Brooklyn's Grampa Mason

This is a story that Brooklyn wrote about her Grampa Mason, along with the paper doll she made of him. It's quite a similar likeness, if I do say so myself. :-)

A visit from our Auntie Kara

My younger sister, Kara, and her punkins, came to visit our humble abode this weekend. Her main reason for coming was Brooklyn's baptism, but since she loves us so much, she decided to stay a few extra days. Yeah!

They arrived by plane Thursday morning, and after an early lunch, we decided to visit Steve at work so that Joseph and Jacob could see the helicopters. They were as impressed as a 3 1/2 and almost 2 year old can be. And even though this was the very first time that Uncle Steve and Jacob had seen each other in person, Jacob went to get hugs from him like he was his best friend!

Friday morning, after sending Brooklyn to school, we headed into Fresno to run a few errands and to go to the Oso de Oro Lake Park. Unfortunately, it was quite hot so we didn't get to stay very long. On our way home, we stopped by In-N-Out for lunch, as Kara had not really eaten there before. Washington is unfortunately lacking this establishment. :) After arriving home, Kara and I got busy working on the pyramid cake we were attempting to make for Brooklyn's birthday party the next morning. It ended up looking more like a mountain than a pyramid, but it sure tasted good!




Friday night I took Kara to Castillo's Mexican Food for dinner. Steve is the one who turned me on to this restaurant. They have the best homemade Mexican food I've ever tasted! I couldn't let Kara visit Fresno without eating here. It's a good thing she enjoyed it, too. :)

Saturday morning Steve took Noah and Joseph to the park while Kara and I prepared for the party. The girls had lots of fun, but I wouldn't have survived it without Kara's help! :) (Thanks again, K!)

Later that evening, for a fun family outing, we went to John's Incredible Pizza Co. Only Steve had been here before, with some friends of ours, but he said it was fun, so we decided to give it a try. The kids enjoyed a few rides and games before sitting down to dinner. After eating, we tallied up our tickets, picked out a couple prizes, and then called it a night!







Sunday, and the baptism, can be read about here.

Monday was the day that Kara and boys would be heading home, so we just hung out around the house till it was time to take them to the airport. We're so glad they came to visit us, and we hope they will come again sometime!

Brooklyn's Baptism

Today Brooklyn was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had decided to share the program with a friend from Brooklyn's primary class who had just recently turned 8 as well.


Brooklyn sure looked like an angel.




It was a special day for us all, and we appreciate everyone who attended.

Later that evening, we gave Brooklyn her very own set of scriptures.


And then Kara gave her a few special gifts.




And then she opened a gift a special friend from church gave to her.


These childhood milestones just keep coming, no matter how hard we try to hold them off. But I'm glad we're doing our best to enjoy this time together, while we still can. She'll be grown up before we know it.

Geocaching and the UP Festival

My day began quite early as a taxi driver for Dad, John, Kara and Veronique White. They were running the Tacoma Narrows Half Marathon and had to be at the starting line by 6:00.

Here they are, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Except for John. . . he would be black and blue-eyed and broken-nosed. :) (Little accident at his hockey game a few nights before.)


After arriving back home, I had hoped to go back to sleep for a few hours, but instead decided to meet up with Bonnie and Sophia to do some geocaching. I had a couple hours before I had to pick the runners up, so we headed out to Point Defiance to find a few there. Unfortunately, the Five Mile Drive was closed, so instead of driving to within a few feet of the caches we were looking for, we had to hike about a mile. And then we couldn't find the first one, so we had to go with another one, which we found just after I should have left to go get the runners. Oops. :)


So after racing downtown and getting Dad, John and Kara home, and then checking to see that Gramma and my kids were okay, Bonnie, Sophia and I took off again.

These next caches took us to Titlow Park. Here's Sophia acting like a monkey on the tree that should have contained a cache, but after searching for 45 minutes, we gave up and went to find another one close by.


Unfortunately, because we're a bunch a newbies, and apparently don't know how to read, we got a bit lost finding the next one, but after a little thinking and a small hike, we finally found it.



After spending so much time trying to find the previous caches, we wanted to end our day with a few easy ones. These last 3 took us 30 minutes, including drive time. Now that's more like it. :)




After picking up my car from Bonnie's house, I headed to my Mom's to get the kids and head over to the University Place Festival that Dad and Leanna were running booths at.


I was a bit surprised that they weren't there, but I assumed they had already left for the festival, so I headed straight there. I eventually found my kidlets having a blast, playing on all of the inflatable fun-houses, and making friends with random children. :)





The other reason that brought me to this festival was that The Dempseys were going to be performing. Steve and I went to school with these boys, and I thought it'd be hilarious to see how they've aged in the 13 years it's been since I've seen them. And to hear them perform, of course! They are a very talented group! And they sing rockabilly, which is totally our kind of music.





It was also cool to see them since Steve and I had been wondering what was going on with them ever since we saw them in the movie "Walk The Line". Well, now we know. :)

Playing in the waves at Owen Beach

Before I left for my desert home in CA, I had to get my one last fix of seeing and playing in ocean water. One of our favorite local beaches is Owen Beach at Point Defiance Park, so Kara and I loaded up the kids, grabbed some lunch, and headed out there. We all had lots of fun throwing rocks onto the water.


Here's Brooklyn and Noah trying to balance on a half-floating log.


Here's my Jakie-boo being a cutie-boy!


The boys finally gave up trying to stay out of the cold water.




I'm sure gonna miss this. Until next summer, that is. :)

Sprinkler Fun!

What do we do in Washington when it's not quite warm enough to go swimming, but we really want to play in the water? We play in the sprinkler. . . with all our clothes on! :)






Yup, that's what we do. :)