Scout tapped into his secret weapon for some last minute tweaks to his Pinewood Derby car.
Clearly, Hansen Jon is always the guy to call for that sort of help!
Scout got 4th place two years ago…3rd place last year…we are hoping to better his place.
Come on Hansen Jon….give us your magic.
South Coast Plaza’s carousel is magical.
I mean bunnies for Easter!!!
Magical!
Pippi had her first modeling gig today!
She was stopped in Gap, and they asked if she would mind taking pictures.
Without hesitation, she immediately got their outfit on, and then worked it for about 10 minutes.
I think she may have found her calling!
Ka has been waiting on pins and needles for the last week…and today is the day that she finds out where she will be serving her mission!!!
Hse was crying and shaking to get this letter.
She could barely contain herself, and just kept screaming and screaming out of excitement!
Later that night, she had all of her favorites gather around to open up her call….
Dear Sister Clifford,
You are hereby called to labor in the Birmingham, Alabama mission!
She was so happy….she really wanted to stay in the states.
And how rad that “Sweet Home Alabama” is our family’s theme song now!
She will be the BEST missionary!
THE BEST!
We are sad to see her go…but SO excited for her awesomeness!
Some highlights of the night–
When Navy came down all dressed up for the special occasion.
It was so cute.
Scout offered the opening prayer, and it was the most thoughtful, sweet prayer I’ve ever heard.
And finally…
When a native of Alabama showed up to make her feel at home!
We took Ka on our favorite hike! She loved it, and almost died on Patriot Hill. But when she triumphed, we went wildflower picking with Pips. I think it may have been one of the prettiest hikes I have ever taken. Ka thought it was one of the hardest.
My heart almost burst into a million pieces when I realized my baby boy has a tooth about to come out.
Now I have to bank on my baby girl to never grow up.
Micah found the raddest place called Ocean Mine.
In the middle of the San Diego mountains, there is a mine where they extract dirt for customers to mine. Micah gave it to Navy for her birthday, and we waited until now for the stars to align — meaning Doey could come, the weather was good, there were no other obligations….etc.
Here we are — right in front of the dirt they pulled out of the mountain for us.
After a quick tutorial, we started mining.
We started by getting pails of dirt to take back to our stations.
Then we put our dirt through two screens to weed out anything we might want to keep.
It was hours of mining, and back breaking work.
And someone in our group got the best jackpot of the day!
That person was Navy!!!
She got the greatest aquamarine that was about 2 inches long and was a total score.
(Unfortunately, we didn’t take a picture. How bummed are we.)
The crew gave the experience two thumbs up!
And Navy won the other prize…for dirtiest miner!
On our way out, we stopped by the prettiest patches of wildflowers.
It was a good day!
A really good day.
Is it just my kids, or does every kid want to be the one who unlocks the door? The hotel doors with the card keys are the worst! But lately, every time we head in from anywhere, my kids beg for the key…and fight to unlock the door. This is all well and good, but when anyone needs to use the potty…things happen!
These sorts of things!
This is a big day for Pippi!
B has told the kids — specifically Pippi — about the upcoming movie “Beauty and the Beast” for a few months. Today was finally the day! Of course Pippi showed up in her Belle dress. And the others were stoked to be there — even Scout who tried to play like he wasn’t!
The verdict….a nice afternoon movie.
But certainly not one I will stock in our car for road trips.
I’ll keep the original animated version for that!
Last year, when the “leprechaun” dropped candy and money everywhere, Scout hoarded it all because he was the first one up. Then when I made him share, he went into full defense attorney mode, tell me that if he found it, he should have it.
This year I went into preemptive strike mode.
The “leprechaun” left loot in the pantry. Somewhere the kids wouldn’t look. Except Dash did look, when I sent him in on an errand.
My plan worked beautifully.
Especially because Dash happily shares with everyone, and Scout was stoked to get anything when he realized that it could possibly all be Dash’s stuff.
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