Lake Arrowhead

Kenneth's parents came out to Cali April 8th-15th to use their time share up at Lake Arrowhead, and we were happy to be invited along.  We drove up on Sunday, Kenneth left that evening, and he rejoined us for Emily's birthday on Wednesday.  We spent some fun time playing games at the condo, catching up on all the family news, walking around the lake and feeding the ducks, and playing at the local playground.  Unfortunately I got zero pictures until Wednesday.  Contrary to what you might think, the weather was very nice prior to Wednesday when it started snowing very heavily!  We were joking about it afterwards because prior to driving out, Kenneth's mom asked us if they should bring snow chains.  We almost laughed on the phone because it has been so hot lately...little did we know the joke was on us - especially after our car got stuck in the snow going into the condo!  The last post shows pictures of Emily's birthday, and these photos captured our days out at the lake after watching the snow fall for a day and a half.  Both Danny and Emily were mesmerized by the snow, and they were especially excited to watch the tractors plow the snow afterwards.  Here are some photos:

I loved all the fog!

Emily was in love with all the ducks

Danny thought throwing snowballs was pretty funny...until Dad got him really good!

This tree was covered in icicles.  It was beautiful.

We had to dig our car out and Danny had lots of fun helping Dad and Grandpa.  There was about 8 inches on top.

Danny loved to walk around the shops and see all the bears

 Well, that's it.  We had a wonderful time with Kenneth's parents.  Thanks so much for inviting us!

Emily's 1st Birthday

I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast.  We celebrated Emily's birthday on April 11th up at Lake Arrowhead with Kenneth's parents.  We were also vacationing with them when Emily was born, and it was fun to see them again for her 1st birthday.  Emily was all smiles on her birthday and received some cute clothes and toys from her grandparents and her great-grandma.  She was an expert gift opener!

Emily LOVES books!

Emily was happy just to sit in the stroller...Danny was having a ball pushing her everywhere.

Helping to blow out the candle on her cheesecake

Emily is such an adorable little girl.  She is so happy and loves Danny to pieces.  She follows him everywhere and loves to play with him.  She has recently come to absolutely love books of all shapes and sizes.  She also, just as of this last week, has started to walk holding onto a push toy.  She would never walk if I held her hands, but she also has started to do that, as long as I'm only holding 1 hand.  She is also a big chatterbox.  She found her vocal cords a few weeks ago and jabbers all day long.  She also is FINALLY getting some teeth!  About 2 weeks ago she finally cut her first tooth, and about a week ago I noticed a second one coming in.  I was worried there weren't any in there!!  She also went to the doctors last week and all is well.  She received 6 vaccinations, and screamed like crazy, but as soon as I picker her up she was good.  Her stats are as follows:

height:30.5" (84th %)
weight: 19 lb (14th %)

I love Emily so much and am so happy to have her as part of our family.  She is so adorable and couldn't imagine life without her!

Emily's Black Eye

Just before Easter Emily went down the slide by our apartment (on her tummy) and smacked her eye when she hit the end. I wasn't completely irresponsible. I was at the top making sure she wouldn't fall off up there (she LOVES to climb the slide...all the way to the top). Anyway, she got a huge black eye. Here are some cute pictures. I love this little girl so much. She is such a silly girl. I love all her faces.  P.S. Her hair is crazy long and looks adorable in pigtails...unfortunately she hates me putting them in.  You can see 1 side in the pictures. Enjoy!

Frustration Creek Conference Weekend

This year in between Saturday's General Conference sessions we headed up the conyon to do some climbing with our friends Asia, Drew & their son Romney, and also with our friend Gwynne & her daughter Adeline (same age as Emily). We had a really fun time taking Drew climbing for the first time. And Gwynne and I both worked hard on a 5.11. It was awesome. I had to hang on the rope quite a bit on the 11, but I want to go back and work on it more and more so that I can eventually run up without hanging. That would be amazing...Anyway, here are some photos - completely forgot to get any of the guys SORRY!

Asia

Gwynne

Gwynne

Me

Me

Emily playing in the stream

Danny

Me again

Danny by the waterfall

Well, that's it!

Joshua Tree

In mid March my mom, Edy and her husband Ron came down to visit. We had a fun time seeing them, and it was great that they were able to spend time with the kids and strengthen their relationship with them. While they were here we went to the park together and fed the ducks, and also headed down to Joshua tree. After doing a little climbing there we drove through the National Park and stopped at the Cholla Cactus Garden. I've never seen them before. It was very interesting and definitely beautiful in its own way. Here are some photos.