May Madness

May has been a whirlwind of activity. Mike got home on the 3rd and we were so glad to see him! Still no home shore job yet but we are not giving up hope. Since he has been home we have been painting and painting and painting. We are almost done! We did have a little accident. Mike had a small can of white paint he decided to shake without checking the lid. It exploded all over me and the computer room floor. I laughed so hard! Maybe I will get my new carpet sooner than I thought.



We of course have been having fun too. Between Geocaching, the pool, the beach, friends and church activities we have had a great month. Mike and I stole away to the beach while the big kids were in school one day and had a great time with the little ones. I forget how much Tommy loves that place. It was not the nicest day but it was not crowded at all and we loved it.



Geocaching is one of our favorite family activities and with Mike home there has been plenty of it. Mike, George, Dylan, Thomas, Eliza and I were out one day and Dylan came face to face with a nice rattle snake. He was standing inches away from it and did not even see it! We decided no more dessert ones while it is snake season. Here is a pic of the kids on a night out caching.



The pool here has a program every Friday morning where you can bring little kids and swim in the shallow area with no big kids to push them down and rule the waters. It is one of our favorite summer activities. Thomas and Eliza like to chill in the loungers.



I went on a 6th grade field trip to the Getty Villa in Santa Monica. It is a museum of Greek and Roman art and artifacts. Some of the vases and statues are dated back to BC. It was really cool. The 4 hrs it took to get home with six boys and 2 girls in my car were not so cool. That was one of the longest drives of my life! And Shelby ditched me to ride with her friends in another car. What I do to have my kids attend the charter...... This is a coin bank. It depicts a slave girl begging for money and the coin slot is where she is pulling the top of her dress out. It dated back to about 200 AD. It was really small and the detail in it is amazing considering everything was done by hand.



Every year at the Storm Stadium our Stake gets a bunch of tickets and we dub it "Mormon Night". The Lake Elsinore Storm is a local minor league base ball team. We decided to take the kids out to the game. We did not tailgate with the Ward, Thomas had his baseball pizza party for his team that night too so we did that instead. It was a really fun night. There were freebies handed out by the Marines and lots of friends to be with. Michael's friend from ROTC was up in the box seats so of course he ditched us for the better seats. There was one point in the game Mike and I had been abandoned by all the kids for either a friend or some running around, of course Eliza wanted to go too so they were kind enough to take her. That has never happened so we enjoyed it while it lasted. They had some amazing fireworks at the end of the game. I didn't get a shot of those but the kids watching them was very cute.



Memorial Day we were invited to a pool party. The pool in this back yard is amazing! A HUGE jumping rock, an awesome rock slide and an enormous hot tub. Great food, smoothies and some fun with friends made it a wonderful holiday with the family. The jump rock is probably 8-10 feet high. Thomas marched right up there and jumped right off. That kid has more guts than I even thought! It took Dylan a good 30 min to make up his mind but finally took the plunge. I decided to give it a try and it was a little scary and took some coaxing, but I jumped and once was enough for me. Everyone but Eliza and George had the burn to go with the day in the pool, but it was well worth it. These pictures are not the greatest, but you get the idea.









Every time I sit and blog about the things we have done I feel such a feeling of love and am so grateful to be this blessed. I have an amazing family and wonderful friends and could not ask for anything more.