Our school district does Spring Break during the odd week of March 21st. It’s not near Easter, and it isn’t even spring yet! I think Ridgecrest just likes to be the craziest place to live in all the world. Our Spring Break started a little early, though, because the boys had a dentist appointment in Bakersfield the Thursday before, so Helaman missed that day of school, too. We thought it was going to just be a fun day out of town. They LOVED the dentist we took them to (Helaman tells me he can’t wait to get his teeth cleaned again!) and then we took them for some fun at our favorite John’s Incredible Pizza. Delicious pizza, fun games (that all work!), go-carts, it was a blast!

Omar’s mom’s car had broken down a few days earlier, and as the day went on we kept feeling like we needed to go to Gridley and help her with it and getting a replacement. So, we ended up driving back to Ridgecrest, packing up the car, and the driving back through Bakersfield on our way to Gridley. It was a LOT of driving. We took the scenic route on the way back to Bakersfield, following the Kern River as it wound through the mountains. It made the drive a lot longer, but it was beautiful, and way less annoying than driving through Tehachapi three times in one day.

Friday morning, Omar went to work on his mom’s car to fix it up for selling, and then spent the rest of the day with her looking for a new car that would be more reliable when we are so far away. Meanwhile, the boys and I had a blast.

My mom is teaching a life skills class, and they were doing a unit on taking care of kids, so she had the grandkids come to her class for the day. The boys and I got there early and made graham cracker/frosting sandwiches to serves as a snack. Helaman’s job was to teach the class how to play the cookie monster game. We practiced using a loud voice and giving directions while we frosted, and he did a great job when the class came in. The boys drew pictures on little white boards to show the class and had them guess what they were, then Helaman taught the game and we took them outside to play. Then they played Simon says, and I was surprised how many of them didn’t know how to play that game. Sad.

After the class time Tara and I took the kids to Subway for lunch, and then to park to play for a while. Isaiah and Ava were both ready for a nap, so I took the boys to my mom’s house and let Isaiah sleep. The boys had a slumber-party at Grandma’s that night, and Michael and Tara and Omar and I went on a date to some yummy Mexican food and frozen yogurt.

The boys love playing in my mom’s yard and helping in her garden. She said Isaiah was being so funny with the oranges because he was so stubborn about carrying all five of these. He would drop one and spend forever figuring out how to pick them all up again. He really is such a determined guy. She also has this tractor bike he was determined to ride, even though he had to slide way down in the seat to reach the pedals. He spent a half hour riding from the front porch to the back steps, refusing to give up. He makes me laugh.

When I could get Helaman into the house, this is where he would inevitably be found, playing Wii with Greta (or anyone that he could get to play with him!) He loved playing the Wii, and really wants to buy one for home, but mom is still a hold out. I like that he’s building things right now instead of being glued to the t.v. I may lose this battle eventually, but for now it still make Gridley even more exciting.

On Saturday Omar and his mom were still off car shopping. Llael took the boys to visit her dad and to the park for a bit while I took a shower and went flower shopping with my mom. Jelly said they really wanted to try the pruners and Isaiah insisted on trying to cut the biggest branch on the ground, and wouldn’t give up. Silly stubborn kid again. They had a lot of fun with her and then we all just hung out while Omar finished car shopping with his mom.

That’s quite a story in itself, he talked them down way under MSRP, and even then the guy ended up paying Omar money out of his pocket for his gas to drive the dealership. At one point he got so fed up with their games he pretended he was talking over the offer like they do for 15 minutes, and then told them no. Funny guy! He got her a great deal, though!

That night we had a BBQ with all of our family on both sides and laughed at these funny boys playing Wii. Helaman played this game until he was completely beat red, and then only stopped because the rest of us were too warn out and no one would race him any more.

The next day was Sunday. We had a delicious breakfast at Omar’s mom’s house and started for home. We stopped in Yuba City to say hello to Omar’s Uncle and his family, and we had way too much fun and stayed way longer than we meant to. We finally got home late Sunday night. It was a fun trip, and a great start to Helaman’s first ever spring break.

We went hiking again last week. Dad goes to Taco Bell with his friends for lunch on Thursdays, so we always do something fun that day since we aren’t having lunch with him (which is our fun the rest of the time). This time we got to take Trevor with us, and it was lots of fun. They loved checking out all the cool rocks and cacti.

The next picture is just to show how high they climbed. It was pretty hard work, I was proud of them. But they were all tired and ready to go by the end. If you look close you can see Ridgecrest in the background waaaay down behind them.

Then we went to McDonald’s for lunch, came home and watched Monster v. Aliens and played tag and “cookie-monster” and golfed in the front yard. Thanks for playing with us Trev!

Grandma and Greta came for Valentine’s Day. My boys were so excited, they could hardly take it! We didn’t go home for Christmas this year, and it had been a long time since we’d gotten to see them. We were so glad they were willing to drive down here and play with us! We played games, and were silly, and ate Doritos (yum! Thanks for stealing them, Greta!) and went to a Greek Restaurant (thank Mom, it was great!) and just generally enjoyed each other for the first day they were here.

Grandma also brought presents of course! She brought the boys some cool new games, these awesome sweaters they love from Michael & Tara and LEGOS from Chris. I had some very hyper, happy boys on my hands. They really do love these sweaters, Helaman loves soft stripes and Isaiah loves being exactly like Helaman, and is super thrilled. He calls it his favorite jacket.

The legos were a huge hit, too. After everyone left, Helaman did nothing but play with these legos for a few days straight. It’s still one of his favorite things to do. He can’t believe how many cool legos he has, and keeps making us super cool inventions. I appreciate that Isaiah can play with them, too. With the sets I am always so paranoid about him losing a piece, it’s been nice to just let them play!

The next morning we slept in and then headed out to the L.A. Temple apartments. We checked in and dropped off our stuff, took a bunch of pictures, then headed to the beach.

We were going to go to the Santa Monica Pier with Michael and Tara, but we were all running sooo late we just headed for the beach instead.

We hadn’t planned on going to the beach, so no one was dressed appropriately. But that didn’t stop the boys and Ava from wanting to play in the cold cold water. Okay, I wanted to play, too. Only my mom and Tara stayed high and dry. Which was smart, because we all froze! But it was still lots of fun.

Michael was cracking me up feeding the little birds. They would make seagull noises and he would drop food into their mouth. He’s always such a fun uncle with his kid brain!

Isaiah missed his nap and was so tired he almost fell asleep face first in the sand while the rest of us watched the beautiful sunset. Then Omar and I went to the temple while Grandma stayed at the apartment with sleeping Isaiah and Michael and Tara took Helaman and Greta and the girls on an adventure. (Thanks guys!) We were supposed to stay at the apartments that night and go see Billy in the morning while his ship was docked in L.A., but Isaiah got sick, and I went home with my boys. Everyone else stayed there, then came to our house to play the next day. We took the kids on four-wheeler rides, and Michael and Omar went on a long ride in the desert. Then we had BBQ and just laughed at our crazy kids. Everyone left the next day.

We had a great time with everyone! Thanks for coming to see us, we sure love our family!

Omar and Helaman came up with a plan to plant seeds in 2-liter bottles. So of course Isaiah wanted to do it too! We went to home Depot and they picked out their seeds while dad was at work. Helaman really wanted to plant a tree, or red roses. Since neither of those grow well from seeds he settled on big sunflower seeds. Isaiah is super excited to grow peas. He says he loves peas? I have never seen him love peas, including that night for dinner, but he thinks he does!

After dinner Omar brought in a tray of potting soil and they had a blast filling their bottles and planting the seeds. Nothing has germinated yet, but it’s only been 12 days, so we’ll have to keep hoping… Omar is the cutest of all about the whole thing. He comes home every day after work and checks on the seeds. I sure love that guy!

I took the boys hiking during Omar’s Taco Bell Thursday lunch a week ago. I was feeling stir crazy, and the weather was beautiful! They were really excited to go and loved finding cacti, mines, and crazy crumbling abandoned buildings. Helaman loves to call upside down triangles with rounded corners “u-tovers”, and there were lots of trail markings with those. He was thrilled every time we saw one. And for every u-tover we passed we had to find one cactus or we couldn’t turn around.

We hiked a lot further than we should have, they didn’t want to turn around, but I knew they were going to be too tired! I ended up carrying Isaiah a lot of the way back to the car. The trail we were on wound around the mountain, but they had run out of patience by the end and we cross-countried it as the crow would walk if carrying a baby and being patient with a straggling preschooler. We still had lots of fun, and even found a non-fenced mine that freaked me right out with my two crazies!

We made it with no mishaps all the way to the almost end, when Helaman biffed it, back on the wide nice trail, when he lost his balance turning around. Sounds like something I would do! I was really glad to have a first-aid kit in the back of my car. Not that he was very hurt. It was just really comforting to him (and me) that I had everything under control and the tools ready to comfort and heal. As soon as we broke out the band-aids the world was right again. And they still remember it as a fun activity they are dying to do again. Well, that and the Subway helped. Helaman loves Subway, Omar does not. So they were excited to go because we never do.

I love hanging out with my boys and that we can go hiking in the desert in the winter. (And only in the winter! I’m scared to death of rattlesnakes.)

And finally, this is what happens to the cute little train set when mom leaves and the boys play. Look close, those are machine guns. And yes, they shot them! Scary right?

It finally really rained today. The boys had a lot of fun playing in the rain and mud in the back yard. Finally when they were soaked to the bone they came in to get dry by our first ever fire (using spare wood from the shed). It was a cozy lazy day. When the fire burnt down we roasted marshmallows for an afternoon snack using a hanger daddy had “engineered” for that purpose! It’s supposed to rain all week, it might not be fun for that long, but it was a great day today.

Tonight Isaiah was lesson for family night, and we all took turns saying something we were thankful for from this week. Helaman was thankful for playing the rain. Isaiah was thankful for nursery and spent a long time telling us all the things he did there. The funny part is, he still says he did it all with Sister Moran, even though she isn’t there any more. We just spent so long trying to get him to go play with her that’s what nursery is called in his head. Funny kid. I was thankful to get to do music in primary yesterday. I had a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the kids and learning the song. It was a crazy busy day, but it really flew by! Omar was thankful for getting to stay home today with us, and for roasting marshmallows in the fireplace.

It was a simple lesson, but we really are so blessed!