Visit to St. Joseph Shrine and Women's Tea Party

Our friends Rodd & Kacie organized a shrine visit for the boys and a tea party for the girls. The dads and sons drove up to Yarnell to do the Stations of the Cross, say a rosary, eat lunch, and recite the Litany of St. Joseph at the beautiful shrine up there. Meanwhile, the girls had a nice tea and snacks at Kacie's house.

Sports Family

 Wish it wasn't so much in the front yard and street, but they love to play out there. Margaret is putting on roller blades.

Sunday Soccer and BBQ

 We had a classic Sunday. First, we played the "cone game," which is a traffic cone in our neighbor's yard and two teams, usually boys vs. girls or parents vs. kids. One team tries to kick soccer balls to the cone while the other side defends. One point each time the ball hits the cone. Later, I BBQ'd up some meats and we made a little video for Julia in Brasil.

YouTube: Cone Game

Owen's Birthday Basketball Game

 Later than usual, into February, but we made it, and the Devils won.

Your Cute Tip Video of the Year

All that laughing is tiring

The Old Dog On His Last Legs

Trip to SD

I had to go to San Diego for work, so I talked Mark & Jessica into watching TF & Edward while I was working so I could bring them along. We had a fun drive over, stopping in Yuma for lunch. We found a little park near the State Prison Historical Park. There was a really cool mini-train set-up, with about two miles of track, next to it. It was fun just hanging out with the boys before we got back on the road.

We arrived in time to see Will & Otto's first baseball practice. I thought they might let TF out there, but they were sticklers about only approved players & coaches on the field (which also excluded Mark), so we just watched. We also walked over to the park next to the ballfields.

It worked out great because the next day was a homeschool "field trip" to Sea World. There were a number of groups there, including a lot of Muslims, but our little Catholic group made it in and had a grand old time. It was Otto's first time on one of the big coasters, and Mark laughed the whole way because of Otto's terrified face. Poor Otto, his favorite ride wasn't open since it was a weekday and only some rides were running. We saw the whale show and dolphin show, both significantly reduced in acrobats and stunts because protesters have complained. Nonetheless, we had fun. The kids were exhausted by the end of the day. The three older boys disappeared in the playground area, which was hard at first, but eventually they emerged. All 3, and Ward, enjoyed bouncing on the big bubble.

Probably the highlight on the work end, other than meeting some folks from other offices and those conversations, was dinner at Din Tai Fung, the famous Taiwanese restaurant. A Kavanaugh got us moved up the list on yelp (even though they don't take reservations), and Jeff took care of all the ordering, doing a superb job. I even used chopsticks! The lowlight was Marriott not having my reservation at the Residence Inn and having to get a room in La Jolla. I had a nice lunch with folks from the SD office. We saw Drew Brees a few tables over.

The drive home was uneventful & boring.

Annual Valentine's Party

The multiple choice game Bobbins put together this year was a lot better. We had all the usual suspects over and we had a great time.

Christo Wants in on the Piano Action

JoJo shows him how it's done

Bath Time and Reading Time

100 Days

The kindergarten always does a project to commemorate the 100th day of school. Bobbins forgot about Owen's until the night before, so we had to improvise. He wanted to make a target with 100 spots, or bullseyes.





It came together to get the job done....

New Veils

The veils Bobbins had made, by a seamstress, from Aunt Susan's old wedding dress came in.

Future Teacher?

You can hear JoJo practicing the piano in the background. She's really taken to it. Her, Bobbins, Margaret, and Owen are all taking lessons, but I'd say JoJo shows the most promise.

Quick Cabin Trip

We went up to the cabin to clean and prep it for vacation rentals. After much deliberation, Bobbins' dad decided to put it on VRBO and Airbnb. We did a deep cleaning and also organized the garage so it could be used to park a vehicle. JoJo also got to shoot for the first time.

    

Monster Jam

Grandma Jay, aka Swamper, bought tickets for Bobbins and the boys, along with Aunt Katie, for this year's monster jam. Owen lost his first tooth at the event, then promptly lost it, but was helped by another little boy in finding it.