Well, Shane has been up to his ears - living on no sleep - running like a crazy man dealing with the NCAA's. A few highlights: He was quoted in the New York Times this month!
Anyway, he was working in the California area so he was able to join us for a few days as we went to visit family and relax a bit during spring break.
Before that though, we found out that. . .
Tacey made Varsity Cheer again!
With her Best Friend, Martina!
Anyway, the first day we were there spent some time at the Cemetery.
My Dad & Grandma go every week possible.
They helped with the weekly grooming and flower arranging for my Grandpa, and my Great-Grandparents.
My grandma supervised from the car.
Then my Dad showed me where his plot is.
He will be not too far from his parents.
He thought the kids should try it out, so they did. HAHA!
My Great-Grandparents are in the same cemetery, but in a totally different area.
Monday we traveled to LA and met Shane, then started the day early at
Universal Studios.
The kids escaped being eaten by King Kong.
And we sipped on Jamba Juice before we went in.
We hiked the the ridiculous amount of stairs to the Lower Lot. But getting there first meant we got all of the good rides done in RECORD time! Seriously, we had done all the best attraction sin the park before lunch and walked onto each of them without a line.
But Tacey did take a minute to snuggle up to a few astronauts.
McCade got in on the action as well.
We again took the Tram Ride, and they had a quiet zone because they were actually shooting there!
And this time we were really close when Jaws attached this time.
And Tacey was much closer to Norman Bates.
By 4:30 we were done with everything and on our way back to San Diego. It was an exceptionally good day.
The next day we meandered around the Zoo. The Polar Bears were out.
And I got my traditional picture.
Then we met up with Jilana, Josh & Shannon for some afternoon fun the next day.
Josh enjoys wrestling as a sport, so I got him to try and possibly be a Mexican Masked Wrestler.
He was trying to look pretty fierce here.
And we went to the very Haunted Whaley House.
Seriously, the place has got ghosts, look it up!
Everyone was feeling the spirits.
Some more than others.
And then we walked along the beach and took pictures.
Despite, the sun and wind I got some really good pictures.
Josh is usually not so great at smiling in pictures, but he is giving a true smile here.
That is because he snuck up on a Seagull and missed hitting it with a rock by barely an inch.
Things like that are funny to a 14 year old boy.
Actually, sine no actual Seagulls were harmed, and it was so unexpected, I was laughing pretty hard myself.
Tacey wanted pictures in every single one of her Cheer Uniforms.
So she dragged them all the way to California.
And in between I took pictures of everyone else.
Yeah, I tried to get everyone to jump at once.
I wanted a really cool silhouette picture.
They jumped well, just not together.
Actually, I am pretty impressed by McCade's toe-touch.
Dallin has a pretty good vertical.
And I think Josh was trying to be some sort of super hero.
We finally talked Emmalee into a picture that actually had some light.
I love this picture of Dallin. He was concentrating not so much on the rocks he was climbing, but the weird little animals he was finding.
This is the look on his face most of the time.
This is how he looks in my mind when I think about him.
The next day we went to the Wild Animal Park.
And I got my traditional picture of Shane.
Unfortunately, he looks much more stressed than usual.
He was.
I am not sure why.
But he seems to look like this a lot recently.
Shane had our Friend Derek with him. Derek is helping with the floors in exchange for prime seats at the games. Anyway, rather than leave him alone in LA for awhile he brought him down to be a pretend member of the family.
And as always, we took the Tram Ride.
It is the BEST!
And sine it is Spring, there is baby EVERYTHING!
And my wildlife photography is getting better.
And again, my picture.
One of these days I have got to go through my archives, and put all the pictures back to back.
And then dinner at Fillipi's.
YUM!
We drove straight back on Saturday.
And the Easter Bunny showed up that night, ready to help celebrate the next morning.
And that leaves us to today, Easter Sunday.
We didn't dress up, we didn't go to church because we are tired and borderline sick.
But I have spent a lot of time today reflecting.
I am a person of faith.
I see that same thing in my children.
That gives me hope for the future.
This world can be an amazingly scary place.
It can also be a beautiful, wonderful place.
I am grateful for a Savior, a Redeemer.
That gratitude goes to the marrow of my bones.
Have a wonderful Easter all!
-danielle
