You may remember that back in September, Los Angeles had one of the largest forest fires in history. Well, two Sundays ago we were feeling bored, and decided to take a drive to see the damage. Many of the roads into the mountains are still closed, and those that are open often close when storms are predicted, due to flooding & mudslides. (There was a storm coming in that afternoon, but the roads were open, so smart or not, we went.) Anyway, the views from these mountain roads were amazing. The whole forest was blackened and dead, with the only green being a light coat of spring grass. I noticed some bizarre objects hanging from a high-voltage power line crossing one of the canyons, and Ryan realized they were those plastic balls designed to make the lines more visible to airplanes. They had melted in the heat of the fire, and looked like weird blobby sculptures strung across the sky. (Sadly, we didn't get a picture, but they were cool.) We stopped at a lookout and braved the wind to get a better look at things (Connor took the first picture, in case that's not obvious.) 
On the way back we walked around the remains of several cabins that had been lost in the fire. The place next door was untouched, but this cabin hadn't been as lucky. At least it was just a vacation home! 
So, here are some pictures of Elise and her baby brother. I thought these photos captured the essence of their relationship pretty well. 
Ryan recently bought a flash for our camera, which has helped our indoor picture-taking quite a bit in this gloomy house. 
After watching Dad goof around so much with the camera, Connor thought it was just too much fun to pass up, so he borrowed it without asking and put together this great portfolio. I was going to edit it down to a few pieces, but decided to preserve the whole thing here for posterity. The last picture is of him getting in trouble.
Ryan had Good Friday off work (kind of weird, but that's a market holiday, apparently.) He wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, but since we had to be back for a Primary activity Saturday night, it couldn't be far. So, he bid $51 on Priceline for a four-star hotel near Newport Beach and got it! We decided this would be a test run for vacationing with three little kids. We left Friday morning (the dogs stayed in the kitchen with the dog-door open - I'm becoming a big fan of dog-doors), and went down to Balboa Island.
On the way there, we had to stop at a random store to change a furious little baby, and let Elise use the restroom. Yep, big news with Elise is that she's almost completely potty trained! Yay Elise! Everybody says that little girls are easier, and in this case it was definitely true. From start to (almost) finish it took her about three weeks. She's even in undies at night already. I'm pretty proud of her! Anyway, in the parking lot of the store we saw this awesome Little Debbie truck and just had to take a picture. It was actually delivering Little Debbie stuff when we pulled up. Very professional. 
At Balboa we walked around, flew kites on the beach, bought overpriced sand toys and hats (which we had forgotten), and ate frozen bananas. I was deeply grieved that their cheesecake on a stick was sold out. Deeply grieved. We also took one of those 45-minute harbor tours, which should have been really boring, but the novelty of being on a boat made it fun for everyone. The first picture is actually on the ferry heading over to the island, the others are from the tour. 
The resort we stayed at seemed hardly four-star, but it did have three different swimming pools. We couldn't get the room heater to work properly, so we roasted all night. That combined with having two little kids and a baby in the same room with us meant we didn't really sleep. We haven't given up hope on the travelling thing, though. As Ryan said, "We need more data-points." Yeah, he's a nerd.
Oh, did you know that I gave birth to twins? Evan doesn't always get along with her, though.
Also, a picture of my sweet kids. I kinda like them. 
See? I told you Evan has gotten bigger. He's starting to get that awesome baby double chin. 
The weekend before Easter our ward had an Easter party, complete with egg hunt. The kids inhaled their candy, then left easter grass all over the house and yard - I think it breeds.
That same day, my mom, grandma, and brother Kyle arrived for a quick visit. We took them to Descanso Gardens, and got to see cherry blossom season in the Japanese Garden. It was so pretty, it looked fake. Connor's favorite thing about bamboo, by the way, is that you can shake it near the bottom and make the whole tree flail around up top. 
My family was able to come to church with us the following morning, which was fun. We roped a friend into taking a bunch of pictures of us after church, and these were the two best ones we got. Yep. The best ones. They're still cute, though. 
Oh, and lastly, here are the kids trying to turn our front yard into a second Descanso. Oak trees are majestic, but they're incredibly messy. 
Obviously this post wasn't written in March, but it took me that long to add text to my photos, and I haven't yet found a way to edit posting dates on Blogger. Evan has grown! He's even bigger now than in these pictures, but, of course, it'll be a month before I get current ones up.
We celebrated Connor's 5th birthday last month! He specifically requested no cake, just "ten scoops of ice cream". And he didn't want any yucky toppings, either, just his favorite plain vanilla. So, although they were very small scoops, I obliged him with his ten scoop treat, and he loved it - (no, he couldn't finish it all.) 
We also had Connor's first "real" birthday party. It's a little known fact that hosting parties is my least favorite activity. Parties tend to expose the three things I'm most ashamed of: my housekeeping skills, my cooking skills, and my large-group social skills. This was actually pretty fun, though. We bought bagels and party decorations, I made cupcakes, and we all headed to the park with Connor's Joy School friends and their moms. Ryan even took a long lunch so he could come help out.
Connor's big present was a balance bike - exchangable for a "big kid bike" when he's ready for it. I'm a total convert to these balance bikes, by the way. They're like a regular two-wheeler except they're a little closer to the ground and they have no pedals, and no training wheels. This means that the rider has to propel himself with his outstretched feet, which quickly teaches him to coast with his feet up. Connor used his bike about three times before he was cruising around, almost perfectly balanced. So, someday soon we're taking him down to the bike shop to get that kid some pedals (I'll try to remember to take pictures!)
Elise is absolutely obsessed with Evan. She hovers while I'm nursing, kissing his head and falling all over both of us, and every time I change his diaper at the changing table, she pushes a stool or kitchen chair down the hallway to climb up and see what I'm doing. I figure smothering him is slightly better than jealousy, so I try not to discourage her affection unless it literally involves smothering.
You may remember that back in September, Los Angeles had one of the largest forest fires in history. Well, two Sundays ago we were feeling bored, and decided to take a drive to see the damage. Many of the roads into the mountains are still closed, and those that are open often close when storms are predicted, due to flooding & mudslides. (There was a storm coming in that afternoon, but the roads were open, so smart or not, we went.) Anyway, the views from these mountain roads were amazing. The whole forest was blackened and dead, with the only green being a light coat of spring grass. I noticed some bizarre objects hanging from a high-voltage power line crossing one of the canyons, and Ryan realized they were those plastic balls designed to make the lines more visible to airplanes. They had melted in the heat of the fire, and looked like weird blobby sculptures strung across the sky. (Sadly, we didn't get a picture, but they were cool.) We stopped at a lookout and braved the wind to get a better look at things (Connor took the first picture, in case that's not obvious.) 
On the way back we walked around the remains of several cabins that had been lost in the fire. The place next door was untouched, but this cabin hadn't been as lucky. At least it was just a vacation home! 
So, here are some pictures of Elise and her baby brother. I thought these photos captured the essence of their relationship pretty well. 
Ryan recently bought a flash for our camera, which has helped our indoor picture-taking quite a bit in this gloomy house. 
After watching Dad goof around so much with the camera, Connor thought it was just too much fun to pass up, so he borrowed it without asking and put together this great portfolio. I was going to edit it down to a few pieces, but decided to preserve the whole thing here for posterity. The last picture is of him getting in trouble.
