End of the School Year!

We finished another school year! It flew by & I really can't believe that I'll have a 4th grader and a kindergartner next year! Mr. Jace might be old enough for preschool too, if he can keep his pants dry (his words). 

Here are a few pictures from the end of the year parties and graduations: 

Flor from the beginning of 3rd grade to the end of 3rd grate

The whole special ed program at Flor's school had a little program to celebrate the end of the year.  I couldn't get any good pictures, so this will have to do. 

Flor looking thrilled about her award that she got (a good helper award). haha. 

Flor with her teacher, Mrs. Beaudry and aides from her room. Mrs. Beaudry is the one right behind Flor. We absolutely loved her as Flor's teacher. It was her first year teaching, but she did an incredible job.

Hals on her last day of preschool! They had a water party- thus the swimsuit. She's so grown up!

Graduation!

Hallie with her four best friends. These girls were all in our ward, though two have since moved out. They all attended preschool together and are the best of friends. We are going to miss having such good friends for Hals when we move! Emma, Brooklyn, Hals, and Abby. Cute girls.

Oh and a few songs. Do you think Hals is tall, or what? She is in the dead middle of the back. I think she was the tallest kid there.

Onto the next school year...in a whole new area! Wish us luck.

Meanwhile in Idaho...

The weekend before Dev and I went to San Francisco, I went up to Idaho for the weekend for Steve's graduation and for Mother's Day. Congrats Steve on walking for his Masters! Our poor family, enduring three graduations in a week period. Ha. Yay for education though! 

Not sure about Flor's face here-- but we were enjoying graduation!

Way to go Steve!

Jenn and Steve had a luncheon after at their house and aunt Lara is a magnet for the kids, as you can tell. They all love her.

 The next day was Mother's Day and we had a good time eating a delicious lunch that my brother Mikey made before I got back on the road and left the kids. Leaving them was the hardest part, even though I knew they'd be fine.

Super grateful for these little yahoos- even though they make my life crazy! Love them. 

This was just funny- Jace started a game of Go Fish with Poppy and Grandpa Doyle and then got distracted with something else, leaving them to keep playing themselves, which they did. Haha.

Lara and Claire

These two...

Just cute

Jace is a cheeser, but apparently Brookie wasn't feeling it

I just love this woman- my grandma

And my own mom who has always been an incredible mother. My brother Clark is missing, but here are the rest of us. 

 Here are a few pictures that my mom and sister sent me from the week while we were gone. The kids had so much fun, eating at Chick-fil-a, going out for ice cream, going to the dairy to see the animals, riding a train, and playing with cousins. What could be better? They really didn't want us to come home!

My mom's neighbor has this little train and track that he's had for years. I remember it as a kid (even though we didn't live nearby then). My mom knew Jace would love it, so she arranged with her awesome neighbor to take the kids for a ride. And yep, Jace loved it. He is still talking about it.

Grandma with her grandkids (minus Jace...who knows where he was). I think we need a few more boys in the family, no? Jennifer is pregnant with another girl, so Jace is getting really outnumbered!

Thanks mom and Jen for taking the kids for the week! It was amazing to spend time with just Dev and we totally appreciate it because we know it wouldn't have been possible otherwise!

San Francisco- Day 4

Day 4 in San Fran was spent doing a bunch of sight seeing. We started at the Golden Gate Bridge, then went to Chinatown, then on to ride the trolley cars down to the Pier and to Ghirardelli Square. It was a ton of walking but we had a great time. This is a beautiful city and I am sure we could have spent days and days more sightseeing there. 

First stop was the Golden Gate bridge. We decided to take public transportation again after our delays the last time we went into town. We totally figured out the bus system to get us to the bridge. Go us! 

It was super foggy when we got to the bridge but cleared up by the time we got back from walking across it. It was cool to see such a landmark and to see the beautiful views surrounding it. 

Another shot at the panoramic view. Look at me go!

This kind of alarmed me. Signs every few feet encouraging people not to jump off the bridge. I totally hadn't even considered that people would really commit suicide there, but it makes sense that they would because it is such a well known landmark. So later we looked it up and there are actually a ton of suicides there each year and rising to about one every other day on average. CRAZY. Weird too, because it was so packed with tourists and I am sure it is all the time that you'd think that people would stop those about to jump. Crazy stuff. 

And no fog at the end! So pretty. 

 It was then off to Chinatown. I was excited to see Chinatown, but in all reality, it was not that great. We ate lunch there and it was just okay-- maybe I prefer Americanized Chinese food versus the real thing! :)

 Then we rode the cable cars- you totally have to do this if you are in San Fran. Don't even worry that it is $6 per one way and if you get off and switch lines, you pay $6 again. No biggie.

YAY! That's the end of the journey. We were up and off early the next morning to head back home!

San Francisco Vacation- Day 3

So apparently all we did on Wednesday was the 2nd baseball game. It was a day game, so we got there briiiight and early to check out the stadium and to see the players warm up. I was in heaven. It was sweltering, but we spent about an hour down right next to the field. We saw a few players come out and give autographs. I got my picture taken with a relief pitcher named Varvaro (I had to text my brother to ask who he was...I have not kept on on current players these days). My sister and I used to be 'in love' with all the young black players when we used to watch all the games & this guy totally would have fit the bill. Good thing Devin is a good sport about it all- he took the picture and teased me the rest of the day.

We finally made our way up to our nosebleed seats, which ended up being the very last row of the stadium. At first I thought that the seats were just awful, but I quickly realized we were in the blessed zone- aka the shady area since there is a little awning over the top of the stadium. It was funny to look down at the stadium as the game progressed- there were rows and rows of empty seats below and crowds up people in the top three or four rows. We sat amongst a bunch of students from various schools there for a field trip day. Sheesh, I never got field trips like that when I was in school! The Braves got killed again...ugh, so unfortunate because they won on Tuesday, the day that we didn't go. Dumb Braves. 

We didn't get out of the game until after 4 pm and ended up home at about 5 pm. We then had dinner and again sat around and unwound for the day. Such a great time! Loved it. My husband is a good trip planner, no? 

These people are in the bay in their little canoes waiting to catch home run balls. They got a few this day as it was a high scoring game! There was one canoe (on the left) with a huge Braves flag! Gotta love it. 

San Francisco Vacation- Day 2

Sorry for the delay...things got a bit crazy around here. I'm back now with the remainder of the vacation. I know you were on the edge of your seats.

Day 2: We had tickets to Alcatraz for 10 am, so we got up and going early in the morning, knowing that it would take a long time to get to the Pier. We decided to drive (bad idea) instead of taking the BART and we ended up getting there after 10, even though we had left before 9. It is really not even that far, but we were stuck on the toll bridge FOREVER. I was so mad by the time we got there because the tickets clearly said that you had to be there at your specific time and they were non-refundable or exchangeable. We paid $30 each for the tickets and I really wanted to see Alcatraz. We decided that we would just go see anyway if they would let us go even though our tickets were for a ferry that was already gone. Well, lo and behold, I am a too much of a worrier because it was not a big deal at all. The girl was like, "Oh sure, go get on the next one in the stand by line." We did that and got right on to the 10:30 ferry. Yay!!

Alcatraz was awesome. We took the audio tour and learned a ton about the prison. I definitely recommend the audio tour if you go! 

On the ferry ride over we got to see some really pretty views of the city

We asked this man to take our picture and he did, responding in maybe Italian, or something? When he was done, I told him, "gracias!" When we were walking away, I realized what an idiot I am because I knew full well he wasn't speaking Spanish. Oh dear.

 A few pictures of the jail itself- totally fascinating by the way.

Inside a cell

This was the office area where the officers worked

Devin trying to look like a hardened criminal. And failing...

After Alcatraz, we walked all along the pier and enjoyed the scenery. We stopped at a seafood place for lunch and even though it was a billion degrees, I had clam chowder, because well you have to on the pier, right? It was soooo good. Totally worth it. 

That afternoon, we met up with Devin's parents and went to a session at the temple. Devin and I went a little bit earlier and did initiatories and then his parents met us for an endowment session. The four of us about doubled the attendance in the session and we overheard a worker saying, "Wow, this is a big session!" Haha. Everyone was very friendly at the temple and we had a great time. We then went back home for dinner and a relaxing evening at the apartment.

The grounds at the Oakland Temple are gorgeous! Beautiful views too. 

That's it for day two!