Easter 2009

We had a small celebration this year. Saturday we went out to my sister Pam's house in Orangevale and had a potluck dinner and egg hunt. Miranda and Carlin had fun hunting for eggs and Matt and Kylie had fun hiding them. The kids didn't find all the eggs though. Hopefully Pam's kids will find them eventually!! Sunday, we went to church. Matt had the opportunity to give a talk about what Easter meant to him. He did a great job! We had an Easter dinner with just our family. I, of course, made a ham and "funeral potatoes". It was yummy!! Happy Easter everyone!!

GREAT AMERICA!!

During Spring Break, we decided to take the kids to Great America in Santa Clara. They had never been on any roller coasters except for the ones at Disneyland. We also took Matt's friends Matt and Shannon. We had a blast. We went on the perfect day. There were no lines at all. We just walked right up and could ride again and again if we wanted to. The weather was great too! It was an awesome day that the kids won't forget!

Matt turns the BIG 16!!

It is tradition that the birthday person gets to choose where we go for dinner. Matt chose to go to El Palmar with the family and two friends (Matt B. and Shannon Welch). After dinner we came home and opened presents and had cheese cake for dessert. I can't believe he is 16 already!! Happy Birthday Matt!!

Carlin's Field Trip to the Jelly Belly Factory

While I was at Pioneer Camp with Miranda, Warren went on a field trip with Carlin to the Jelly Belly Factory. The classes rode a bus there while parents followed behind in cars. They took a tour of the factory then they got to go to the store and buy souvenirs/candy.

And more...

More Pics. from Pioneer camp

Here's some more pics.!

Pioneer Camp Field Trip

I got back from pioneer camp with Miranda today. We had a good time. We left Wednesday morning and drove to Old Sierra Camp which is outside of Wheatland (about an hour away from Sacramento near Lake Far West). I drove six girls. We then unloaded all of our luggage and sleeping bags from the van and put it in trailor that was hauled up to the site. We then walked about 3/4 of a mile to the camp. We then got our pioneer clothes that we had to change in to. The camp provided all of this thank goodness. So everybody looked the same. We did several activities including candle making and rope making. The food was awesome. At least to me, the kids probably didn't eat much. We slept in a large canvas tent with a ground cloth. We shared this tent with ten girls and two adults. Thank goodness they allowed the grown ups to bring air mattresses or cots or I may have died. Anybody who knows me knows that I don't sleep well on the ground. It was freezing that first night. I didn't get much sleep. Not to mention the fact, that we had two people snoring all night too. The next day we went on a hike to the lake at sunrise and then came back for breakfast. Then we learned some square dancing and blacksmithing. They then took us to another site where the camp used to be. We saw the remains of the Emigrant trail and some Maidu Indian grinding rocks and remains of their community houses. It was all very interesting. We walked a little under six miles that day. When we got back to camp the boys did some gold panning while the girls got to put there hair up in rags like the pioneers use to do. We use curlers now-a-days. Dinner was ready and then we had campfire where he had several skits and stories. The kids got letters from home too. That night I learned from my mistake the night before and went to bed with my sweats, two sweatshirts with my hoods on and covered my head. I slept better, but not as good as I would have liked. Today we got up packed our gear, ate breakfast and hiked down to the cars and came home. I had a great time. My hope is that the kids took to heart what they learned from all of this. There were quite a few talks given on how we treat our peers, respecting our elders, and making good choices. I think the camp did a great job. Those of you who get a chance to go with your kids should definitely go!