The Bec-ster: May 2010

Plant a Watermelon on the top of my grave...

For Memorial Day of course we got a watermelon. This is the favorite perch for one little boy that LOVES watermelon after eating it every day at Grandmas! He knew what it was and he claimed it as his.

Made a cake for Cub Scouts. ONLY IT TURNED OUT SMURFY! If only I wasn't so lazy and had got some dark blue food dye. Oh well it tasted great and the giant stencil we made for the arrow worked really well.

Here is our little box of chicks. They are each original and different. Boy #1 got a Silver laced Wyandottes (black and white). The littlest boy has a Black Australorp (black/white). The little yellow chick is unclaimed, it is a Light Brahma. It will have feathers on its feet. We got an extra one because we aren't very good at keeping the chickens alive. So when one dies we have one extra to take its place. Mine is a Welsummer (brown yellow with stripes). The coolest one!

Girl #1 is a Exo Araucana (yellow with chubby cheeks.

Girl #2 is a Single-Comb White Leghorn
(little yellow chick will be white).

The two Brit -Rhode Island red chicks are Mikes and the girl #3.

Here are the 4-H lambs! The two oldest kids are raising them for the County Fair. They have a lot of work to do this summer. They named them EB and Shawn. They are both female. They are not as noisy as the lambs we had last year. They are also friendlier.

Part Five- Zoo, Kendo and the end...

We visited the Zoo! I'm glad we didn't have any fatalities after all the kids were stuck in this giant spider web.

Lilly pads!

Otters! I liked the tank because it had see through walls so we could see them when they swim under the water and play.

Giant Fruit Bats! My favorite!

Goats are not as scary as dogs. She was very brave.

What are you looking at? I could stay here all day and visit with these guys. They are always doing something interesting and new.

Swinging high! Very entertaining.

Then it started to RAIN!

Take cover! It was coming down in buckets! We didn't get to see the rest of the animals.

Some kids could care less about being wet. Others just wanted to go home.

I love the Giraffes!

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Kendo

Deadly game not for the soft headed.

It is also very loud.

The boys liked seeing all their old kendo friends in Oakland. They had a few good workouts during the trip.

When they put on all of their armor the baby was scared of his dad. He hugged me so tight. Then he figured out it was someone he knew he still wasn't so sure about the scary mask.

Can you tell who this is?

Off to Fresno to visit ! This was the best part of the trip. The kids played all day with cousins. They played outside on the swings, they jumped in the cold pool and froze. We ate yummy nutritious food and had a paper shredding party. We helped put up a fence and played with cousins some more... The oldest cousin went to the prom and we all saw grandma style her beautiful hair. The oldest boy cousin had a birthday! We went to church and listened to it in Spanish. Fun Fun.

But sadly Mike took the camera to Nevada for his class so this is the only picture I got, grandma waving good bye.

The baby was running a temperature the whole way home. He slept and just sat there very hot and drugged. Sometimes he would want to eat but usually he was just a little lump in his car seat.

Leaving CA and entering Nevada...

Very tired children. We didn't stop as many times on the way home...just drove and drove till 5am. HOME AT LAST!

Spring arrived while we were gone and every tiny part of the yard had tall grass and dandelions ! You can hardly see the strawberry patch. We have lots of work ahead of us.

Part Four - Oakland Califorina Temple

Our Forever Family

It's great to be eight!

Birds of prey.

Beautiful fountain and palm trees on the temple grounds. This was the temple where I was married and has always been my temple since I was a little girl. I love it here at the temple.

We went in the visitor center and saw a few new paintings of the Book of Mormon by an artist I can't remember his name. They were really cool. If you get a chance go check them out!

Part Three-Beach Day

To sum it up: it was cold, the sand was black, the little boy LOVED the sand, the boys skim-boarded, everyone was happy, the dogs were happy too, and it was the perfect day with grandparents and cousins at Ocean Beach!

Part Two

In CA we went to Oakland first to visit our old stomping grounds and see cousins.
We visited Sulpher Creek a nature place. Here are the three cousins that were inseparable.