As we drew closer last Saturday to my parent's house, my kids all requested the song 'Going back to Cali' be put on. And then I read the words on Jeremy's phone and realized what my 7 year old was singing! I don't think I am a good influence on my children sometimes! A week spent in lovely California at my parents' house and visiting with family was wonderful. And this time Jeremy was able to stay with us the whole time which made it just about perfect. It couldn't be truly perfect as we were missing one family but they were in our thoughts. And since we had this guy with us:

 brace yourself for many, many pictures!

My brother David and his family were with us for a few days before leaving on a family trip to Hawaii.   My brother Peter and his family live close by and were over often and my sister Christina was around whenever she wasn't working or playing roller derby.

Monday for Memorial Day we went to the Golden Gate National Cemetery.  I have never been there and was truly humbled at the site of so many men and women who have served in the military.  The location was awe inspiring, the speakers good and the music hokey - just like a good Memorial day ceremony should be.  And they had hot chocolate and doughnuts which kids loved and helped make up for the cold and drizzly conditions.  Jeremy was thinking about his dad and I had teary eyes watching Peter stand up as they played the Navy song.
Then since it was Memorial Day we turned on our windshield wipers and those crazy enough to attempt it drove to Half Moon Bay.  Our plan as we drove through the rain was simply to park by the beach, eat our lunch and then go home.  But our kids saw a break in the drizzle and were off to play on the deserted beach.  They stayed there for a couple of hours ignoring the rain and the cold.
Then home to de-sand everything and enjoy cousins and hot dogs.
Board and card games were big in the late afternoon/evenings.

Tuesday we went up to San Francisco for the day.  We went to the Aquarium on the Bay and Fisherman's wharf for some clam chowder and then to meet up with David's family at the Exploratoirum.  The Aquarium was good but not my favorite.  The new Exploratorium was awesome.  You could stay there forever if your brain didn't go on overload after a few hours.  Spencer was Jeremy's shadow, Allison and Lathan were in their own world and I got to hang out with Robyn and Taylor and whatever cousin Robyn was playing with at that moment.  My favorite line from the day was when Jeremy pointed out to Spencer an apron at the Boudin restaurant that said "Dad, king of the grill" and asked him if we should get it.  Spencer's reply, "Yeah, that would be perfect for Jason" (Jeremy's grill crazy brother).  Jeremy slammed, moved on.


Wednesday we said good-bye to David's family and went to visit the redwoods with Peter's family.  We successfully made the drive there without anyone throwing up due to open windows, deep breathing on Allison's part and driving very slowly.  And coming back we bought out Trader Joe's supply of cookie butter as they are out in SLC.

Wednesday night we left tired out kids with my parents so Peter and Christina could introduce us to to this really good burrito place and then while Christina left us to meet her friends we went on to watch Star Trek together.  It was nice to hang out and visit a bit.

Thursday we got up super early to trek up to San Francisco for another day of touristy activities.  We took the ferry out to Alcatraz in the morning.  I was worried that Robyn wouldn't be interested in it but they all loved listening to the audio tour and walking around.
I thought this should be added to our family rules:
Then after reviving at Golden Gate Park for lunch we spent the afternoon at the Academy of Science.  An absolutely amazing place.  My kids could have lived in the butterfly house or aquarium.  Of course Robyn did and we lost her for a few minutes when we all went left through the one way eleveator and she didn't.  Thankfully really nice security guards work there.  Robyn pointed out that we kept leaving the exhibit for the next one before she was done.  Which is true...stinks to be the youngest sometimes.

After our cold and northern California style beach day Monday, Friday we tried again.  It was a beautiful day in Capitola.  No waves for the boogie boards but that didn't stop kids from trying.  I went out once and came back when my legs lost all feeling.  Kids thought I was pretty wimpy.  Spencer didn't think he needed sun block and now has learned that he does, the hard way.
Taylor knew he was at the beach and refused to walk out to his towel.  He kept trying to lay down and stretch out on the sand.
My lovely parents who cooked massive amounts of food and dealt with the chaos of my family descending on them with generosity and humor.
It was a wonderful week that flew by way too fast for all of us.  We got in the car to make the long drive back on Saturday at 4 am feeling quite sad yet glad for the family in our life.

You can view the rest of Jeremy's photos in this gallery, including ones he will continue to add after this initial batch for the blog post!

The last week of school was a flurry of activities it seemed like.  Cousins came and stayed with us until Wednesday morning while their parents enjoyed a little get away.  So our kids did end of the year parties and field trips and then came home to play some more.  Monday night we all went to the movies (except for Taylor and Jeremy who had to work) and my kids were thrilled to do a late night on a school day.  We split up into girls seeing Oz and the boys seeing G.I. Joe 3.  Each group was happy.

Jeremy worked hard to get the chicken coop finished and out in our yard.  And I was busy painting and making a mess in our garage.  We were so thankful that we could put out a blanket call for help to move the coop from our garage to the garden and have a superfluous amount of men show up to help for a few minutes.  The chickens feel like they own our backyard now.


Kids had end of the year parties to attend which they loved.  Stack of school paperwork were being thrown out with abandon and bedtimes were not being very strictly enforced.  End of the year mayhem lasted all week.  Taylor had a dance festival at school where they performed YMCA.  He was the biker.
Every time I go to these dance festivals I end up all choked up.  Its worse than any Hallmark commercial.  My favorite song though was the Macarena.  A seminary missionary who has Down's syndrome had been helping the dancers.  During the song she was excited and strutted out to the middle and started performing the dance with enthusiasm.  It was awesome.


Spencer spent Friday afternoon helping me move furniture and rip out our laminate flooring.  He had a great, hard working sweaty time with a crow bar prying everything up.  We ripped up the floor because while we were going to California our amazing neighbor was going to put in a new floor.

The saddest news of the week is that Tuesday we had a continuation of warm beautiful weather which caused me to think leaving the chickens out for the afternoon in their box would be great.  Unfortunately I left the lid on because Macho was prowling and in three hours it got really warm and Spencer's chicken Artemis died.  By the time we found them Allison's was in pretty sad shape but after giving shade and lots of water to the remaining three they rebounded.  The kids spent the afternoon laying on the grass crying and remembering when.  (The really gross news is that Artemis is still sitting on our porch in a bag but he is going to mysteriously be buried tonight :) )Spencer was quite sad and depressed for the afternoon but it made me proud of how well he handled it.  He didn't blame me, yell and scream etc.  He just tried to wipe away the tears without anyone seeing and stroked his dead chicken while he looked at photos on his touch of his six weeks of life.  A traumatic event but he is doing just fine now.  Especially when Jeremy pointed out we will need 3 more chicks to fill up the coop!

The coop is almost done.  I feel like I keep saying that but it is true.  It needs to be done this week as we are leaving and I need them out of the house.  The chicken are getting tired of being cooped up in a little box.  Jeremy has all but the tin roof and ramp done.  I caulked it Friday and got all the paint.  So a few days of painting and some tinkering by Jeremy and next time I will show you a picture of the finished project.  Jeremy did an amazing job on it.

Saturday was my big century bike race in Salt Lake with my friend Carol.  Friday I stopped to buy a lightweight cycling jacket in case it rained.  It poured.  I mean buckets, storms, barely can see, water dropping in sheets of your helmet with it staying at 40 degrees.  I was so glad I had my jacket but wished that I had packed artic gear!  At 40 miles right before you go across the crossway to Antelope Island they had a rest stop.  The firemen of Syracuse who seriously were amazing opened up the firehouse to people could warm up.  We were shaking so badly by then we could barely move.  The organizers were telling everyone to quit and take the train home and they strongly suggested we not do the causeway.  After regaining feeling, getting our clothes to a damp versus soaked state, my friend Carol taking a warm shower and seeing the rain stop we decided to skip the causeway and do the 40 back.  It was gorgeous going back but I think I expended more energy than I thought with the cold and rain as muscles were pretty sore.  But we did it and were quite happy that we made it.  Best part was that the lines for the bathrooms were maybe 1 or 2 deep for the women's side and 30 deep for the men's side.  It was definitely a male dominated race.  In fact it made me feel a lot less wimpy to see all these guy athletes shaking so violently at the fire station as they tried to warm up.

Now while I was away having all the fun, Jeremy held a priests service project here to pad Taylor's room.  I felt badly that I said here is my vision, here are the supplies and left him to perform a miracle.  And he did as this is what I came home to:

I think it looks so good.  We still need to put some molly's in, patch up nail holes, caulk and touch-up but that is all small work we can do over the next few weeks.  We have a great priests quorum.  Jeremy talked to them about how to interact with Taylor and how they can serve him.  It sounds like it went really well.

Taylor is doing much better.  Home clean-outs are working, lets leave it at that.  The grossness of being a mom gives me so much scope for stories of things I never thought I would do.  When we got married the hardest gross thing I had to do was reach into the garbage disposal to clean it out.  At some point it hit me that my mom or dad were not going to magically appear to do it for me!

On Monday Robyn had her music program for 1st grade.  I forget sometimes how important it is to her that I go to all these little events but she was quite anxious till I got there.

She sang one of my favorite songs, I like being me and kept looking to make sure I knew that she knew I would be so happy.  She is in the back row with the tall kids as she is still getting tall and lanky.  She and Allison helped me this week at the Pinewood Derby to make twinkie race cars.  Robyn loves being the helper and with my girls making oreo tires and running around the church it made me remember helping my mom with so many primary activities.

Spencer had his Shakespeare festival at school on Friday.  Robyn wore her Cinderella dress for it so she could be a princess.  They set up this whole village and all of the 8th and 9th graders dressed up in costume.  Spencer helped run the archery shop - he was in heaven.  On Monday he went to a Lord of the Rings party and with a bunch of boys dressed up played hobbit, dwarf and orc for hours.

Allison had a babysitting job Friday night where she took care of a 2 year neighbor girl for 5 hours.  She felt so old and cool.

The girls were supposed to go a swim clinic all week in the afternoon.  We showed up Monday all suited up with a 93 degree sun shining down to find the clinic cancelled for the week with the pool broken.  So with Robyn in tears I ran home to grab a suit for Taylor and me and we went to a different pool for the afternoon.  Taylor can no longer fit into his floaty.  His hips and thighs are just too wide.  But he was giddy laying in the shallow end with me.

Jeremy has been working hard with photos in the evening lately.  He seems to have a photo shoot most nights as everyone wants spring photos.  And his temple picture was used in the LDS Living 2014 Temple calendar which he was happy with.  And LDS create has been using some of his photos.  It has made him a busy guy.  Throw in a back that keeps popping out of place and laying him flat in pain he has a lot on his plate.

This week we get to have my two nieces and nephew stay with us for a few days while their parents go to Denver.  My kids are sad they still have to go to school during the day but they are currently running around like banshees having a great time.  I am making cheesecake for dessert so I have a big smile on my face.

17 year's ago on Mother's Day we were in the hospital with a 4 day old Taylor wondering if he would make it through the night.  And now 17 year's later, here he is with us still!  Our Mother's day has a history of being cursed with hospitalizations but this year Taylor moved up the schedule a bit so we could all be home together today.  He is slowly getting back to his usual self and returned to school on Wednesday.  I brought Costa Vida to school for his lunch on his birthday and he still passionately likes horchata and all things Mexican.  On Saturday night we had his annual BBQ where we roasted hot dogs, ate cake and visited with friends.  Summer has finally poked its head around the corner so we enjoyed a beautiful warm evening with flowers and trees blooming and kids running everywhere.

On Monday Spencer had his end of the year guitar recital.  He did awesome and sang for the first time in public, ever.  You can tell that he enjoys guitar much more than piano but I am too stubborn to let him quit piano yet!

Spencer started a cross-fit class this week, three times a week for an hour.  The first day after we just laughed as he was unable to lift his arms, or even to sit without groaning.  But he likes the class a lot and comes home happy and very tired.  He is planning to do it throughout the summer and I think it will be a good thing for him.  I have to remind myself of that as I drive him there and back and wait for him three times a week!


Life with Taylor has taught me that sometimes you just have to drop everything and let it go.  I am grateful that I have a family and friends who pick up the slack when I just have to say I can't do it.  Robyn was sad I couldn't come into her class Monday to teach them how to make tortillas but two friends instead came and taught them the Mexican hat dance.  I wasn't able to take around invitations last weekend for Taylor's party so I just emailed people and my daughters ran a few invitations around.  While taking Spencer to a class I totally spaced unlocking the church for scouts.  So Allison braved a huge thunderstorm (I literally mean huge as it split a tree a block over where lightning struck) to go unlock the church.  The list is endless really and I am glad for the safety net that always seems to be around me and my family.  If its really important it gets done, if not it won't.

The kids have been dying to try out the RV so they all agreed to spend Thursday night getting the yard cleaned up.  Spencer ended up working on endless math assignments instead but my girls pulled weeds like maniacs.  It always amazes me that they can actually dramatically decrease my work load now when they pitch in.  The yard wasn't close to being weed free but it looked like a yard and not a weed fest when they were done.  Friday afternoon the girls packed up the trailer and we were off to the canyon on our maiden voyage.

The RV was super comfortable and everyone was able to sleep with plenty of room.  I froze at night because I forgot we had the ability to turn on a heater and just pinned Jeremy into a corner all night long being in full heat sucker mode.  Kids ran around, ate constantly, Spencer strummed his guitar with a camp song he had been practicing for us, girls did a "show" with wood sticks as violins and Taylor was mesmerized by the fire.  It was just a great over night get away.  And we learned when we realized that we forgot syrup for our pancakes that pieces of Jeremy's candy bar stash melt great onto pancakes!  We camped right next to a prime rock climbing place and I was amazed at watching people go up and down what looked like a sheer rock face.


Now it wouldn't be a true Mother's Day around here if everyone was bursting with good health.  Jeremy enjoyed a beautiful day golfing this week with work and has been stretching his back into place ever since while fighting off major allergies.  Despite all this he got up early this morning to make everyone an amazing breakfast before heading to church to teach his class and to help with a primary class.  Kids all had little treasures they made me that they were very excited about.  Robyn's card said I was awesome, even when I was mad.  But I got quite choked up with her present.  She had a list of questions to answer about me and for one she said, "My mom is so smart that she even knows...that we will be together forever".  I couldn't have asked for a better answer and made me feel that somehow I can't be messing up completely in the mom department.  I have had several friends who met my mom say to me that now they understand why I am the way I am.  And I just reply, yep if there is anything I do right, its because I learned it from my mom.  All the mistakes are all me.  So a shout out to all the moms out there and all my pseudo-moms who have helped raise, teach and inspire me.  Being a mom doesn't come with a manual, but instead it comes with examples that surround me all the time.  Happy Mother's Day!

This week I was blessed to have my mom and sister-in-law Griselda come into town for BYU Women's Conference.  My mom came a little early to spend a few days visiting and then she and Griselda stayed at BYU in the dorms and I met them there for the classes.  Friends, family, BYU brownies and amazing inspirational speakers - really what better way to recharge oneself.  My only complaint was that I didn't have enough time to visit!

Taylor wasn't doing too good Wednesday.  Thursday, Jeremy had to knock him out to get the seizures to stop.  Friday morning he seemed to be doing better so I sent him off to school before heading to BYU.  But he went quickly downhill during the day.  So I left to come pick him up, drop off kids from school and go up to the Primary Children's ER.  By the time we got there he was constantly seizing, he had over 100+ that day, had a high fever, high heart rate, trouble breathing etc.  It took two more anti-seizure emergency meds to slow the seizures down.  Figured out that constipation was the problem...again.  So he spent the weekend in Primary's getting a clean-out.  Lovely process.  Now we have a better game plan from the GI doctors to try at home to hopefully prevent this from happening again.  It involves a home clean out every two weeks.  I will buy some new air fresheners!

On the plus side I caught up with some wonderful books.  My mom and Griselda stayed the night at our house and provided some much appreciated children support.  And I got to be at Primary's for Fast Sunday and attend church there.  They have a thirty minute sacrament meeting every Sunday and you cannot imagine a more spiritual place to be as people testify of the reality of the resurrection and atonement and how they will be healed someday but can receive comfort now.  Wow, pass the tissues.  Taylor got to come home today.  He is not back to normal yet but he is to the point I am comfortable having him home.

Friday night I missed it but Spencer had a piano recital.

I was grateful the Jeremy and my mom cheered him on.  His teacher and Spencer's playing is more in the fun level.  I am working on this as my goal is to get him to be able to play the hymns and then he and I will gratefully quite this piano business!

My mom was able to help me host my last Just Desserts for the year.  I am not sure if I will repeat it again next year but I have loved getting to know my neighbors better and solidifying some friendships.  Plus its a great excuse to make something yummy and know I won't be eating all the leftovers.

Jeremy had a busy week.  He had work.  He worked on the coop.  He had two different photo shoots.  He had a convention he helped with Thursday through Saturday.  Plus he had to be Mr. Mom.  We are all going to bed early tonight!

This week the cold finally started easing up to the point that today we have the windows open and are lying around in shorts.  I got to go for a long bike ride and now have a sunburn on my one hand facing the sun in the outline of the holes in my biking gloves.  The waterfall got dejunked and de-dead fished (my least favorite spring garden project - that thing smells to high heaven!)  And Jeremy loaded up on tools and started on the chicken coop.  I like the chickens but I am going to like them even more when they live outside.  They will be happier too as they are tired of being cooped up.  Spencer did some manly work with Jeremy while I was gone with the others but then Allison spent the rest of the day shadowing her dad.  She went to the Hardware store, brought him sandwiches and lemonade refills, handled the miter saw like a pro and was just a daddy's girl for the day.
Part of Allison's devotion to her Dad Saturday might have stemmed from what he did with her Friday night.  She had a few friends over to eat pizza and go crazy down in the basement.  I am not sure what it involved other that loud music and maniacal laughter periodically!  Then Jeremy took her and a friend to a Vocal Point concert up in Salt Lake City.

Jeremy was there to do photos of the concert so they got to sit on the front.  Allison was in heaven meeting all the members and getting a CD signed.  Last year she watched every episode of The Sing-off and although her heart is truly stuck on Pentatonix she holds Vocal Point as a close second favorite.  And did I mention Jeremy drove up the girls in the convertible?  Allison was on cloud 9 all night.

While they were at Vocal Point Spencer was off camping with the teachers.  I am beyond grateful for the leaders he has.  He came home tired out and fell asleep reading comics a few hours later for which we were ALL grateful for.  He has been busy at school planning an archery booth with some class mates for their upcoming Shakespeare festival.

Tuesday night Spencer and Jeremy went with the priests to start on a project for Taylor's room.  We are padding Taylor's room.  We spent Monday night at Home Depot figuring out all the moulding to go over the foam/fabric on the walls.  Tuesday night they cut all the wood.  Saturday morning they are coming back to staple on the padding and to paint the trim.  I really, really hope my vision and sketches of this project work out!

Today I helped do a primary inservice for our teachers.  I love a talk Summer of the Lambs so I shared my thoughts about the talk and made beanbags for each teacher.  I gave them a list of 50 things to do with a beanbag in the classroom.  It was a bit overkill on the beanbags but I had fun making them and listening to primary training talks over and over.


We have had a rogue kitchen faucet for a few weeks now.  We have had geysers from faucets coming off.  We have had a slow leak/spray into our bottom cabinet from a hole in the faucet below the sink.  So Friday we got our new faucet!  I am excited not to be mopping up the cabinet every day.  We switched the sides our garbage disposal is on, which means we also had to switch what side our garbage can is on.  Still getting used to the switch.

I am excited this week to see my mom and sister-in-law Griselda and attend BYU women's conference.  I had hopes of having a weed free yard before their visit.  I think we will be settling for the controlled jungle look.  This is the time of year though that I love being outside and working in the yard and I keep sneaking out to work for a while in the afternoons.  In August, its a whole different story.

We made strawberry jam this week.  Always makes me feel like summer is really coming when the house smells like strawberries and sugar.  And I have learned that cottage cheese with some jam stirred in is really good.