Spring Break 20109 or how to make your teenagers happy

Last week was the girls spring break. Andrew and Christian had their spring break earlier, so we left them at home and headed for Palm Springs.  Several friends from our ward joined us and we had fun swimming, sunbathing, shopping, eating, playing apples to apples and getting up at 2:30 a.m. to drive to the fox theater in Pomona to wait in line for a concert.  The girls were dead set on being first in line so they could be on the front row at the conert. Rachel even asked Heavenly Father if they could please be first in line when we had prayer in the car that morning.   We pulled up to the theater about 5:30 a.m. and no one was there.  The girls excitedly jumped out, threw the chairs and sleeping bag out and staked our claim.  I drove around the block to find parking and when I came back, there were two more groups of people in line after the girls.  When we talked to the second group in line behind us, they said they had been there all night, but had fallen asleep in their car, only to have us beat them in line.  I guess Heavenly Father really loves Rachel and does care about the little needs of a good teenager!   Because we were first in line, the girls also got to go to a meet and greet with "Lights" (one of the performers)  while I held their places in line.  The other groups performing were "Owl City" and "Paper Route."  Everything was G rated although deafening loud.  The girls had a great time. 

Adam Young of "Owl City" (they sing "Fireflies")

LightsPaper Route (below)Waiting in line wasn't so bad.The girls and their friends in line.

Jamie was happy the Collis family came to Palm Springs.  They took her home with them from Palm Springs while we went to the concert.

After we had a couple days to recoup from the concert, Emily and Rachel had "Mormon Prom."  Getting ready for that was no small task.  We spent all day Saturday at Meagan's salon, and the day before getting nails done..  Not to mention all the time we spent shopping for the right dress, boutineer, shoes, etc.  It was all worth it. The girls, their friends and their dates.

The Prom was a huge success. 

We all had a great week, never to be forgotten. 

4 generation field trip

Since Andrew and I had the Palm Springs time share reserved and then he ended up going to Idaho, instead,  I invited the Zuniga's and my mom to go for an overnighter.  Our son in law works in Rancho Mirage, so he met us there after work. On the way to the time share, my mom, Meagan, Macie and me stopped by the Cabazon outlet mall and went to the Auntie Anne's pretzel shop etc.  Macie got to go in the swimming pool for the first time with her parents.  My mom and I had a Scrabble tournament.  She beat me the last two times we played, so I was thrilled when I got a score of 353 and had an 83 point word, for a win. The next morning the 4 generation girls went out to breakfast at Old Creek House.  Fun overnighter. 

New Beginnings/Serious Accident

Last night was our Yourng Women "New Beginnings program.  Mandie and Heidi Score were in charge of the food and decorations, but then Mandie ended up going to visit

Grandpa Washburn in Idaho with Andrew and Jamie during Andrew's spring break while I stayed home with the high school girls, so Mandie wanted me to help Heidi.  They had planned to have a Bee theme and I just got crazy Monday and made this Beehive out of French Bread Dough.  It stands about 2 feet high and barely fit on the bottom rack of my oven.   I made the bees out of mini twix candy bars, yellow frosting and   yellow orange slices I got at Wal-Mart.  The bees are perched on store-bought oatmeal cookies.   I made rolls to go with it and the Score's made the honey butter.  I baked the rolls at the church so they would be hot when the program was over,  They were all devoured.  The stake Young Women's president asked me if she could  keep the beehive.  She took it home and froze it so she can use it for leadership meeting this month.The good news about having 6 daughters is, that even if two of them are gone and you miss them so much, you still have 2 more daughters to go do things with.   How blessed am I?  This is Rachel and Emily.  This will be Emily's last "New Beginnings."  She graduates in June.  She plans to go to the local college here to become an RN.  Rachel graduates next year and wants to be a dental hygienist,  They are both looking forward to the Mormon Prom coming up April 10th.We have had a great time shopping for prom attire. I will blog about it!
Unrelated to this happy event, Mandie, Jamie and Andrew were in a serious accident on their way home from Idaho.  Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but the car was totalled after Andrew hit some unexpected black ice. The car rolled several times. They were in Oregon when it happened.  Andrew's brother Dave picked them up and they are back at grandpa's.  Our pilot buddy Doug had them all lined up  on first class seats home on Delta, but unknown to Doug, the airline had an embargo on buddy passes during this Easter weekend, so even though the plane was wide open, they could not fly (at least without considerable cost--not like what we pay when Doug can get us on a flight.)  Looks like they are going to have to rent a car and drive the 15 hours home.  Two bad breaks but we are very, very thankful that our family was spared from serious injury or death.   The Lord answered our prayers for safety. 

Basketball Saturday. 

Jamie had 2 games --one at 11:30 the other at 2:00, so we took her friend

 Lauren Quayle from Lake Arrowhead ward, to "The Village"  for lunch in between games.  They won both games and have only lost 1 game this season.  Championship game and trophies are next Saturday at 4:00.. 

We met up with their teammate and friend, Shannon Sullivan.And if Jamie's two games were not enough, we drove down to Meagan and John's to have dinner and  watch the BYU vx. Kansas game,( which turned out to be a huge disappointment.)  At least we got to see Macie, Meagan and John!Emily and Andrew on the couch at Meagan's.   Macie  and Em in front of Meagan and John's house.

Macie falls asleep in Meagan's arms. I brought her the book Peter Rabbit and read it to her. (At least I pointed out the characters to her.)  She seemed interested!  She will be 5 months next week.

March 5 2010 Live from New York

Central Park, the NBC gift shop, the temple (below--right above Ann and Judie's heads) and Magnolia Bakery. We were disappointed the temple was closed for cleaning, but we did get to peak through some beautiful doors and see the gorgeous stained glass window in the foyer.

30 Rockefeller Plaza

Judie and Janene's 50th Birthday Bash in New York

Judie blows out the candle for her 50th birthday.

We are seranaded.

Janene and I at Mama Mia Restaurant

Relaxing in our hotel room at the New York Marriott Eastside.

When I turned 50 in 2008, Judie flew out from Houston and she and Janene treated me to a wonderful couple of days in San Diego where we went to the Hotel Del Coronado Spa, kyaked in the ocean and went out to dinner. It was very fun. I wanted to do something special for their 50th birthday. So I saved up the buddy plane passes I trade for giving piano lessons and gave each of them a plane ticket. They wanted to go to New York for our get away, so on Judie's actual birthday, March 4th, (Janenes was in December) we had our get away. I left my house at 2:30 a.m. and drove to Torrance. Janene's husband Craig drove us to LAX then went home and drove kids to seminary and went to work (HATS OFF TO CRAIG) We met Judie in Chicago where we all took a plane to New York. The conversation didn't lag much with the 3 of us gabbing. We stayed at the New York Marriott Eastside. For Judie's birthday dinner we went to Mama Mexico restaurant. Who knew you could get good Mexican food in New York! Delicioso! The next day we got up and went exploring. We ended up at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. We saw Al Roker from the Today Show in person and took a tour of the NBC studios. We visited the Plaza Hotel, Central Park, the Manhattan Temple, Julliard School, and saw the ball that drops in Time Square on New Years Eve. We went to the Broadway play "Westside Story" at the Palace theater and ate at Chipotle for lunch. We had a snack at famous Magnolia Bakery, (Janene has their cookbook. ) We would have gone to Brooklyn for pizza, but we ran out of time.