May 2017

We kicked off May celebrating Mesha's birthday at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Her influence and strength is still felt, and she is so easy to celebrate.

We had a family bridal shower for Britt at Sundance.

May Faire was the first weekend in May. It was a big event with free and ticketed games, food trucks and vendor booths. Given many of the setbacks during the planning process, it turned out exactly as planned and was a great success. I was happy to turn in my Festivals/Events Chair hat after it was over, although I learned a lot and am very grateful for the experience. I was a bit engaged and didn't get any pictures. But a few made it my way.

Tennie and some of her friends came.

Ceci's booth was a success! Adele volunteered to help man it. Lots of friends kept her company too.

She counted up her moolah the next day and was well on her way to meet her South Korea goal!

Tennie had her end of year dance performance. (That's Adele's cute friend, Raja, on the far left).

The YW president, Wendi, came to see Tennie perform on the last night.

Mid-month Ceci was in a movie put on by the Temple Department to train temple workers. It was about a nervous Beehive going to the temple for the first time, and Ceci played the Beehive. It was filmed in the temple and was a really cool experience. That money went towards Korea too! (So did the tax money we had set aside in 2016 that we didn't use! Woot woot!)

The family went in three different directions. Geoff and Adele went back to San Diego for Britt's wedding. (The week before several Davis families were taking a vacation in Southern California, so Geoff and Adele spent another week in the sun.) Ceci and I stayed home since she had missed so much school. I flew out for the day of the temple wedding, but Ceci stayed home with Tennie until I got home, and who took off the next day for a 10 day road biking trip in Southern Utah with a group from school. 

In California Adele fell in love with the newest Davis cousin, Cameron, Christian and Heather's newest baby at about 2 weeks old. He's scrumptious!

Whenever I see Geoff at a beach I realize what a sacrifice it is for him to NOT live by the ocean. He is so happy and in his element playing in the waves and feeling the hot sun. We had many conversations about moving to Southern California so he could be in the ocean every day.

Britt's temple wedding was beautiful, even though she was an hour late to the temple and had stepped on her hot curling iron when running out the door! My mom's cousin, Dirk Jergensen, is the San Diego temple president and married them. It was perfect.

I'll leave it to Britt to record her wedding, but I got a couple photos of the day.

Tennie had an incredible biking adventure. Her physical grit continues to amaze me. They biked 15-20 miles per day, camped at night and ate PB & Jelly TORTILLAS for lunch every day! I'd fizzle out the first day under those conditions! She came home so happy and clear-headed.

Sometime in May she went to prom with a group of friends. She and her friend Mariah got ready at our house. I'm so glad their school doesn't go all out into expensive dresses and the works. It is just a fun occasion for friends to dress up a bit and get together.

One of Geoff's YGL friends from Britain, Lucien, came to town and they toured Temple Square.

Ceci went on a weeklong camping trip with her 6th grade class, which was a blast for her. I don't have one single picture, but she was ALIVE when she came home with all sorts of adventures and tales.

Pertussis went through Tennie and Adele's school and at some point during the month of May Tennie got sick and began coughing. She was quite sick when she went on her biking trip! It passed on to Ceci who is still sick nearly six weeks later. Whether it was pertussis or croup (what Ceci's doctor diagnosed) or some other nasty virus, this one has been hard to kick!

A busy month to wrap up the end of school!

April 2017

How does time pass so quickly! 

APRIL

I finished up a quilt I made for Christian and Heather's first baby. It was truly a labor of love, as I am not a natural seamstress! I love how it turned out, and it was fun to tackle a creative project.

Geoff went to a YGL event in Buenos Aires, Argentina and had a great time connecting with amazing people.

Ceci had his typical welcome home sign.

We updated our passports, which is only tolerable when anticipating future travel!

We had an early Easter with egg coloring and baskets. Some thought the tactile experience was more interesting than the painted product...

The girls really wanted to drop them off the balcony. No. So they went down to an empty dumpster on the street and threw them as hard as they could.

We took a Spring Break trip to Southern California. We stayed with Geoff's dad and his new wife, Robin in their home in Vista, California. Geoff and the girls took surf lessons every day and got pretty good! The weather was a bit cool, but the sun and sand and salty air filled our souls and we felt ALIVE!

While in a coastal town shop Geoff ran into a YGL friend from the Netherlands. He and his family were finishing up living in California for a year. We got together a few times over the next few days, our kids hitting it off. It was so fun to get to know these great new friends.

On Easter morning we gave the girls a surprise egg. It was a beautiful Easter.

Back at home, we met up with the Serafins for a hike to Friar's Peak on Antelope Island. We got eaten alive by biting gnats, a bit like a pestilence, really, but the views are spectacular. It felt like we were in Ireland, or in the middle of Lord of the Rings. Stunning!

(If you are wondering what my hair is doing in the picture above, I am too.)

The rest of the month was busy with meetings for the Waldorf May Faire, coming up in May, arranging for a snack booth for Ceci to have at the May Faire in an effort to earn some money for Korea, and a CHOICE Humanitarian breakfast where Adele helped out as a member of the youth board. In addition, Ceci gave her first sacrament talk, where she was a total natural! She also auditioned for a class play at school and got the lead. Her cute teacher wrote each student a little card about why she felt they were perfect for their part.

Ceci immediately memorized her lines and was in search for the perfect costume. This picture of a wig was sent to her teacher for approval, in character, of course. How could you not love her?

She had a deal with another tom boy type of girl that they would both wear frilly dresses to school. She left the house like this.

Ceci's class also learned math through opening businesses. There were bake shops, snow cone shacks and fish for sale, among many other little vendor stands. Ceci's was A PHOTO WITH MOTOMOTO (from the movie Madagascar). I paid a dollar.

Geoff had a meeting downtown and rode his skateboard. He took it into work and was caught walking through the office like this.