Spring Break Road Trip

We've had a fun Spring Break this week. We drove to Henderson, NV to visit my sister and her family. We had so much fun with them. We explored parts of the Strip, saw the fountain with fire, and had a great time there. Here are some pictures.

Las Vegas Temple

 Shark Reef Aquarium

 Bruce camped out with Sayre and Brodey every night. They played video games and laughed all night. Those boys are like brothers to Bruce.

 We made it to Henderson, NV!

 Linda, Jane and Elly worked on sewing.

 The girls LOVED playing with the dog.

 Easter morning! We ate candy and watched General Conference.

Road Trip!!

Women's Conference

Linda, Jane, and I had a nice time attending Women's Conference at our stake center a few weeks ago. We went to dinner and visited a pet shop on our way there. I love spending time with these two.

They keep growing up

Last week Bruce lost his last baby tooth. It made me a little sad. I remember how exciting it was when he lost his first tooth when we lived in Virginia. The tooth fairy visited him for the last time. It's the little unexpected things that happen as they grow up that get me.

5K

Well, this year I decided that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and do some new things. I'm currently taking a school class, I got signed up to volunteer at the Oceanside Museum of Art(which I'm not doing anymore because is was sooo boring), and I decided to start running. I've never been a runner. Even when I was young and athletic, running was never my thing. I just thought I couldn't do it and that I definitely could never run a 5K or any other race. I've been taking gym classes and exercising at a gym over the past year. Occasionally I would get on the treadmill and once I did run 1 mile on it.
My friend has always been in to running and just recently had a baby and was looking to get back in to it. So, we've been meeting once a week to go on a run at the beach. We had only run a couple times and even when we ran we had multiple stops. But we decided to sign up for a 5K in San Diego that was only a couple weeks away! I was scared. A 5K is 3.1 miles and I had never run for that long before. I was imagining that I'd get a side ache barely in to the race and wouldn't be able to run. The pressure was on. We got registered for the race and got our racing gear.

I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I'm not sure why I was so worried. I think it's because I really wanted to accomplish this goal. I wanted to show myself that I can do hard things that I never thought possible.

Even before the race I was doubting myself. I'd never ran more than 1 mile! What was I doing?! I couldn't possibly do this, right?

Sabrina was so nice and let me set our pace. Along the race course there were stations where they doused you in black light powder. It was a really relaxed, fun run. About half way through the race, I was still running and I felt ok! At that point I seriously prayed that I could finish the race. I NEEDED to do it. Sabrina assured me that if I was still able to talk to her I'd be fine and be able to finish.....and I did. I ran the entire 3.1 miles without walking or stopping even once! I accomplished my goal. :)       Here we are at the end!

The sad note of the night was that Robert and the kids came down to surprise me at the finish line, but we never saw each other and I had left my cell phone in the car!! So sad about that. Here are the kids waiting for me. It was a nice thought. With over 5,000 people running, it was a long shot.

Sea Star

I was able to go on a field trip with Linda recently. We went on the Sea Star. It's a floating lab. We got to go out to sea on an adventure. We both had so much fun and we learned a lot. Growing up in New Mexico, you don't really study the ocean like they do here by the beach.

Linda got to help pull the net in. 
We caught shrimp and many kinds of fish and plankton.

On our trip we saw a lot of dolphins, pelicans, and a sea lion. There was also a whale in the distance and you could see him blowing water in the air. It was a great day. The weather was perfect. You'd never know that it was pouring rain the day before.

(Unfortunately, we never were able to get a picture together.)

Love

Linda did our family home evening for us the other night. She had us each write down one thing we love about each person. Here are the results.

What we love about Dad:
Mom- He is passionate about many things.
Bruce- He goes to work for me.
Linda- He helps us get places we need to be.
Jane- He helps me with stuff!
Claire- Dad plays with me.

What we love about Mom:
Dad- You are sooo pretty.
Bruce- She does extra things just for me.
Linda- That she takes care of me.
Jane- That you make me food to eat!
Claire- She helps me.

What we love about Bruce:
Dad- You are sooo smart.
Mom-Your sense of humor.
Linda- I like your smile.
Jane- I like that you wrestle with me!
Claire- Bruce is a jeenyes. (genius)

What we love about Linda:
Dad- You are sooo good.
Mom- You love others and want them to be happy.
Bruce- She is very creative.
Jane- I like that you play with me!
Claire- Linda plays on the trampoline with me.

What we love about Jane:
Dad- You are sooo awesome.
Mom- She works hard.
Bruce- She loves playing.
Linda- She does her nails with me.
Claire- Jane is nice.

What we love about Claire:
Dad-You are sooo funny.
Mom- She is friendly to everyone.
Bruce- She is very energetic.
Linda- You're always willing to play.
Jane- You are a crazy lady.