Book reading

Brayden, Julia, and Blake have been on a book reading kick.  Brayden has been reading Brandon Sanderson, Julia has been reading Lunar Chronicles, and Blake has been on a Harry Potter streak.

Add Julia picture reading 8/13/18

Gingerbread houses

I usually buy Easter egg dying kits and Gingerbread houses for Christmas, but lately I have been bad about doing them with the kids.  About 3 weeks after Christmas we finally got around to making the Gingerbread houses.

Driving Experience

Kylee finally got her license on August 31.  Kylee delayed in setting her appointment, so she ended up getting a date after school had already started.  She didn't look at the paperwork, so she didn't know that she was supposed to be there an hour before the set appointment.  We were only there 5 minutes before her appointment.  When we checked in at the front they said she wouldn't be able to take the test because she came too late.  They said we could fill out the paperwork and would have to come back another day to take the test.  So waited for ever for her number.  When we were called to go process the paperwork she was trying to hurry us so she could possibly have a chance to take the test.  The lady was pretty quick, but there was not much time before the DPS office was closing.  Luckily one of the instructors said she would do the test for her even though she was late.  So, she was able to take the test.


Experience of Online driving course.
Pretty timid about driving on the streets, she practiced a lot of times in the O'Connor Parking lot.  Matt had to take her out driving on the real streets.  I tried to stay calm as she drove, but she felt like I was screaming at her.  I am sure it was because she was stressed out and more sensitive.  She wanted to drive more with Matt, but then he was deployed.  It ended up taking her more than a year to get her licence from when she started her driving course.

Anniversary 2017 - Grey Moss Inn

For our 18th wedding anniversary we went to eat at the Grey Moss Inn, a small restaurant in the small town of Grey Forest not far from our home.  A hundred years ago the town, which is more of a village with a few hundred homes clustered along a river in a heavily wooded area, was a fairly remote vacation spot for wealthy families living in San Antonio and the surrounding area.   It is not really the kind of place you just go out to on a Friday night, so we had been looking for an occasion to try it out.  The Grey Moss Inn, opened in 1929, is one of the oldest restaurants in Texas.  It is supposed to be very romantic, though we found the atmosphere more mysterious and even a bit spooky.  There were very interesting candles at each table that were continually added to, some of which had been around for decades.  The food was pretty good and it was a fun change of scenery.   

Tucson /Guaymas June 10-17 2017

Saturday - June 10 - swim meet in the morning, left for El Paso around 2, we made it in 7 1/2 hours

Sunday - June 11 - Went to church the next morning on Sunday - Mindy's ward sacrament, ate a lunch and left for Tucson around 3 or 4.  Went to In n Out on the way in, it was late.  Stayed at a hotel together, we met up with Katrina's family.  Camille brought a couple of extra boys with her on the trip, Dave and Susy Arroyos boys.

Monday - June 12 The kids loved the free breakfast and especially the freedom of making their own hot chocolate even though the temperatures were in the 100's. We went to the temple open house at 9 am.  It was a neat temple with a pretty blue dome on the top.  It was nice to have soo many go through.  After we went to change clothes back at the hotel.  We packed up and went to eat on our way out to the beach house.  It was a long ride to the beach house.  We didn't get in until late, after dark. Short devotional from Dad and we had Little Cesaers.

Tuesday - June 13 We went to the beach around 11, Delfin Beach.  We were there until 4.  We had sandwiches for lunch at the beach.  It was windy, lots of waves.  The kids had fun collecting shells, paddle boarding, kayaking.  Kylee and Julia went kayaking, but they didn't really move because of the wind. They paddled for a half hour in the same spot.  Brayden took off kayaking with Santiago and ? for a long time and I couldn't see him anymore.  Luckily he made it back, but got burned because he didn't put on sunscreen.  They all got burned, it was a rough night of sleep.  After the beach we went and checked out the new boat.

Wednesday - June 14  We had to wait for the boat to be ready.  We got on the boat around noon and traveled about 8 hours and only went 75 miles to Santa Rosalia.  It was across the Sea of Cortez.  We slept on the boat after it was docked.  Boys were upstairs, kids and girls were on the living room floor.  I slept in the master room with some of the kids.  We had to open windows on both sides, so it was not soo miserable.  Several air conditioners were out.  It was really windy on the first day, so Jennifer was pretty sick during the day as we traveled.

Thursday - June 15  We got off the boat and walked around the town.  It was really hot, so we went and had Thrifty's and then headed back to the boat.  We took off around noon.  The water was a lot calmer and a smoother ride back.  We stopped the boat in the open water close to our destination to have the kids swim in the water a little bit.  The kids started climbing up around the mountain.  We were a little worried they would jump off the cliffs.  Luckily they didn't.  (saw whale, dolphins, sea lions)

Friday - June 16  Camille went with her boys to the market because they were leaving the next day. Robert, Katrina, Cynthia and I plus families went to buy stuff for the orphanage and delivered it to the orphanage.  The mosquitos were brutal and  a lot of kids had eye issues.  Camille came home and went to the beach.  We went shopping for presents for Mom and Dad.  We celebrated Mom's birthday that night. We had a devotional talking about Mom.  All of her kids there shared some stories about Mom.

Saturday - June 17  Camille and Robert left.  We went out to breakfast to celebrate Mom's birthday, then we went to the market.  We went to Delfin beach in the afternoon for a little bit.  We went to eat dinner with just the adults in the evening at a sushi place while the kids had pizza at home.

We left on Sunday early morning and went to dinner at Robert and Jennifer's.  They cooked a great meal for father's day.  We drove back to San Antonio on Monday morning so the boys could be ready to leave the next day to high adventure.

Woodworking

Brayden took woodworking for one of his electives this school year.  He has really enjoyed taking this class and learning all about woodworking.  The first thing they did was make puzzles on a scroll saw.  His favorite tool he used was the Lathe.  His favorite projects were to make a clipboard and gavel.  On May 22nd at the end of the school day I got a phone call from Jefferson Middle School to say that there has been an accident.  They were quick to say that he had not cut off a finger, but he did cut his finger.  He had passed out and luckily his teacher and another student caught him. They had to bring him in a wheel chair up to the nurses office.  He was laying on the nurses bed and she said every time he would sit up he would get pale.  After hanging out there for 5 minutes, he felt better and he was able to leave.  Matt was heading out from work, so he met me at the school and he took him down to the urgent care center at Wilford Hall to get his finger stitched up.  Brayden said he cut his finger while he was making his gumball machine.  He wanted to accomplish all the projects that he could, so he was trying to go fast.  He was talking to his friend while he was working and he was used to using the machine and wasn't thinking of the hazard.  He hit his finger and didn't see blood at first, so he thought he was ok.  Then it started to bleed and he passed out. He said the gumball machine was his hardest project because it was a lot of measuring.  He was trying to finish the gumball machine so he could do the rubber band gun.  He didn't get to do the gun, but the gumball machine was finished.

Matt's Birthday

Matt had a truckload of dirt dumped on our driveway to spread around the yard to help our grass.  Of course it was in the driveway for a while as it slowly got spread around.  Kylee thought it would be funny to make Matt a dirt pile cake since it was fitting for our situation.  She did a great job.
-add in picture of actual pile on april 8th