An update from our little corner of the universe

An update from our little corner of the universe

A couple weeks ago we were lucky to have not one but two adventures in San Francisco! And not one, not two, but four visitors!

The first one we met through the mail. His name was Flat Stanley. He is a little friend of our nephew/cousin Patrick who is traveling around the country to learn about different states and what is unique about them. The kids and I sure had fun taking him to some our favorite spots.

The Oakland temple, in full bloom!

The Palace of fine arts in San Francisco

Beautiful blossoms! And all 3 kids looking at the camera!!

The beach at Crissy field and view of the Golden Gate bridge

The lemon tree in our backyard - it smells so sweet right now!

Our garden starting to get going

Our lesson about wasps & bees


And of course, no visit would be complete without fort building (Stanley not pictured here)

Here is a video of the fort building fun - I thought the sibling dynamics here were pretty comical! :)

After Flat Stanley got the grand tour and went back home in a box to Utah, we had another visit later in the week from my sister Katie and her two friends from Alaska who are also her roommates at BYU. The were roadtripping their way from Utah to southern California and we were so excited to get a visit on their way down! We spent the entire day in San Francisco and fit in as much as humanly possible with 7 adults, 4 kids under 5, and two cars!

Cute Katie and her posse

Me and my beach loving baby - this guy seriously has NO fear of the water - which scares me to death! Although I remember being pretty fearless myself in my younger days :)

Siblings and cousins. Watching our kids play at the beach together is so much fun. It feels like yesterday that Charles and I were little kids ourselves body surfing over waves in the pacific ocean on our family vacations.

The whole gang!

Lucas' first computer lesson. Geek training starts early here in Silicon Valley!

Natalie in her California girl element. She recently earned her fifth swimming ribbon!

Having some creek play time at a nearby park. I love spring and all the water time it brings!

Comments

Quotable Kiddos

C: "Mayman is donn" (mailman is gone)
E: "Mom, is heaven inside of mommies' tummies?"
C: "watee" (his word for water)
E : "Mom, will you sit on the lovey couch with me?" (referring to the loveseat)
Nate to N: "You're being argumentative." N's reply: "No, I'm not!"
E: "Dad put on his cape and flew to work. He's superdad!"
C's first sentence: "Hi, Bird!"
L: "maybe C will be a Lampaterian! He loves lamps!"
Nate to E: "are you doing jobs?" E to Dad "No, I just want to play at parties."
C: "nah-norn" (his word for popcorn)
L: "Dad, do you know about the Nerf System?" Dad: "I know about nerfs, but not a system." L: "Oh! well we know about the nerf system inside of your body!"
L: "Mom! 'incorrect' is the password!!!" (thinking he figured out the password when it gave him the error message 'the password is incorrect')
E: "people who have glider suit pajamas can fly at night!"
E: "mashed topatoes"
Nate to the kids: "I'm busy right now. Busy lying down."
E: "When I was like baby Christian, I cried with pear in my mouth. That was so funny when I did that!"
L:"I think I'm never going to be a grown-up. Because it takes me too long to have a birthday!"
L:"this is a mother board and that is a fatherboard" (speaking of the computer parts from Nate's old computer)
L:"I ate so many bites my tummy is gonna blast off into space and break my bones!"
L: "This is my work. When I do this, fire comes out. It's a fire-work!"
L: "We can't put anything in our noses. But we can breathe air in our noses!" (reinforcing 'the new rule' after getting a lego stuck up his nose)
N: "We're just not tired. We have no tiredness in us. We just have hundreds of energies in us and we don't know how to get them out!"
N: "I'm putting up the toppy tip of the tree!"
L: "I am NOT a highness!" (after N called him "your highness")
N: I'm getting tired of cleaning tables!"
L: "Mom, I'm done with my ice cream, now can I have some zucchini?"
N: "I'm a brave girl. I can do without dinner."
N: "Wait! I forgot something. I love you."
L: "someday I will have three babies. I have eight muscles."
N: "I think I just saw dreamland! up on the moutain. It was a very small dreamland."
M to N: "can you close the door please? It's kind of loud." N: "I can. I'm going to close it right now. I'm going to get married quietly."
N: "That smells like our freezing cold campout. I can smell really good because I have good 'sense' - 'Lijah has really small sense."
L: "how old are my toes?"
M to N: "i need some peace and quiet right now, please" (while preparing FHE lesson), N: "I want to help! Can I help with peace and quiet?!"
N: "They were the Nephites' anenomes" (when asked who the Lamanites were)
N: "Is today Sunday at Grandma Goldberg's land?"
N: " I just mowed the lawn. Doesn't it look mowful?"
D to N: "Who remembers yesterday?", N: "Everybody in the whole wide world!", D: "Are you sure? there's somebody in the van who doesn't remember yesterday." N: "Dad, of course!"
L: "I know the muffin man, he knows the way!" (singing a mixture of "do you know the muffin man?" and "follow the prophet")
N: "Look at all those sticks!" (pointing at a bunch of sticks on a big piece of farmland) Dad says "It's a stick farm!" A few minutes later N sees an empty piece of farmland and says "Look- it's a dirt farm!"
L: "hey mommy, when our car's a train, we can drive on the train tracks!"
We were talking about campfires and what to sing around them, and L said "some people call it a marshmallow song! we'll sing happy birthday to the campfire." N: "and we'll have to get some water", L: "and we'll just have to get some cake!"
N: Can you tell me when my quiet time is done? It's supposed to be an hour." L: "can you tell me when my quiet time is not done?" Dad: "Are you the little contrarian, Lucas?" L: "No, I'm not!"
L: "someday I'll be a daddy! And I can reach up high to get my green stapler!"
N: "overneath"
N: "Mom, noone knows anything. Except Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father know everything."
L to N after flushing the toilet for her "it was really nice of me, Natowee!"
N after getting a recipt from the lollipop she got (we were 'learning the value of money') "...and I got a RECEIPT!" M: "so which do you like better - the lollipop, or the receipt?" N: "the receipt!!"
N: "is that the bay? (yes) so...all the toilet paper is there, right?"
L: was asked during FHE lesson on service "who can we serve to today?", L responds "Mommy!", Mommy asks "how can you serve me?" L responds "I can serve you ice cream, and I can serve you cake!"
L: "watch out for kid-year-olds!" (while jumping on the couch)
N: "you're boiling cold!" (to Dad while playing hide & seek)
N: "that's not agua - it's water!!"
N: "I'm trying to make the best fort in the holy world!"
L: "I'm not a human, I'm a humidifier!"
N: "I can't do it 'cause my leg is all hurted up!" (an excuse for not wanting to do her sweeping job)
L: "I've got my lawn mower, I'm going to lawn the grass!"
N: "I have half a tummy ache...after dessert I'll have a full tummy ache"
N: "Do you know you're a prophet baby? Prophets do not cry!" (to E)
N: "Lucas, if you cry, I'll still be here"
N: "Even babies are humans. Human, I like you!" (to E)
L: "I'm going to drive to work - I'm going to get some pizza!"