Baptisms at the temple

On Saturday I got to accompany the girls to the temple to do baptisms. The temple just barely reopened and we had a date scheduled for June, but someone had room in their group so we went.

It was Carmen's first time, so it was unfortunate that we had issues with her recommend at the front desk. She had somehow gotten an old recommend without a barcode, so it took a while to get that sorted out. In the meantime, I went in to tell the others what was going on and sort out the names we had brought. Carmen got left alone and started getting anxious.

We got everything worked out, and she got in. Olivia and I were the witnesses, and I also helped to confirmations, and Carmen had a good experience doing baptisms.

End of school concerts

It's the end of the school year and so we've had the usual slew of concerts and performances. Olivia had her last concert of middle school, where she got lots of awards as voted on by her class.

It was also the last concert of long-time TMS orchestra director Mrs. Mika.

Carmen's concert was done via Zoom, which allowed us to capture the moment when a boy's bowstrings broke and he didn't know what to do (watch the bottom left corner).

The elementary school was finally able to do the musicals that were canceled by COVID last year. Damon was especially pleased because he finally got to perform the role he auditioned for, the Trickster in Dreamcatcher.

Miles showed off his dance moves in Pajama Party. He's the one in the blue Gopherman shirt.

In another COVID measure, Olivia got to pick up her school awards in a drive through awards ceremony.

Houston Zoo

It had been a long time since we visited the zoo, so we decided to go on Saturday. Lots of other people had the same idea because the parking lot was full, but we were able to find street parking. We started off with the elephants and had fun watching the baby elephants.

From there we saw the big cats and bears, then headed to the carousel, since some nice people had given us some free tickets they weren't going to use as we were entering the park.

Next we went to Africa and saw the giraffes, rhinos, and the apes.

We ate lunch at a restaurant (where I tried not to think about the prices).

Then we went to see Miles's people, the monkeys. We had a good time watching the lemurs playing with each other.

Our last stop was the reptile house, where I got to see my favorite snake.

Everyone was worn out by then, so we headed home.

Damon's birthday

On Saturday, Damon turned 10 years old. He managed to wait until the evening to open his presents. It's always easy to buy for Damon because he's excited about everything, and he got very typical Damon things, like Hot Wheels, Far Side, space Legos, and solar robots.

He also got his own ukulele, but with a twist. When Olivia was opening her ukulele, Damon blurted out that it was probably a ukulele, which we all knew but were pretending we didn't. So Amber wrapped some socks up in a ukulele box. He was a little disappointed until she told him to look under the couch, where he got his own ukulele. It came with a digital tuner, which he was fascinated with.

After a dinner of halušky, we had our third strawberry cake in 9 days.

Olivia's birthday

Birthday season continued on Sunday with Olivia's 14th birthday. After church, she was ready to open her presents. She got some of the usual presents for her, like Legos, Itty Bittys, books, and clothes.

She also got a unique gift from Amber, some "Get out of Lecture Free" passes.

And like Miles, Olivia got her own ukulele too.

Olivia also chose strawberry cake.