Way to go Anna!

Just a little update on Anna, she has been working hard between school (including two AP classes), band activities, securing her first summer job, and helping out (both at school and in the neighborhood).  We are proud of the effort that she is putting in and she had a teacher recognize those efforts and nominated Anna for student of the month!  Excellent work Anna!  

Volleyball in the water with different rules... also know as water polo!

On Wednesday it was a very different day for one of my co-workers.  They took one of our buses to a mass casualty DRILL at the airport.  

I think they took a nap for a bit!  And they got lunch too!

I think I planted Dalia bulbs last year but they never bloomed, and this year, we finally have one bloom!  One is by far better than none and it is a stunning red color!  

And today was a very busy day!  It is Michelle's birthday!  My parents 50th anniversary!  Anna went to Santa Barbara with the band!  And water polo tournament day for Olivier, which is the only thing I took photos of!  Oops!  They played two games, the first game they won 12-5 and Olivier did get a bit of playing time.  This is right after he passed the ball (white cap #18).  

And as he is going for the ball.

And in an odd, and slightly confusing twist, Olivier played for a different school in the second game.  The school had to forfeit because they didn't have enough players but everyone still wanted to play so four players from Olivier's school joined the other school.  And in the confusing twist, the other school won!  It was a good game and Olivier got a lot more playing time!  He got a nice shot and a lot of passes in!  Here he is with the ball (white cap #10). 

It was a good and busy week!  The count down is on for the end of the school year!  Only 13 days left with a lot of fun activities along the way so they are sure to go quick!  

Fun from the end of the week!

Yesterday the boys went to Universal Studios with the band and played at CityWalk!  And even better, they got to enjoy the park after they played.  It made for a very long day (wake up at 4 a.m. and home at midnight) but they had a great time!  We should be getting a link to the video and I will share that when it arrives.  

Here are a few photos from Olivier:

I got them to the bus on Friday and then I had a very long day with my leadership group, including visiting five farm locations in our county to learn about what they do.  At a strawberry farm (Okui) we got to taste test the three different varieties and learned why they have each type.  Let's just say we all were very happy with the very tasty taste testing!  And check out this strawberry!

One of the other farms we visited was a farm that raises Gerber daisies.  It was over 5 acres of greenhouses and we got to learn a lot about their operations.  And all the Friday before Mother's Day!  You could tell they were all thankful the end of the craziness was near!  I really enjoyed taking photos of the various colors!   

I was very thankful that Matt picked the boys up!  And this morning Anna and I headed to the barn nice and early.  The horse she was riding yawns a lot and we couldn't help but laugh!  This is a photo mid yawn!  Look at those teeth!  

And here is what the full yawn looks like!

The ride started out well and then Pixie went a bit wild!  She just started running and did a number of laps around the arena!  Yikes!  Anna kept her cool and focus and was able to stay on and helped Pixie finally realize she was fine.  She hopped off at that point and her instructor ended up putting Pixie into the enclosed arena for her to get whatever it was out.  She wasn't going quite this fast with Anna on but it was very fast!  

After all of that we went by the library to pick up a book on hold, and we saw Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper hanging out.  They were having an event but it still felt weird to just see them hanging out on the corner!  

 

Busy but good!

The last few weeks have been busy!  But good!  We have wrapped up a project around the house, kid activities have shifted and we all have our eyes set on summer that is rapidly approaching!  

In funny news, when I was leaving work recently they were moving a modular home very slowly past our street so we had to wait.  Yes, it is being moved by a little bobcat!  Thankfully I wasn't in a hurry! 

In unusual news, we were surprised to see Luna and Cotton sleeping against each other!  They aren't ones who socialize together so we were all a bit shocked to see it happen!

Yesterday Anna was able to get a ride in before the rain came and it was her first ride on Pixie!  She did really well and it was a great time at the barn.  They were both very warm after even though it was rather chilly out!

We stopped by to see the babies after and although most of them were hiding or didn't want to be touched, this little one was happy to visit with Anna!  

And of course tried to bite her!  

The next few weeks are going to be busy but we hope they are just as good!  

Rain!

Well, here we are in mid April and we got an unexpectedly large amount of rain, over two inches in 24 hours!  It has been really nice to have the excuse to take it easy and slow down.  Thankfully the work they are doing on our roof hasn't been impacted, and the water isn't coming in the house, which has helped us enjoy the rain.  

End of the Volleyball season!

Today marks the end of a great 8th grade volleyball season for Mason!  They played in a tournament in a group of six schools.  They only lost one game in the round robin play (between the two courts).  And the one they did lose was close!  

And with that, they went on to be the top seed in the elimination brackets.  (Mason is #6)

Here is a clip from their game against Mesa.

Here is another clip of them, this time scoring a point in the final game.

Although they didn't win the game, it has been a great season with a lot of growth for not only Mason but for his teammates!  Tomorrow they are going to play a scrimmage game against the 8th grade girls and they are looking forward to seeing how that goes!  

Way to go Mason!

 

Animals!

This is a bit of a hodge podge of an update but mainly has stuff about animals!

First off, Cotton was being weird a couple weeks ago and when Matt was messing with him, he started licking Matt's hands like crazy.  Granted, this is the cat that will stick his tongue in and out when scratching a part of his chin, but it was funny to watch.  Here is a short clip:

Later that week we couldn't help but laugh at Taz who fell asleep with his head resting on the chair leg.  Boy did it look uncomfortable!  

And this week we have been visited by ducks!  We always like seeing ducks in the storm water run off behind the house!

And then later in the week I saw this fox right around the same area.  I have a feeling we won't be seeing the ducks taking there chances around our house any more unfortunately.  

The weather has been warm, then cold and rainy, then warm, then cold and rainy.  We had a cool Easter which always feels a little odd but it was nice out.  We are heading back into warm, and looks like another cold and possibly rainy time.  We shall see!