Silver Strand Beach

This last weekend we drove over to San Diego for Jared's baby blessing of his little girl, Madalyn. Grandma Karen drove over there with us. We stayed at Jared's house, which is Naval housing. It was actually a really nice home and neighborhood.

On Saturday we went down to Silver Strand Beach, south on Coronado Island. We had never been down that far before on the island. The beach was really big. The kids love the beach. They get that from their mother. Jared's in-laws took us there and we played touch football and played in the water, which wasn't very cold. They found lots of shells and sand dollars and even a couple of big clams (I guess) that grandma Karen and Kristin gutted and then boiled the shells to keep. They smelled really bad though. Jared wasn't happy to have the smell in his house.

We had a great time there, the weather was perfect!


















Brynley and Sadie had fun chasing the seagulls.

Cooling Off

Good thing Grandma Karen has a pool at her home. We were prepared for the heat, but not the humidity when we moved back down here. We left 75 degree weather in Utah for 108 degree weather when we unpacked. Yuck! Grandma's pool sits in the shade for most of the day so the water is actually kinda cold, even on a hot day it feels chilly. Brynley says, "Don't worry mom, you'll get used to it", as she swims non-stop around the pool. We'd like to get Sadie in swim lessons, but we'll probably wait until next spring. She'll swim around if she's in the tube and Diesel likes to float around too. He's getting brave also, he'll climb up the steps and get and then head over to the side and jump to me. He loves it.

Mean Mom and Dad

I found a fake spider and Casey Ann and I decided to see how the kids would react. Well, we got our answer. I guess we're mean parents. They'll laugh later on in life about it, right?





Yeah, we're mean, we know.

Birthday Pics

Brynley's started her birthday with breakfast in bed. Mom made her favorite food, crepes with fresh fruit. She turned 6 and she had a great time with her cousins and friends at her party. We rented a cotton candy machine and the kids ate and ate it up. She even got a pinata this year and was really excited for that.

First Day of First Grade

Brynley was sooooo excited to go to school all day now. She really likes her new teacher and classmates. I asked that first week if she got a recess that day and she responded, "We get TWO recesses EVERY day". It is fun to watch her grow up.

Toothless

I'm trying to catch up with things before and after we moved.

Brynley lost her first front tooth (3rd overall) before we moved to Arizona. She's about ready to lose her other front tooth any day now too. This tooth was loose for a long time. She used to have a gap between her front two teeth, but as it loosened and refused to come out, the tooth shifted and the gap between her front two closed. If you blow up the first picture, you can see the gap is now between her front and lateral tooth.

Before


During


After


Prized possesion

Reflections of Christ

I received an email from my sister, Kim, today regarding the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Arizona Temple. It was a video of some photographs that were taken with the cast and set to music. I thought it was amazing.

Here's what it said:

"For many years the Mesa Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had a pageant on the temple grounds during the Easter season. This year, there was also a 'Reflections of Christ' photography exhibit in which the photographer was given permission to photograph Pageant cast members for the exhibit. They traveled to various locations in Arizona that the photographer felt looked like the places in Israel where the events took place and recreated the scenes. The photographer worked with a few other individuals to put together a 5 minute slideshow which includes every image from the exhibit set to the hymn 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.' Just remember when you're watching the video that the photographs are real, they aren't paintings."

Here's the video link also.

http://mabrystudios.typepad.com/reflections_of_christ/2008/03/reflections-sli.html

Back at it

Well... We've finally settled down here in Peoria, AZ. It's definitely nice to be back in Arizona, even though we're an hour from our old stomping grounds. We had some help from the Conrads unpacking, which we're very grateful to them.

Brynley started 1st grade the Tuesday after we arrived and is loving it. She's so excited she gets TWO recesses every day. She's growing up so fast. We just love her to pieces. I will post some pictures of her 1st day of school later.

I started school 2 days after we unpacked (Physics I and Anatomy and Physiology). I really enjoy my classes this semester actually. And then I ended up getting sick a week after we got here and have been sick since. Really dumb to get a cold at the end of summer. I think the drastic change in weather and stressing over the DAT did it.

Speaking of the DAT. I took it the Monday after we arrived and let's say I didn't do too hot on it. I need some more studying and practice. It was good to take it and feel the speed of the exam (less than 60 seconds per question) and how the questions are formulated. I will be taking it again at the end of November. We're very grateful for the thoughts and prayers on my behalf.

We have a lot to get caught up on and will do so this week hopefully.