Visiting at Victoria

After Grandma was in the hospital for weeks, she was sent to Victoria Rehab and Care facility in Costa Mesa.  I tried to visit at least 3 times a week.  Some weeks I made it there more.  Dozens of women from our Stake took turns coming to visit my mom.  Some brought flowers, or cards, some spent time massaging her feet and some just came to talk for a while to break up the long days.  Cousin Kim was amazing and spent tons of hours there making sure mom got the care she needed and keeping her working on her physical therapy.  The kids did not like to come because the place smelled like "dying old people", but they all came a few times.  Grace came most often since she was done with school each day by 11:30.  She liked to play puzzles, color and run around in the garden outside Grandma's room. It was a long recovery.  Kim was amazing and even went to Texas with my mom and dad to help take care of them. My dad had to have back surgery when he got back and they both needed help. 

Disneyland with the Brinkerhoffs!

To keep our minds off the Halls driving away, we spent a day at Disneyland with Nana and the Brinkerhoffs.  We hadn't been to Disneyland in a long time and it was awesome to be there.  We got to see the new "Cars land" at California Adventure.  

The girls loved meeting princesses.   And Ben loved hanging out with his mom (at least that is what I told him).

The boys talked about getting huge turkey legs the whole morning.  When they finally got them for lunch I had to take a picture.  They actually ate the whole thing!

Ben, Brady and Grace were the only ones in the right height range to ride the tire ropes at the bear camp in Ca Adventure. 

Late in the evening it was really just Ben, Grace and me for a while and then the older kids joined us.  We spent every last minute at the parks to make sure we didn't waste our tickets.  (Nana had bid on them at the Sweethearts concert and silent auction and won!). I love Disneyland.

Good Bye Halls!

The Halls got a new job in Texas.  Yeah for the job, boo for us!  Marin and the girls planned a surprise goodbye party for Amanda.  Justin and one of his friends (Jacob) helped the Halls load their things all evening.  We said good-bye multiple times and cried almost every time.  Life has been very different without them in Irvine.  We miss them every single day.

Off to Outdoor Education!

I took a few quick pics before the kids jumped on the bus to be gone for the whole week.  They were all so excited they could hardly contain themselves.  Heather Swanson had designed the sweatshirts and the kids looked great.  

Grace was very sad to see Marin go.  She missed her TONS the whole week and couldn't wait for Friday to come. She was super excited to be included in the pictures.  Marin took tons of pictures on her own camera while she was at camp. She was exhausted when she came home and had a marvelous time!

GO Dodgers!

(The only time you will ever hear me say that!)

Ben had another fun spring playing Irvine Pony baseball as a Dodger.  The team had a few bumps in the beginning of the season, but came on strong toward the end. They really peaked in the playoffs and won the whole thing! We were all excited and surprised at how well they came together and played to the end.  I was nervous that after playing with the Diamondback team the previous year that was so close that this year would be a let down. I don't know that our team got quite as close, but we had a great time watching the kids play! It was a great season.

Quilting Club Summer 2012 finally gets their quilts!

One early spring evening we headed to the Hoppers' home for the great "reveal" of the quilts. Lisa is so great to teach the girls how quilt, but ends up doing the finishing on her own.  She should probably teach the older girls how to do that themselves, but it all works out in the end.  I always love to see how different the quilts are. They match the girls each so well.  Grace even got to help hold one quilt for a girl who couldn't be there. She was thrilled to be included. Awesome girls and adorable blankets!

Vaquero Freshman Baseball Spring 2013

Lots of great hours were spent this spring watching #12 play baseball.  He spent most of his time catching.  He did pitch a tiny bit, but it bothered his elbow.  He ended up going to get acupuncture which helped heal his tweaked elbow quickly and finished the season playing first base because he didn't have to throw as much at that position.  He had the highest batting average on the team at .400 and was awarded Offensive MVP of the team.  We didn't win every game (we lost more than we won), but I love sitting out in the sunshine watching Justin play baseball.  It was great to see him back out there after he had taken a two year hiatus.

4th Grade to Mission San Juan Capistrano

Ben reminded me that I had never gone on a field trip with him all these years so I volunteered to be one of the parent volunteers on the trip to the mission.  We had fun making our own adobe, and then got a tour of the mission.  It is hard to go around and hear everything the docent is saying, but it is interesting to see how the people lived in the mission. Ben took all these pictures.

My "Little Girl" is invited to Young Womens!

In February the Young Women held "New Beginnings" and invited all the girls who were going to come into YW this year.  I couldn't believe that Marin and Paige were going to be 12!

Wizard of Oz

This year started crazy and just got crazier.  Having my mom here in Irvine/Costa Mesa in and out of the hospital and rehab facility really threw a wrench in the normal crazy flow of things.  I stopped blogging completely and didn't start again until the end of the summer.  Now that I have caught up with the end of the year, I thought I would go back and report on the first half of 2013.  It is mostly in order and may end up being more pictures than anything else.

IHS Performing Arts Department presented "The Wizard of Oz".  The munchkins were played by local elementary school kids.  Here are three of my favorites- Amanda Hall, Grace and Emmy Hillstead.  We had so much fun.  The kids were so cute!

They had two costumes- their "munchkinland" clothes and their "poppy" outfits.  All made by parents- mostly Tracey Rinard, with help from other parents, including me.  I burned my fingers on hot glue multiple times making these cute flower head pieces. 

There was a lot of down time in the second half of the show.  Really the only thing the kids did was curtain call, so they entertained themselves in lots of unusual ways!!

Grace and Amber had lots of family and friends come see the show.  Ms. Herman (Grace's TK teacher) was a favorite fan.

The whole cast!

With the family after the show, closing night

Two cute flowers

Amber got the understudy for "Dorothy" and was pretty crushed about it. She ended up being super classy and played a million parts- crow, dancer, Ozian, tree, etc.  She had a lot of costume changes and had to know basically the entire show.