March 2024

I flew out solo March 1-3 to meet Zoe. Ryan and Xiao are back in the states and stopped over at Mom's house in Smithfield before returning to Chicago. I jumped at the opportunity to snuggle me a baby before she's a toddler and completely fell in love. I was not the only one. The entire weekend she was surrounded by a circle of admirers. Zoe is curious and observant and pretty quiet. Every time someone new walked in the room she looked, and she usually greeted them with an upraised hand and a breathy, "Hah." 

She did not love the sunglasses or bunny ears I got her, but the Easter bunny rattle was a hit, and Elise took over the rest of the gear with gusto. 

I got to spend time with Ethan and Elise as well, and got in good visits with Scott and Caprice, Mom and Dad, Chris and Jodi, and both Grandma Holley and Grandpa Bingham. 

On my way out of town, I got a tour of the house Scott and Caprice are building. They've got amazing views! It was hard to leave. I cried as I smooched Zoe one more time. 

Jack was in the district spelling bee again this year. 

Hazel's basketball team had their season wrap-up banquet. She was awarded Best Defensive Player. 

Hazel had Trimester 2 finals and we were all relieved to say goodbye to her awful AP Human Geography teacher. That was a rough experience. 

Todd and Jack took the young men up to the cabin for an overnight trip and the girls and I celebrated International Women's Day with a chick flick (Benny and Joon) and brunch at Denica''s. 

We had dinner with the Dix family, but I didn't take any pictures. 

Katie and I hiked Del Valle and soaked up the green hills. It was so gorgeous! 

Hazel's been working on her summer tan every chance she gets. 

Hazel invited her seminary buddies over for a movie night. It was funny to see everyone show up in pajamas. They're a cute group. We watched Leap Year in honor of St. Patrick's Day (because it's set in Ireland). 

Laura came to visit Erika, so we joined the party. We brought our bikes to Erika's house in Alameda, rode the ferry over to San Francisco, watched part of the St. Patrick's Day parade, visited the farmer's market, and rode our bikes across the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Now, when we made this plan, in my head, the ferry let us off quite near the bridge. Not so. We had to bike about ten miles through the city just to get to the bridge, then cross it, and come back. Altogether we biked 22-25 miles, in heavy wind, sometimes in traffic, sometimes up and down some wild hills. My legs felt like jello. Everything hurt. I thought I'd crash that night and sleep like a rock, but actually, my legs hurt so bad I couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep well. I took ibuprofen the next day and couldn't wait for the massage I had scheduled for Wednesday! 

We all went to an Irish concert (Danu) at the Bankhead that night, too. It was a memorable day! 

Gemma went to science camp at Camp Campbell from Tuesday to Friday. It was like a piece of my heart was walking around without me! I missed her so bad, but she had an amazing time and I'd send her back in a heartbeat. She talked nonstop for two hours when she got home and told me everything. 

All the music program from Livermore High went to Disneyland to play in a competition and also have a fun trip. Hazel had a blast. LHS destroyed the competition, walking away with first place in basically every event. I think they brought home more than 10 trophies. Hazel enjoyed spending so much time with her friends and supporting her classmates. 

Jack invited some friends over to hang out on a Saturday. They had pizza, played games, and walked to the boba shop half a mile away. They got caught in a sudden downpour of rain on the way home. We had to give them all a change of clothes and toss theirs in the dryer. 

I made a big effort to celebrate Holy Week with the family from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. I had a devotional planned for each day that we discussed over dinner. I had fresh flowers in the house constantly from Ash Wednesday through Easter and made an excellent music playlist, too. I had a huge collection of pictures of Jesus I had cut out of church magazines and let everyone choose a few that resonated with them to hang up where they would see them throughout the week. 

Sadly, Hazel got massively sick on Wednesday. She woke up for school and then napped on me for an hour instead. She had a fever for three days. It dragged her down for the rest of the month. 

I made a simple Jerusalem dinner for us Thursday night. Next year I will buy unleavened bread. I tried two recipes and even though they were super basic and I totally know how to make bread, they were not awesome. 

We had a Primary egg hunt Saturday morning. Gemma invited Lydia. 

Todd has been feverishly preparing for an upcoming Survivor-themed youth activity. He is overly ambitious. It's endearing. 

We went to a Lamb of God performance at the Temple Hill auditorium. While the music was beautiful and I'd happily make that an annual tradition, it was difficult to keep my eyes open when no one was moving across the stage. I meant to just listen with my eyes closed, but I did wake myself up with my head dropping down multiple times. Hazel caught me and Todd both nodding off. 

Easter Day we went to church, made resurrection rolls, hid baskets, had an egg hunt in the backyard, had a sweet family devotional, and made a frittata with a gorgeous teal emu egg that we drilled open. 

February 2024

Chrissy and Gordon took a weekend away and let us have their boys for the weekend. The kids loved having their California cousins over. They played the Impossible Game, Murder in the Dark, and Follow the Leader at night. The teens had a busy day on Saturday, with a youth ice skating trip as well as a temple trip. Todd took them and I hung out with the littles. We had drawing time and went to a park with our scooters. 

Gemma was asked to give a two-minute talk in Primary. She wrote a good one:

"Hi my name is Gemma and I got to choose what I wanted to talk about and I chose to talk about Heavenly Mother. I am going to tell you three important things about Heavenly Mother,

"1. We all have a Heavenly Mother and a Heavenly Father. They are the Parents of our spirits and we lived with Them in heaven.

"2. God means Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. So when you read God in the scriptures, know it means Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. 

"3. Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father are partners. They worked together to make the plan of salvation and make this earth for us. 

"They both love us and I am excited to see Them again. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." 

Ginger has turned into a spoiled indoor/outdoor cat with all our winter rain. He has Gemma wrapped around his little paw. He spends lots of time napping and snuggling. I do not like him in the house if he's wandering around, though. He has ... happened ... to spend the night with Gemma a couple of times, which she loves so much, even though he wakes her up several times during the night. 

Hazel got her braces off. Exciting day! She'll need to wear her retainers full-time until summer, and then just at night. She is looking older and older. I have mixed feelings about that. 

The Georges used our cabin over a gorgeous, snowy weekend when we were too busy to go. They dug our snowmobiles out of five feet of snow and cleared our deck off, so everything was super easy to get to when we went up the weekend after. Good deal! 

Larry and Ellen came to visit us that weekend and got a good taste of our teenagers music programs. We drove down to Cupertino to listen to Hazel's chamber orchestra perform in a multi-school festival. 

Jack had a piano recital Friday night, and then an area competition on Saturday. We heard a lot of good music over the weekend! 

We went to a thrift store and had a fashion show. The kids also found a few good treasures to take home. 

Hazel had her first behind-the-wheel parking lot driving lesson. There was a cop in the lot, just waiting for her to do something crazy. I was glad Todd took the reins because it made me super anxious. I did laught at her parking job. 

Gemma went to Imogene Lockhart's birthday party. It was an optional sleepover, but I picked her up at 9pm. At least ten kids were running all over the house - complete madness. I was confident we had made the right choice bringing her home to sleep, and she agreed with me, especially after hearing from friends at school the next week that they were up after 2am. 

We spent the holiday weekend at the cabin with Elaine and her kids. (Andrew couldn't get away from work.) Gemma and Clara cheerfully played wolves and dragons and who knows what else. They have an infinite supply of affection for playing together. It's really sweet. Jack and Stacie enjoyed playing games together. Hazel was sick and spent all of Saturday and Sunday on the couch, sadly. 

We had snowball fights, sledding, a trip to the Murpheys ward for church, and good food. Everyone enjoyed the snowmobiles. Perhaps the highlight of the whole weekend was when we went to the marshy dried out part of the lake and pulled people behind the snowmobiles on tubes. 

Hazel had invited Noah Lloyd to come up as her friend, but he had a track meet on Saturday he couldn't miss. His family all came up on Monday instead. That turned out for the best since Hazel had been sick. She rallied and had a fun day driving the snowmobiles and sledding and having a snowball fight and it was a good day for her. 

Todd's pepper plants are growing beautifully. 

Spring has started. I love living in California! 

Jack had a great season of volleyball. He improved from last year and was much more involved. Nearly all of his serves made it over the net, and he made some other meaningful contributions to the games. It was fun to go and cheer him on. Hazel was usually unable to be there because she was assistant coaching the boys' volleyball team at the high school, but she did make it to two or three games and supported him when she could. 

Hazel got her ears pierced. Again, she's looking so grown up. 

Jack participated in a multi-district Math Counts compettition, and then spent the rest of the day with Pete, Renee, and Ella Andrus on a Japantown field trip, including a visit to the Japanese tea gardens in Golden Gate Park and sushi for dinner. 

Hazel performed a couple musical numbers with friends for a competition that counted as their orchestra/band final test. She and Kate Ellsworth did a violin/tuba duet (unusual!) and she did the song from Carmen with Lucas Taber and Abel. 

Jack extracted DNA from canned pumpkin and from strawberry with his Neon Clear club. He is still going to ballet every Monday as well. 

I took Gemma on a field trip to the Livermore lab. I'd been sick for about a week (thanks, Hazel) and was grateful I felt well enough not to cancel. My opportunities to be involved with my kids and their classmates are getting fewer and farther between.