went for my run. It was quite frightening, actually. It was so stormy outside, complete with lightening and thunder, and while I was out, some of the lightening struck really close to where I was. The thunder was deafening, and the lightening was bright and intense. I stopped a couple of times, trying to decide if I should go back. I really wanted to do my run, and I thought it would be fun in the rain; but I also didn't want to die. :) I decided to keep going, but to go around the neighborhood instead of on the trail. And it rained like crazy while I was out, almost the entire time. It was refreshing and exhilarating! And also a bit scary. While I was running and getting completely soaked, one guy yelled, "That's dedication!" (to which I gave a thumbs up), one guy stopped and asked if I needed a ride somewhere (to which I said no, obviously), and several people gave me funny smiles and "Hi"s (obviously thinking, "what is that girl doing? Is she insane?" Why, yes. Yes, I am.).

The rest of that day was uneventful. We had a simple dinner that Daniel prepared, I put the girls to bed early (they missed some naps), Daniel went to do a little grocery shopping, and then Daniel and I just hung out together. It was a fun family day for us!

Slump Week

Periodically, I go through what I call "slump week". It's a few days, or even a week, where I just feel ... for lack of a better word, bleh. I'm not really depressed (well, maybe a little), I'm not unhappy; but I'm not happy or cheerful or energetic or excited about life. It's just ... bleh.

Well, that was last week for me. I didn't have much of anything going on last week. And I took that week off of my normal cleaning rotation so that I could work on projects. But those projects didn't really make any headway either, because ... slump week.

Every time slump week happens, I tend to get frustrated and anxious and try to pull myself out of it. I act like it's going to last forever. But then, it never does. Maybe my trying so hard to fight it just ends up exacerbating it. Hmm... I'll have to think that one over.

Anyway, I did all my usual stuff last week: kept to my running schedule; read my scriptures; got dressed. And I tried to do some fun stuff with the girls, too. We went to the pool once and to the park. But, slump week would persist. It's pretty tenacious. It didn't help that I had been reading things online about what they're calling "The Really Big One". An earthquake that is supposed to devastate the northwest. And also that I was buying into some of my Aunt Lynn's theories about the collapse of America that's supposed to take place in a mere few months. I got really anxious for about a day, went to the temple (which helped a little to shake it off), and then decided that it was time to work on food storage. I have since calmed down substantially. I'm not sure when the world will collapse, and I don't really care that much (well, maybe a little). But I am going to make sure we are prepared. So, I'm going forward with food storage planning, preparing, and obtaining. That's my main project now. I think it's important no matter what happens and when.

Brooke, Camille and I went to pool on Thursday. I stuck some food in the crockpot earlier in the day, so that we could spend all afternoon at the pool, if we wanted to, without having to hurry home to figure out dinner. It was brilliant, really. I should do that every day. No heat from oven/stove on a hot summer day + not having to prepare dinner at the craziest part of the day = best plan ever! Anyway. We had a grand ol' time at the pool. Brooke has this puddle jumper that we put her in so that she can swim around on her own, and I think she really enjoys the freedom and independence. She likes kicking around the pool to get where she wants to go, and "jumping" into the pool. (Her version of jumping into the pool is going to the 2nd step and sort of pushing into the pool. I tried to have her jump in from the edges. She wouldn't do it. I also tried throwing her up in the air; she claimed that she enjoyed it, but didn't want me to do it again.)

Camille likes the pool, too. I kind of rotate her in and out of the little baby raft we have for her. She likes that, but I think she likes me holding her and swishing her in the water, too. At one point, she got a little fussy, and I had the feeling that she was a little tired of being in the pool. So I took her out and strapped her into the stroller with my keys and a toy to play with. And then (freedom!), I jumped into the pool and swam around at my leisure. It felt. So. Good. I left Camille in her stroller for a while, and she was happy as a lark (always) just watching Brooke and me and playing with my keys. Brooke and I swam together, pretended together, and played together in the pool. It was nice to have some one-on-one play time with Brooke. At one point, she said, "Mom, I'm a mermaid!" and started swimming around. And then, totally out of the blue, like, 10 seconds later, she said, "Mom, I really love you." Well, if that didn't just melt my heart. It was so sweet and unexpected. Usually, I feel like I have to prompt an "I love you" out of her; I say it to her, and she always says it back. But that day, she just ... said it. It was so sweet! That little girl ... I think she's the best ever. She has her shenanigans, and she is ever so good at making messes and getting into stuff she shouldn't. But she is so sweet and good and kind. And every time I hear other mothers talk about their kids and the kind of stuff they do, I'm always so grateful for my Brooke. I love her!

I sometimes feel a little bad, because I'm always gushing over the baby. I mean, she is just about the sweetest, most adorable creature on the face of the planet. So, she's totally gush-worthy. But I always wonder if Brooke feels like I love Camille more than her because of that. Well, and I tend to spend a lot of time with Camille, nursing her, carrying her, watching her, etc. And I get after Brooke when she does unkind things to Camille. But Brooke never seems bothered by the attention I give Camille. I really think she's a champ. In every way. When I get a little irritated or frustrated at her, I always try to remember that she's so good. And I always end up grateful that I have her.

Well, I really got off on a tangent there. But I've been thinking about my Brooke and how awesome she is. I hope that she knows, with her young mind, how much I value and love her and think she's just terrific.

Slump week ended very abruptly Friday morning. I don't know why Slump week happens, and I don't really understand how it ends. But it did that day, rather obviously. I just jumped out of bed feeling lighter, happy, cheerful, energetic, and ready to spend another great day with my girls. And it was a great day. I don't remember what all we did. Probably more of the usual (you know, play with the girls, clean up a little bit, get a little workout in, make some dinner for my family, take a little break to eat and watch Columbo...). But it was good. And I was glad that slump week had ended.

And now, for a couple of random pictures that I stole from Daniel:

*That beautiful face!! How did such a gorgeous creature come out of me???*

The Story Behind Baby Smurfette

Last Saturday, July the 11th, was fairly uneventful. Except for one major event. At one point in the afternoon, Daniel had gone to run some errands, and I was at home with the girls, in project mode, trying to finish some of our bedroom projects, and also preparing for a hot date with my handsome husband.

Camille usually wakes up from her afternoon nap before Brooke does, so I usually go and get her, and take her into our bedroom to play quietly before Brooke gets up. And so it was on this particular Saturday. Camille and I hung out, and I remembered, after a little while, that I had left some paint out downstairs and that there were a few brushes that needed cleaning out. I was just on my way downstairs to go and take care of that, when I heard Brooke in the other room. She was awake. Naturally, I went in to get her out of bed, told her that I had to do something downstairs for a few minutes, and to go into Mamma's bedroom to play with Camille for a little bit. Which she did. Happily. She's awesome like that.

Well, I went down to do my thing, stupidly forgetting that I had left my craft box out and opened on my bedroom floor, complete with craft supplies, paint and paintbrushes, exposed in grand temptation before the toddler. I was downstairs for, probably, all of 10 minutes? Or maybe less? But clearly more than enough time for Brooke to squeeze out some fabulous blue and paint her little sister.

When I remembered what I had done and realized what I would be going upstairs to, I think I stalled for about a minute. I just knew ... that it was going to be bad. But when I actually walked upstairs and took in the whole scene, I busted up laughing! It was all too terrible. And also hilarious, seeing Camille's little blue globe of a head. Painted oh, so carefully! It was just hilarious!

I laughed for a while and took a few pictures, and then promptly put both girls in our bathtub, trying to contain the active mess, so that I could take care of the stationary mess. I think, in Brooke's little *almost* 3 year old mind, she was doing everything right. I mean, she had squeezed the paint onto a little piece of paper (like when we paint together, I squeeze the paint onto a paper plate), she was using a paintbrush, and she was working very carefully. Unfortunately for our carpet, she was not careful enough. It's basically ruined. It is quite amazing that she didn't get paint on anything else. Just the carpet and the little sister. :)

Little Camille, happy as a lark. When I talked to people about it later, I could just imagine what was going on upstairs. I see Brooke selecting a brilliant blue paint, opening the lid, and squeezing some of it onto that little paper, and also on the top of Camille's head. Then I see Brooke take a paint brush and start carefully spreading and smudging the paint all over Camille's head and face, avoiding those eyes so well. And I see Camille, happy and chill baby that she is, patiently allowing Brooke to do this. And happy as a lark. Always.

It took some work to get all that paint off of Camille's head. I kept having to gently rub her head and rinse, repeatedly. And she was so happy throughout the whole process, I was amazed. The only time she fussed and cried was one time when I think some paint got into her eyes. But I washed it out, and she was fine again.

Brooke thought the whole thing was awesome. She misread me when I started laughing. I mean, obviously, it was pretty funny. But once the humor of it faded a bit, and I was left with a big mess (and some of it permanent), I was not laughing. I may have even been a bit mean to Brooke after that, for which I feel very guilty. And Brooke didn't seem to understand the problem, which was very frustrating. She got a very long timeout. And she was banned from having gum for a whole week. But, ... I still don't think she understands.

*Totally ruined. I felt so bad, because, really, it was my fault, for leaving everything out like that. How could I not expect that little 3 year old to get into it?*

*It's hard to see, but she was still a little blue, even after I had gotten all the paint off.*

Well, I posted a few of these pictures on instagram and facebook, and it was definitely a big hit. So many people commented on it, everyone thought it was hilarious! The next day at church, everyone asked us about it, and even last weekend, people were still bringing it up. It's pretty hilarious when kids make mischief ... isn't it?

My Attempts At Writing Often Fail

Last week we did a few exciting things together, the girls and I. It was fortunately a cooler week last week, so we spent a lot of time outside. We went to the zoo one day for a couple of hours, we went to the park a couple of days in the morning, and one day Maelee and Eli came to spend some time with us. We took them to the pool for a day of swimming, and had a great time with them. Brooke loved playing with Eli, and I think he loved playing with her as well.

Some fun things the girls have been up to:

• I've been sleep training the littlest cherub the past week or so, for naps. She's doing beautifully. She tends to cry and fuss right when I put her in the crib; but usually once I leave, she quiets down and either falls right to sleep, or talks to herself for a while before falling asleep. The only unfortunate thing is that when we swaddled her for naps, she would sleep for hours at a time. But since I've stopped swaddling her and started letting her learn to fall asleep on her own, she sleeps for 45 minutes, and that's it. It's fine, really. That's what Brooke used to do. But ... it would be nice if she would sleep for longer periods, especially when Brooke has her nap. Then I could have a solid block of time to get some things done. I probably shouldn't even be thinking this ... but, Camille is currently taking her morning nap, and she has been sleeping for at least an hour and a half. ... Wait ... she may be waking up.
• I weighed Camille the other day on our bathroom scale. She weighs (according to that scale) exactly 14 pounds. At 8 1/2 months. The little peanut!
• Brooke has been having some fun with language lately. She makes up words all the time, which has me chuckling. 
• Camille is oh, so close to crawling on hands and knees. And last night, she even crawled over to the kitchen cabinet and pulled herself up to standing! Daniel was cooking in the kitchen at the time, and he told me to come see quick. When I saw her, I gasped and I think I scared her a bit, and she fell onto her bum and gave me this look, like, "What just happened? And what should I do now? Should I cry?" So I clapped and cheered for her, and she broke out into the most joyous smile. It was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen. She looked pretty pleased with herself. :)
• Brooke is becoming quite the water baby. When we go to the pool, we put her in a little puddle-jumper, and she swims around all on her own. I think she really likes that.
• Camille is a little water baby, too. She loves going swimming with us, and she's even happy when we put her in a little baby raft. She likes to splash with her hands.
• The girls also love bathing together. Up until a few weeks ago, I would fill the tub up and put a little pink bathing stand in the tub where I would sit Camille. Then I would put Brooke in with her. And they loved bathing like that. But ... Camille is such a wriggly worm that she started rolling and wiggling right out of that bathing stand. Now, I fill the tub with just a few inches of water and have them both just sit and play in the tub. I have to watch them pretty closely this way, because Camille often loses her balance and slips. I think they like it, though.
• My girls love each other. It's so fun and cute to watch. Brooke is always wanting to play with Camille in the loft and read to her. And Camille likes to watch Brooke being a crazy 2 year old. She smiles and laughs at her. I sure like them!

 *Somehow, during one of Camille's naps, she managed to get both of her legs into one of the legs of her little sleepers. Silly girl!*

Can you tell I like my baby? Just a bit.

Our Independence Day

It was the first time that we had been in town for the 4th in a long time. And the first time since we have moved to Santa Clarita. We weren't exactly sure what we were going to do. People told us about parades and things going on, where there were some good fireworks shows, and whatnot.

We got up a little early, and I went on my morning run, before it started getting hot. I ran along the paseos behind our house, and funnily enough, that is where the 4th of July runs were going on. So I was there, running right along with all those 4th/running enthusiasts. They were all decked out in their flag gear. One guy had on knee high stars and stripes socks, and I decided that if I ever do a local run for the 4th of July, I'm gonna need those socks! Also ... little kids were passing me. Awesome.

After my run, we woke the girls up and scooted on down to see the parade. It's a pretty big deal in this town to go to the local parade. People camp overnight to get spots to watch the parade. Which seems a little ridiculous to me, now that I've seen the parade. My friend, and one of the women I visit teach, Siv Flick, saved us a spot with her family, which was really nice. And it was a fun parade, very long. Longer than our girls were up for. They were done after about 3/4 of the parade had gone by. But we did see some of our friends and visited, and it was fun.

When we got back, it was naptime. We fed the girls quickly and put them down for their naps. They slept for a really long time! About 3 hours. Once they were both awake, we high-tailed it out to Aunt Liz and Uncle Bob's for a family 4th Barbeque. David and Kira and their family was there, and Uncle Gary and Rosita came out, so it was quite a gathering. Brooke loved being with all the kids, and she and Ava and Aubrey just had such a great time playing altogether.

Daniel had this really brilliant idea of making little 4th of July crowns out of pipe cleaners (an idea from pinterest, no doubt). We picked up the pipe cleaners on our way out there and had a grand old time making and wearing them. They turned out pretty cute, and I think we have found ourselves a new 4th of July tradition!

I taught in Relief Society the next day. I'd been preparing my lesson all week long, and I think it came together quite nicely. I taught a chapter from Preach My Gospel, which is what we are working through as a Relief Society this year. My chapter was on the commandments, and I thought it was going to be a fairly difficult lesson to teach because we, most of us (or at least those who have been members forever), know what we are supposed to be doing. But I mainly focused on the blessing we receive when we keep certain commandments and also what the sisters like to do or think of as they strive to keep the commandments. And it ended up being a really fun lesson! Or, at least, I enjoyed it.

A Special Visit!

Cody Putnam (Daniel's old college buddy) and his wife, Liisia, went on a trip and had a loooonnnngg layover at LAX on the 28th, the same day that Julie and the boys left. Daniel left in the morning to go get them from the airport so they could come hang out with us for that time. It was a pretty busy morning, that. Mary and her boyfriend, Austin, who were coming down to go to Disneyland with Julie's family, surprised us that morning by making a stop at our house on the way down! Ours was like a bus station, people coming, people going. It was all very exciting! Julie, Scott and the boys, Mary and Austin, and then Cody and Liisia, all hanging out with us before church.

Cody and Liisia came to church with us, and everyone else left while we were still there. So when we got home from church, the house was so quiet. And rather neater and cleaner than when we left that morning.

We made a late lunch/early dinner for Cody and Liisia, just a little vegan deliciousness, like how we do it. It was fun to visit with them. Daniel took them back to the airport in the late afternoon, and I put our hooligans to bed.

The Pool, The Zoo, and The Magic Castle

Our visit with Julie and the boys was so much fun! Mark had a podiatry conference down at Disneyland, which is why they came in the first place. So he was gone everyday to attend his conference, and Julie and the boys just hung out with us.

Their first day here, Thursday, we mostly relaxed at home and let the boys and Brooke play together. The boys were anxious to do some swimming in our community pool, so we did that as well. It was a fairly low-key day. We had the 3 littlest kids take naps, and after they woke up, we got everyone ready and went to the pool. Well, Camille and I lagged behind the rest, because she was still sleeping when they all left. We had a great time! Camille was pretty happy (as per usual) floating around in one of our baby rafts. And I was surprised that she actually fit pretty well in it. Brooke had a better time just sitting on the edge of the pool, kicking her feet and splashing everyone, and blowing water out of a noodle. She did consent once to coming and swimming with me for a little while. But it didn't last long. The boys had fun swimming and splashing around with Uncle Scott, while occasionally coming round to say hello to Camille. It was good fun.

Julie took Brooke, Kai, and Drew back a little early because the littles were done swimming, and started getting everyone cleaned up. The rest of us stayed a little longer and hit the hot tub before coming home. We had Dan's Salsa for dinner, which is always a winner, and the boys really love it (which is why I put it on the menu in the first place).

After getting all the hooligans to bed, Julie, Dan, Scott and I sat down to a game of Bohnanza, at which Julie soundly tromped each of us. Good fun, good fun.

Friday, we took a little trip to the zoo. After allowing Camille to take her morning nap (mainly because that's how long it took us all to get ready), we drove down, used my membership and paid $7 for one of the boys, and all got into the LA zoo. Mostly we had a good time. It was quite a warm day, and one of the boys didn't really want to be there at all. Julie had to drag this particular child around, lecturing him on being happy and not complaining when we take them to do fun things. The animals were quite lethargic that day. I mean, it was pretty hot. But the boys and Brooke got excited about some of the animals: the lions and tiger, the hippos, the snow leopard, the fish and turtles, the australian animals. Roman got particularly excited about some huge Australian bird. He's really into birds, that one. It was fun, but not quite the success we'd been hoping for. At least we got a good walk out of it. :)

Julie took Ares, Brooke, and Kai back home while I drove Uncle Scott, Drew, and Roman out to the Observatory, where they waited and explored until Mark got there to join them for a show. And then Camille and I drove home. We were all pretty tired after our hot day at the zoo. We got the kids in bed; they sorely needed to get to bed, after missing naps. Camille did fairly well; she was a little fussy, until, at one point, she screamed bloody murder for a little while before passing out. Poor little thing. She also cried for at least half of the drive home before passing out ... again.

Julie, Daniel and I made a quick, easy dinner and then talked for the rest of the night until the boys came home.

Saturday was another relaxed day. Daniel was home for most of the day, so he got to play with Scott and the boys. They played Monopoly and went to the pool. I went on a run that morning with my running buddy, Heather. And then Drew wanted to go running with me, so I took him for a little quick run around our complex. I was pretty tired, and I knew I needed to be well-rested for our exciting evening. So ... I took a nap. After I put Camille down for her nap. And I slept ... for a couple of hours. Yea, Baby!

I woke up when the boys were heading to the pool. So I took Camille, fed her, hung out with her and Julie, and got ready for ... MAGIC CASTLE! We ordered a pizza for an early dinner for everyone. Scott watched all the kids for us while we went out. He had a lot to handle, but fortunately, Brooke, Makai, and Camille all went to bed pretty soon after we left.

Daniel, Julie and I drove down to MAGIC CASTLE! together. Mark left early from his conference so that he wouldn't miss things, and we ended up getting there about the same time. It was so fun taking them to the MAGIC CASTLE! We loved it the first time, and Mark said that he was really into magic, so we were excited to go with them. We got to see a lot more shows this time than we did the first time we went. We had a super late dinner reservation (9:45pm!), so we wandered around and hit a whole bunch of stuff. Before any of the shows started, we walked around the castle and explored with Julie and Mark, crashing a tour guide and listening in on all of his stories. He told us that CARY GRANT! was the one who initiated the "no pictures" rule in the MAGIC CASTLE! He was a frequent visitor of the castle, and he hated all of the fans crowding in on him and all the pictures. So he asked them to prohibit photos in the castle.

The first show we made was a closeup show with a magician from Germany ... Switzerland ... somewhere around there. I didn't catch it. But it was a fun show, and he was a cool magician. Afterwards, we went to hang out with Irma, the piano-playing ghost. We requested a bunch of songs for her to play and marveled at her repertoire. :) We saw another show with a magician from Spain, who was really funny, and, happily, clean. We really enjoyed his magic. That one was mine and Julie's favorite show. The other few shows that we got into before dinner were good, and we all got called up to participate; but they all threw in unnecessarily dirty jokes here and there. And we didn't need that.

We skipped off to dinner at our appointed time. We were all pretty hungry; especially Mark, who had barely eaten all day. Our dinners were good, and we ordered a cheesy bread appetizer and desserts, which were delicious. I had this really good veggie risotto and then a spongy, moist chocolate cake. But ... it ended up being $118! The MAGIC CASTLE! date is definitely our most expensive date ... ever. We had such a good time, though.

After dinner, we went to the main show; the one that we get tickets for with our dinner reservation. It was fun, there was a couple of magicians, a DJ, and a juggler. Our favorite act was one of the magicians. His act was completely silent; well, there was music playing, but he didn't talk at all. He started his show wearing a suit, and there were some props on the stage. He opened a magazine to an ad that showed a tie; then he indicated that he wanted to be wearing that tie. So ... he pulled it off of the page! And put it on! Then he would look at his suit, and shake his head, pick up a big panel of cloth with a suit painted on it, raise it up in front of him, and then whip it away to show that he was wearing that very suit! It was very exciting!

The juggler was pretty impressive. He did some really difficult acts; but I felt like he did a lot more talking and joking with the crowd than juggling. I guess I would have liked to see more juggling. Plus, he was a little negative in the way he was talking and joking.

Daniel and I were a little disappointed with how often they used dirty jokes in their shows. I say, "The MAGIC CASTLE! is a pretty classy place to go. ... So let's keep it classy! Leave off all of that crass, base humor!"

We still had a really wonderful time, and it was so fun to go with Mark and Julie.

First Beach Day of the Summer

Last week ended up being a lot CRAZIER than I had anticipated. Of course, we knew it would be a bit crazy towards the end, because the Dunnihoos were coming. But I thought I'd have 3 fairly relaxing days to get ready for that. ...

On the 22nd (Monday), we had a set of missionaries over for dinner. Not a big deal. We do that sometimes.

On the 23rd (Tuesday), I did some shopping in preparation for Julie's clan getting here, just before my presidency meeting that night, which lasted 2 HOURS! Whew! And I was supposed to hit Wal-mart to complete my shopping that night before coming home, but ... I was exhausted. I had been cleaning the house all that day, too, to get ready for guests. So, basically, I was done.

Then Wednesday rolls around (the 24th, you know), and our new friend, Megan Hebdon, who lives in our complex, which is very exciting, invited us to go to the beach with her and some other sisters in our ward. I was kind of back and forth on going. It's quite a lot of work going to the beach, packing everything you need for an almost-3-year-old and a baby. Plus, we weren't sure we would all be able to fit in her truck. But ... we decided to give it a try, and lo! We miraculously fit 3 car seats in the back of her truck! We went down to Zuma for a hot, fun, and fabulous day at the beach, the first one of the summer for us, and one of the few, I'm sure (it's just not super practical going to the beach with a little, still-nursing baby). We had fun! Brooke loved playing in the sand and with the other kids there. Camille wasn't quite sure about the sand at first. But after a little while, she was crawling and rolling around in it and really loving it. It was really fun for me, later, trying to get all that sand off of her. :) Brooke, Camille and I spent some time chasing waves together, giving my arms quite a workout. The water was freezing! But we had a lot of fun.

 As we were driving home from the beach in early afternoon, we hit a ton of traffic, which we found out later was from a brush fire right in our town! They had to close portions of the 5, and we were both worried about getting home on time. Both of us were feeding missionaries that night (yes ... again), and we had to get home, get cleaned up, and get dinner on the table. It all worked out, of course. It was very smokey here, and ash was falling and blowing everywhere. Fortunately, no one in our ward was hurt or really mixed up with the fire, though there were a few members whose backyards were virtually on fire.

Daniel took the missionaries home after dinner and finished up the shopping in preparation for the Dunnihoos, while I got the girls to bed and started rearranging the house and getting things cleaned up and set up. They arrived around 8pm that night, and we were all very excited to have them here. We chatted for a while, brought their things in, got beds ready and then Julie got her boys to bed. And, as is custom in my family, we stayed up talking way too late. :)