Grandma Close

Jeff's Grandma Close passed away recently.

She was such a great lady and an amazing example of charity and strength.

Every birthday, without fail, our kids would get a card in the mail with money from her.

Every birthday. ... AND Christmas.

That's probably all they'll remember.

The phone call came on a Sunday evening.

I could tell by Jeff's face what was being said.

My tender-hearted Griffin noticed eyes get watery.

He asked what was wrong.

After I told him, he walked away to the couch then came back a few minutes later, asking if I would write "Grandma Close" on a piece of paper.

(Griff always wants to make sure his word are spelled correctly)

He took the paper and walked outside with one of my sharpie markers.

Jeff noticed him out in the yard by the back fence but couldn't tell exactly what he was doing.

Griff came in a few minutes later and asked if we'd all like to go out and see what he'd made.

It was the sweetest thing!

I know Grandma Close was smiling as she looked down on

the cutest little headstone ever.

GRIFFONI !!!

Griffin turned 7 on July 20, 2011.

He had planned all along to have a Sunsplash birthday with a few friends/cousins.

But with the knowledge that his vertical stretch wasn't quite up to snuff for some of the slides, Griff decided that Sunsplash will have to wait until his 16th birthday.

Why 16th?

I have no idea.

The morning of Griffin's big day we drove to the dollar store (one of his all-time favorite places). In the parking lot was something they'd been looking for and dreaming of their whole lives!

The actual Bumblebee Transformer Car:

An etched TRANSFORMERS label! The Autobot symbol!!

What more could a boy ask for?

The only thing missing was "Black and Yellow" (by Wiz Khalifa) playing in the background. Griffin is convinced that song is about his beloved car.

"Black stripe, yellow paint....."

With Sunsplash out of the plans, he asked to have the exact same party as Kai's.

Brimhall pool, pizza, cake, gifts.

Easy enough.

I didn't get any pictures at the pool but I took plenty of happy present faces:

The cake was another fun one for me to make:

Griff loved it:

Look at my new nephew, Camden, ...perched on the table...

So cute:

Happy birthday Griffin!!

La Jolla 2011

Still catching up on our California trip... bear with me.

Sea World was kind of a last minute decision for us. We had planned on Legoland and no more. But the whole rest of the group was going so we got pressured into it. :)

The first show we went to was the dolphin show. It was such a hot day and all of us were squinting, trying to see everything that was going on. Towards the end of the show, the whales came out. The dark music began to play and the splashing began. Remember it was hot. So of course we were sitting in the splash zone.....10 rows up. I knew we would get wet.

I did NOT know we would get drenched. DRENCHED I tell ya!! Me, Griffin, and Kai. The 4x2 square footage of area that got hit the hardest was where we were sitting. AND.... the whales splash 3 times in each spot!! The exact same spot. We were soaked after the FIRST splash and I was trying to comfort the boys (who were both stunned and crying) when the second and third waves came.

It was ridiculous.

The very. first. show.

I had brought extra clothes for the "I-can't-stand-to-be-wet" boys but MY clothes were still damp when we got back home at 11pm that night!!

Thank goodness I had put enough hairspray in Kai's hair that morning to be able to remake his "shark hair" for the rest of the day.

The Cirque show was unbelievable!

Sea turtles were a big hit too.

Back at the house, there was lots of swimming:

Some inappropriateness, of course:

Playing Spiderman on Greg's iPad:

One of the days, we drove to Coronado and rented a Surrey. Pedaling it was more work than I thought it would be but the boys loved it and the views were great.

YIKES!!

(Your pick on which face I'm saying that to. My crazy big smile in the picture above or EITHER of Griffin's faces -- above or below.)

The beach always made for a fun day too:

Jeff was the only one willing to be buried.

Some of us rallied to make a sandcastle with mote, bridge and seashell decor:

My cheesy way of proving that I took part in the construction:

--What am I?... A wanna-be mermaid?

Sorry, no good explanation for that pose.--

There was seaweed jump-roping that showcased Courtney's Crazy Cross-legged jump:

A good game of catch is always a must:

I don't remember, but let's just say Jeff caught this next one:

I just found out my brother, Jason, and his wife, Stacey, will most likely be getting sealed in the San Diego temple come July.

It is one of my favorite temples for sure: