last friday in CA

back from the spa

Zivers went to the spa.  She hates to go but smells so nice when she gets back.  Normally she takes her bows off before we get home but today she seems to have forgotten that they are there.

two princesses:)

Hannah and Sawyer spent most of the day with us, and they are having a sleep over.  We went to the movies and saw the new Mission Impossible.  It was not as good as some of the others but it was still good.  Lots of explosions and fights.  I did take a little nap in the middle of it.  Then we went to iHop, H&S really wanted to go there.  We had a fun time and everyone liked their dinner, we can make the same thing at home for a quarter of the cost though so there is that.

still fits....not

Hannah and I tried on our wedding dresses.  I couldn't zip mine at all but I do look tan in it.  We finished the puzzle finally! Yay!

We are also starting a new family scripture study method starting tonight.  President Nelson recently read all the verses in all the standard works that mention something the Savior said or did.  I got a list.   We are going to set our timer for 15 minutes and read and discuss verses until we finish the whole list.  The kids are excited.

she kept her bows in!

Rob spent the day at the beach.  He fished, napped, watched the waves and planned what kayak he wants to buy.

Rob's day

Chim-chimini

Ethan swept the roof this morning. He did a good job and didn’t break any tiles or fall off.

I had made an open invitation to use our pool this morning to the relief society. Little kids love to swim, moms love to tire their little ones out on a hot summer day, so perfect plan. 7-8 moms came with the kiddos and we spent several happy hours out back. I enjoyed watching the little guys swimming and talking to the moms. Grace had a couple of friends in the group and enjoyed the swim too. Most everyone brought treats to share, which was really nice and Jen Martin brought her speaker and music so it was a real party. 

Years ago, in TX, my friend Gretchen opened her pool to everyone once a week and I always thought that was so nice of her. In fact even though we had our own pool I would often take the kids for the company. I always mean to do that but usually it’s only a couple times per summer because we are off traveling a lot in the summer. In TX we shared our pool a lot, and I loved that. I was really glad to have the chance today.

I am not sure how big our new pool is. Maybe I’ll try and do it in FL if it’s big enough. 


Saw these cute pictures of Dani and Sierra today. I know I’m their mom and so totally biased but I think my kids are so beautiful and even better than that they are really nice:) It’s fun to see what they are up to!

The last...

Bookstore. In LA. It’s famous and we wanted to see it during our last day trip down below.
The real reason we went was for an appointment at the rheumatologist for Grace. She never gets good news at these things. It took forever and after we rewarded ourselves.

Grace bought a book of cat poetry. After we went to lunch and ended up at the big man bakes bakery, who threw down with Bobby Flay (and lost,  but still) for cupcakes.

It was a fun day, mostly. 

Man of the house

Ethan and Jon work on the sprinkler

We got our list of things to fix from the buyer of the house.  Rob is in Florida so that left Ethan.  Jonathon Silva is our realtor, and also our good friend.  Also he has, according to Ethan, a super high "fun factor" and has gone on many high adventures and different things with the boys.  His son, Jon Jr, is the YM president and he is also our realtor and he is also awesome.  I have really appreciated these good men and their very good influence on my boy.  Anyway, Jon Sr. called and said he would help Ethan with the list.  Which meant he did a lot of the work.  Ethan also did a lot and he was a really agreeable, hard, worker. The list was mainly silly stuff.  The carbon monoxide detector needed new batteries. The roof has some pine needles on it that had to be swept off.  There were also two hard things.  One was the drain on the bottom of the deep end of the pool needed to be changed.  This meant Ethan had to dive down at least 45 times with a screw driver and unscrew and pull up the old drain.  Then he had to seat the new one and screw it in...another 45-50 dives.  I watched.  It took over an hour but he did it.  Also a sprinkler needed repairing.

watching the men work

Hannah and Sawyer came over in the middle of the process and Sawyer jumped right in and helped with the fixing.  It was so nice. I feel very grateful for good priesthood holders who help their families and their friends. They got it all done!  They had also asked us to put in a post in front of the gas meter by the driveway.  We said no.

Ethan replacing the drain

After all the fixes I did some driving for mutual and when I got home there was a little flood in the yard.  Even though it was after 9pm Jonathon came back over and helped fix the problem.  He also killed a black widow spider.

Ethan, Hannah and Sawyer went to the movies.  

My puzzle is coming along.

Grace and the YW went swimming at the Perez's. 

Other things we did today: spent an hour getting our escrow papers notarized and sent off.  Got Grace's school stuff done. Ethan's got done yesterday. And Grace and I went to Home Depot and got paint.  We are painting the chairs for the dining room set tomorrow.

The rhythm of life is slow in the summer. At least when we are home. With Rob already in Florida it’s even more so. We stay up late, sleep in late. From the time that Dani was a baby I always had a rule for myself. That is everyone leaves the house every day. When she was little and for many years this meant trips to the park, library, grandmas house, McDonald’s play area or a friends house or Target. We went somewhere almost every day. It’s good for my mental health and worth the hassle of taking all the kids. 

Today my planned outing is driving Grace and her friends to the mall.

My unplanned outing might have something to do with getting a deed package signed. I’m not sure on that one yet.

The stake put up a few picture from youth conference. Ethan went last week and loved it. They learned about the tabernacle and the priesthood. The kids were divided into tribes. Here is Ethan’s. 

Yesterday church was very sweet. Jayce Alvey announced his mission call. Ethan and I had actually watched the live reading the night before but were still happy to hear him share the news again. He is called to serve in Korea! Wow! These calls always lead us to wonder where Ethan will go. It’s only 2 years until he is eligible to serve. Crazy.

The full time missionaries serving in our ward spoke. They did an amazing job. Both very good talks. The kids and I talked about them at dinner and they both enjoyed them too. 

Ethan blessed the sacrament. He looked so handsome sitting up there and it was a sweet and sacred moment for me. I am so happy that he lives a life that is clean and virtuous. Watching him break the bread and bless it, seeing the clean white cloth that covers the sacred emblems of the Savior’s sacrifice, hearing the words of the prayers, singing the hymn of praise and bowing my head to pray for forgiveness of my sins & to remember my covenants with God made (and weekly make) for a special time. I am SO grateful for the Saviors atonement. I am SO grateful for the restoration of the priesthood power on earth and for loving leaders. What a tremendous blessing we have. 

After dinner Hannah and Sawyer came over. We ate chocolate chip cookies and played jack box together. It was fun to see them. 

In other news I’ve been unable to locate the last piece of the outline of a puzzle I have been working on and last night I did! I was excited. 

Jenna posted this picture on Instagram and my heart melted. She is such a sweet good mommy and look at those babies! They are adorable and have grown since I saw them last just 2 weeks ago. I’m not positive but I think it’s Cora in green and Ruby in pink. So so so so cute!!! Made my night to see them:)

Perfect Beach Day

Weather, water temp, picnic food, family. All perfect. 

Friday funday