Living Among the Dead

There is nothing like being among the dead to make you appreciate your life and birthday. We spent my birthday at the Golden Gate National Cemetery doing a Mormon Helping Hands service project. We cleaned rows and rows and rows of headstones. Some dating back to the Spanish American Ward, or as Stephen liked to say, the "SPAM war." Here are the pics:

The Birthday Fairy visited me in the night. See the "34?"

The happy cleaners. 

The "SPAM War." Too bad we lost that war. SPAM needed to be stopped. 

She found a person with her same birthday and the same birthday and year as Grandpa Ward. 

Even with just one good arm she was still my best worker. 

I have a great respect for the people buried at the National Cemetery.  I could feel that it is hallowed ground. It was a honor to give a bit of service to those who gave the ultimate price for our nation and freedom.

Lucy on the Loose

 I have had a request (from Sarah) to add Lucy pictures. So Sarah, here you go.

The happy crawler.

Look closely and you can see her first tooth. 

Lucy is 10 months old and today she crawled for the frist time. She as been able to scoot backwards for a week or so, but now she is actually crawling in the right direction. I don't know if I should be happy or concerned. I have to admit, it has been nice to be able to set her down and know that she wasn't going anywhere or getting into anything.

The Break

Sling and bandages removed and waiting for the doctor to put on her cast. 

The kid with a cast. She wanted the cast rainbow with sparkles. They couldn't do that, so she opted for red.

A ballerina with a break. 

The broken arm hasn't held her back. She is still as energetic and crazy as always. 

Another Great Discovery

We spent the afternoon at Ardenwoon Historic Farm and we LOVED it! I think it is another favorite place to add to my list of great places to take my kids. The grounds are the original victorian home and farm of the Patterson family. It is still a working farm and demonstrates 19th century farm techniques. The place is charming, fun and peaceful. We took a train ride, fed the farm animals, pet the baby lambs, smelled the stinky pigs, toured the victorian home, and strolled the picturesque grounds. The place is magical. I heard that millions of monarch butterflies winter in the forest there. So, we will have to go back in the winter to see that. We enjoyed every minute of our afternoon. We will definitely be back many times. http://www.ebparks.org/parks/ardenwood

The Victorian Patterson Home. We got a personal tour.  The home is completely furnished and stocked  just as if the original family still live there.  Ninety-five percent of the artifact's are antiques of the Patterson family. It was amazing. 

Spring Break to Arm Break

This has been spring break for us. Stephen took a few days off of work so we could go on a little vacation. We traveled south to visit Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea. The trip was nice. We saw the Monterey Bay Aquarium, played at the Dennis the Menace Playground, toured the historic mission in Carmel, and played at the beach in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Here are the pics:

Mally looking for wildlife in the Monterey Bay. We saw sea otters. 

Mission San Carlos Borroméo del río Carmelo

Eva outside the old mission doors.

Touring the mission grounds. 

The living quarters. 

The view of the ocean near the mission. 

Flying kites at the beach. 

Stephen's dinner, huge blueberry pancakes as big as his plate.  He was glad he got the short stack. 

Stephen took the girls on a paddle boat ride around the Dennis the Menace Park. 

No enjoyable spring break would be complete without a mishap. Luckily we got ours after we arrived home from our vacation. I took the girls on a bike ride to the school grounds to play and get out their wiggles from the long car ride home. We were there for just a matter of minutes before Eva fell from the monkey bars and landed on her elbow. She immediately screamed and complained about her arm hurting. But Eva is ALWAYS quite dramatic about EVERYTHING so I tried to get her to calm down so I could make a better assessment of her arm and see if it really needed medical attention.  Of course she didn't really ever calm down. So I called Stephen to pick us up and take her to the ER.

Don't let this picture fool you, she is really happy to have a broken arm. 

Yes, she was right. It really was broken. Just a small crack near her elbow. She left for the hospital obviously distraught and scared and came home a few hours later cheerful and proud of her broken arm. Mallory is jealous of it. She wants a broken arm too. Eva will get a cast in a few days. She hopes she can get it in her favorite color, rainbow sparkle.