Wacky Ward Party

Saturday night we had a ward party at Cowell Park. We had already spent 4 hours outside at baseball on Saturday and then went to a farewell party at the park for the Curtis family. Then, we walked over to the Ward Potluck/Wacky Field Party. They had a potluck dinner and then some wacky field games. They were very creative! I ended up being the official photographer for the event.Calissa and Lillie were partners. In this game, they had to try to get two plastic golf balls out of their Kleenex boxes. You can tell that Calissa was shakin' it!
Parker with his partner Daniel. Travis with cups on his feet. He and Conner were partners. They attached cups to your feet and then you had to fill the cups with popcorn and then walk to the other side and pour it into the bucket. Conner and Travis won this event!

Lillie and Calissa between events.

Travis and Conner with their boxes on their bums!

Daniel and Parker. They did good on this event!

Conner with his catches!

At the end of the party, they got into four lines, holding hands and had to get a hula hoop from one end of the line to another.

Once all the games were over, they brought out the water balloons. The kids (and the adult kids) had lots of fun getting people wet. Some smart person threw a water balloon into the tree and it got everyone under it wet. As things were winding down, someone yelled, "Get the Bishop!" Travis had avoided the water balloons up till this point, but trying to avoid 10 kids proved to be too much as you can see. He got wet, but got back at Sister Berrett at the end. (She was the one who yelled, "Get the Bishop!")

Everyone had a great time! Our ward has great ward activities!

Muir Woods

It's been years since Travis and I have gone to Muir Woods. Trav's parents said that they would like to go, so we planned that into our week-long vacation with them. His parents arrived on Sunday night. Monday, the 14th was the kids' last day of school, baseball closing day and Parker's team party. Travis worked on Monday too. Tuesday morning we got up and headed out to Muir Woods. It was a beautiful day!! Grandma, Calissa, Conner and Trav
I had forgotten how majestic and beautiful the trees were. It was not foggy at all ... just plenty of warm sunshine!

The kids on the trail.

Making funny faces at the bridge. Calissa found a couple of banana slugs and wanted to tell everyone she met along our path.

We also found several centipedes. Very cool!

On our way back, we went on the Hillside trail. I came upon the boys between these two trees on the trail. They were laughing and I asked them why. They said, "What if someone is really big and they can't fit through here? Would they have to go back?" Every time they got to a small spot they lined up to see how far across it was. (They probably shouldn't have been laughing at that, but I had to laugh too ... who thinks about stuff like that?)

The family. We have several pictures of us from this trip that Trav's dad took. The first one is always funny since he never tells us he is going to take the picture! I decided to put the nice one it that has us all smiling! It was a great day!

Wicked

After Muir Woods on Tuesday, we got ready to go and see Wicked in the City. We gave Trav's parents tickets to see Wicked and the Melodrama in Pismo for their birthday gifts and Mother's Day and Father's Day this year. Calissa came along as well. She decided that was what she wanted for her birthday present this year. We had AMAZING seats! Row O, right on the center aisle. We took BART in and dropped the boys off in Oakland to meet Grandpa Romer to go to the Giants game that night. They had a fun time too, but it put us in the City about 6:00 PM. We found a little diner to eat in before the show that was pretty good and then just waited for them to open the doors.
Here is a picture of Calissa waiting for it to start.
We have one of all of us, but I'm waiting for Robert to send it to me.

Here is Calissa with Fiyero after the show. He signed her program and Travis got a quick picture that is unfortunately blurry. She was pretty excited though!

Pismo Beach

On Wednesday morning, we all jumped in the car and headed for Pismo Beach. After years of hearing about our trips there, Travis' parents finally got to come along. They said that the only problem about being there, was that we weren't going to stay long enough! Melanee and Robert on the beach right before Robert decided that he had to swim in the ocean.

Calissa and Conner building sand castles.
That speck in the water is Robert having fun in the freezing cold water!
(Who knew he liked the water ... in 17 years of marriage, I don't think I've ever seen him in the water.)

Coming out after and invigorating swim!

Parker

Calissa and Grandpa Burr in the pool. He was getting his exercise while she rode on his back!

Thursday morning we got up and went down the road to Shell Beach. They have lots of tide pools there with lots of sea life. Here is a beautiful Starfish.

A beautiful sea anemone.

And a crab. There were lots and lots of crabs. I didn't feel so safe with my sandals on! I kept telling Conner and Calissa that they were afraid of us, but I have to admit that they made me nervous as well. Conner started screaming one time and it got me to scream as well, even though I didn't see anything!

Later that afternoon we went back to Pismo and walked around the downtown area. After lunch we headed back down to the beach and the kids actually got Travis to go in the water with his dad again! They were numb by the time they got out. Although, the adults complained a lot more about the cold water than the kids did!

Parker on his favorite rock.

Calissa

Conner

That evening we went to the Melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano. We had a fun time. The Melodrama was pretty good, but the Vaudeville was fabulous!

Friday morning after the kids swam one more time, we packed up the car and headed back to Concord to get ready for Calissa's baptism the next day.

Calissa's Baptism

Calissa was baptized on Saturday, June 19th. We are so happy that she decided to be baptized! It was a fabulous end to a great week!Here is our family!
Calissa and dad getting all ready to go!

The whole family participated in the baptism. I played the piano, Parker and Conner each said a prayer. Grandma Romer and Grandma Burr each gave a talk, and both grandpa's were the witnesses. Travis baptized her and confirmed her. It was a beautiful service and were were blessed with many family and friends that came!

After the baptism, we had a luncheon at our house. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Just perfect weather and great family and friends to share it with! (Wish I had taken a few pictures ... oh well!)

Liberty Gymnastics Competition

Calissa participated in her 2nd gymnastics competition after her baptism on Saturday, June 19th. It was a busy day for her!Here she is right before it started. She was excited that her whole family plus Grandma and Grandpa Burr were there to watch.

Here she is when they walked in at the beginning.
The Level 2 girls.

Here she is doing her best event ... the floor exercise.
She earned a 9.3!

And came in 4th place!

Here she is showing off her ribbons that she got.

We were so proud of her. She came in last on two events (Bars 8.8 and Valut 8.5) and 8th place on Beam with a 9.0. She was such a good sport and held herself together until it was over. We were proud of her. She is just barely a level 2 and a lot of the girls were more experienced than her. She improved in all her scores from last time and had fun and that is the most important thing!

Way to go Calissa!

Perfection

Bragging time!

Parker finished off his second year of straight A's at Sequoia Middle School. We are so proud of him! Besides getting straight A's, he also received these 4 ribbons for the 7th grade track meet.2nd place in the 800 meter in 2:47.03

2nd place in the 1600 meter in 6:32.29

3rd place in the 4 x 100 relay in 1 minute

3rd place in the triple jump for 25 feet 9 inches

He also received this $50 bill (we wish it was real) for Excellence in English.

Here is one for 7th grade GATE Science. He really had to work hard for that A each quarter!

At the 7th grade assembly he received the boys award for PE out of all the 7th grade boys.

He also received the award for Algebra.

He was one of only two 7th graders in the 8th grade Algebra class.

We are proud of him and the hard work that he puts into school.

He's an excellent example to Conner and Calissa who are following in his footsteps!

Conner's report card had all 4's (only one 3) and all Excellent behavior scores.

(Except for Sportsmanship ... we can't figure that one out. I don't think the PE teacher (who has 1000 students) knows who Conner is!)

Calissa's report card had all 4's and all Excellent behavior scores (except for one Satisfactory on speaks when appropriate). What an improvement on her behavior from last year!

We are blessed with hardworking kids!

Giants Baseball

Parker played this year on the Junior Giants. He moved up this year to a new division like Conner did and paid his dues sitting on the bench. He still played 3-4 innings each game and mostly played 2nd base, but also played short stop on occasion as well. He moved up to a MLB sized field. It's a bit of a change from the little league field that he has played on forever!

He had a tough year hitting, but did a great job in the field. He managed to get on base every once in a while through walks and a few hits. If he had more at bats, I'm sure he would have hit better!

He liked most of the boys on his team. Most of them were very supportive of him! There was drama during the season, but baseball wouldn't be baseball without drama of some sort!

Here is most of his team before one of the last games.

Our team mom, Tammy took these pictures of Conner and Calissa and I couldn't resist putting them in!

Her camera lens brought out all of Conner's freckles!

Parker didn't make all-stars this year, but we were proud of the way he played and the positive attitude that he continually showed through-out the season!