Mormon Helping Hands

Each year, our church participates in a statewide service project called Mormon Helping Hands. We've been able to help every year for the last 3 years and it has been so much fun....a lot of work, but still fun. The first year, we worked in Golden Gate Park, doing a lot of weeding...lots and lots of weeding! Last year we cleaned up the trail that runs along the bay. This year, we all met at the Military Cemetery in the Presidio to clean the headstones and paint the chapel. Jon was immediately put to work painting so I took all 3 kids and set to work scrubbing.

The kids were less than thrilled to spend the morning cleaning (I don't think they even heard WHAT we were cleaning...the protesting started as soon as they heard the word "clean" :)  ). As soon as we started though, they really got into it and had a lot of fun. They really worked hard the first 2 hours, but by the end they were done....and admittedly I was kind of done too!

I'm so glad we were able to help with this service and more than anything, that we were able to give our kids an opportunity to serve. It's definitely something I want to do more often as a family and I hope that they come to find the joy in serving others.

All ready to start

Emma really enjoyed reading the names on the stones as she cleaned

 "Mom FINALLY let me out of the stroller!"

Best Job Ever!

Luckily for us, Jon's got a really cool job that he happens to love. There are all sorts of perks...some fun, like the free movie showings they have every week (we get to see The Hunger Games next week!) and some just plain nice, like free breakfast and lunch every day (Hooray for not having to make/pack lunches every day!).

Anyway, another really cool thing they do is Bring Your Kid to Work Day (also known as BYKTWD). The kids have to be at least 6 years old, so Emma's been waiting for this for awhile. And technically she won't be 6 till July, but it was close enough that they let her come anyway.

Emma had been counting down the days for several weeks. She had told her teacher at least a month in advance that she was going to be gone, and then reminded her often. She was so excited. The morning of BYKTWD, she woke up bright and early and set to work picking the perfect outfit and then got dressed faster than she ever has. She made sure to remind me that I didn't need to get her breakfast because she was eating with Dad at work. She was just plain giddy. Finally it was time to go...and they were off!

Ellie was excited to see them off

 

Once they got to work, they were served pancakes with all the strawberries and whip cream they wanted. Jon said Emma was in heaven. After breakfast, the parents dropped the kids off for a fun filled morning. They had a briefing of sorts, watched a movie about Dreamworks, and then spent the rest of the morning attending mini classes about different aspects of movie making, doing a circus activity, and of course eating lots of snacks. They got to make some 3D art, do a sound recording, where they were cheering for Alex the lion, and have a dance party with Kowalski and Skipper, the penguins. Afterwards each kid was given a big goody bag and then it was lunch time.

Emma declared this day "the BEST day ever!"

After lunch, Emma spent the rest of the afternoon with Jon, coloring and playing games on the Kindle while he worked. I'm pretty sure she thinks he's got the best job ever!

 

Our Little Garden

A few weeks ago my friend Erica and I got talking about gardens. She doesn't have access to one but really wants one, and we have a garden bed but we've been too lazy to do anything with it this year. So, we decided to try this gardening thing together...it's a win win for everybody!

We started our gardening adventure a couple of weeks ago....but to the dismay of her two little boys, we were far from ready to plant. Our garden spot was in really sad shape. We spent two mornings doing nothing but weeding....there were a lot of weeds! Then we spent another whole morning pouring and mixing manure, compost, and soil into the garden spot. That wore me out!

Finally, we were ready to plant yesterday. In between the weeding, getting the dirt ready, and actually planting, we'd also had to wait out a week or two of rain, so I think by the time we actually planted the kids had given up hope of ever actually seeing a garden!

Thursday we all went and picked out the goodies. Ellie was my little helper. Sitting in the cart is way too boring for her...she insists on helping to push the cart when we go to the store.

Friday morning, we finally got those plants and seeds in the ground. Happy day!

Oh, the novelty of a watering can

Our strawberry plants from last year. I can't wait to eat those berries that are growing....looks like we should get a good crop this year!

 Our helpers...playing in the water was much more exciting than all the work we were doing.  :)

Our watermelon, squash, and zucchini. The box against the wall has a small avocado tree in it that we planted last year.

And the rest of the garden...strawberries, blueberries, lots of tomatoes, bell peppers and a couple other kinds of peppers, onions, cilantro, a few different herbs, carrots, and lettuce.

We're crossing our fingers and praying that our hard work will pay off!

Sand, Surf, and Snow

We had a really busy week last week. On Wednesday, I took Emma out of school early and we headed down to Monterey with some of Jon's family. His Uncle Troy and Aunt Mary were in town for the week, and some friends of Jon's parents very generously let us all use their beach house for a night. It had been pouring rain all week, and rain was in the forecast, so we were a little bummed but headed down anyway, praying for the clouds to part for us.

My hopes for a sunny vacation weren't very high as we drove down. There was SO MUCH rain....a torrential downpour really. I was seriously scared that the rain (and possibly hail...I couldn't see out my window enough to tell) was going to shatter the windshield. And the noise was deafening. But the closer we got to Monterey, the lighter the rain got, and by the time we arrived at the house it was nice and sunny outside. After settling in and letting the kids explore the house, we headed out to play at the beach. It was gorgeous!

Emma and Matthew with Maggie and Trevor (two of Troy and Mary's kids)

Mary was nice enough to hang out with Ellie, who was surprised by the wet sand

Armed and dangerous....haha

Wednesday night we celebrated Jenny's birthday and then the more adventurous crowd stayed out late and had a bonfire on the beach.

Thursday after packing up, we were able to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (thanks to more friends who let us use their guest passes). It was getting late, Ellie was tired, and we needed to head home so we could miss traffic, so we didn't stay long, but we had a lot of fun anyway. 

We got to the penguins at feeding time and they put on quite the show. 

 This little guy hung out with Matthew for a long time

And we can't go home till we take a picture on the cool rock. :)

As we drove home, the clouds started gathering and within an hour of getting home, the rain was back and even worse than before. It pounded us all night and we even had thunder and lightning all night long. It was really amazing! We know prayers were answered and we were blessed to have those two gorgeous days in Monterey.

We were home Thursday night and Friday and then left again Saturday morning....this time to the snow! All that rain dumped a ton of snow in the mountains so we decided to take advantage and get our one day snow fix for the year.

Emma and Matthew loved it. Ellie was less than impressed....but that could have had something to do with the fact that she couldn't move....haha...

 

We picked a little sno park out in the middle of nowhere, and it ended up being a little bit of a letdown...there just weren't any great places for sledding hills. But Jon carved out a little run for the kids and they got busy playing while I took Ellie back to the car to watch them. She was MUCH happier there.

We stayed for a couple hours. Jon and the kids did some sledding

 

Jon taught the kids how to make snow balls

Then they came and attacked us. All the kids thought it was hilarious.

Another quick trip, but it was a fun way to spend the day and made me appreciate once again, the fact that we don't live in snow!