Coco's Family Birthday Party

On Monday, we all got together to celebrate Coco's (Elise) 2nd birthday. Her favorite color is blue and she likes bunnies so Meg made a blue bunny cake for her.
Coco's cousins, Ellie and Ethan, came for dinner and with Gavin, they helped her to blow the candles out on the cake.
Uncle Jim, Aunt Sue, and cousin Tica were able to stop by and have dinner with us also, with Great Grandpa and Grammie. Alana and Steve had been at the Getty and they were able to come for dinner also.
We got a surprise also, when next door neighbors, Craig and Beth, and good friend Lisa stopped by with cupcakes for the birthday girl. Great Grammie is shown above with Lisa and Beth.
After the wonderful dinner of pasta, salad and breadsticks, the kids got their party bags and had a lot of fun with their punchballs. Happy 2nd Birthday, Coco!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Coco

Yesterday was Elise's 2nd Birthday. Since she likes to ride trains, we all took her on the Gold Line into downtown Los Angeles and had a little party for her at the iconic Philippe's. This was our "4 G" field trip for the week. The sawdust on the floor of Philippe's was perfect for 4 little kids to eat dinner over. It was raining a good part of the time, but we never seemed to get too wet going from train to restaurant to train.
Coco was dressed in her red coat with her ruby slippers. She felt like a little princess for the day.
We had a "cookie" cake for her at Philippe's and she blew out both of her candles. There was cheering for her in the restaurant because of her birthday.
It was a pretty good sized group that went downtown for her birthday dinner. . .Great Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma, Meg, Danny, Gavin, Coco, James, Megster, Ethan, Ellie, Alana and Steve (Grandpa Brad joined us later after the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for one of his Eagle Scouts). Ethan found that if you dropped food on the floor, you could eat the sawdust for some extra roughage along with the food.
We only had one present for her to open downtown. It was a handheld music box that plays her favorite tune, "It's a Small World".
When we got ready to leave, the heavens opened up and we all had to get our umbrellas out. Thanks to Steve for driving us to the Disney Concert Hall to hear the LA Philharmonic, while the little kids went home on the train.
Just a few extra pictures here. We brought a few treats back to the little kids from Hawaii. I think their favorites were the new sandals for the summer.
Since Alana is home on her placement break, we went to Stats in Pasadena and looked around the penultimate Christmas store. Gavin found a surfing Santa, and didn't quite know what that big belly button was doing there.
Slowly but surely, Meg and Danny's house is getting finished. Coco and Gavin enjoy riding their cart around on the new floors.

Good Friends Together Again

Yesterday, 5 of us (Finlays, Fasanas and Lois Gaston) drove up to see some of our dearest friends that used to live in Duarte. Marshall and Cindy Jackman have returned to sunny California from being in Burlington, Iowa for 5 years. They are pastoring (if there is such a verb) up in the Santa Clarita area at the Heart of the Canyons Church. Marshall gave his first sermon at the packed church. There were a number of people there from the LA area (Lindy Ysassi, our son James and his wife Megan and their kids, Coykendals, Dave Denstaedt, Martin Jackman, Christy and Marina and their families, and a few others). Marshall had all of us stand up and introduced us to the congregation as the"village that helped to raise him." He gave an excellent sermon about the Master Gardener, the grapevine and the branches and what fruit we will bear.
After the church service, Marshall and Cindy had a picnic at a nearby park for all of the friends and family that came to hear him speak.
Cindy, being the good grandma that she is, made sure that there were bubbles for the little children that came to the park for the picnic.
Ellie enjoyed the bubbles too.
James got to catch up with Marina and Christy (although, James did career day as a veterinarian at Valley View School, and he was able to go to Christy's class to talk about veterinary work with her students and see her as a teacher.) It was marvelous to see Marina and Christy's two beautiful little girls. I couldn't believe how much Marina's little girl Lacy looks just like her.
What a treat for all of us to be with the Jackmans yesterday! We are all grateful that the Heart of the Canyons Church had the vision to see that Marshall and Cindy would be a good fit for them. Welcome Home Cindy and Marshall.

Hawaii-Beach Shots are More Interesting than Work Shots

After running into Honolulu just about every day to buy new items for the bathroom, we would take dinner out on the beach. Above is the Lifeguard Station at the Pipeline - the surfers were even staying away due to the size of the waves and the rip.
Enjoying dinner at our favorite spot at the Pipeline.
Even as the sun was setting one night, there were a few surfers that were still out there in the waves.
We bought a new etagere for the living room to put the books on. . . .seemed to open up the living room a bit.
Another view of the living room. Hopefully we can post pictures of the finished bathroom in the near future.

Hawaii Work Week (and then some)

During the day, and it pretty much is every day, we take the hour's drive into Honolulu and select tile, vanities, etc. for the new bathroom. At night, we try and take our dinner out on the beach.
We were driving by Waimea Bay and saw that the waves were really big.
For dinner one night, Sister Sandoval (from our Duarte ward) and Sister Wada joined us for pasta at the condo. It was great to see Cynthia and hear her stories about life as a missionary.
We drove home on the Windward side of the island one day and stopped for a picture in front of the Koolau Mountains and Chinaman's Hat.
Tonight at dinner, we went to the Banzai Pipeline and saw some of the really big waves - about 20 feet high.
Sunset at the Pipeline.

The Latest Pix of Evan

Evan sent this picture, showing that one of his favorite sandwiches is a beef tongue sandwich. Well, I guess you learn to eat a lot of interesting things on your mission.
Evan is eating dinner with one of the families in the ward in San Pedro.
Matias, one of Evan's good friends in San Pedro, went with him to the capitol to renew his I.D. card for Argentina. They are pictured here on the bus to B.A.
Here is Evan with another ward family.
Evan is shown with one of the new female converts and her brother. Evan is wearing a new bike helmet that he will use because these two missionaries are now on bikes in San Pedro. This way they can cover a lot more distance.