Mother's Day 2013

This is out of sequence with my other hurriedly put together posts, but I can't forget to remember Mother's Day.  It was so fun even with a few setbacks.  The night before Tony and I had a date and we had bbq for dinner.  I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling good.  Then I woke up to start the day and took a shower and came out to Tony bringing me breakfast in bed with Max's help.  Max had been talking for days about the things he made at school for me and was so excited to finally give them to me.  Such a sweetheart.  He made a beautiful little card and there was a cup of tea made out of paper and decorated with sequins and inside was a real packet of herbal tea. 

But I really wasn't feeling good.  Both Tony and I had a stomach bug.  I wouldn't say food poisoning exactly because it wasn't that severe but it was pretty harsh nonetheless.  Tony had it worse, he could barely move.  I let Max eat my awesome breakfast.  I really needed to be at church so it took all I had but I got going.  Ryan was late to rise and Jase was sleeping so I hurried and got Max ready and took off.  The kids sang in Sacrament Meeting to the mothers.  It's always wonderful.  I was in front helping them remember the sign language because it would be hard for such a large group of kids to all see the music leader.  They did great.  In primary, we made a mother's day craft, a card where the kids listed all the things their moms do to show their love for them. 

After church I rested a tiny bit and Tony was feeling a bit better so we put together our dinner together because we were having the missionaries over.  The night before I had been able to call their families to tell them what time they'd be skyping with them.  It felt like Christmas to hear the excitement in their parent's voices.  So we visited with the missionaries, let them Skype, had dinner together and then attended the baptism of a wonderful man. 

It was an awesome Mother's Day!  I'd love to have the missionaries over each Mother's Day.  It was perfect. 

Jase's First Haircut!

Geniel was nice enough to keep up the tradition of giving our kids their first haircut.  This time it was in a cabin.  Lauren was nice enough to capture the moment and play lots of peek a boo to entertain sweet Jase.

The before while he plays with cousin Riff.

Geniel's a pro. 

And the after.  What a cute big boy!

Cousin Camping Trip!

We had such a fun weekend with family.  Seth's family came and stayed with us and then we rode the ferry together to the peninsula to stay at Zion's camp.

 

Beth and her kids came and Phil and Geniel.  Lots of memories were made.

Ely was so funny pushing the swing and then running away and letting himself get pushed by the swing as it came back.

We did archery.

 

 

Lots of fish were caught.

 

We did a scavenger hunt and found Moroni's box, a place where camps can reenact Moroni and the golden plates.

Beth was great at having kid activities.  She did the scavenger hunt, had a camping bingo game and Maddie and Grandma Geniel did face painting.  Here are Iron Man and Captain America.

Max's rock collection. 

We traded off supervising kids with adult time.  Beth, Lauren and I had girl time and explored the camp.

I also got to see my friend/former roommate Rachel who happened to be staying at Zion's Camp the same weekend.  Her sweet babe was sleeping but she and Jase look cute together.

This camp had a fun playground, archery, canoes, row boats and paddle boats, a stocked lake, swimming in the lake when it's warmer, a rope's course and lots of places to explore.  We loved it.  I didn't get pictures of all of it, but I captured a lot of our fun. 

 

 

 

Girl's Weekend!

My only remorse from this fun weekend was not taking more pics.

I got to drive up early Friday afternoon and do dinner and a movie with a friend.  Then we met up with the others who couldn't get there until later.  We enjoyed having girl time thanks to my friend's dad's timeshare.  We only had one choice of where to go because of how late we scheduled it, but even though it was quiet weekend at Birch Bay, it was so much fun with these friends.  Lots of talking, laughing and relaxing was all I needed.  We took in a traditional Dutch lunch and saw a comedy show.  I didn't even get a shot of all of us.  Oh well.  The memories are what are more important.

 

Temple Date

Heaven on Earth

Birthday Fun!

The Epperson birthday marathon has begun.  Tony starts off the year in February but then we have a few months off until May.  In May we have mine and Ryan's birthday, then in June we have Jase and Max's birthdays.  So fun!

I love birthdays.  I know I'm supposed to despise them but they're a great chance to reflect on blessings and all the fun and learning experiences I've had. 

We celebrated simply and wonderfully on Saturday with a family day.  Max had a baseball game.  He got to be one of the "pitchers" or kids who stands next to the coach who pitches (coach can't field the ball).  He also had his wish come true when he got to play catcher!

Then we headed off to the Seattle Aquarium.  The kids have been wanting to go here forever and I love the ocean and sea life so it was perfect.  We got to enjoy a beautiful sunny day on the Seattle waterfront and learn about animals.

 

Then we headed over to the Fremont troll.  The kids haven't seen it and I haven't been in years.  Almost every time we go over a bridge we quote the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Then after our first dinner choice didn't work out, we decided on Red Robin.  Tony and I got to laugh about how the last time I had Red Robin for my birthday dinner was 10 years ago.  My roommates organized a birthday dinner for me and Tony was one of the people who came (and one of the ones I really wanted to come ; ).  It was just about a week later that we started dating! *Happy sigh*

Sunday was my actual birthday and it was great!  The primary kids sang (seriously, how can you not smile when a bunch of cute kids sing to you?)  Then Tony cooked dinner.  Ben and Kara came over and we went to see "From Cumorah's Hill" which was put on by the church youth.  This performance was very special to me because years and years ago, seeing this performance helped me feel the Holy Ghost witness to me that the Book of Mormon was true scripture.  I stood up in fast and testimony meeting and shared my testimony about the Book of Mormon and how I came to knew it to be another witness of Jesus Christ.  One of the youth performing in From Cumorah's Hill was going to be singing a solo--that part that had touched me years ago and he dedicated his performance to me.  This is a random performance I found on youtube.  It's not the one I first saw nor the one I just saw.  I wish I could share one of those, but this will have to do.