Caitlyn's Birthday

Our little girl is growing up. She just turned eight. The birthday celebration was really low key. A quiet dinner at home with just her immediate family. She chose to have shrimp tempura and salad for her birthday dinner. I also made a few angel food cake cupcakes topped with old fashioned whipped cream and strawberries on top for dessert.

She got a couple of token gifts to go with her outfit for Saturday and she received a few cards in the mail from friends and family. Her sister made her a friendship bracelet and that was it.

Her baptism is this weekend and since friends and family will be over to see us then, we will be having a big birthday party afterwards just like Emily got.

She is super excited. Three girls from our ward will be baptized at the same time so I hope all will go well. It is going to be crazy hectic this week with all the last minute preparations.

Happy Birthday, Taitlyn!

Catching Up

No matter how hard I try to keep updated on my posts, I always find myself inevitably falling behind at some point and have to try to play catch up before it gets overwhelming.

We drove down to San Diego the other weekend to spend some time with Christian's family. We went to celebrate Christian's Dad's birthday earlier in the day and prepared a bunch of food and I baked a cake for him. Christian's siblings were busy that day, so we just did it on our own. I didn't even think to pull out my camera...which was just in the car! We normally just celebrate his birthday along with  Caitlyn's at the same time but since this year, Caitlyn will be having a very special birthday, we figured we would celebrate Christian's Dad separately so that he is not forgotten!

Afterwards, we rushed over to the church to help Christian's sister set up. Her son was getting his Eagle award at a Court of Honor that evening.

We had to leave directly afterwards as we did not want to get stuck on the roads again in the middle of the night. Plus, Christian needed to be up at 5:30 am for meetings the next day. Luckily, we got home without incident.

On Tuesday, we took the girls to the Temple again, but this time for an activity day event. We helped drive another little girl and they went to get pictures taken and learn more about the Temple.

This was Caitlyn's first activity day event. She was very excited to go. And since her birthday is coming up, she will be officially in the program the next time they meet. She is very excited to be included in their activities now.

Christian has been working really long hours lately with his normal work and getting ready for OSHA inspections coming up and the girls are in review mode to start their CSTs shortly so we have been very busy. I've been slowly getting things ready and planned for Caitlyn's birthday party. Plus the girls have another dance recital coming up in June, so they are trying to learn their dances and I have started working on their costumes. We just ended up borrowing costumes last time but the girls are ecstatic to have their very own this time along with some dance implements...more on that soon.

Safari Park

The kids are back in school now but last week, on spring break, we took the girls to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly known as The Wild Animal Park). Aunt Erin gave us tickets for Christmas and we thought that it would be a good time to take advantage of those tickets before it got too hot.

We threw together some lunch and packed up our camera equipment and headed out first thing in the morning. The weather was nice and it was not too crowded when we got there. The kids had a lot of fun watching the animals and taking pictures. We saw a bird training show and the kids found lots of things to climb in and out of. There was a small petting zoo. Emily brushed some of the goats but Caitlyn didn't want anything to do with them.

We took the African Safari Tram around once. We considered going again but it got too crowded and then it was too late. We did not leave until the park closed. We managed to see everything except a couple of the exhibits that were closed or costs extra money for (of which there were quite a few).

We were pretty tuckered out by the end and hungry again so we grabbed some tasty mexican food from a little mexican joint Christian and I used to go to and boy was it satisfying. It's nice to see the girls actually excited to try new foods now. They loved it too. They still have a few hang ups now and then, but they eat better than a few grown-ups I know.  So for all the parents who think that it isn't worth the fight, I'm telling you, it is! You wouldn't believe how far we've come!

Family Anniversary

We celebrate a family "anniversary" every year in April since we were sealed in the temple together in April of 2007. We normally take a trip to the mountains to play in the snow to spend time together as a family and we normally stop by the temple before or after to walk around the grounds and take pictures of our little girls. It is important that our girls know how special it is to go to the temple and the importance of it for our family.

Unfortunately, it is the same time of year that the temple closes for maintenance every year. So last year, we were only able to stand outside of the temple to take a picture. Unfortunately, the temple is closed for the entire time that the kids will be on spring break. We figured that the only time that we will be able to go and actually get onto the temple grounds would be this past Saturday. Our friends' have a huge annual Easter egg hunt every year and we were supposed to attend that on this day already so we decided to put the question up to the girls on which they wanted to do more. They chose the temple and snow instead of the Easter egg hunt. They already have a ton of candy but what they wanted was to play with their friends there.

The other sad thing about this day for many reasons, was that there was no snow when we got to the mountains. Last year, there was hardly any and but we managed to find a small patch for them to play in. This year, we couldn't even find that. It is true that we have not had that much precipitation but this is just getting scary. When we first started going, the kids would fall in patches of snow down to their waist! I think that it is time to work on the water part of our food storage!

Because there was no snow, we ended up at Jenk's Lake instead of our normal spot. The kids were pretty disappointed (especially since we were late in leaving because we were trying to get all their snow gear ready for them!) but everyone still ended up having a good time.

It is just hard to change gears when your plans don't work out as you had hoped. You never know where life will take you and we have to learn to roll with the punches.

Hike to "C"

picture by Chu Jiayi

To start off the girls' Easter break, we took them and some friends up to the C after school on Friday for a sunset picnic dinner. I think we forgot how difficult the hike is. We didn't start until some time after 5:pm and we got there just before the sun started to set. I think it was more than one of our guests had bargained for but hopefully it was worthwhile when we finally made it.

We picked up a bunch of sandwiches and snacks and watched the sun set over Riverside as we enjoyed our dinner. The only thing about it was that we didn't have a whole lot of light left in order to head back down the mountain! Christian and I are used to walking around at night in the dark but we let the girls have headlights so that there would not be any accidents heading back down!

Caitlyn used to have trouble hiking on steep trails, but she is becoming a regular little billy goat these days!

Sunset view over Riverside from the "C"

We came back for some well deserved rest and stayed up late watching a movie.