San Diego

The week after youth camp, I took the kids to the San Diego Temple open house.  It's a beautiful temple.  It had been nearly 16 years since we'd been there.  I found a couple pictures from 2010 when I was holding Weston.  Now look how tall he is!

The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo.  Our goal was to see everything, no matter how long it took.  After 7 hours and 15 minutes, we had finally wandered around the whole zoo!  We did spend a good amount of time at the panda bears and elephants (my favorites).  Other favorites were the crocodiles, turtles, snakes, monkeys, and hippos. The only disappointment was not seeing otters (one of Owen's favorites).

 

Camping Out

The day after Father's Day, Alex headed out for a 3-week business trip, which involved camping out in New Mexico.  He didn't really enjoy spending 3 weeks in a tent.  Savannah also left on Monday for a girls camp in Yosemite.  They actually camped just outside of Yosemite in Bass Lake, but they did some hiking in Yosemite.  They also got to do some tubing on the lake.  Savannah really enjoyed the devotionals and hanging out with friends. She wore flip flops quite a bit of the time, so her feet got filthy.  She got back on Friday afternoon. The boys left early Thursday morning that week for a backpacking trip with the young men from church.  They returned on Saturday. The boys hiked about 12 miles (4 each day).  Despite telling them to make sure to put on sunscreen, they didn't put it on during their swimming.  Both got really bad sunburns but they enjoyed their camp experience.  Owen particularly liked hanging out with his friend Josh.

Fathers Day

 I made waffles, omelets, and bacon for Father's Day breakfast.  We had sweet & sour chicken for dinner and M&M cookies for dessert.  We had a nice day at church, with pie and ice cream after church.  Savannah made a nice card for Alex.  He also got some snacks and chocolate.

May Misc / End of School

 The youth went on a temple trip to tour the Yorba Linda Temple in May.  

One of the youth activities was a beach bonfire.

Savannah enjoyed hanging out with friends, a bike to the beach with me, shopping, and Chick-Fil-A.

Almost all of us got to chat with Jared on Memorial Day.

Savannah likes taking selfies.  Alex made a short trip to visit and help his parents. The only picture I saw from that was him mowing.  Weston found and carried out a lizard that made it into the house.

Nathan took a hike with friends in Utah.

We wandered around and enjoyed the chalk art.

Weston's cross country buddies convinced him to get a buzz cut (and they did the hair cut at school).  We went to graduation to support our friend Becca (and a few other friends).  Owen sang the National Anthem with the choir.  Weston started practicing driving - scary!!  He enjoyed hanging out with friends doing a nerf war.  I got one dinner outing with friends.

I enjoyed reading the yearbook entries.  Owen had a nice note from one of his teachers, which said, "I'm so impressed with how you live according to your convictions.  Many others could learn from your example.  Continue to be a bright star and shine brightly!"  The seminary teachers had good things to say as well.  Weston had 100% attendance.  He was described as quiet, humble, and knowing the scriptures.  His comments are deep and meaningful, and he was good at expressing gratitude.  Owen got the selfless service award for always being willing to help.  He (and Weston) set up the tables and chairs for the seminary rooms on Sunday.  

We went out for lunch on the last day of school.  

Choir and Band

Weston had one last band performance the end of May at a festival.   Owen and Weston had their spring choir concert in May.  Some of the songs are repeat performances.  Owen took a picture with all his senior choir friends, which he'll miss a lot next year.  He got to know the choir people really well and enjoyed hanging out with them.  He and Weston also got to take a choir trip to Universal Studios.

One of my favorite performances of the year was Owen and Ollie's song and dance of Napoleon Dynamite.  They sent in their audition to the choir teacher and she selected them to perform in the end-of-the-year show in front of everyone.  I did not realize that Owen had it in him, but he did really well on the dance.  After the show, he went out to eat and ordered as Napoleon Dynamite.  Although the cashier didn't know how to spell it right, we got a kick out of the receipt.  

Weston also sang a couple songs in the show.  Owen was in several songs, with quite a bit of dancing involved.  He was one of the guys in the light saber duel in one of the Star Wars songs.  

 

Spring Sports

Savannah did the swim team again after basketball season was over.  Her events were the 200yd medley relay (backstroke), 50yd breaststroke, 50yd freestyle, 50yd backstroke, and 100yd freestyle.  She got a PR on the 50yd backstroke (43.15) and 50yd breaststroke (52.44) this season.  It appeared that she got a personal record on the 50yd freestyle at her last meet, according to the time on the camera (37 secs), but the results had an additional 1.65 seconds.  Her recorded personal best for this season on the 50yd freestyle was 37.97.  I also had a different time on the 100yd freestyle (1:26) but her best recorded time this season was 1:27.51. She did really well and enjoyed swimming. 

Weston surprised us and ran track this spring on the school JV team.  His main events were the 800m 1600m.  He did the 4x800m relay a couple of times and the 4x600 relay once.  He didn't like the shorter distances much.  His PR for the 800m was 2:35. On the mile, his first race time was 6:05.  He got better throughout the season, with drops to 5:40, 5:34, 5:29, and 5:25 (his PR for the season).

Owen had a good season on the JV volleyball team.  Owen played in 33 sets out of 46.  He missed 13 sets due to choir. They won 35 of the 46 sets.  In tournament play, they won 14 of 18 sets.  They made it to the semi-finals of the first tournament before losing by 3 points. They won 8 of 10 matches in league play, which put them in 2nd place in the league.  All wins were in 2 sets (matches are best 2 of 3).  They only lost to one opponent in 2 sets.  Their last match of the season to a cross-town rival was heartbreaking.  They won the 1st set, and then lost the 2nd and 3rd sets by just 2 points.  

Owen switched from middle (freshman and sophomore year position) to outside position this year, to try to put him in a more competitive spot for next year.  He did really well.  He got the coaches award, which was no surprise, since all coaches love him. His coach said Owen is one of the kindest players you'll ever meet.  He also mentioned how supportive he was, being the first to help set up and the last to leave, making sure things were cleaned up.  He held himself to high standards and built up everyone around him. 

One other interesting side note for the season was Owen had a player on the team (Janne) who was an exchange student from Germany.  We got to chat with him quite a bit on the ride home from a tournament.  He asked a lot of questions about our church. Owen ended up giving him a Book of Mormon in German to take back home with him. Janne is number 9 in the photos.  

Owen's choir teacher put out these posts for recruitment, showing that you can do both choir and sports.  It was a little challenging and he had to miss some sports, but he definitely was able to do both this year.

My Heart Sings

I posted this video on Facebook for Mother's Day with this message: 

"I got a tribute put together for some special moms in my life. I know Heavenly Father loves me because He put these beautiful and amazing people in my life. My heart sings when I think of all of them and where we started and where our journey is taking us!"

I got a lot of chocolate for Mother's Day. Nathan even sent some via Instacart delivery.  Owen bought Legos for me.  Alex did the meals - German pancakes, BLT's, sweet potato fries, and cake.  We had lunch during the 2nd hour at church and ice cream with the whole ward after church.  I got to chat with Jared for about 15 minutes.