Just Another Manic May Day

Now you're singing the song right?!  Me too...  May has come and gone but boy oh boy was it ever eventful!  I certainly had a lot of good times but I'm certainly glad..er it's over.  I swear May is like December....on steroids.

Just to be as efficient with the time that I've been given to complete this post, I'll just summarize the whole month k? It's a bit long...you've been warned.

For Ellyse and Allie's birthday's Jason decided to make them a swing set/clubhouse.  Time, time, time, effort, effort, effort, mostly put out by Jason. But having him outside and not inside helping out made for a bit of a challenge for all of us as well.  Boo hoo me.  I know.  He finished it in about two weeks and we spent a Saturday painting it.

BANG! Allie turned 5.  Yeah, turns out she really was acting like she turned two. Or three.  Whichever was worse for your kids.  Holy shacomoles.  She once again forgot she was "somewhat" potty trained and started going number 1 and 2 whenever and wherever she happened to be when the moment struck.  She was found guilty of drawing on walls - with permanent marker.  Not agreeing to be amicable in many instances, threw a few things, and overall was just being over-the-top difficult.  Let's just call it an "Allie on a Rampage week or two."  After so much discord, I went a  little  lot nuts.  I ended up at my mom's house one Sunday taking a break, while the rest of my family kept living life as usual.  I got over it.  Things improved and now as they say...I must be stronger for living through it.

We were going back and forth about heading out of town up until the very moment we actually left town but we did make it to San Diego for a little get away.   I think the above incident helped push us toward getting out of dodge.  I've got a few pictures from the trip I'll post below.  It was super fun!  Jason and his cousin Mark were planning this trip from the moment their favorite baseball teams posted their schedules.  This particular weekend Mark's Angels were playing Jason's Padres.  I was just along for the ride.  We left on a Thursday and drove to Vegas.  Man, it was hard to be in Vegas and not stay and play!  Then Friday we drove into San Diego.  We all made it to the baseball game that night.  I knew I couldn't take two more days of that.  So I ventured off on my own while they attended the other two games.  They told me that I was unfortunate to be there for the most boring game of the series.  Super! 

Other than that game ( for me at least ) we had a blast!  We visited Old Town and that was really neat.  The Ocean was by far my most favorite.  I've been to the beach before but you know those beaches that have all the people on them, playing volleyball with a Ferris wheel and music in the background?  Yeah, I'd never been to one of those before and it was really cool! I videoed a surfer dude well, surfing.  I sat and watched him for a good 20 minutes or so.  I'd never really seen anyone with real surfing ability, in person, before.  Ocean Beach was where we were and surrounding the beach was a little beach community.  Totally laid back feel. No one took anything but cash.  Weird! Lots of skin, sun, and marijuana.  People were totally smoking doobies on the streets.  I guess the police are a little laid back around there too.

While the boys were at a game I found my way to the San Diego Temple.  It was absolutely Stunning!  I've never seen a more beautiful temple.  They have an indoor atrium thing that's just beautiful.  Everything is stunningly white.  There is a diamond shape theme throughout and I just thought the architecture and designs were above any other I've seen.  In fact, during the session I had to stop myself from looking for my camera.  I kept thinking, OH, I need to take a picture of this... and then realized where I was.  :)

I've never been to a temple outside of Utah before and it was weird not to have dozens of "helpers" there.  No one told me which locker to use, I had to ask for directions, and I nosied around for a bit to see some of the rooms and no one bothered me.  I kept waiting for someone to come and yell at me.

We had a dance recital to attend for Cousin Brynnley. Then a quick performance of our own at a rest home one night.  The girls did really well.   I'll try and post those below as well.

Then there's family home evening, chores, work, homework, playing, etc that all needed tending too.

May is also the month before our dance recital and that means that the teachers have an extra hour of practice every week to prepare the teacher dance.  Which in turn means we're driving to and from that studio 3 times per week.  Then there's the trying to come up with a cheap costume and the extra practices for our classes.  It takes a lot of time to put a recital together.

Oh, then there was Mother's day.  Fun but busy!  Church was great!  I love Mother's day at church.  It was really uplifting. We then got to go spend some chit chatty time with my fam up at my parents house and then more chit chatty time with the Cowles side at Jim and Sue's place.  Really nice day overall.

Memorial day was pretty good too.  I had the best run ever that day.  Jason and I had spent the Sunday before Memorial day up to my mom's house for my sister and bro-in-law's birthday and we had lunch but no dinner.  After stopping at Grandma Graces house that evening we finally got home and got to eat dinner.  Eating dinner that late proves to be an effective running tool.  I had so much energy the next morning.  I just ran and ran and ran and it wasn't even that difficult.  Runs like that make me understand a little bit of the "running craze" going on right now.  I think the beautiful weather and the songs on my ipod had a lot to do with my energy levels too.  Oh, and the girls slept over at grandma Diane's house so perhaps a certain level of freedom was part of it too. :) We had lunch with the Wood's at Golden Corral and then took in a flick at the 12th Street theatre.  We ended the night with a little BBQ at our place.  Nice and relaxed.

Tomorrow, I'm hosting a baby shower.  I'm glad to do it but will be glad..er when it's over.


Here are some pic.'s- 

 The beginning of the clubhouse/ swing set.

 I was super proud of Jason and Mark when this 1930's camper broke down in front of the bus stop at Ocean Beach, and they went to the rescue.  Only one other man jumped in to help.  I guess every one else was stoned.

Also had the solar eclipse in May as well.  We were driving home that day from Vegas and I didn't even know it was happening. Boo!  Wish I could've seen it!  I stole this photo off the internet.

 I guess I didn't upload the videos correctly.  Sorry. it's been a long month. ;)

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