Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Tunnel singing

Amber had the idea a long time ago that the ESE tunnel would be great for tunnel singing (like the BYU tradition). With the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, she decided to organize it on Sunday night. Lots of people came and we sang rounds, hymns, and patriotic songs and it sounded great in the tunnel.

Lots of people enjoyed it, so I imagine this won't be the last time we do it.

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Galapagos exhibit at the Houston Zoo

We finally had a free Saturday to go see the new Galapagos exhibit at the zoo. Since Amber had just gone to the real Galapagos, I thought it would be fun for us to see. There was a line to get in, but we got to see some giant tortoises while we waited.


Inside, we got to become giant tortoises.



They have several cool aquarium features, with sea lions, sea turtles, sharks, jellyfish, sea horses, penguins, and more. There's even an underwater tunnel.




We wandered the rest of the zoo after that, seeing the wetlands exhibit, Pantanal exhibit, and the aviary, where I found this wood stork.


It was kind of hot and the kids were not interested in staying much longer, so we looped around to see the big cats and elephants before heading back home.

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Rainstorms

We've been getting a lot of rain lately, and it makes me glad that Carmen and Damon and Miles are not too old to enjoy playing in it. They saved lots of worms from drowning.


Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Miles in Pirates the Musical

On Monday night we went to see Miles, who had the leading role in his 4th grade musical, Pirates. As parents of the lead, we got box seats by Mr. Wharton.

Miles played the King of the High Cs, the pirate captain known for his amazing singing.

His counterpart was the Stowaway, who was also very good.

Miles did a great job. He knew all his lines and did a great job acting.

And of course, he sang his soaring high Cs beautifully.

Damon's birthday

Damon turned 12 years old this year. He may be getting older, but he's still brilliant, absent-minded, silly, irritating, fun-loving Damon. He got a few fun gifts this year, including D&D dice, a mirror cube, a game he gets ridiculously lucky at (Cover Your Assets), a rubber chicken, a gaming mouse, books on Tolkien, Hitchhiker's Guide books, a build-it-yourself pencil sharpener, and of course, a Lego set.




He requested an Oreo cake for his (9 + 3)th birthday.

Monday, May 08, 2023

Olivia's Prom

A couple weeks ago, Olivia received this promposal from a secret suitor.

She solved the puzzle to find out that it was Christian Larsen, and she concocted her own puzzle to respond 'Yes'.

This weekend, he came to pick her up, they did an escape room with their group, then they got cleaned up and we did a quick photoshoot with her prom group before they went out to dinner and to the dance.




She came back later that night and said she had a great time.

Thursday, May 04, 2023

Star Wars Day

May the Fourth be with you! For Star Wars Day, Amber made Porg chops, Jabba the hummus, Boba Feta cheese salad, and blue milk.

Wednesday, May 03, 2023

Olivia's birthday

Our little Olivia turned 16 this year! She didn't have a party to celebrate, but she did get a few gifts to open, like a print-making kit, D&D dice bag, $100 gift card, fish slides (of course), and a new wallet.




As she likes, she got a lemon-flavored dessert for her (9 + 3 + 4)th birthday.