The views from the top of Half Dome are spectacular, but they also reminded me quite a bit of Taft Point. I'm happy there's a way to see all that stunning scenery without the difficult hike. But it seems like the crew were especially satisfied because of the effort they put into getting there.
Hazel had her final club volleyball tournament. Her team was triumphant - again. She had a really great experience playing with these girls and her coach. I'm glad we went the local club route. It was a good fit for what we hoped to find. Hazel got a lot of play time and improved a bunch, and it wasn't too burdonsome of a time commitment. She was able to keep her grades up in all her classes, and we hope she'll have success this fall in the school volleyball season, too.
Jack and his middle school friends finally found a day that worked for all of them to go to Great America together. They skipped the 8th grade day and had a party at Brooklyn's house instead, and it's taken them a literal year to find another day to all go. It was a fun adventure for them all, and I love that they've all stayed friends through their first year of high school.
We enjoyed the ridiculous deliciousness of Kaylin Larson's cinnamon rolls we ordered from our youth auction win. They were so good - we're going to have a hard time ordering anything different for our remaining 11 months of treats.
I spoke in church on Mother's Day and split my time 50/50 between celebrating Heavenly Mother and sharing examples of how Jesus ministered and what we can learn from Him.
We've been enjoying artichokes from our backyard - a batch every week all month long. Our plants grew so many this year! It's sad they only last a month, but man, we sure enjoy them!
I took Hazel to get her second ear piercings. She's been wanting them for years, and she impressed me with the way she studied Church teachings and prayed about it, and respectfully asked for permission. Todd and I could see this was something she really wanted, and preferred supporting her in it over turning it into something she might feel rebellious about later on. We made a girls trip out of it and went out for lunch afterward.
We came home and found Gemma hard at work at her desk, writing a story, her homework completely neglected. I love it so much when she gets in a writing mood. She dreams a lot about working in a library, or becoming a writer or an editor.
That night, Hazel had her spring concert at the Bankhead Theater. As always, they sounded fantastic. She sways as she plays, and it just looks like she's so caught up in the music. I love to see that.
Jack went to driver's ed classes Friday after school, and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Now all he needs is to reach his half-birthday, and we can take him to the DMV to take the written test and get his driver's permit. He is so excited about driving!
I helped with our primary service activity. Among other projects, I supported our crayon sort. I picked up boxes of crayons from The Crayon Initiative in Danville, supervised kids and parents sorting crayons by color, and then returned the sorted crayons to the program headquarters a few days later. They recycle old crayons and melt and shape them into fresh ones. We also made cards for kids in hospital, tied blankets, and ran a toy drive.
While I was at the service project, Todd and Gemma went to Brentwood to pick cherries and came home with - I'm dead serious - 40 pounds! They are so dang good, but I had to give away gallon bags to basically everyone who came by our house over the following week. I said, "Todd, that's like expecting all five of us to eat a pound of cherries each every day for eight days!" It was absurd. But I sure loved every single one I ate!
The kids threw a 6-7 birthday party for Ray Dimas. He and Bryce came over and we had burgers and cake. Then we had the youth to our house later that night for a bishop's youth fireside.
Hazel had her music awards night at McGrail Winery.
We gave away Jack's yarn. Sadly, he hasn't made anything with it for a couple of years and thinks he's done with his knitting and crocheting phase of life.
Jack made this incredibly cool Odyssey board game for his final English project. He spent tons of time on it and it turned out so fantastic. Todd, Jack, and I were able to really play it. I wish you could see the details he put into it. There was a lot of salt dough baking and painting going on! It reminded me of when Emily and I made Barbie furniture and food out of salt dough.
Jack had his tennis banquet to celebrate a fun season. We're looking forward to him having another great year next spring. In the meantime, Todd's been working hard finding people for Jack to practice with and doing all he can to support Jack's growth in the sport.
Jack and Hazel promised me their finals week would be light (and it was) so we let them skip a day of school and go to Magic Mountain with Pete and Ella Andrus. The plan was for them to leave after school on Thursday and get back home around midnight on Friday after a day of riding coasters. Then we were all going to head up to the cabin for Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, nobody planned on Pete's car breaking down on the drive. After spending an extra two hours on the side of the freeway figuring things out and waiting for a tow truck and a rescue from Pete's cousin, everyone got to bed and still had an amazing day at Magic Mountain.
They got home a day later than planned, so Gemma, Todd, and I went up to the cabin without them on Saturday morning, got all the winter stuff put away and made sure it was set up well for the group that's going to come up and use it for Grad Camp in a couple of weeks. Gemma was a serious trooper, doing plenty of work with no complaining. We tried to keep it balanced and spent a few hours on the lake and played all her favorite games in the evening. We slept over, went to church in Murpheys on Sunday, and then drove back to Livermore to reunite with Hazel and Jack.
Since we came home a day early, we all went to Manressa Beach on Monday with a big group from our stake. It was a fun beach day with perfect weather, and thankfully, normal traffic there and back.
Thursday was everyone's last day of school. Hazel headed back to the beach with Noah's family and a few other friends to camp for a couple of nights. The rest of us preferred to stay home. Jack hosted a big summer kickoff party at our place and had nearly 20 kids over for games, pizza, and a movie.
Gemma had her friends from church over for a summer celebration on Friday. Otherwise, we all kicked back, slept in, and enjoyed a slower few days at home.
We had Vlad, Luna, and Erika over for dinner on Sunday and enjoyed spending time with them. We've recently acquired a used ping pong table and we've been having a blast with it. It's just the thing to spend our new free time on.
