Spring and Prom

Mom and Dad were actually in the time share for a few days, and Sofia celebrated by walking on the trampoline.

The boys came to our house to "get ready" for prom. Apparently that means eating most of a loaf of sourdough and jam like chips and salsa.

One of Rock's friends didn't have a date, so he offered to give a ride to Ryker (who surprised us by wanting to go) so that neither would have to walk in alone.

DeA made her mythical cinnamon rolls for the first time in five years.

Ryker came home sweaty and excited and full of stories about the free ice cream and snacks, of which he at none.

Easter morning DeAndra made cinnamon rolls, it's an Easter miracle! They were even better than I remembered them tasting!

Rock might have worn himself out.

Easter was a wonderful day with a lovely sacrament program and family lunch. The kids surprised us by wanting to dye eggs.

Schnoogles likes the cosmic dye kit.

Rock played Oroville on Monday while I was at work. The app wasn't updating and DeA was too busy trying to not say something offensive around the other parents, but I could tell that we were losing 11-2 when I left the office. By the time I got to the game, we were only down 11-6. After a three-run home run and some other machinations, we tied it in the 7th and won it in the 9th. Rock had two infield hits and played well in the field.

The old Explorer died, and we have been looking for a new used car for the kids. Despite Rock's pleas and protests, we picked up a Ford Escape in Brewster. Rock thought it was a grandma car, but would a grandma car have cool bedazzles and Hawaiian stickers?

At least Ryker really loves it. He drove us to Jens' practice and back, and the only incident was DeA unbuckling, lowering the window, and screaming at the guy behind us for honking at Ryker.

It's name is Taki, because it is a spicier red than Cheeto.

That's over 250 grams of protein right there, let's see how many I can eat before DeA doesn't let me sleep in the same room with her.

 

Baseball. A lot of baseball

An old teammate of Len and Dad found these pictures in his attic and had his wife drop them off.

Will there ever be a rainbow?

Rock caught against Chelan. It had rained almost all day up until the game and the field was pretty muddy. Rock had to block about 25-30 balls in the first inning. It was so much that he had to change out his glove because it was caked in mud. His shin guards were pretty crusty. He looks like a wet Leo Puppy by the end from working hard and getting sweaty. 

Schoogles looks pretty.

I'm not sure if she was watching baseball or trekking the North Pole.

A few days later we had a DH in Tonasket. Rock played just as well, but for some reason the effort was not appreciated at all and he was confused.

A few days later we found ourselves up in Oroville. Popper England sat in Narnia because of the unappreciativeness of the situation at hand. He purchased two clickers so I could document the unappreciativeness and Rock missed two blocks that he should have made out of 34ish wild pitches. The Oroville asst. coach was a college catcher coach and gave Rock a pointer between innings. Rock then used that information to throw out multiple runners, and the Oroville coach gave him a fist bump with a big smile. 

We put together a Passover Seder dinner for the youth. My gentile wife made a delicious matzo ball soup.

We played LB at home. Rock played 2B and 3B instead of catcher. The situation was...awkwardly weird.

DeA sat in Narnia like Gpa Dale would have if he were here so that other parents wouldn't hear her running commentary on the game.

"This is freaking bullcrap, I'm flipping ticked off about this horse hooey"

"No, I will not smile, this is dog dung!"

 

General Conference!!

It's only twice a year that we don't have to feel guilty about watching TV all weekend for 10 hours. DeA prepared by getting out her wiggles ahead of time. Leo helped. 

She made sure to be limbered up and ready to go.

We had a stray Luca on our yard, I guess the older boys ran home and left him.

DeA felt like celebrating conference with a porterhouse steak, unfortunately she and Jens both wanted it well-done.

The boys rolled in about 7pm on Saturday. Leo was glad to have more people home that he could beg.

They acted as if Grandma Lisa hadn't fed them all week.

There goes the rest of my steak, gobbled up in a steak and mac and cheese sandwhich.

When the kids were little, DeA would get so excited about a relaxing conference weekend only to get frustrated that the kids were incapable of sitting still or being reverent or even being able to play quietly away from the living room. Hey, at least that isn't a problem anymore.

The donut tradition is hanging by a thread, only Jens wanted to do it this year and then I screwed up the recipe somehow and the donuts were skibidi.

We ended up with scragglers after family lunch at Janet's.

"Hey Dad, why do I keep getting these headaches after my naps?"

 

Spring Break!

DeA is gradually getting used to Ryker driving her around, but she still wanted to protect her special salad on the way home.

Speaking of DeA, she's jacked.

We weren't sure what to do for spring break, but after the boys talked us into letting them drive to Mama Zista's and Papa Dave's house, and Jens said she wanted to hang our here with friends, we decided to book last minute in Birch Bay. It was perfect weather when we got there on Saturday.

There wasn't a lot open, and we thought it was a good time to be good Sabbath day observers and bought dinner for Sunday. Frozen Stouffer's lasagna isn't the worst, but it's not the best. But it was a relaxing quiet Sunday night dinner, like the ones we will probably have all too often after the kids leave the house.

The boys were unsupervised in Oregon, Grandma and Grandpa were still returning from Arizona, but they sent a picture of them ready for church...but not a picture of them at church which was suspicious. They did correctly describe the sacrament meeting as a White City sacrament meeting, so we do think that the actually attended the meeting.

There was a lot of relaxing time to do homework.

And to hit the hotel gym without worrying about who needed picked up from school or practice.

On Monday we went to Surrey, BC to try Costco (it was a crowded disaster), shoe shopping for Jens, and Ricky's All Day Grill. We ate at one when we came up in December for Jens' concert and the kids think it is the best restaurant in the world, so we were happy to taunt them with this picture.

They didn't have fry sauce, but they did bring a side of gravy. 

We also taunted the kids with a picture of their favorite hockey store ever.

We happened to drive right past the beloved Travelodge, but DeA had no interest in pulling in for a picture. She was willing to pull in to burn the mother down, but definitely not a picture.

After crossing back into the US, we stopped at a dairy that is about a mile from the border. They had bubble gum no gum that turned DeA's lips a beautiful blue.

We had a lot of time for long walks on the beach and trying to get caught in the rain.

We went to Bellingham on Tuesday and enjoyed a normal Costco and a BBQ place with a turd sandwich.

We realized that this picture was taken across the street from our condo in almost 12 years to the day that we were here this time.

We re-created it as best we could.

There was a chocolate store in Bellingham that was very highly rated, and DeA wanted to try it. She already wants to go back and buy more.

She cut the little truffles into tiny pieces to make them last as long as possible.

The weather was very beachy, and some of our walks were short because of cold fingers and noses, but it was a wonderful trip.