A Week with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came for a week. We had a wonderful time with them. Here is a small sample of what we did. I was too busy having fun to take pictures of everything :)

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They arrived on a Saturday and Grandma Buppie opened her suitcase to find that the TSA had moved stuff around enough in her luggage that the box of quinoa she was bringing us exploded. Just for the record, it is delicious, even after being salvaged from a suitcase!


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Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa came to church with us and heard Rachel give a talk. She did really well.

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Monday we headed to San Diego. We started at the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center. Everyone loved it. The Church recently remodeled the displays and it was a lot of fun. Grandpa Dale introduced Michael to a big gun.

Everyone had a chance to pan for gold.

Naomi LOVED pumping water.


I think my mom's and my daughter's profiles look similar in this picture. What do you think?

I should have timed the people who were panning for gold. They kept at it for a while. My dad was having as much fun as anyone, which brings to mind the expression, "Boys will be boys and so will a lot of middle aged men."

There was a tower you could climb to look out over Old Town San Diego.

Michael needed a little bit of help with the binoculars.

There he goes!

It took some effort to drag everyone away from their prospecting, but we were getting hungry.

On the way out, Gwen was fantasizing about leading a wagon train...

...and Michael found an even bigger gun!

Everyone who wanted one got a small nugget of fool's gold from the prospectors, but this was my favorite souvenir :)


After the Mormon Battalion Site, we went out to lunch, then to Mission Beach where Grandpa, Summer and Rachel rode a roller coaster and the younger kids played in the water and sand.

On the way back home, my parents treated us to Italian food at Vigilucci's, which was so close to the beach that we could see the water. It was delicious.

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Tuesday, we recuperated a bit and went to see Gwen's school play.

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Wednesday, we took off to the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology. We also stopped at the Graber Olive House and Handel's Ice Cream.

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Thursday, I let Gwen skip school and she, Michael and Kelly woke up really early (hence the lack of cheer) and put on their overalls and went fossil hunting with Grandpa!

Thursday night, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant I really like. After dinner, my mom, Summer, Rachel, Heather and I went to the Art Walk downtown.

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Friday, we went to the farmer's market and picked up lots of yummy things. For dinner that night, we ate corn on the cob, artichoke, and watermelon radishes. My mom also bought us some flowers :)

Since my dad had done stuff with all the other kids, he took just Heather on a date to see Shrek in 3D Friday afternoon.

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Saturday, Kelly was baptized. This is the dress my mother made when I was baptized. My sisters and I each wore it and five of our girls have, too.

Summer played the cello while the sisters of the two children being baptized sang. Here they are practicing before the baptism started.

When we got back to the house, my dad and I tortured everyone by taking multiple pictures before we ate. You can see my mom and dad, as well as our cousin Lorna, who was so kind to come for Kelly's big day :)

Everyone recovered from starving in front of the camera by filling up on taco salad and trifle. Yum!

After lunch, my parents hit the road for more adventures, beginning with a drive up the coast. Thanks Dad and Mom for coming!

Summer on the Cello

This Morning

Summer needed to get to school early and get ready with the orchestra to play at Disneyland this evening. It's pretty fun for them: they go on rides all day and then perform in the evening.

Stan needed to get to work early because he has reports to get done today, so he was going to take Summer and then I would take the other three school girls.

We had it all planned out, but you've heard what they say about the best laid plans...

6:15 - I was in the throes of a nightmare about Rachel getting engaged at 16 and married at 18 when Stan woke me up to ask for help getting a permission slip filled out for Summer.

6:32 - Stan took Summer and Rachel to seminary

6:53 - Summer, after leaving seminary early, was almost to school on time when she realized that she left her cello at home.

6:55 - I dragged the three little kids out of bed an hour and a half earlier than they are used to and tossed clothes at them, while I told them to get dressed because we had to take kids to school.

7:10 - Summer rushed in to get her cello. I got a second goodbye kiss from Stan (not a bad development).

7:15 - I left with the five youngest to pick up Rachel from seminary.

7:25 - Rachel peered into the car and asked, "Where is my stuff?" I asked if she needed it and she pointed out it means a detention if she doesn't have it, so I pulled out my phone to call Stan.

7:26 - Stan realized that he had Rachel's bag and we called each other simultaneously a couple times, which caused our calls to go to voice mail twice each. Then he got smart and called Rachel's phone to plan a spot to meet.

7:35 - We arrived at the gas station we agreed on and Rachel got her bag and hoodie.

7:44 - Just as I was pulling up in front of Rachel's high school, Summer called. She told me she was in big trouble because she forgot her close toed shoes and Disneyland WILL NOT allow any performers on stage in open toed shoes. Rachel went to school.

7:47 - Gwen ran into the house and grabbed Summer's close toed shoes.

8:01 - I dropped Heather and Gwen off at school.

8:08 - I handed Summer her shoes through the locked fence at her high school while she sheepishly agonized over walking past the entire orchestra with her shoes in hand.

Whew!

When it was all done and everyone was where they belonged, it seemed kind of funny, ha ha :)

Concert Videos

Elementary Strings Concert



Piano Recital



Choral Performance



High School Orchestra Concert

Spring Concert

The school district had their Spring Orchestral Concert this past week. Gwen played violin with the Elementary Strings, Heather played viola with the Intermediate Strings and Summer played cello in the high school orchestra.

Here are snippets of each one of them. You can see the top of Gwen's head in the first one, Heather's elbow in the second and Summer's bangs in the last one. If you listen at the beginning of the last video, you can hear the Mo singing along.

Random Stuff from the Last Few Days

Thursday and Friday, Summer went music camp from 9:30-2:00 at her cello teacher's house. Summer and some of Jennifer other students practiced playing together, studied composers, ate pizza and had a water balloon fight. Summer had fun and enjoyed everything except for the lack of any other female students. Here is a picture of the group at the end of the second day. If I had spent 9 hours with three junior high school boys, I'm sure I would be hiding behind whatever large thing was handy, too.

Saturday morning, Kelly went out into the backyard in her pjs and found some bugs she wanted to keep as pets. I think it has something to do with not letting the kids have a dog. Her first one was a spider she is holding by its web.

And here is a pill bug she was really excited about. Unfortunately, the same rule applies to spiders and pill bugs as does to dogs...no, no, no.

Saturday afternoon some of the girls were drawing and Michael wanted to join in. I didn't get him paper soon enough and he looks like he has the measles, but I was just grateful he drew on himself instead of the wall. The battle scars are from bumping into Summer's desk. They showed up the exact moment the bruise on his forehead and scrape under his nose from falling down the garage steps disappeared. Isn't he lovely?