Pioneer Day - July 21st

We said goodbye to John and Bob in the morning on Saturday.  I think Andrew will miss them the most, it was fun for him to have some "older brothers."  We went to the Las Flores pool for a stake Pioneer Day celebration with swimming, cotton candy, snow cones and a BBQ.  Ella went off the high dive for the first time tonight too.  She had never done it before!  Andrew went off the lower one for the first time too!

Last Night w/ John and Bob - July 20th

Bob and John wanted a picture with our kiddos on their last night in America.

Family Dinner - July 15th

My parents and grandma were in town for a wedding this weekend and they came over and brought Aunt Bonnie along with them for dinner on Sunday.  It was nice to visit with them and they got to meet John and Bob.  Our hometeacher also came over after church, so we had a full house.  We made taco salad for dinner and had brownies and ice-cream for dessert.  I sure have missed going to Fresno and swimming this summer, maybe I can squeeze in a trip before school starts...or Labor Day?

Bowling - July 14

Well, the boys slept in til late again on Saturday.  James took our kids to the skate park, where from 8-11 am only kids under 12 are allowed.  This makes it fun for littler ones.  They all rode their skooters around and had a blast.  After lunch we went to a store to look for some school supplies, yes, I am getting a little excited about school started...excited, and a bit nervous too.  Then we went bowling.  Kids bowl one game a day free at a nice bowling place in Upland.  The shoe rental is reduced to $1.99 too, so for 5 kids to bowl it was under $10!  I think Bob and John really enjoyed playing and were a little competitive.  It was fun to see them doing something besides playing games and watching movies on their ipads.   

S'Mores Time - July 13

We met our good friends, the Alva's at a park and ate pizza and made s'mores.  Bob and John seemed to like them well enough.  I saw them taking pictures of them with their phones.  We played outside until pretty late.  Hopefully wearing the kids out a bit!

Golf Camp - July 9 thru 13

My kids were all accepted into a golf camp that the county puts on at many of the county golf courses.  One of those courses happens to be close to me and the best part is that it's completely free!  They even provide all the golf clubs.  The kids had 2 hours each day this week to practice driving, putting and chipping.  On Friday they had an 18 hole putting tournament.  The kids all did really well.  Andrew actually got 3rd out of the boys in his age group!  He had to wear his medal for the rest of the day.  Is just so happens to be THE HOTTEST week we have had all year, but the kids were troopers.  I think they would like to do it next year, but may be more motivated to opt for the early morning class rather than the one that ran from 2:30-4:30 in the hot afternoon.

Swim Day - July 11th

Today on 7-11 we went to a friends pool to swim with a bunch of mom's and kids from the ward.  I only had one thing that would get them motivated to leave the pool and that was a slurpee from 7-11.  They were free today, and boy was it a nice day to get a free one!  I took John and Bob back after picking them up from school to get one as well.  Surprisingly, John knew all about 7-11 and slurpee's, I guess they have those in China too.

Farmer's Market - July 5th

We went over to the weekly Farmer's Market this evening.  I like to sample all of the fresh fruits and vegies they have out for sale.  I bought some peaches since they were so juicy.  We didn't stay too long.  There wasn't that much for the boys to look at.  Kaitlyn could have stayed there for hours looking at all the jewelry!  It was nice to just get out of the house and enjoy the nice cool evening.

Fourth of July!

We got up and went to the La Verne parade.  It's really a small town, especially when you know a lot of the people in the parade personally.  I love living in this little town!  Afterwards we went to a little fair and my kids got their face/arm painted.  Bob and John didn't want to do it :)  Then the girls had feathers put in their hair.  We were starving at this point and went to In N' Out for lunch.  We took our food back to the park and ate there.  We played a game of soccer and then I brought John and Bob home so they could do some homework and James played tennis with our kiddos.  In the evening we went to Bob and John's principals California home in Chino Hills (it was on the top of a hill too).  And principal Tian had bar be qued hot dogs, chicken wings and ribs, watermellon, chips and drinks.  We visited with some of the other host families.  Our boys sat around most of the time and played their nintendo games, etc.  We realized that is what most of the younger ones did too. When it got dark, we were able to look over the whole valley and see lots of fireworks.  Happy 4th of July!

Killn' Time at the Park - July 2nd

I took the kids to a park that is close to where Kaitlyn has dance classes, and we play while we are waiting for her to finish.  It saves on gas for me.  The boys usually play basketball, but this particular day, John fell and scrapped his elbow and knee (which is what Andrew did last week while playing basketball at our house), so they decided to swing instead.

Apple Store and John's Birthday - June 30th

The boys slept in til 1pm on Saturday after the game.  They were so tired.  They have school all day and had to get up early, plus they stay up so late at night too.  James went off to school to study all day and I took all the kiddos to the Ontario Mills Mall.  I let John and Bob go on their own and met up with them after a few hours.  We only went in a few stores and it took us two hours to go around the entire mall (that's how big it is!).  We made a trip to the Apple Store to figure out some issues Bob was having with some of his apps, and this is how they entertained themselves while we waited.  I took them to a Chinese Market too, and squeezed in this photo, before someone in the store told me I couldn't take photos (kinda ironic since so many Asians are obsessed with pictures!)  John told us it was his birthday late Saturday night, so I grabbed some sprinkle doughnuts at Target and lit one up with 13 candles.  He said it was delicious, so that was a good sign.  I have never had any sort of response from anything else I have served them since they have been here.  Doesn't say much about my cooking, I guess.

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Mormon Nite @ Dodger Stadium - July 29th

President Uchtdorf threw the first pitch tonight at Dodger Stadium for Mormon nite.  We got tickets and went with another family to the baseball game.  Our students, Bob and John came with us.  The Dodgers totally lost, not even scoring one run, but we had fun anyways.  At the end of the game, we were able to go out onto the field and they had a fireworks show.   My favorite part was watching Andrew dance his "robot" dance moves in hopes of getting broadcast on the giant screen during a robot inspired song.  It was hilarious!