Day 4

Sunday was our last full day in California. At church we got to hear Mom give a talk in sacrament meeting. Then we had Gospel Essentials and Relief Society. After church we ate and made some peanut butter cups for later. Yum! That night we went up to the mission office so we could all three be on computers as well as so we could enjoy the air conditioning.
Here we are:
These are the pieces of the pluot that we ate. We wanted to try a new fruit for Drawn to Scale, of course! Ironically enough, this was about the time that I gave up on the keeping track of points... :)

Tomorrow

School. Tomorrow. 7 AM class.

YIKES!!

The good things:
1. This week it's only a 7:50 AM class.
2. I have a rill nice Mom and a happy scholarship to help pay for my education.
3. No work yet. Nobody takes tests at the beginning of the semester.
4. I'm ready for a schedule again.

Something I should be doing right now?
Sleeping.
Kay, bye.

Day 3

We started off our Saturday morning very early so that we could hike Mt. Rubidoux before it got hot. The hike was not too hard (a paved path the whole way), and it was delightful weather. Here I am at the top with one of the monuments:
Then, before we went home for much-needed breakfast and naps, we stopped to see the world's biggest paper cup! Although it is not really paper, we saw this giant "cup" outside of what used to be a Dixie factory. We did the fun tourist thing....

Later that day we went to the Redlands Temple where I did baptisms (in the most awkward baptism experience I've ever had... long story) and Mom and Jen did initiatories. Temples are so pretty, and this one was especially fun to see because it looks so much like the Lubbock Temple that I grew up going to. (Haha.. Oops! I'm looking at the picture and noticing that I accidentally cut off Moroni's head a bit.)

That night we went shopping for clothes for Mom. Missionaries get tired of wearing the same clothes all the time, ya know? Jennifer and I had a lot of fun being the "runners" going out to grab more clothes while Mom stayed planted in the dressing room and tried on what we told her to try. However, by the end of the evening, we were all hungry and ready to leave! Mom started just throwing the garment and hanger over the door in an attempt to save time so she could just focus on changing and Jen and I could hang up the clothes. See the pile? Haha.

We finally got to eat, and Mom treated us to a meal at El Torito, a favorite Mexican food restaurant of hers.

Day 2 in California

On Friday, we, being daughters of our mother (with our mother, of course), took a bunch of pictures of trees! How delightful. We started by taking pictures of the first orange tree in Riverside. If you look at the fence in the second picture, you'll see the bell that is the Riverside "sign" and which is all over town.
Then we took pictures of a giant tree that was right in the middle of the road. Mom discovered it once upon a time, and she liked it enough that she wanted to take pictures. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't the best at the time, and when she tried coming back she couldn't find it. The night before this, one of our activities was driving around for a bit until we found it again! Unfortunately the lighting wasn't good again, so we remembered the intersection and came back this day when it was still daylight.
We next went to the Hampton House, a very old house that was available for tours.... September through June. Because we couldn't get in, we just took pictures with the palm trees along the street. (Can you see Mom and me poking out behind the tree?)
Next we went to Mission Inn, a big hotel and fancily decorated place. It was fun looking at all the details of the place. There were trees....

but we finally quit taking pictures of those. Instead, we sat in "President Taft's Chair." I don't know if it was really his, or even if it was really an appropriate size for the guy, but Jen and I had to take pictures sitting in it. How would you like to be remembered more for being fat than for anything cool you did (like, uh, I don't know, being President of the United States??)? Poor guy.
We went back to the Mission Office so Mom could enter in baptismal information for people and get it to Salt Lake by the month's deadline. All of that tree photography did me in, and I was pooped! (Of course, maybe my sleepiness had to do with me still fully recovering from strep throat. See those antibiotics layin' on the table? ... Nah. It was probably all those trees.)

What a fun day we "tree" amigas had. (Bahahaha.)

1st day in California

I had the great experience of getting to visit my mom this summer! The cool thing? She's currently serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Riverside, California. Jennifer and I drove out to California for a weekend with the lady.

See? She was rill excited to see us! We all must like each other lots and lots.

And Jen was so excited her hand jumped out of the picture...?

Here's Sister Blake at work opening some mail. She's so official she has a sweet letter opener! Elder Densley is also working hard in the background.

Even as a sister missionary, my mommie loves me so much she lets me sit on her lap! Tender. (And, Jen, look at the background. We have GRAPES! :D haha!)

Baseball in WA

Another post about Washington! :) I must have had fun or something. Plus also, I just have fun pictures I want to tell you about.

This picture makes me smile, because I remember climbing on Dad like this when I was little. Looks like Lisa's carrying on the tradition with her kids!

The Richland Dust Devils playing their winning game. What an American pastime.

I really like this picture of Luke and Lisa! Family is just wonderful.

Here's another of my favorite pictures from the trip. This was the group (minus me, of course) watching the game together. What fun!

Slip 'N' Slide in WA

Because it was so hot outside in Washington, many of the outdoor fun we had involved water. One night Lisa got out the slip 'n' slide and let the kids have fun racing each other.

At the beginning, Josh and Tyler were great at knocking Sarah over while she played in the puddle area at the end. It was actually pretty funny to see them run into her and have her just get right back up.

Jon was really good at helping Sarah slide down on the little floaty board. This particular time she was quite cute as she reacted to all that water splashing in her face!

This is a good view of Josh and Tyler racing to get the flag at the end. I thought the slip 'n' slide was quite ingenious how it had Velcro holding the flag up right in the middle of the two lanes.

I'd say his clothes are a bit too big for him, no? But Luke sure is cute!! It's amazing how much he looks like his 'rents.

Here's Luke getting in the "pool" for the first time. He was a little surprised at how cold it was.

This activity was lots of fun even though all the adults did was watch. It's so cute seeing kids get excited about things!

Kids are Cute

These pictures are just a few of the ones I took when I went to Washington with Emily's family to visit Lisa's family. I just adore the kiddos my siblings have!

Sarah, Lisa's youngest (almost 2) is just a doll and she knows it!

Josh and Tyler love the computer games they are allowed to play. They get so engrossed.

Sarah looks on as Emily starts writing down the choreography for our wonderful dance (as seen on our Drawn to Scale blog).

Luke (Emily's kiddo) smiled for a picture! What beautiful eyes he has.

Tyler's a goofball. What a great laugh he has!