School Field Trip to the Bay Model

Braxton and I on the pier.


Couldn't get Cael and Braxton to
hold still long enough to take a
picture together, so this is the
best I could do.

I had the opportunity to go with Braxton on his school field trip last week. I felt very fortunate to be able to go with him without Carly and Parker. (Kim watched them for the day. Thanks so much!) It was awesome to have some one-on-one time with Braxton. He's been studying landforms and geography in class, so they took a field trip to the Bay Model Museum in Sausalito, which is by San Francisco. It was a long drive, but I think it was worth it. Braxton had a great time. He tried to keep up with his buddy Cael the entire time. Inside the museum there is a model of the entire San Francisco Bay. It was pretty interesting. After exploring for a while, everyone went outside and ate at picnic tables right by the water, so that was cool. We even saw some jelly fish which was very exciting for Braxton.

Friends and Pumpkins

Saturday night our friends the Palmers invited us and the Marlers over for a pumpkin carving party. We're not usually into carving pumpkins. I like to do it because I grew up doing it and it's a fun tradition, but Bryan doesn't like to do it. But we didn't realize that there were cool designs out there that are easy to do on your pumpkin. Bryan chose the pumpkin face and Braxton chose the wolves for his smaller pumpkin. They looked fabulous once they were done and Greg put candles in them. However, Braxton's wolves have already started wilting as you can see from the picture. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted! We had fun hanging out with the Palmers and Marlers. Rob had just had some crazy surgery two days prior to this. It was good to see him up and going. The doctors had to cut a huge growth from his neck. Crazy!

School and football

Friday was a busy day. It was Bryan's Friday off, and he took the boys to get their hair cut in the morning and I took Carly to her "school". One of the Beehives in our ward is trying to earn money for a trip to Washington, D.C., so she is doing a class once a month for preschoolers. It lasted two and a half hours; they made a craft colored some pictures has a snack, and it was all based on a theme. Anyhow she loved it and wants to go to school again.

That afternoon we took the kids to the high school Homecoming Parade. Bryan's sister Sarah had come home from BYU-ID to relinquish her crown, so she rode in a car in the parade amongst the other candidates. It wasn't too exciting. They used to have each class design and decorate a float which would be part of the parade, but they don't do that anymore, so it was short and sweet.

Friday night Bryan, Braxton and I went to the Homecoming game where we watched Oakdale beat the pants off of East Union. There are quite a few members on the team, so it makes it even more fun to watch since we know the kids. Then at halftime we got to see Sarah give her crown to the next reigning queen. She looked beautiful as always! After halftime, I was ready to go mostly because Braxton was going nuts and taking me with him! Jenn brought all five of her kids to the game, and not one of them was acting like Braxton. He was so antsy and bored. Eventually he entertained himself by sliding down the railing over and over. He just comes for the tri tip sandwiches and after the game he loves to run around on the field. Crazy kid!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Wednesday I met Jenn and her kids and our friend Deana and her three kids and we went to a pumpkin patch close to Deana's house in Livermore. It's set up in a pretty cool place and has great spots for taking fun pictures. My kids loved running around with everyone, climbing the cool tree and seeing all the pumpkins. Thanks for taking us Deana!

Red Robin, Dutch Hollow, and Go Bananas!

The kids loved their meals and shakes at Red Robin. I loved the all-you-can-eat garlic fries!


I took a picture of Braxton in front of the cows. For some reason they just seemed huge to me!

Braxton had Fall Break last week. We wanted to go to Disneyland, but that didn't happen, so we tried to have lots of fun anyway. Monday we went to Red Robin for lunch because Braxton had earned a coupon for a free shake for being an excellent student at school. Afterwards we went to a little farm called Dutch Hollow that is across the way from the restaurant. During the fall season they open it up to people to come see their animals and buy pumpkins. They had chickens, sheep, goats, horses, and cows. Braxton pet the goat but wouldn't touch anything else, and Carly refused to come near any of the animals, but I think they had fun seeing them. Parker seemed enthralled with them too.

Parker had a blast in the little toddler area.

Ike and Carly ran around like good buddies, and Max and Braxton had a great time running from one slide to the other.

Tuesday I thought it would be fun to go to Go Bananas with some friends, so we called up the Palmers and caravaned over together after Max was done with kindergarten. That's the best place especially if you can go during the week. Then it's really quiet, you basically have the place to yourself and the kids have a great time running out their energy.

No, no! No, no!

Parker is constantly getting into places he's not supposed to! He's learned how to open the cabinets of course. There are several places he likes to get into, and since I'm always telling him, "No, no!" , he now says it himself as he's getting into something, "No, no. No, no." So his first word was "ma, ma," and his second is "no, no." He likes to open the pantry and pull anything and everything out. And the other picture is him in the bathroom starting to rip apart the toilet paper! Good thing they make them cute!

Just the Ten of Us!

We had a very full weekend. Jason and Jennifer had the privelege of going on a trip to Midway, Utah for Monavie. It was an all expense paid trip, and they were gone for five days. Kim and Mark took their kids for Wednesday and Thursday, and then we had them Friday through Sunday. We decided to have a campout Friday night. Bryan set up our tent in the backyard, and cooked hot dogs on the BBQ. After dinner, everyone got to roast marshmallows on the BBQ and have smores. The kids caught many a marshmallow on fire as you can see from the picture with Tyce. Thankfully no one's hair caught fire from the flaming mallows! Chloe stepped on one of the discarded marshmallows that had caught flame and then fallen off the scewer onto the concrete. She had a big black marshmallow clump stuck to her foot; we had a good laugh over it. The smores were definitely a hit with the kids and they had their fair share of them!













Here are the kids getting ready to settle down for the night. Not sure that smores was such a good idea before bedtime. They were pretty hyped up and ready to go. Parker however, was exhausted from all the excitement as you can see from the picture. I found him like this passed out on the floor, so I just had to take a pic.



Saturday morning Braxton had a soccer game, so we got the kids all ready and went over to watch him play. He still hasn't gotten too into the game, so mostly we watched Braxton watch the ball go back and forth down the field. He's still unsure of himself, but he also can't find it in himself to care about it either, I guess?! He just comes for the snacks, actually that's why the rest of us come too. Parker and Carly love the orange wedges they usually hand out.

Saturday afternoon, the kids played outside a lot, and Bryan and I attempted to watch General Conference. The few things I did hear were very inspiring, but we're both going to have to watch or read the talks again. That night we got pizza and watched Speed Racer while Bryan went to Priesthood session.

Sunday was hectic. I think everyone was going a little stir crazy. Our house isn't very accomodating for 10 people. So we packed all their stuff up after lunch and headed over to their house where we stayed for the afternoon and that evening Bryan stayed and put them to bed and waited for Jenn and Jason to arrive which was around midnight. All in all, I was glad we survived, but actually as I got ready to leave them, I felt sad. I had enjoyed getting to know my nieces and nephews better, and I knew how much fun it was for my kids to have playmates for those few days.

I came to a few realizations though during those couple of days:
1. Jenn stays thin because she doesn't have time to eat. I hoped I lost a few pounds because when you're feeding that many kids, by the time you sit down to eat, somebody else wants more or needs a drink, or is done and wants dessert, etc., so you never get to eat much yourself.
2. A playroom would be really useful.
3. I'm only planning on having one more, but could probably handle 5 total and am hoping the Lord does not want me to have more than that.
4. Having a husband who is willing to help with the kids and is willing to campout in the backyard with them even if it means a few cast arm slams to the head while sleeping is a tremendous blessing! (Bryan slept next to Tyce in the tent who has a broken arm.)

Observing Carly's ballet class

Carly with Molly Powell

Carly with Chloe and Corbin Kerr

I got to go and observe in Carly's ballet class last week. So cute! I love that she got to be in the class just because she's the cutest, teeniest ballerina ever! And I love it because she loves it. I was mad because my camera was lame and half of the pictures I took came out blurry. (Could be that the person taking the pictures was lame!) As I got to watch, Carly did great. She listened and did what she was supposed to for the most part - her bunny hop, bear crawl, and marching across the floor were all very good!

"Hecka" funny!

Braxton likes to say the word "hecka" a lot - in front of everything for emphasis. I carpool everyday with a family that's in the other ward here in Oakdale (who have three kids at the school). We drive our kids about 20 minutes away to a charter school. Anyhow I get to hear a lot of interesting things as I drive along. So the other day, Braxton was explaining to his friend Cael (who is also 6) what hecka means. "You know what hecka means, Cael? It's Spanish for a lot." And then Cael said, "Cool. Like I was hecka hungry, and those were hecka cars." And they continued to site examples while I laughed to myself. I think because Bryan speaks Spanish, Braxton just randomly thinks certain words are Spanish if they sound a little funny. It was amusing.