Spring Break

Since Spencer's birthday fell right before Spring Break we decided to let him pick a couple places to visit.  He chose the LA Zoo and the Aquarium of the Pacific.  We drove down Thursday morning and went straight to the zoo.

Spencer in front of one of his favorite animal a jaguar (its laying in the grass - trust me :)

 The boys in front of the tiger

 Giraffes

After the zoo, we took the kids to the UCLA campus.  It was so much fun showing them around!

Me and Chai in front of Royce Hall - where I graduated 11 yrs ago!

We stayed down in long beach Thursday night so we could be close to the Aquarium in the morning.  Gia LOVED the aquarium.

Everyone loved toughing the sharks and stingrays

Derrick took the girls to one of the animal shows.  Channing was all about answering the questions.

I stayed out with the boys so they could keep hanging out with the sharks

 

It was a great way to celebrate Spencer's 7th birthday and Spring Break!

Happy Birthday Spencer!

Happy 7th Birthday Spencer!!!  Spencer wanted to start out the day with a donut breakfast before school.  Usually we have presents set out the night before, but we knew there wouldn't be time to get all that in before school.  Also, as a special treat, Grandma Beckie and Grandpa Doug came out to visit, so we thought it would be fun to save presents for after dinner.  

A quick before-school photo shoot of the birthday boy

After making him do a bunch of poses, I asked him to pick his own pose and this is what he did :)

After school, Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to Chuck E Cheese per Spencer's birthday request. I stayed back to get decorations up, presents out, and cake ready.

Happy Birthday Spencer!  We love you so much!!!

March Madness

March was packed full of events for us...

Right after Sawyer started football, he broke his arm on the monkey bars at school.  He goes in on April 5th to get it checked out, and hopefully shortly after get his cast off.  He should be able to join his team for the last couple games of the season.

We also got to see Donn, Becky, Kelsey, Jon, Reece, and Jack.  They came out to Shadow Ridge for Spring break, so we had them over for dinner one night.  Reece and Channing hit it off right away.

All the kids with the exception of Gia who was already sleeping

Becky, Erica, Kelsey :)

The next week we had another round of visitors.  Ryan, Lily, and their daughter Dallyce came to Palm Desert for a night.  Ryan was one of the groomsmen in our wedding, and currently lives in Ecuador with his family.

Channing and Dallyce had a great time playing Barbie's and store together.  Derrick and his childhood best friend Ryan Younger.

The following week was taken up by everybody getting sick, but thankfully we were all healthy again to celebrate Derrick's birthday.

We had a delicious birthday dinner at Woodhaven :)