Best Part of January!

January can be such a dreary month, especially after all of the Christmas festivities.

So glad there are a couple of birthdays in the family to keep us celebrating!

Daniel turned 9!

(That's a homemade cheesecake)

He chose shrimp for dinner...

...and he had fun trying out his new tennis racket with his brothers at the court across the street! 

Camille turned 8!

She took cupcakes in ice cream cones to school...

She had fun doing Legos, riding her new scooter,

dressing her doll in some new outfits.

New Year 2018: Off To A Good Start!

If our first week of the new year is any indication, it's going to be a great year!

On Monday we had a very fun game event at the Perrys.

I counted 9 different games that were played while we were there:

Then Wednesday through Friday we were in Carmel.

Dan was here:

And I was here:

Finally, on Saturday we got to attend a BYU basketball game.  The game with all the fans was fun but I especially enjoyed watching the grandkids take in their first college basketball game!

Nice 3-point shot by Yoeli--finally!

Now for some January hibernating.

I'm worn out from December!

San Antonio After Christmas, Part 2!

More fun with the Wonder Girls!

We visited The National Museum of the Pacific War  located in Fredericksburg, Texas,
the boyhood home of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.

It was very interesting and I'm so glad we went there!
"Explore the heroic, triumphant, and tragic human story of the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign of WWII.  This 21st century museum is dedicated to telling the complete and full story of WWII in the Pacific.  From the seeds of conflict to Pearl Harbor and the Japanese surrender.  Go island hopping with the Marines and Army; and sail with the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marines as they battle for control of the Pacific waters.  Fly along side our airmen as they fight for air superiority over the Pacific.
The gallery is 33,000 square feet of exhibit space and houses seven macro-artifacts, including one of the Japanese midget subs used at Pearl Harbor, a B-25 Bomber and Wildcat fighter, Japanese Float Plane, Admiral's Barge, Japanese Val Dive Bomber, and Atomic Bomb casing."

I was especially interested in anything I could find about LST's which my Dad was on:

The girls were so good!  

They were real troopers!

After lunch we walked around this German town and walked through some of the interesting stores.  Loved all the Christmas stuff!

Later there was a cute park to play at...

And even some snow to play in!

That evening John and Dan went to the Alamo Bowl!

TCU Horned Frogs 39; Stanford Cardinal/Tree 37

After such a great visit we are ready for a Happy New Year!

San Antonio After Christmas, Part 1!

We had a fun trip to visit John, Sara, Aubrey and Bethany in San Antonio the week after Christmas.  

One of the fun things we did was to visit here:

One of my favorite exhibits was the sting rays.  

Fascinating to all of us!

We got to touch them.

The girls enjoyed feeding the Koi and causing a feeding frenzy!

Aubrey was excited to get inside the jaws of a Great White but Bethany not so much.

This was an interesting aquarium as it had this indoor dinosaur sand pit...

A room full of parakeets...

...and a Bounce place!

The girls had a lot of fun here!

Back at home the girls have fun with Legos.

Aubrey especially likes building with them!

We did some Shrinky Dinks.  Here are the girls watching them shrink!

One evening we headed to downtown San Antonio...

...to see the festive decorations...

...even on the buildings...

...and to enjoy lots of lights on the River Walk!

It was so beautiful!

But it was also really cold (39 degrees) and we felt like having a...

Instead, we went for ice cream cones!