Okay, first, I have to congratulate my sweet husband who has recently been promoted to Portfolio Manager at work! His boss decided to leave the firm, and Ryan was asked to step in as PM. It's a lot of work (we've been seeing a little less of him lately), but it's a great opportunity for him there, and I know he'll be an awesome team leader. Yay Ryan! 
About three Saturdays ago, we took Connor down to a friend's bike shop, and got him his first real two-wheeler. The guy there removed the training wheels and pedals, and told us to use it just like his balance bike for a couple days, then put the pedals on and see how he does. So . . .that's what we did. That Saturday he scooted around on it a little, but complained that it was "too heavy". Sunday afternoon we took him around the corner to a quiet, flat street, and let him practice with it for about a half hour, then Ryan stuck the pedals on, we got the camera out, and here's what happened! I was so proud of the little guy. 
The following Saturday, we did our second (but first official) letterbox hike. Letterboxing is a little bit like geocaching, in that it's basically a treasure hunt. It's older than geocaching, though, and doesn't use GPS coordinates, just clues you get online. The treasure is a "letterbox", which is usually a small tupperware container hidden out of sight, containing a rubber stamp and a log book. You add your personal (or family) stamp to the log book and write a few comments, then stamp the box's stamp in your own book as a record of where you've been. Basically, it's an excuse to go on hikes. I carved our stamp myself, and I must say that it's awesome. 
The hike took a lot longer than we planned, since we missed the first three boxes and had to backtrack quite a bit. I, of course, forgot sunscreen, so we all (but mostly just me) got a little burned. 
After the hike we went to a playground at Griffith Park where the kids rode their new bikes around. Elise was very proud to have a big bike like everybody else. 
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. 
About three Saturdays ago, we took Connor down to a friend's bike shop, and got him his first real two-wheeler. The guy there removed the training wheels and pedals, and told us to use it just like his balance bike for a couple days, then put the pedals on and see how he does. So . . .that's what we did. That Saturday he scooted around on it a little, but complained that it was "too heavy". Sunday afternoon we took him around the corner to a quiet, flat street, and let him practice with it for about a half hour, then Ryan stuck the pedals on, we got the camera out, and here's what happened! I was so proud of the little guy. 
The following Saturday, we did our second (but first official) letterbox hike. Letterboxing is a little bit like geocaching, in that it's basically a treasure hunt. It's older than geocaching, though, and doesn't use GPS coordinates, just clues you get online. The treasure is a "letterbox", which is usually a small tupperware container hidden out of sight, containing a rubber stamp and a log book. You add your personal (or family) stamp to the log book and write a few comments, then stamp the box's stamp in your own book as a record of where you've been. Basically, it's an excuse to go on hikes. I carved our stamp myself, and I must say that it's awesome. 
The hike took a lot longer than we planned, since we missed the first three boxes and had to backtrack quite a bit. I, of course, forgot sunscreen, so we all (but mostly just me) got a little burned. 
After the hike we went to a playground at Griffith Park where the kids rode their new bikes around. Elise was very proud to have a big bike like everybody else. 
