Fierce, Deadly, Wild animals hopping loose

I was stepping up the stairs on my way into the Temple when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a cute little bunny out of no where. He was just sitting there enjoying some carefully cultivated Temple landscape. The area around the Temple is not developed so there are often "visitors" who actually used to call this hill home until the Temple was built. I have seen several of these different neighbors-rabbits, lizards, snakes, and mice. Who knew you could do some good work for ancestors AND have a wild animal tour?
This is maybe the other bunny's "eternal companion"? or not.

Final gymnastics class

This is Shaun's last class for this term. He gets to stand on the riser and gets to make his stand for his applause. Girls are supposed to hold their arms up and point their hands upward but boys are supposed to hold their arms out with palms open or fists closed. This is his end of routine pose.He has worked on many new things in this class. He has practiced summersaults on the beam, back hip circles on the bars, and learns the vault for the first time. We got to watch the mens gymnastics at the Olympics and Shaun and David were blown away at what those men can do. Quite an inspiration!
Pull up on that bridge!
Practicing tuck jumps on the vault.
Shaun is not the shortest but he has shorter legs so he usually needs the spring board closer to the vault than the other kids in his age group.

Goofy Children

These kids never cease to amaze me how crazy they can be. It shows that it doesn't matter how far away from each other they live they all come from insane genes.There was some fabric left over from a blanket Erin made for Madzie. Nothing says tough guy like a powder blue Rambo headband.
Ok, so maybe nothing says tough girl like a powder blue headband, an eaves dropping toy and one pajama leg pushed up. Oh, and don't forget the scowl.
How to leave your mark at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
1. Press face firmly against glass.
2. Press face harder against glass and make sure to firmly squish nose.
3. Drag pressed and squished face back and forth across the door.
4. Now drag yourself down to get the full on effect and make sure to cover each square inch.
Love, you grandma. Have fun cleaning up once I'm gone.

Park day with cousins

Erna and her girls came to visit. We headed to the park for a morning of fun! The moms in our ward get together on Tues. mornings for an hour at the park. It lets the kids work out their energy and moms get to socialize at an adult level. The boys were bored because they come to this park a lot and so there's nothing new but the little kids and the girls who haven't been here a million times thought it was great.
Erin, Sheila, Rylie, and Kenzie's curls (yes, she now has hair!!!)
Madzie on the swing.
Madzie on the swing again.
Kenzie opened her day presents from Aunt Timarie, Uncle Mark, Kal, and Tri.
More presents.
"Thank you"
The boys found the perfect climbing tree.

Shaken, not overly disturbed

That was the headline of an article about the earthquake today. All in all it was a small earthquake as earthquakes go, just 1% of the power of the Northridge quake in Jan 94. It seemed to last longer than I remembered but they always do. In truth it was only a few seconds. I had just sat down at my desk and it started to shake a little and I wasn't sure what was happening. Then the big jolt hit and tapered off to just the small rolling feeling that probably lasted 5 seconds, another slight jerking started only lasting another 5 seconds and then it was done.
My first thought of course was to duck under my desk-Southern Californian trained and true. Then I realized how much my desk was moving and I quickly lost faith that it would support the computer and stuff on it and changed my mind. I looked at the closest open door which happened to be open but be across from a large window. I moved on to a closed office door free from glass and stood there holding to the frame.
Quakes have never bothered me before but once I found myself a safe place my heart began to race at the thought of my poor little baby alone at day camp. With no way to contact him, my first instinct was to run the whole way over there. I completely could not relax not knowing how he would respond. There were a few large enough aftershocks but nothing to curl your toes over.

My "Poor baby" thought it was great. He was outside and thought one of the boys was pushing the tree he was standing next to. Once he realized it was shaking he remembered how I had told him that quakes were fun and he relaxed and enjoyed it. When I picked him up-amazing-was the word he kept using and he actually said he wished we could have another one soon.

My dad also said he kind of enjoyed it and Erin asked if it was fun so we may disprove the headline. I think that treating an earthquake as an E-ticket ride (those of you oldies who remember tickets for Disneyland) qualifies us as a special kind of So. Californian disturbed.

wild life

I was walking toward the grocery store and noticed a little critter running down the sidewalk. He saw me and turned around and ran home-to the Palm tree.

that's a native southern california, buena park squirrel.

It's been a while

It's been a while since I updated this. This should catch you up. We are still at my parents house but as always looking for an apartment. My job as the Workers' Comp Admin. comes to an end on Friday. I have roughly a month off until school starts so I'm looking for a temp job or something to fill my time. A week of my "summer vacation" will be busy spending quality time with my littlest sis. (age not height) and her 2 1/2 children. Yep, one on the way. We all think it's a boy-we'll know in a couple of weeks.
I have read several good books lately. "Age of Innocence" was good-except the ending which I hated. There was a movie a couple years ago but I didn't see it because it was rated R. The thing that bothers me is that the greatest part of the book was that there was nothing to make their relationship immoral except emotions, I really want to know what the movie writer could possibly done to the story to screw it up so that it would have to be rated R. Adding immorality would change the whole story to lust instead of love.
Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley was good too. It is about a teenager who rescues a dragon, which is illegal, and he has to raise it secretly in a national preserve. The only thing I don't like about her books is the beginning. She starts them out like you've missed the first 2 minutes of a 5 minute conversation. It takes the first chapter to decipher who is even talking and why.

We also went to see "Journey to the center of the earth" totally fun! I haven't ever read the book so I think I would enjoy the movie even more if I had. It is not the movie version of the book it is a new story based from the book. It stars Brendan Frasier which is always nice too. A few parts Shaun was a little bit nervous but if your kids like adventures it is a definitely good movie for them. They also leave it open for a sequel with the book Atlantis. Maybe I'll read that one and be ready for the next movie before it comes out.

That's about it for now, having fun in the sun (with sunscreen of course), shauna