Last Clara Pictures

Last few photos of our time with Clara. Stephanie went to San Diego for her ice-skating convention and we got Clara all to ourselves. Lucky us! I hope she had a blast and went home telling fun stories about her adventures with California cousins.

Gotta hit In-N-Out Burger, this was on Clara's list:

We had to go tsum tsum shopping:

Tsum tsum trampoline playing:

Cute puppy:

Swing time, and lots of playing outside:

Last day donuts. These kids might need to sugar detox this week!

Game playing:

Of course we hit Menchie's:

Made sure we got plenty of swim time, too:

So happy for our time with Stephanie and Clara - to catch up, connect, and watch the cousins play. Hope to spend next summer with them in Virginia.

Hollywood and Fire

We picked up Clara and Stephanie early Sunday from the airport (no church due to fire), and headed straight to Hollywood. It had been forever since I'd taken the kids to Hollywood, so it was fun to bum around, explore, and catch up with them.

Checked out the Chinese Theater and Hollywood stars:

Tired and hot, we drove back to my neighborhood where the Sand Fire was on Day 3. Thankfully they got it under control by Monday evening/Tuesday morning, but it was kind of hairy a few days. Our school and church were threatened, and several friends evacuated. Firefighters were amazing and saved them all. A week later the fire is 93% contained. Here are a few photos from up by school:

From the school yard:

Closer to my house and shopping was just a lot of smoke from hills in the distance.

Clearly Stephanie and Clara have quite a story to tell about their trip to California.

Game Shakers!

When we heard Clara was coming, we checked Adam's schedule and realized he could take the big kids to Game Shakers. Big hit! They had a great afternoon - saw a run thru of the show, backstage tour, met the cast and got photos and autographs. They even snuck on the Henry Danger set. Thanks to Adam for making it happen.

Ended the tour with big sodas from fancy Coke machine. Happy kids:

Don't feel too bad for Cole. Although he's not old enough to go to a run thru, he celebrated his best bud, Toby's, birthday today. Swim party with these cute kids:

Pinata, pizza, cake. He was pretty happy, and I was happy to spend the morning with him.

Bounce Escape

Since Placerita Canyon fire flared up Monday, causing even more smoke over my house, I thought my poor sister and Clara needed a break from the craziness. After I taught at Ladybug (which, crazy, going down the hill was like nothing going on) we headed to Sky High Sports on the way other side of town under blue skies.

On the way we stopped at a high school to drop off water, Gatorade, sunscreen, protein bars, and more for firefighters. They had collected so much! Love our town! Glad we had an opportunity to give back with the kids, no matter how small - felt good to do something for those heroes. Firefighters were sleeping on cots in the park across from the school, waiting for next shift. Amazing!

Matching Star Wars:

Aunt Stephanie treated Cole to video games:

Dodgeball boys vs. girls:

 Ended the day with dinner at Souplantation, and yay, the Osmonds joined us.

Nice afternoon and evening out together.

Today

Great way to start the day. Mani/pedis, just the girls.

Then fun back-to-school shopping. So neat all around town we get to say thank you and high fives to firefighters. Grocery store, Starbucks, gas station, Target - they're everywhere.

Afternoon bouncing:

Then we went to see Audrey and Tyler perform their scene in acting class. They did great!

A few of Adam's beginning actors:

Came home to pizza and an earlier bedtime because the grownups are pooped. I think these two like sharing a room: