Ben's Graduation from ABLE

              Ben has been talking about this day for MONTHS!!! He was so excited to graduate.
For the past 4 years Ben has attended a continuing education program run by the Kern High School District for students with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 22.  Now that he has "aged out" he must graduate and move on to an adult program.  Ben and his "brother" Chris have been in school together since Junior High.  Ben is going to miss him!

                                             Ben's teacher  Miss Joy absolutely loves Ben!

                                                       
                                                        We are so proud of you Ben!!

                              After graduation we took Ben out to eat at John's Incredible Pizza.
                                            He won the Big Bonus at one of the games!!!

Last day of school!!

         

Once school was out on the last day we headed down to the beach!

Russ had a business meeting to attend, so we took advantage of the opportunity to turn it in to a family trip by joining him.  We stayed a few nights in a hotel right on the beach.

  One of the days we were there we met a bunch of friends from church who happened to be coming        for the day.  It was nice to be able to go back to the hotel room after spending the day together, and not have to face freeway traffic!

       Another thing to remember about this trip is when Ben got sick and someone called the paramedics.  Ben had been out in the ocean boogie boarding with Russ, having a fabulous time. After he got out and was drying off, I asked him if he needed to use the restroom.  My friend Heidi and I, and Ben started walking across the sand to get to the restroom.  As we neared the restrooms I noticed that Ben was lagging behind so I went to ask him if he was okay and he told me that he didn't feel well.  All of a sudden he began throwing up.  He was shaking like a leaf despite the very warm temperatures outside, and he was as pale as a ghost.  A lady who saw this all happening said she was a nurse and she called 911.  Some lifeguards showed up immediately to see if we were okay, and then all of a sudden firetrucks and paramedics began showing up.  They wanted to check him out to make sure there was no second hand drowning going on.  I told them I thought he had probably swallowed a bunch of ocean water from boogie boarding and it had most likely upset his stomach.  He had stopped shaking by then and was getting his color back so I figured he was okay and I refused their request to take him to the hospital for further testing.  We had drawn a crowd by this point and it ended up being quite the scene. People walking by thought something serious had happened due to the amount of paramedics and firetrucks that were there. We are all grateful that Ben is okay, but I think Ben actually loved getting all of the attention!

Mother's Day

Today I was able to spend the day with the people I love most….. My family!!!

Since Emily is on a mission in Raleigh, North Carolina, we were able to facetime with her for about an hour.  It was wonderful to see her and talk to her.  It's hard to have her so far away, and only hear from her by email once a week. But I would not want her anywhere else right now!

We all sure enjoyed having Allison, Tyler and Connor here visiting from Denver!!

Connor LOVES having so many people to play with, and I think Allison enjoys having a break!

                        Connor loved feeding leaves to the bunnies, and jumping on the trampoline!

                            He also loved playing with the hose, and swimming in the pool.

                                                  He mastered the wiggle car in no time!

Allison and I worked on a few projects….we added a few more pages to Connor's quiet book, and I made a few more burp cloths for baby girl, and we managed to buy a few things to fill her closet!!

       
 We took a trip to Murray Family Farm.  The jumping pillow was a blast…we all laughed  
      so hard!! We picked blueberries and strawberries! Mmmmmm, we ate as many as we picked!!

                                         

                                           Connor and Papa had some good "bonding" time!

                   
                                                We enjoyed a day at Santa Monica beach.

SMILE…..

That's what these two make me do!!!!!

Happy Birthday Haley!

We had a nice birthday dinner to celebrate Haley's birthday.

Instead of a birthday party with friends, Haley opted for some cash.

                                 We love you Haley.  We are blessed to have you in our family!

Spring Break in San Francisco

What better way to kick off Spring Break than getting frozen yogurt.

I picked the girls up from school and surprised them with a detour to Tutti Frutti!!

We love going to San Francisco, so we decided it would be a great place to visit for a few days during Spring Break.  We stayed at a hotel right by the ferry building.  We had lots of fun riding cable cars, shopping, sightseeing, and just being together.  We had invited my parents to join us for  two of the days.  We went to a Dodgers vs. Giants baseball game, the Exploratorium, took a boat out to Alcatraz for a tour, went to the Aquarium, and Pier 39…….