It's Official - Steve and Alana are Engaged!

So Steve has been planning this for awhile now. . .and Alana didn't have a clue. They first met at a Young Single Adult activity one year ago today at Dockweiler Beach. Steve had two friends set up a table at the beach, with crystal and silver and candles, and they delivered In and Out Burger for them for dinner. But before that, Steve went down earlier in the afternoon and spelled out "Will You Marry Me?" with rocks and plants on the beach. Two girls, in the background of this picture, stayed at the beach two extra hours just to watch Steve propose to Alana. Steve picked Alana up at work and they drove to Dockweiler to play frisbee. . .and then they walked over to the message on the beach.
They stayed at the beach and watched the sunset together.
They enjoyed the dinner served by one of Steve's friends, all dressed up in a white shirt and tie.
Another of his friends went undercover with a blanket and took a lot of pictures of the whole evening. To Steve's friends - thanks for making memories for them.
Steve drove Alana home. . .and we had all gathered in the living room to surprise Alana and talk about their evening together - and to have Alana's favorite Chocolate Satin pie. Sue Tuilesu, who was particularly close to Steve because she married a Samoan and Steve served in Samoa, joined us also for the big occasion.
Here is when Grammie and Grampie and Sue first saw Steve and Alana.
Alana's good friend, Hillary Miller, came over right after work to help us celebrate also.
And for James and Ian that thought that once Steve proposed, he wouldn't be nice to Tony, our Siamese cat, here is solid proof that your thinking was flawed.
And finally, now Alana has someone to share the other purple cup with.
Alana and Hillary were talking about the engagement ring.
And here is the engagement ring. . .nice choice Steve. Congratulations to both of you! We couldn't be happier.

A Myriad of Activities This Week

The week started out with all of our children being present for Father's Day, with only Evan missing - but he'll be back next year :-) It was a great day to celebrate all of the great fathers that we love.
Then I drove up to Morro Bay to surprise my Dad on his 86th birthday. We got a lot done like fixing the front gate and most importantly, Dad getting his driver's license renewed. . .way to go, Dad.
We celebrated his birthday by going to McLintocks for dinner. Happy Birthday, Dad!
One afternoon, we went out to meet Mel and Linda's Zone Leader missionaries and spoke to them for about 40 minutes. What a treat for us to meet these fine young people. Mel and Linda are being released as Mission Presidents and it was fun for us to also be present to hear and see what a zone leader conference is like. . .gives us an indication as to what Evan is doing in Tierra del Fuego at his zone leader conferences.
All of us with some of the missionaries and the Reeves.

On another day, it was the free day at the Arboretum so we all met there and had a picnic lunch with the kids. You will notice that Ethan thought it was a good idea to try and eat his Cheezits by putting them between his toes and then pushing his foot up to his mouth. . .gotta love the creativity of children.
Coco, Gavin and Ellie liked the bamboo stalks and stood at the base and shook them.
Then it was time to feed the turtles in the pond by the Queen Anne Cottage. . .lots of things to do at the Arboretum.
Friday was the first time that Gavin and Ellie had a sleepover at Grandma and Papa's. Of course we stayed up, had popcorn, watched a movie and read books before going to bed later than I think their parents knew about. . .it was so much fun. We also had 10 Young Women staying with us from church so that meant that we had lots of extra guests in the house.
Aunt Lana helped to read books before everybody finally fell asleep.
And in the morning, the kids helped us to make syrup for the waffles. . .we had such a good time with the little kids. We'll do it again soon and the parents won't be invited!
Finally, on Saturday, was the Relay for Life that Lisa Magno chaired. So we did the relay for part of the day and then went back that night for the candle ceremony. Brad is dressed in his tux because he also had his Choir concert that night. It was a busy week for all of us but we loved every minute of it.

Birthday and Father's Day at Morro Bay

Last weekend, Grammie, Grampie, Sue, Jim, Erin, Dan and Helen celebrated Father's Day at the Morro Bay house. We are getting ready to sit down to a delicious dinner for the special occasion. Erin did an outstanding job on the BBQ with the tri tip and salmon.
A trip to Morro Bay is never complete without a stop at Bali's Frozen Yogurt. The way we look at it is. . . there's always room for Bali's!
The three fathers in the backyard with the flowers in bloom. One the activities that we enjoyed was visiting the elephant seal population that was lounging on the beach just above San Simeon. The males are molting this time of the year (elephant seals that is!).
The following day was Grampie's birthday. Margaret and Brad left home around 5am to surprise Grampie on his birthday. They are just arriving here about 8:30am to surprise him. He was so thrilled to see them!
To help celebrate Grampie's birthday, we took him to McLintock's in Pismo Beach. Don't move Grampie! Otherwise the waiter might spill the water on you! What a great weekend to celebrate our fathers and a special tribute to our Grampie on his birthday.

Father's Day Weekend

We had a fun Father's Day weekend with just about everybody here in the LA area except for Evan who is on his mission. On Saturday morning, we took the boat trip for the Sanitation Districts out of San Pedro. Katie, the Warnick's neighbor, came along to help with the four little kids.
Above is part of the group on the front of the Ocean Sentinel, the research ship used to monitor water being released from the outfall off Palos Verdes peninsula.
Ellie was fascinated with the sea lions sunbathing on the buoy as we were leaving the harbor.
Coco had no problems with sea sickness while Gavin was a little bit more tentative, especially when we were trawling for fish.
The marine biologists on board pulled kelp up from the ocean and explained what the sea creatures were that lived in the kelp forest.
One of the big starfish that was pulled up was pink.
Ethan was thrilled to see the big sea star.
Coco didn't want to have anything to do with the big sheep crab that the biologist showed to her.
Annie and Ian held a small sea star and the sheep crab.
James is explaining to the little kids that the one of the eyes migrate to one side or the other of the flat fish like a sole.
Ellie showed Gavin one of the fish from the tank.
The kids all enjoyed listening to the marine biologist and touching the different fish that had come up in the net and then were put in the tank.
Ethan and Coco liked to look over the side of the boat when we were underway.
We caught two octopuses and Katie held one of them before they let it go in shallow water.
The Friday night before the boat trip, we all had dinner with friends that wanted to see Ian and Annie.
Finally, this weekend, we not only celebrated Father's Day, but we celebrated anniversaries at a wonderful Italian restaurant near Universal City called Miceli's. Ian and Annie celebrated their first anniversary, and James and Ster, Megan and Danny just celebrated their 8th anniversaries. Gavin and Ellie came also and loved watching the waiters perform their songs.

Birthdays and Friends

We had two birthdays this past week. The first one was Gavin's and he specifically asked his mom to make a birthday cake with trucks and an airplane on it. So she made a runway with a plane on it and UPS trucks at the "terminal". It looked great and Gavin loved it.
Here the four kids are eating some chips and a healthy corn and black bean salsa.
Gavin wanted to have a Slip-and-Slide birthday party just like Ellie had. . .so even though it was a bit chilly out, they still seemed to enjoy it.

Gavin, with help from Ellie and Coco, blows out his birthday candles.
At Downtown Disney, there is a shop similar to Build-A-Bear that is called Ride Makerz. So when Ellie's birthday came around, she wanted to Build a Bear. Gavin wanted to Build a Ride, so he picked out a red car, Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars, and built his car, with custom wheels and tires. It was pretty fun as the kids get to help put in some of the screws to put the car together.
Ellie helped Papa and Gavin put the car together.
Finally it was done. It took a little while to make it and then we went on a couple of rides at California Adventure.
Here we are having a snack at a restaurant in Downtown Disney.
Ellie got to pick out an outfit for her Build-A-Bear dog, Fluffy Ear. Her favorite character is Tinkerbell so she picked out a Tinkerbell outfit for her dog. Steve and Alana are standing with Ellie and Gavin and their new purchases.
This past weekend, we went up to Larry's swim and tennis club (Larry is a neighbor across the street), where his company constructed a water ride. The kids loved playing on the slide.
The water was warm and Coco played with the neighbor across the street from her house, Katie.
Here is the family enjoying a snack at the swim and tennis club.
A week later was Margaret's birthday and Grammie had a nice party up at her house for her. Friend Shirley and brother, Ed, and his family all came out for it.
Coco and Gavin helped Grandma blow out her birthday candles.
On one of the presents was a big bow, which Coco wanted to wear in her hair. . .Beautiful!!
After opening presents and eating a wonderful dinner and dessert, we played the game, Catch Phrase, which Alana got her mom for her birthday. . .lots of fun.
Finally, this past Saturday a good friend from Alana's high school days, Pete Smithsuth, dropped by for lunch. Pete is headed back to his home in Thailand before he starts on his round-the-world trip that will take over a year. Best wishes to our good friend Pete for a safe journey.